Introduction to NonStop Operations Management

Performance Management
Introduction to NonStop Operations Management–125507
8-2
Service-Level Agreements
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Capacity planning is the process of forecasting future capacity needs based on
performance trends and the growth in users, applications, and your company’s
business. Capacity planning helps you:
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Plan for growth in system workloads based on business growth. For example, if
capacity planners know that the company’s business is going to grow such that
your systems will have to handle 10 additional transactions per second, they can
determine how much additional capacity is required to handle the future
workload.
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Prepare budgets for the acquisition of additional equipment.
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Avoid crises related to overloaded systems.
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Performance analysis and tuning is the process of measuring system performance
and acting on the results of the measurements in order to improve system
performance and availability. Performance analysis and tuning help you determine
whether:
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The system is performing optimally.
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Service-level agreements are being met.
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Performance guidelines are being followed.
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Resources are allocated according to established priorities.
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System usage is occurring in a prudent, nonwasteful manner.
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Available resources can meet the performance goals desired.
Service-Level Agreements
Application sizing, capacity planning, and performance analysis and tuning are
performed to help an organization adhere to service-level agreements. The agreements:
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Determine the availability and reliability standards for systems, peripherals,
networks, and applications
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Establish processing requirements by specifying acceptable performance goals, such
as acceptable system response times, deadlines for batch jobs, and transaction
volumes
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Specify the acceptable level of service when the system is stressed, such as during
peak workloads and during partial equipment failures
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Determine priorities for resource allocation
For a more detailed description of service-level agreements and for guidelines on
creating service-level agreements, refer to Section 4, “Operations Documentation.”
Written agreements should be created and approved by users’ representatives, capacity
planners, and operations managers. Performance management helps you measure system
and application performance, optimize current performance, and determine when
additional capacity should be obtained in order to continue fulfilling the agreements.
Note. It is best to specify measurable requirements only. If you specify a requirement you
can’t measure, it will be difficult for you to determine if you are fulfilling the requirement.