Q. The Windows Server 2003 Performance Monitor Help file has incorrect information on how to create a counter log and an alert?

The Performance Logs and Alerts top in the Perfmon.exe Help file on Windows Server 2003 has incorrect information about how to create a counter log or an alert. It currently states:

To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group, or the Performance Log Users group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. If the computer is joined to a domain, members of the Domain Admins group might be able to perform this procedure. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure.

To create and use a counter log or an alert, you must either be a member of the local Administrators group OR you must be a member of the Performance Log Users group and have the right to log on locally.

If you don't have the right to log on locally, attempts to create a counter log or an alert would record a Warning in the Application event log similar to:

Event Type:Warning
Event Source:SysmonLog
Event Category:None
Event ID:2059
Date:MM/DD/YYYY
Time:HH:MM:SS
User:N/A
Computer:
Description: Invalid user name or password for the log session. This session will not be started.

NOTE: See 324753 How to create an Active Directory server in Windows Server 2003