How to Set Up System Insights in Windows Admin Center

System Insights is a new feature available in the Windows Server 2019 and it brings local predictive analytics capabilities natively to Windows Server. These predictive capabilities are leveraged by the machine-learning model which locally analyses Windows Server system data, such as performance counters and events, providing high-accuracy predictions. Please see How to use Windows 11 PC Health Check App, how to upgrade Windows Admin Center, Learn about Windows Server 2022 Capabilities: Register Windows Admin Center with Azure, and how to Install Windows Admin Center on Windows 10 and Windows 11.

This helps reduce the operational expenses associated with reactively managing your Windows Server instances. In this article, we will discuss how to set up System Insights on Windows Admin Center.

Because each of these capabilities runs locally. All your data is collected, stored, and analyzed directly on your Windows Server instance, allowing you to use predictive analytics capabilities without any cloud connectivity. See the following links for “How to setup Windows Admin Center and also how to troubleshoot Windows Admin Center (WAC) access from the Web. For more on Windows Admin Center, please visit this link.

Windows Admin Center System Insights

In Windows Server 2019, System Insights introduces a set of capabilities focused on capacity forecasting, predicting future usage for computing, networking, and storage. To work with System Insights, you need currently Windows Server 2019. When the OS is installed, you can enable System Insights in two different ways:

Through PowerShell
With Windows Admin Center

I will be demonstrating how this is done effortlessly via Windows Admin Center below. When the Windows Admin Center is successfully installed, you will see System Insights added to the Tools section of the server that has it installed.

It comes predefined with 4 settings it will check up on:

			
- CPU capacity forecasting
- Network capacity forecasting
- Total storage consumption forecasting
- Volume consumption forecasting

You can simply select one and click on Invoke to actually generate the data required for the forecast. Unfortunately, if you run this on a fairly new machine [<2 hours], there’s a big chance you’ll run into this ‘notification.

Under tools, select System insights

A sidebar interface displaying various system tools and settings options in a software application, including 'Azure Security Center', 'Files', 'Firewall', 'PowerShell', and 'System Insights'.

Install System Insights

This will launch the system Insight Window, where the tool can be installed that will give the forecasting capabilities.

System Insights feature introduction for predictive analytics in Windows Server, suggesting increased server functionality insight. Includes installation button.

Click on install and this will begin the install process as shown below.

Text graphic displaying 'Setting up System Insights' with blue dots on a white background.

Please see how to use container insights to get the full benefits of Azure Monitor for Azure Kubernetes workload, How to setup Chef Repository, how to import Virtual Machines (VM) to AWS cloud as AMI, and how to install minimal container template on a Proxmox Server.

View System Insights Capabilities

When successfully installed, it prompts the various capabilities possible.

A screenshot of the System Insights interface displaying various monitoring capabilities such as CPU capacity forecasting, networking capacity forecasting, total storage consumption forecasting, and volume consumption forecasting, along with their statuses.

Click on any of the capability name as shown below

Screenshot of the System Insights interface, highlighting the 'Invoke' button and displaying a list of forecasting capabilities with their statuses.

Example: Let’s click on the Network Capacity Forecasting

A system insights interface displaying the networking capacity forecasting overview with sections for Overview, Forecast, and History. The Overview section shows a status of 'None', with options to invoke, configure settings, or disable the forecasting feature. The Forecast section is empty and the History section indicates 'No results to display.'

Click on invoke on the top left under system Insights

Notification message confirming the successful invocation of the 'Networking capacity forecasting' capability.

Now under the status description, there will be entry as against the first image above.

Screenshot of System Insights interface displaying various forecasting capabilities: CPU capacity forecasting, Networking capacity forecasting, and Total storage consumption forecasting, all enabled with status descriptions including 'Check back again later - we don't have enough recent data to make predictions.'

To view the result, click on the Network Capacity Forecasting, here you should see the metrics if available.

Overview section showing no current status for Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet #2, with a message indicating lack of recent data for predictions.

Note: You can create a schedule on when it will run, without you having to invoke it

User interface for networking capacity forecasting settings showing options for schedule predictions, schedule type, daily schedule type, selected days of the week, and time of day.

When you are done, click Close. See the image below for the result after the successful mining of information. This usually takes a while to populate as shown in the Status description.

Screenshot of 'System Insights' settings showing enabled capabilities for CPU capacity forecasting, networking capacity forecasting, total storage consumption forecasting, and volume consumption forecasting, all with status 'Ok'.

Click on the capability name to view more details (output). Let’s take a look at the Network capacity/reporting, by clicking on this. It will display the overview of the Network capacity forecast (result). With these results, you can support and maintain your devices better.

Networking capacity forecasting overview showing the status and usage predictions for two devices: Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet #2 and Remote NDIS Compatible Device.

I hope you found this blog post helpful on how to set up System Insights on Windows Admin Center. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment session.