HP Caliper 5.3 User Guide (5900-1558, February 2011)

If the HP Caliper run is made on a ccNUMA system, then the memory usage of every “logical
domain” is separately measured and reported. If on an SMP system, then only the single, “local
domain” is measured and reported.
The system memory usage measurement is always taken if the --memory-usage= option is used.
The measurement is made only once at the beginning of the HP Caliper run and the same data is
reported for each process in a multiprocess run.
The process memory usage measurement can be taken:
• At the beginning of a process's execution: --memory-usage=begin
• At the end of a process's execution: --memory-usage=end
• Periodically throughout a process's execution: --memory-usage=timed
• At any combination or all of the above: --memory-usage=all
The default sampling rate for measuring process memory usage is 1 second. To specify a different
rate, use an integer value (greater than 0) followed by an optional time modifier indicating seconds
(s), minutes (m), or hours (h). The value is assumed to be in seconds if no time modifier is given.
To reduce the volume of data, only samples that show a difference in memory utilization from the
previous sample are saved and reported.
NOTE: To maintain compatibility with earlier versions of HP Caliper, exit is synonymous with
end.
The process memory usage being measured is the number of pages the process has allocated from
the system. It includes executable code, shared libraries, static data, mmap'd regions, and dynamic
(malloc'd heap) memory. It does not measure how much of this system-allocated memory is
currently in use. For example, a process might malloc a large block and free it, but the
system-allocated memory will still reflect that the pages are in use by the process.
The --memory-usage= option is supported only for --scope process measurements. (This
is the default for the --scope option.)
As with all HP Caliper command-line options, --memory-usage= can be abbreviated to any
non-ambiguous string, and colon-separated arguments can be given in any order.
Examples of the --memory-usage= Option
Some examples of the option follow:
• --memory-usage=all
Causes process memory usage to be measured at the beginning, at the end, and every 1
second of the process's execution.
• --memory-usage=begin:end
Causes process memory usage to be measured twice: at the beginning and at the end of the
process's execution.
• --memory-usage=timed:15
Causes process memory usage to be measured every 15 seconds of the process's execution.
• --memory-usage=all:30m
Causes process memory usage to be measured at the beginning, at the end, and every 30
minutes of the process's execution.
• --memory-usage=end
Causes process memory usage to be measured once: at the end of the process's execution.
Measuring Memory Usage Concurrently with Other Measurements 153