 






          Software
          Product
          Description

          ________________________________________________________________

          PRODUCT NAME:  VAX Performance Advisor, Version 2.1   SPD 27.71.04

          DESCRIPTION

          The VAX Performance Advisor (VPA) is a DECwindows based VMS
          layered product that reduces the time and effort required to
          manage and monitor VAX system performance, as well as plan for
          future resource requirements. It can be used with standalone
          VAX, VAXcluster and Local Area VAXcluster systems, as well as
          Mixed-interconnect VAXcluster systems.

          VPA gathers VMS system data and through the application of
          expert system technology, analyzes the data, identifies spe-
          cific conditions causing performance degradation, and presents
          detailed evidence to support its conclusions. Further, VPA pro-
          vides recommendations for attaining improved system performance.

          In addition to its expert system analysis, the VAX Performance
          Advisor assists in capacity planning exercises by providing data
          archival and graphing capabilities for long term trend analysis,
          and performance modeling to determine future system performance
          given changes in workload or configuration.

          The components of VPA are:

          o  Performance Knowledge Base and Rule Compiler

          o  Analysis, Reporting and Graphing

          o  Workload Characterization, Performance Modeling, "What If"
             Analysis, and Prediction Reporting

          o  Data Archiving and Data Extraction

          o  Data Collection and Storage

                                       DIGITAL                October 1990

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          Performance Knowledge Base and Rule Compiler

          The VAX Performance Advisor contains a knowledge base of rules
          and thresholds which it uses to analyze VAX system data. VPA
          rules fall into five categories: Memory, CPU, I/O, Cluster, and
          Miscellaneous.

          The VPA knowledge base may be modified and expanded at the
          user's discretion. To integrate new rules, modify existing
          rules, or effectively turn off existing rules, the user creates
          an auxiliary knowledge base. In subsequent analysis, the user
          can then specify the use of user created rules to augment VPA's
          factory rules.

          Analysis, Reporting and Graphing

          VPA aids the system manager in monitoring system activities
          and in making performance evaluations by quickly identifying
          performance problems. Through its analysis, VPA will also iden-
          tify potential bottlenecks and the specific device on which the
          bottleneck will occur.

          VPA reports are generated at the request of the user and in-
          clude: the Analysis Report, the Performance Evaluation Report,
          VPA Graphs, and the Raw Data Dump Report. VPA reports can be
          generated from either daily or historical data, with the excep-
          tion of the analysis report which is generated from daily data
          files only.

          Analysis Report

          The VPA Analysis Report contains conclusions drawn from the VPA
          analysis as well as recommendations for improving system perfor-
          mance. In addition to identifying performance related problems
          and recommendations, the Analysis Report contains the conditions
          under which the identified problems occurred, along with sup-
          porting evidence to substantiate VPA conclusions. The Analysis
          Report is generated from daily VPA data files and therefore, is
          most useful for daily and weekly system performance analysis.

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          A Brief Analysis Report is also available, identifying the rules
          which fired during the analysis period, and a one line synopsis
          of the problem statement.




































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          Performance Evaluation Report

          The Performance Evaluation Report provides system statistics
          which can assist the system manager in gauging the impact
          of changes made to the system. It is particularly useful in
          monitoring system performance after implementation of a VPA
          recommendation.

          This report provides summaries of disk and tape activity, CPU
          and memory utilization, as well as detailed statistics on work-
          load data, interactive, batch, and network processes. The Per-
          formance Evaluation Report is generated from either daily or
          archived data.

          Specifically, the Performance Evaluation Report provides infor-
          mation on:

          o  Resource usages by all the images and/or users which were
             active during the reporting time period

          o  Summaries of workload characteristics for any user defined
             workload classification, or for the default workload classi-
             fication of interactive, batch and network processes

          o  Summaries of workload characteristics by user-group and
             transaction families

          o  Locking traffic summary

          o  Summary tables of SCS data, including CI, NI, and Adapter
             statistics for each SCS circuit

          o  Disk utilizations and summaries

          o  Summary of tape activity for individual systems as well as
             clusterwide

          o  CPU and memory usage summaries

          o  Summary of pool resources by node

          o  "Hot File" activity, as defined by the most frequently ac-
             cessed files per disk

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          Graphs

          VPA provides a facility to graphically represent the data which
          has been collected in the VPA database. VPA graphing provides
          the system manager with "pictures" of the system's performance
          metrics and is a robust source of information from which a bet-
          ter understanding of resource utilization and overall workload
          characteristics is obtained.

          A wide range of predefined graphs are provided along with the
          ability to define custom graphs. Graphs can be created in vari-
          ous output formats, including ReGIS, ANSI, and PostScript[R], in
          either pie charts or line graphs.

          System data may be graphed for any length of time using either
          daily or archived data as the source. This can be an effec-
          tive way to study the long term performance trends of any VAX
          standalone or VAXcluster System.

          Dump Report

          This report provides data from the VPA database in user readable
          format. The user may select to dump the full database record, or
          may choose to dump a portion of the database record by selecting
          data from the following categories:

          o  Metrics

          o  Parameters

          o  Processes

          o  Disks and Disk Caches

          o  Tapes

          o  Communications

          o  System configuration and SCS

          o  CPU

          o  Rules

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          o  Hotfiles

          Workload Characterization, Performance Modeling, "What If"
          Analysis, and Prediction Reporting

          Workload Characterization

          VPA allows the system manager to define the system's total
          workload in terms of manageable units which VPA will then report
          against. Workloads and groups of workloads (workload families)
          are used in model generation and can be reported against in
          VPA's Performance Evaluation Reports or Graphics. Workloads can
          be defined according to users, images, UIC's, or any combination
          of these.

          Performance Modeling and "What If" Analysis

          The VPA modeling component is used to predict the performance
          of standalone, CI-VAXcluster, Local Area VAXcluster, Mixed
          Interconnect VAXcluster and multiple CI-VAXcluster systems,
          and to determine system performance levels for various workloads
          and configurations.

          The modeling component includes a graphical modeling interface
          from which "what-if" analyses can be performed dynamically. A
          baseline model is automatically configured based on information
          from the VPA database. This baseline model becomes the start-
          ing point for making changes to the configuration or workload
          and can be validated against the Performance Evaluation Report.
          Users can add, delete or change any hardware component or work-
          load, and examine the impact on performance by viewing various
          performance metrics displayed, such as: utilization, response
          times, throughput, queue length, service time, probabilities,
          transaction per second, and I/Os per second. The various models
          can be saved for further evaluation. These "what-if" analyses
          form the foundation of capacity plans.

          The performance statistics are provided in either summary or
          detailed reports and include:

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          o  Resource utilization

          o  Response time

          o  Throughput per transaction class as well as aggregate

          o  Performance information for each CPU, HSC, disk, channel,
             adapter, and CI or Ethernet bus for both current and pro-
             jected workloads or configurations

          o  System level parameters

          Prediction Reporting

          VPA provides a prediction reporting capability which automat-
          ically determines system performance based on an incremental
          workload of 25, 50, 75, and 100 percent or until a system compo-
          nent becomes saturated. This report also indicates the smallest
          workload at which a component will saturate.

          VPA defines this saturation point as 90% utilization, however,
          this number can be modified according to users' requirements.

          Prediction Reporting identifies bottlenecks before they occur,
          thereby allowing the system manager to be proactive in elimi-
          nating bottlenecks and providing a consistent level of system
          performance to the user base.

          Data Archiving and Data Extraction

          Data Archiving

          VPA provides data archiving capabilities so that the VMS per-
          formance data collected by VPA on a daily basis can be used
          in long-term performance studies. When VPA daily data files
          are archived, the resultant data files are known as history
          files. History files, which can be used as the data source for
          generating Performance Evaluation Reports, Dump Reports, Perfor-
          mance Models and Graphs, are created according to user-specified
          reduction scheme(s). The user has the ability to define specifi-
          cally how the data will be archived by defining history file
          descriptor elements, such as the granularity, periodicity,

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          time interval, model data, workload family, retention period,
          schedule, and holiday schedule. The size of the history file is
          dependent on the data reduction scheme selected with the most
          important element being the interval size defined. The size of
          reduced data, in blocks, is about 10 times smaller than it is in
          daily form.

          Data Extraction

          VPA provides data extraction procedures which may be called ex-
          plicitly from user written programs. This facility allows system
          and application programmers to call VPA library procedures for
          extraction of daily VPA data. VPA provides record definitions
          for the following languages: Ada, BASIC, BLISS, C, DATATRIEVE,
          FORTRAN, LISP, MACRO, PASCAL, and PL/I.

          Data Collection and Storage

          VPA records VMS system data for subsequent processing by the VPA
          advisor. The data collector runs as a detached process and is
          activated at system start up. VPA supports data collection and
          reporting for a maximum of 5000 concurrent processes.

          VPA collects data according to a user defined schedule main-
          tained in a schedule file; default collection is 24 hours per
          day, 7 days per week. The data collection schedule should be
          consistent for each node in the VAXcluster system to ensure all
          critical pieces of system data are collected. The data collector
          will automatically shut off when the disk on which the raw VPA
          data files reside has insufficient free space.

          Features

          VPA provides capabilities for the user to effectively manage the
          performance of an existing system (performance management) and
          also to plan for future computer resources (capacity planning).

          Performance Management

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          o  VPA analyzes system workload data, identifies performance
             related problems and provides recommendations for improved
             performance.

          o  Users can effectively change existing VPA rules, turn off
             existing rules, and add rules specific to their application
             or environment.

          o  VPA identifies: future bottlenecks before they occur; pro-
             cesses which may be using inordinate amounts of system re-
             sources; and the most frequently accessed files per disk,
             often referred to as "Hot Files".

          o  Access to the daily VPA data is available through a callable
             interface which supports nine languages.

          o  Graphical representation of VPA data files allows the system
             manager to visually evaluate system performance.

          o  Histograms of CPU utilization, disk I/O, memory utilization
             and terminal I/O for each node in the VAXcluster system are
             available.

          o  Support for single VAX processors, VAXcluster, Local Area
             VAXcluster, and Mixed-interconnect VAXcluster, and multiple
             CI-VAXcluster systems is provided.

          o  Analysis of data can be performed from any VAX processor in
             the VAXcluster system without system shutdown.

          o  Data collection is easily defined by the user for automatic
             collection of system performance data.

          o  VPA analysis can be performed for a maximum of one week; VPA
             data can be archived and presented for any length of time in
             both report and graph format.

          Capacity Planning

          o  A graphical modeling interface provides an easy-to-use tool
             for performing multiple "what-if" analyses.

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          o  System performance data can be archived and graphed for trend
             analysis.

          o  Workloads can be grouped into meaningful categories; VPA will
             report resource utilization for each grouping.

          o  Performance modeling allows the user to understand the im-
             pact that changes in workload or configuration will have on
             overall system performance.

          o  Performance modeling is supported for standalone VAX systems,
             CI-VAXcluster, Local Area VAXcluster, Mixed Interconnect
             VAXcluster, and multiple CI-VAXcluster Systems.

          o  "What If" analysis provides performance characteristics of
             the system before actual changes are implemented.

          o  Prediction Reporting identifies the workload at which system
             components will saturate and performance bottlenecks will
             occur.

          HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

          VAX, MicroVAX, VAXstation or VAXserver configuration as speci-
          fied in the System Support Addendum (SSA 27.71.04-x).

          SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS *

          VMS Operating System

          *  Refer to the System Support Addendum (SSA 27.71.04-x) for
             availability and required versions of prerequisite/optional
             software.

          ORDERING INFORMATION

          Software Licenses: QL-VE5A*-**
          Software Media: QA-VE5AA-**
          Software Documentation: QA-VE5AA-GZ
          Software Product Services: QT-VE5A*-**

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          *  Denotes variant fields. For additional information on avail-
             able licenses, services and media, refer to the appropriate
             price book.

          SOFTWARE LICENSING

          This software is furnished under the licensing provisions of
          Digital Equipment Corporation's Standard Terms and Conditions.
          For more information about Digital's licensing terms and poli-
          cies, contact your local Digital office.

          LICENSE MANAGEMENT FACILITY

          This layered product supports the VMS License Management Facil-
          ity.

          License units for this product are allocated on a CPU-capacity
          basis.

          For more information on the License Management Facility, refer
          to the VMS Operating System Software Product Description (SPD
          25.01.xx) or the License Management Facility manual of the VMS
          Operating System documentation set.

          For more information on Digital's licensing terms and policies,
          contact your local Digital office.

          SOFTWARE PRODUCT SERVICES

          A variety of service options are available from Digital. For
          more information, contact your local Digital office.

          SOFTWARE WARRANTY

          Warranty for this software product is provided by Digital with
          the purchase of a license for the product as defined in the
          Software Warranty Addendum of this SPD.


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          [R]  PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Inc.

          [TM] The DIGITAL Logo, DECwindows, BASIC, DATATRIEVE, ReGIS,
               VAX, MicroVAX, VAXserver and VAXstation are trademarks of
               Digital Equipment Corporation.

































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