CONTENTS Title Page Copyright Page Preface 1 Overview 1.1 DECps Family of Products 1.2 The Performance Advisor 1.3 Performance Advisor Components 1.3.1 Analysis and Reporting Facility 1.3.1.1 Generating Daily Reports Automatically 1.3.2 Graphing Facility 1.3.3 Knowledge Base and Rules Compiler 1.3.4 Callable Interface for Data Extraction 1.4 Computer-Based Training 1.5 System Requirements and Supported Configurations 1.6 DECwindows Interface 1.7 What to Expect from the Performance Advisor 2 Analyzing Performance 2.1 Analysis Reports 2.1.1 Interpreting the Analysis Report 2.2 Brief Analysis Reports 2.2.1 Interpreting the Brief Analysis Report 3 Providing a Detailed Evaluation of Performance 3.1 Performance Evaluation Report 3.1.1 Interpreting the Process Statistics 3.1.1.1 Interpreting Process Statistics by Workload and Username 3.1.1.2 Interpreting Process Statistics by Workload 3.1.2 Interpreting Pool Statistics 3.1.3 Interpreting CPU Mode Statistics 3.1.4 Interpreting SCS Statistics 3.1.5 Interpreting Clusterwide Lock Statistics 3.1.6 Interpreting Clusterwide CI, NI, and Adapter Statistics 3.1.7 Interpreting Clusterwide Disk Statistics 3.1.8 Interpreting Clusterwide Tape Statistics 3.1.9 Interpreting Clusterwide Hot File Statistics 3.1.10 Interpreting Clusterwide Summary Statistics 3.2 Histograms 3.2.1 Image Residence Histogram 3.3 System Metrics Data 3.3.1 System Configuration Data 3.3.2 Avg Process-Memory Counts 3.3.3 Memory Utilization 3.3.4 AVE Mem/CPU Queues 3.3.5 Swapper Counts 3.3.6 CPU Statistics 3.3.7 Paging Rates (per second) 3.3.8 I/O Rates (per second) 3.3.9 File I/O Rates (per second) 3.3.10 File Cache Attempt Rate (per second) 3.3.11 File Cache Effectiveness 3.3.12 Disk Statistics 4 Generating Graphs 4.1 Generating Predefined Graphs 4.1.1 Generating Graphs from the DCL Level 4.1.2 Generating Graphs in Command Mode 4.2 Generating Multiple Graphs 4.3 Components of Graphs 4.3.1 Refreshing a ReGIS Graph with New Characteristics 4.4 Formatting Graphs 4.5 Output Formats 4.6 Data Resolution with X_POINTS 4.7 Generating Custom Graphs 4.7.1 Graphing System Metrics 4.7.2 Graphing Process Metrics by User 5 Adding, Modifying, and Disabling Rules 5.1 Creating Rules 5.1.1 Rules File Constructs 5.1.2 Rule Construct Elements 5.1.2.1 Rule ID Element 5.1.2.2 Domain Element 5.1.2.3 Rule Condition Element 5.1.2.4 Occurrence Element 5.1.2.5 Evidence Element 5.1.2.6 Conclusion Text Element 5.1.2.7 Brief Conclusion Text Element 5.2 Modifying Factory Rules 5.3 Building an Auxiliary Knowledge Base 5.4 Using an Auxiliary Knowledge Base for Reporting and Archiving 5.5 Rules for Data Cells and Domains 5.6 Data Cell Types and Use 5.6.1 Boolean Data Cell 5.6.2 Index Specifier Data Cell 5.6.3 Scan Routine Data Cell 5.6.4 String Data Cell 5.6.5 Tally Data Cell 5.6.6 Time Data Cell 5.6.7 Numeric Data Cell 6 Callable Interface for Data Extraction 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Performance Advisor Procedures PSPA$OPEN_CONTEXT PSPA$READ_CONTEXT PSPA$CLOSE_CONTEXT 6.3 PSPA Libraries 6.3.1 Compiling and Linking with the PSPA MACRO Library 6.4 Sample VAX MACRO Program 6.5 PSPA Record Field Definitions 7 DECperformance Solution Performance Advisor Commands ADVISE PERFORMANCE ADVISE PERFORMANCE COMPILE ADVISE PERFORMANCE GRAPH ADVISE PERFORMANCE PIE_CHART ADVISE PERFORMANCE REPORT ADVISE PERFORMANCE SHOW VERSION 8 Using Command Mode Commands ADVISE PERFORMANCE SELECT GRAPH PIE_CHART REPORT SPAWN EXIT 9 Using the DECps DECwindows Interface 9.1 Starting the DECps DECwindows Interface 9.2 Controlling the DECwindows Interface 9.2.1 Saving Reports 9.2.2 Monitoring Work in Progress 9.2.3 Reading the Parameter File 9.2.4 Writing the Parameter File 9.2.5 Quitting the Session 9.3 Selecting Data for Analysis 9.3.1 Selecting Today's Data 9.3.2 Selecting Specific Data 9.3.3 Selecting Last Hour 9.4 Displaying Analyzed Data 9.4.1 Brief Analysis Report 9.4.2 Full Analysis Report 9.4.3 Performance Evaluation Report 9.4.4 System Metrics Tabular Report 9.4.5 Graphs 9.4.5.1 Saving the Graph 9.4.5.2 Editing the Graph Format 9.4.5.3 Display 9.4.5.4 Display Top 9.4.5.5 Display Custom 9.5 Viewing the Main Window 9.6 Getting Help 9.6.1 Navigating in Help 9.6.2 Saving Help Text in a File 9.6.3 Exiting from Help 9.6.4 Accessing the Computer-Based Training Course A DECps Performance Advisor Messages and Recovery Procedures B DECps Data Cells B.1 DECps Performance Advisor Data Cells C DECps Performance Advisor Logical Names D Sample Callable Interface Programs Glossary. Actual or real Workload . . . Callable interface for data extraction Capacity planning . . . Data collection schedule Data collection synchronization . . . Factory rules Family name . . . Interval Journal file . . . Periodicity Predefined graph . . . Rule evidence Rule firing . . . Transaction Class Transaction class workload . . . Workload name Workload selection criteria . . . Workload selection criteria EXAMPLES 2-1 Analysis Report: Memory Rule 2-2 Analysis Report: CPU Rule 2-3 Analysis Report: I/O Rule 2-4 Analysis Report: Miscellaneous Rule 2-5 Analysis Report: Analysis Summary 2-6 Analysis Report: Cluster Rule 2-7 Brief Analysis Report 3-1 Performance Evaluation Report: Process Statistics by Image for Interactive, Batch and Network Jobs 3-2 Performance Evaluation Report: Process Statistics by Workload and User 3-3 Performance Evaluation Report: Process Statistics by Workload 3-4 Performance Evaluation Report: Pool Statistics 3-5 Performance Evaluation Report: CPU Mode Statistics 3-6 Performance Evaluation Report: SCS Statistics 3-7 Performance Evaluation Report: Lock Statistics, Clusterwide 3-8 Performance Evaluation Report: CI, NI, and Adapter Statistics 3-9 Performance Evaluation Report: Disk Statistics, Clusterwide 3-10 Performance Evaluation Report: Tape Statistics, By Volume 3-11 Performance Evaluation Report: Tape Statistics, Clusterwide 3-12 Performance Evaluation Report: Hot File Statistics, Clusterwide 3-13 Performance Evaluation Report: Summary Statistics, Clusterwide 3-14 CPU Utilization Histogram 3-15 Physical Memory Use Histogram 3-16 Disk I/O Per Second Histogram 3-17 Terminal I/O Per Second Histogram 3-18 System Uptime Chart Histogram 3-19 Combined CPU Use Chart Histogram 4-1 ANSI Formatted Graph 4-2 Tabular Formatted Output 4-3 Prompting for System Metrics Custom Graph 4-4 Prompting for Process Custom Graph 5-1 Auxiliary Rules File Example 6-1 BLISS Example of CIFDE Context Block 6-2 Extracting Data from the Daily Data Files FIGURES 3-1 Tabular Report Example - Configuration Data 3-2 Tabular Report Example - Summary Statistics 4-1 PostScript Formatted Pattern Graph 4-2 PostScript Formatted Line Graph 4-3 X_POINTS Default Value Graph 4-4 Maximum X_POINTS Graph 4-5 Minimum X_POINTS Graph 4-6 Custom Graph for System Metrics 4-7 Custom Graph for Process Usage A-1 Parts of a DECps Message TABLES 5-1 DECps Thresholds 5-2 Processor Specific Threshold Scaling Factors 5-3 Rule Construct Elements and Descriptions 5-4 Rule ID Abbreviations 5-5 Domain Names, Rule Testing, and Reporting 5-6 Rule Expression Operators and Descriptions 5-7 Data Subrecord Type with Associated Domain 5-8 Data Cell Type and Description 6-1 CIFDE - Data Type Identifiers 6-2 PSPA$OPEN_CONTEXT Return Status 6-3 PSPA$OPEN_CONTEXT Error Codes 6-4 PSPA$READ_CONTEXT Return Status 6-5 PSPA$READ_CONTEXT - Condition Mask 6-6 PSPA$READ_CONTEXT Error Codes 6-7 PSPA$CLOSE_CONTEXT Return Status 6-8 CTX$L_CONDS-Condition Mask (PSPA$CLOSE_CONTEXT) 6-9 PSPA$CLOSE_CONTEXT Error Codes 6-10 Data Structure Definition Library Files 6-11 Configuration Record Field Definitions 6-12 Process Record Field Definitions 6-13 Metrics Record Field Definitions 6-14 CPU Record Field Definitions 6-15 Parameter Record Field Definitions 6-16 Time Record Field Definitions 6-17 Device Record Field Definitions 6-18 Tape Record Field Definitions 6-19 Communications Record Field Definitions 6-20 Hot File Record Field Definitions 7-1 ADVISE PERFORMANCE command options 7-2 List of Graph Types 7-3 Performance Advisor Metrics Grouped by Metric Class 8-1 Summary of Command Mode Commands 8-2 SELECT Command Options 8-3 REPORT command options A-1 Severity Codes