ViewSys User’s Guide Abstract ViewSys provides system managers and system operators the ability to view system resources on HP NonStop™ servers. This manual describes how the ViewSys program operates and how to interpret the program output. Product Version ViewSys G06 Supported Release Version Updates (RVUs) This manual supports D39.02, G06.08, and all subsequent RVUs until otherwise indicated by its replacement publication.
Document History Part Number Product Version Published 083999 ViewSys C00 November 1987 061038 ViewSys C30 July 1991 103491 ViewSys C30 December 1993 526358-001 ViewSys G06 May 2003 526358-002 ViewSys G06 June 2004
ViewSys User’s Guide Index Figures Tables What’s New in This Manual v Manual Information v New and Changed Information v About This Manual vii Manual Organization vii Notation Conventions viii 1. Getting Started Starting ViewSys 1-1 Screen Display Description Maximum Mode 1-2 Average Mode 1-3 Exiting ViewSys 1-3 1-1 2. ViewSys Overview Compatibility Between PEEK and MEASURE Running ViewSys in NonStop Mode 2-3 2-2 3.
3. ViewSys Run Command Syntax (continued) Contents 3. ViewSys Run Command Syntax (continued) NUMCPUS Command 3-6 RESERVELCBS Command 3-7 ROTATECPUS Command 3-7 ROTATION Command 3-8 SCREEN Command 3-9 SWITCHBACK Command 3-9 TIERS Command 3-10 UNSTOPPABLE Command 3-10 UPCPUS Command 3-11 USERCPUS Command 3-11 4. Function Key Commands Numbered Function Keys 4-1 Unnumbered Function Keys 4-1 5. Interpreting ViewSys 6. Measurement Techniques A. ViewSys Syntax Summary B. ViewSys Measurement Entities C.
Figures (continued) Contents Figures (continued) Figure 5-4. Figure 5-7. Figure 5-8. Figure 5-9. Figure 5-10. Figure 5-11. Figure 5-12. Figure 5-13. Figure 5-14. Figure 5-15. Figure C-1. The MEMQUEUE Screen 5-4 The CACHEHITS Screen 5-5 The DISCIO Screen 5-5 The PCB Screen 5-5 The LOCKEDMEM Screen 5-6 The SYSPOOL Screen 5-6 The MAPPOOL Screen 5-6 The LCB Screen 5-7 The TLE Screen 5-7 The BPT Screen 5-8 The ViewSys Help Screen C-1 Tables Table 3-1. Table 4-1. Table 4-2. Table 5-1. Table 6-1. Table C-1.
Contents ViewSys User’s Guide—526358-002 iv
What’s New in This Manual Manual Information ViewSys User’s Guide Abstract ViewSys provides system managers and system operators the ability to view system resources on HP NonStop™ servers. This manual describes how the ViewSys program operates and how to interpret the program output. Product Version ViewSys G06 Supported Release Version Updates (RVUs) This manual supports D39.02, G06.08, and all subsequent RVUs until otherwise indicated by its replacement publication.
New and Changed Information What’s New in This Manual Definition Language (VDL). Whenever ViewSys is executed, it now automatically compiles the ViewSysC file and displays any errors found.
About This Manual ViewSys gives system managers and system operators the ability to view system resources on HP NonStop systems. It also provides data to those responsible for load balancing and overall system performance. ViewSys returns system resource information interactively, reporting data similar to that provided by PEEK, another HP NonStop resource reporting utility, and Measure, an HP NonStop performance analysis tool. PEEK displays resource use from a specific timestamp to the present.
Notation Conventions About This Manual • Section D, ViewSys Definition Language (VDL), discusses the ViewSysC file and the ViewSys Definition Language. Notation Conventions Hypertext Links Blue underline is used to indicate a hypertext link within text. By clicking a passage of text with a blue underline, you are taken to the location described. For example: This requirement is described under Backup DAM Volumes and Physical Disk Drives on page 3-2.
General Syntax Notation About This Manual each side of the list, or horizontally, enclosed in a pair of brackets and separated by vertical lines. For example: FC [ num ] [ -num ] [ text ] K [ X | D ] address { } Braces. A group of items enclosed in braces is a list from which you are required to choose one item. The items in the list can be arranged either vertically, with aligned braces on each side of the list, or horizontally, enclosed in a pair of braces and separated by vertical lines.
Notation for Messages About This Manual Line Spacing. If the syntax of a command is too long to fit on a single line, each continuation line is indented three spaces and is separated from the preceding line by a blank line. This spacing distinguishes items in a continuation line from items in a vertical list of selections. For example: ALTER [ / OUT file-spec / ] LINE [ , attribute-spec ]… !i and !o.
Notation for Management Programming Interfaces About This Manual lowercase italic letters. Lowercase italic letters indicate variable items whose values are displayed or returned. For example: p-register process-name [ ] Brackets. Brackets enclose items that are sometimes, but not always, displayed.
Change Bar Notation About This Manual UPPERCASE LETTERS. Uppercase letters indicate names from definition files. Type these names exactly as shown. For example: ZCOM-TKN-SUBJ-SERV lowercase letters. Words in lowercase letters are words that are part of the notation, including Data Definition Language (DDL) keywords. For example: token-type !r. The !r notation following a token or field name indicates that the token or field is required. For example: ZCOM-TKN-OBJNAME !o. token-type ZSPI-TYP-STRING.
1 Getting Started ViewSys is a system resource monitor. Viewing the resource allocations across processors on a running system allows you to balance the application load more evenly. ViewSys can help you decide when to move user processes to less busy processors and disk files or relocate partitions to less busy disk volumes.
Maximum Mode Getting Started Several resources appear for each processor listed. An abbreviation of the resources appears opposite the bar graphs. Each time the display changes, the bar graphs display the percentages used during the polling period. The default poll delay for ViewSys is three seconds. The system name appears in the two-line header. If the ViewSys process is named, that name appears in the process field.
Average Mode Getting Started Average Mode 1. Pressing the ROLL DOWN function key two times will switch the utility environment to Average mode. In this mode, statistics are incremented when the average usage increases since ViewSys has been running. 2. Press the INS LINE function key to reset the averages for all resources to the current poll period values. Resource values are incremented whenever a new average use is encountered.
Exiting ViewSys Getting Started ViewSys User’s Guide—526358-002 1 -4
2 ViewSys Overview ViewSys runs on all HP NonStop servers as a nonprivileged process. It displays system resource use in block mode and bar graph form and allows you to select from a number of display screens. ViewSys allows you to: • • Monitor all processors within a system Monitor a selected set of processors within a system Once ViewSys is running, you can select a screen to: • • • View resource use within a single processor View resource use within all processors being monitored (See Figure 2-1.
Compatibility Between PEEK and MEASURE ViewSys Overview • • • • • • • • • • • Processor dispatch rate Interprocessor bus send busy rate Disk cache hit rate Disk I/O rate Process control blocks (PCBs) currently allocated Number of currently locked memory pages Current number of pages allocated to SYSPOOL Current number of pages allocated to MAPPOOL Link control blocks (LCBs) currently allocated Time list elements (TLEs) currently allocated Breakpoints (BPTs) currently allocated You can collect data in tw
Running ViewSys in NonStop Mode ViewSys Overview impact on Measure is limited to the resources used by the program itself. Most of the impact is the interprocessor communications necessary to gather individual processor values. A moderate amount of arithmetic and the display code is performed in the processor in which ViewSys executes. This version of ViewSys does not depend on Measure recorders to produce the measurement data. PEEK also uses the system tables accessed by ViewSys.
Running ViewSys in NonStop Mode ViewSys Overview ViewSys User’s Guide—526358-002 2 -4
3 ViewSys Run Command Syntax ViewSys is run from TACL on an HP block mode terminal or from a workstation running a terminal emulation program. The run command syntax for the program follows. You can also execute some run commands with a function key. See the commands with the notation ** FKEYS **. Run Command The ViewSys syntax follows: VIEWSYS [ / run-option [ , run-option ] . . . / ] [ command [ ; command ] . . .
BACKUPCPU Command ViewSys Run Command Syntax Table 3-1. Startup Command Options (page 2 of 2) Delay Multitype Tiers Display Numcpus Unstoppable Errorprompt Reservelcbs Upcpus Exitafter Rotatecpus Usercpus BACKUPCPU Command Use the BACKUPCPU command to specify the processor where the backup ViewSys process should run. ViewSys must be a named process to run as a NonStop process.
DELAY Command ViewSys Run Command Syntax ON indicates that the VIEWSYS data will be logged into a CSV file named CSVFILE on the current volume/subvolume. You can open CSVFILE in Microsoft Excel on a workstation. If CSVFILE already exists, it will be overwritten. OFF indicates that the VIEWSYS data will not be logged to a CSV file. OFF is the default setting. Example VIEWSYS CSVFILE ON Note. The EOF for the CSVFILE increases during every ViewSys sample interval.
ERRORPROMPT Command ViewSys Run Command Syntax Entity Display Processor Display MEMQUEUE CPU3 DISPATCH CPU4 SENDBUSY CPU5 CACHEHITS CPU6 DISCIO CPU7 PCB CPU8 LOCKEDMEM CPU9 SYSPOOL CPU10 MAPPOOL CPU11 LCB CPU12 TLE CPU13 BPT CPU14 (Not applicable) CPU15 Note. You can alter the display type interactively. Function keys 1 through 16 select individual entity displays, and shifted function keys 1 through 16 select individual processor displays.
EXITAFTER Command ViewSys Run Command Syntax EXITAFTER Command Use the EXITAFTER command to specify the number of samples to be displayed before ViewSys terminates and returns you to the TACL prompt. If you omit this command, ViewSys runs continuously until you use a function key to exit. EXITAFTER number number must be in the range 1 through 32767. Example VIEWSYS EXITAFTER 100 EXITKEY Command Use the EXITKEY command to specify a function key to exit the program in addition to the default EXIT key.
HELP Command ViewSys Run Command Syntax Example VIEWSYS FUNCTIONKEYS OFF HELP Command Use the HELP command to display a list of the run-time commands. After the commands appear, ViewSys exits and automatically returns you to the TACL prompt. HELP Example VIEWSYS HELP MULTITYPE Command Use the MULTITYPE command to indicate the number of entities displayed on each screen. MULTITYPE { ON | OFF } ON indicates that when monitoring eight or fewer processors, two individual entities appear concurrently.
RESERVELCBS Command ViewSys Run Command Syntax number must be in the range 1 through 16. Note. A NUMCPUS command overrides any previous USERCPUS command. Examples VIEWSYS NUMCPUS 10 ; USERCPUS 12 causes processors 0 through 9 and processor 11 to be monitored. RESERVELCBS Command Use the RESERVELCBS command to specify whether a sender's link control block is reserved for each processor being monitored. This prevents an LCB allocation failure if the processor ViewSys is running in becomes short of LCBs.
ROTATION Command ViewSys Run Command Syntax OFF indicates that when the ALLCPUS display type is selected, the current CPU set is displayed repeatedly. To select the next CPU set in sequence, pressing the PREV PAGE function key. Note. To toggle ROTATECPUS interactively, press the PREV PAGE function key. Example VIEWSYS CPUSETS 2; ROTATECPUS ON ROTATION Command Use the ROTATION command to specify that ViewSys should rotate sequentially through display types, both individual entities and CPU sets.
SCREEN Command ViewSys Run Command Syntax SCREEN Command Use the SCREEN command to replay a previous logged ViewSys session. If different screens are selected for display during the logging of the ViewSys session, on playback only the default ViewSys screen will be displayed. This option is primarily intended for QA purposes. SCREEN { LOG | REPLAY | OFF } LOG indicates that the VIEWSYS data will be logged to a disk file named DISPFILE in the current volume/subvolume.
TIERS Command ViewSys Run Command Syntax OFF indicates that following a processor failure which causes the backup process to take over, the new primary (former backup) will maintain responsibility even after the original primary processor is again available. OFF is the default. Example VIEWSYS SWITCHBACK ON TIERS Command Use the TIERS command to indicate the number of columns when two, three, or four processors are displayed in one CPU set.
UPCPUS Command ViewSys Run Command Syntax OFF indicates that the DEL LINE function key can be used to exit the ViewSys program. This is the default. Example VIEWSYS UNSTOPPABLE ON UPCPUS Command Use the UPCPUS command to specify whether processors that are not running should be monitored. UPCPUS { ON | OFF } ON indicates that you want to monitor any processors that are currently running. Down processors that are subsequently reloaded will not be monitored.
USERCPUS Command ViewSys Run Command Syntax causes processors 0 through 9 and processor 11 to be monitored. VIEWSYS USERCPUS 7, 8 ; NUMCPUS 4 causes processors 0 through 3 to be monitored.
4 Function Key Commands Numbered Function Keys Individual numbered function keys select the following display screens. Table 4-1.
Unnumbered Function Keys Function Key Commands NEXT PAGE Toggles ROTATION. Pressing this function key toggles the state between ON and OFF. ROTATION ON causes the utility to sequentially display all screens. ROTATION OFF repeatedly displays the currently selected screen. Shift NEXT PAGE Toggles TIERS between 1 and 2 tiers. Whenever 2, 3, or 4 processors are being displayed and TIERS is set to 1, the processors appear in vertical columns, side by side.
5 Interpreting ViewSys There are no absolute rules to follow for performance tuning HP NonStop systems. Recommended rates for various system resources vary from system to system, based on the application being run. These rates all interrelate to determine the number of transactions performed per second and the average response time for those transactions. Experience with the system and the applications being run allows you to detect imbalances and inefficiencies within that system.
Interpreting ViewSys Table 5-1. ViewSys Reports Measured Entities Description (page 2 of 2) DISCIO The average number of disk I/Os per second during the polling period. This number is an accumulation of all disk I/Os for all the disk processes within the processor being reported. PCB The number of process control blocks allocated at the time the processor is polled. LOCKEDMEM The number of pages of physical memory that are locked at the time the processor is polled.
Interpreting ViewSys Figure 5-2. The CPUQUEUE Screen VST502.vsd Figure 5-3. The PAGEFAULT Screen VST503.vsd Note. The next screen shows no current activity. This reflects the state of the system when the screen was captured.
Interpreting ViewSys Figure 5-4. The MEMQUEUE Screen VST504.vsd Figure 5-5. The DISPATCH Screen VST505.vsd Figure 5-6. The SENDBUSY Screen VST506.
Interpreting ViewSys Figure 5-7. The CACHEHITS Screen VST507.vsd Figure 5-8. The DISCIO Screen VST508.vsd Figure 5-9. The PCB Screen VST509.
Interpreting ViewSys Figure 5-10. The LOCKEDMEM Screen VST510.vsd Figure 5-11. The SYSPOOL Screen VST511.vsd Figure 5-12. The MAPPOOL Screen VST512.
Interpreting ViewSys Figure 5-13. The LCB Screen VST513.vsd Figure 5-14. The TLE Screen VST514.
Interpreting ViewSys Figure 5-15. The BPT Screen VST515.
6 Measurement Techniques ViewSys obtains the system resource configuration for each processor being monitored. For measured entities that have a finite number of blocks or memory pages available, the actual number configured is determined. For some measurements, such as DISPATCHES or DISC I/O RATE, an arbitrary maximum has been determined, so the percentage-used display indicates the remaining percentage of usable resource.
Measurement Techniques ViewSys User’s Guide—526358-002 6 -2
A ViewSys Syntax Summary VIEWSYS [ / run-option [ , run-option ]... / ] [ command [ ; command ]...
ViewSys Syntax Summary UNSTOPPABLE { ON | OFF } UPCPUS { ON | OFF } USERCPUS cpu-number [ cpu-number ]... You can set commands marked with an asterisk (*) at run time or during program execution using function keys.
B ViewSys Measurement Entities Function Key Entity Represents Bar Graph Represents Number Represents 1 CPU BUSY % CPU BUSY % CPU BUSY 2 CPU QUEUE LENGTH # PCBs ready/ Table 6-1 # PCBs ready 3 PAGE FAULT RATE # per second/ Table 6-1 # per second 4 MEMORY QUEUE LENGTH Memory manager page faults queued/ Table 6-1 # reg queued 5 DISPATCH RATE See Table 6-1 6 SEND BUSY IPB send busy percentage % IPB busy 7 CACHE HIT RATE # per second/ Table 6-1 # per second 8 DISC I/O RATE See
ViewSys Measurement Entities ViewSys User’s Guide—526358-002 B- 2
C ViewSys Help Screen Figure C-1. The ViewSys Help Screen VST999.vsd Table C-1.
ViewSys Help Screen Table C-1. Numbered Function Keys Function Key Function Function Key Function F14 or ALT-F4 TLEs SF14 CPU13 F15 or ALT-F5 BPTs SF15 CPU14 F16 or ALT-F6 EXIT SF16 CPU15 Table C-2. Unnumbered Function Keys Function Key Function ROLL UP Display all measured processors Shift ROLL UP Display HELP information ROLL DOWN Display MAXIMUM use statistics Shift ROLL DOWN Display CURRENT use statistics NEXT PAGE Toggle rotation Shift NEXT PAGE Toggle tiers PREV.
D ViewSys Definition Language (VDL) ViewSys provides the ViewSys Definition Language (VDL), which is used to define the maximum values for system metrics. ViewSys uses maximum values to determine the graph maximum for all displays of rate and length values; for example, the disk I/O rate or the CPU queue length. This approach reduces the likelihood that new software product (SPR) versions of ViewSys will be needed whenever a new NonStop server becomes available.
DEFINE Statement ViewSys Definition Language (VDL) The ViewSysC file contains a DEFINE statement for each possible CPU type. DEFINES must appear at the beginning of the file preceding any statements that reference DEFINES. DEFINE Statement The DEFINE statement allows the definition of easily remembered processor symbolic names to be substituted for the TYPE and SUBTYPE values of the processor in a MAXIMUM statement.
MAXIMUM Statement ViewSys Definition Language (VDL) The syntax of the Maximum statement is: MAX [ CPUTYPE type:subtype ] metric value [,] ... [ CPU cpu-num ] Where: cpunum metric ::= ::= ::= value number ::= ::= * * | 0, 1, 2...15 Specifies all CPUs. A monitored performance metric such as: busy, diskio, pagefault, CONFIG | number DEFAULT Any positive number. CPUTYPE Specifies the type and subtype of a processor. type Specifies the processor type in the range 0 through 9.
MAXIMUM Statement ViewSys Definition Language (VDL) Metric Name Default Value Description (page 2 of 2) CPUBUSY 100 Percent CPU busy DISPATCH 20000 Average number of process dispatches per second DISKIO 1200 Disk I/O rate for this CPU per second MEMLOCKED CONFIG Number of physical memory pages currently locked MEMQUEUE 60 Average memory manager queue length MEMPRESSURE 7 Memory pressure rate PAGEFAULT 250 Page fault rate PCBLOW 255 The number of PCBs allocated in low PIN process
MAXIMUM Statement ViewSys Definition Language (VDL) VDL Examples DEFINE K10000 = CPUTYPE 7:2 #; DEFINE DEFAULTS = CPUTYPE *.*#; MAX K10000 CACHEHIT 2000, CPUQUEUE 25, DISKIO 300, DISPATCHES 1000, SENDBUSY 175, MEMQUEUE 20, SENDBUSY 165, PAGEFAULTS 100; This example instructs ViewSys to use the maximum metric values from the MAXIMUM statement K1000 for a CPU TYPE 7, SUBTYPE 2 configuration.
MAXIMUM Statement ViewSys Definition Language (VDL) .
Index B D BACKUPCPU command 3-2 BPT (Breakpoints) screen 5-8 DELAY command 3-3 DISCIO screen 5-5 DISPATCH screen 5-4 Display modes 2-2 type, setting 3-3 DISPLAY command 3-3 C CACHEHITS screen 5-5 Commands BACKUPCPU 3-2 CPUSETS 3-2 DELAY 3-3 DISPLAY 3-3 EXITAFTER 3-5 EXITKEY 3-5 FUNCTIONKEYS 3-5 HELP 3-6 MULTITYPE 3-6 NUMCPUS 3-6 RESERVELCBS 3-7 ROTATECPUS 3-7 ROTATION 3-8 startup 3-1 SWITCHBACK 3-9 syntax summary A-1 TIERS 3-10 UNSTOPPABLE 3-10 UPCPUS 3-11 USERCPUS 3-11 CPU monitoring 3-6, 3-11 monitori
N Index T Measurement entities B-1 MEMQUEUE screen 5-4 Modes 1-2, 2-2 MULTITYPE command 3-6 TIERS command 3-10 Tiers mode 2-2 TLE (time list elements) screen 5-7 N U NonStop mode 2-3 Numbered function keys 4-1 NUMCPUS command 3-6 UNSTOPPABLE command 3-10 UPCPUS command 3-11 USERCPUS command 3-11 P PAGEFAULT screen 5-3 PCB (process control block) screen 5-5 PEEK 2-2 Processors 2-1 R RESERVELCBS command 3-7 ROTATECPUS command 3-7 Rotatecpus mode 2-2 ROTATION command 3-8 Rotation mode 2-2 Run command
V Index ViewSys (continued) running 3-1 starting 1-1 stopping 3-10 syntax summary A-1 ViewSys User’s Guide—526358-002 Index -3
V Index ViewSys User’s Guide—526358-002 Index -4
