Why can't perfmon see instances of my custom performance counter?

Question

I'm creating some custom performance counters for an application. I wrote a simple C# tool to create the categories and counters. For example, the code snippet below is basically what I'm running. Then, I run a separate app that endlessly refreshes the raw value of the counter. While that runs, the counter and dummy instance are seen locally in perfmon.

The problem I'm having is that the monitoring system we use can't see the instances in the multi-instance counter I've created when viewing remotely from another server. When using perfmon to browse the counters, I can see the category and counters, but the instances box is grayed out and I can't even select "All instances", nor can I click "Add". Using other access methods, like [typeperf][1] exhibit similar issues.

I'm not sure if this is a server or code issue. This is only reproducible in the production environment where I need it. On my desktop and development servers, it works great. I'm a local admin on all servers.

CounterCreationDataCollection collection = new CounterCreationDataCollection();

var category_name = "My Application";
var counter_name = "My counter name";
CounterCreationData ccd = new CounterCreationData();
ccd.CounterType = PerformanceCounterType.RateOfCountsPerSecond64;
ccd.CounterName = counter_name;
ccd.CounterHelp = counter_name;
collection.Add(ccd);

PerformanceCounterCategory.Create(category_name, category_name, PerformanceCounterCategoryType.MultiInstance, collection);

Then, in a separate app, I run this to generate dummy instance data:

var pc = new PerformanceCounter(category_name, counter_name, instance_name, false);
while (true) {
   pc.RawValue = 0;
   Thread.Sleep(1000);
}

Answer 1

I have same problem. Who can solve it ?

Answer 2

(scribbles previous text out) I think remote access is the problem(try on the actual computer). If not,do find some way to connect something else to it on test computer(basic simple performance counter on a window with a display). Also edit raw value on dummy app to test.

Answer 3

Try registering the counters on the remote system, i.e.:

lodctr /M:manifest.man

If that doesn't work, it might be a permissions issue.