HP XP P9000 Performance Advisor v5.5 Software Best Practices Guide (T1789-96343, February 2013)

3 Configuration and performance collection
• HP recommends that you do not upgrade an HP XP P9000 Performance Advisor when a
scheduled configuration collection or a manual configuration collection for an array is in
progress.
• During configuration data collection, if you want to know the percentage of CHIP port utilization
(Micro Processor (MP)), HP recommends using the OutBand mode of configuration data
collection.
• Avoid toggling the configuration collection between OutBand and InBand modes. Every time
you toggle between OutBand and InBand modes, you need to delete the existing performance
schedules and create new schedules after the configuration collection is complete. This is due
to the following reasons:
◦ If external RAID groups are connected to the array, the RAID group information collected
through OutBand and InBand modes differ. Hence, the schedules need to be recreated.
◦ You will be initiating new configuration collections whenever an array's configuration
changes. The existing schedules do not automatically take the new configuration
information. Hence, you will have to create new schedules to initiate the performance
data collection again.
• HP recommends using two command devices that connect through two different ports (two
different MPs) to achieve the optimal CHIP port (MP) performance utilization during performance
data collection.
• HP recommends using a command device and a port that is not shared with other critical
applications to collect performance data of RAID groups (RAID groups, snapshot, THP, External
RAID groups) and journal components. This is because collecting performance data for RAID
groups is an intensive operation. To collect performance data for the remaining set of
components, you can create another schedule through a different command device and port.
• Stagger schedule — a brief on when to use a stagger schedule:
If the data collection Frequency is set to 15 minutes, performance data collection occurs at
every quarter hour, irrespective of when the schedule is created. For example, if the schedule
is created at 10.12 a.m., the first collection occurs immediately and the next collection occurs
at the quarter of the hour, which is 10.15 a.m. Subsequent collections occur at 10.30 a.m.,
10.45 a.m., and so on.
If you select the Stagger Schedule checkbox, performance data collection occurs every 15
minutes from the time the schedule is created. For example, if the schedule is created at 10.12
a.m., the first collection occurs immediately and the next collection is 15 minutes later, which
is at 10.27 a.m., and subsequent collections every 15 minutes after that. The Stagger schedule
ensures that the load on Performance Advisor at any point in time is balanced because data
collection occurs for all the XP and P9000 disk arrays not every 15 minutes of the hour, but
at varied points of time in the day.
• Host Agent minimum configuration
Following is the recommendation for a two minute collection interval:
◦ Install host agent on a server (preferably UNIX host) where HP XP P9000 Performance
Advisor is not installed
◦ Minimum 2 GHz CPU speed
◦ Minimum 2 GB RAM
◦ Minimum 3 GB virtual memory (swap space)
6 Configuration and performance collection