For starters I'm trying to do this from a Windows 7 box to a Windows 7 box.
I know the simple answer should be to enter \\computername where it says "Select Counters From Computer". Trouble is, every time I do that I get an error message that says "Unable to connect to machine"
I know the machine is out there and accessible, because I can bring up windows explorer and enter \\computername\c$ in the explorer bar and then can browse their c drive. So the machine is out there.
Are there special permissions for perfmon? Is here a service which needs to be running on the remote machine?
Best Answer
You need RPC between the machines. The endpoint mapper is TCP 135, which then negotiates high-numbered ephemeral ports on which to send subsequent traffic.
Check your firewalls, both hardware and Windows Firewall.
\\computername\c$
works because it does not require RPC, only TCP 445. (AKA Direct-hosted SMB.) And since you can access an admin share, it's safe to assume that you already have administrative permissions on the target machine.Also I suppose you need to check the RPC and RPC Endpoint Mapper services on the machines, but I assumed those services are running since you'd be having bigger problems if they weren't.