A systems administrator is troubleshooting a performance degradation complaint for a critical file server that has been in production for over a year. Users report that accessing files is slower than usual. The administrator records the current CPU utilization, memory usage, and disk I/O metrics but is struggling to determine if these values are the cause of the slowdown. Which of the following should the administrator use as the primary reference to effectively analyze the current performance data?
The organization's Service Level Agreement (SLA) for file services
The correct answer is the server's established performance baseline. A performance baseline is a set of measurements captured over time that represents the server's normal operational state. By comparing the current, problematic performance metrics against the established baseline, the administrator can determine if the resource utilization is abnormal and identify the source of the performance degradation.
The organization's Service Level Agreement (SLA) is incorrect because an SLA defines the agreed-upon service targets (e.g., uptime, response time) for end-users, not the underlying technical performance metrics needed for troubleshooting. The server's Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) is also incorrect as it is a document used to verify that hardware components are compatible with the operating system, primarily during installation or upgrades, not for performance analysis. A real-time performance monitoring dashboard is incorrect because, while useful for viewing current metrics, it does not provide the historical context of a baseline needed for a meaningful comparison.