Introduction to NonStop Operations Management

Performance Management
Introduction to NonStop Operations Management–125507
8-4
Application Sizing
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The performance-analysis-and-tuning staff should understand how the system and
applications are structured and know how to:
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Collect and analyze statistics
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Identify peak periods of resource usage
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Identify and correct current performance problems
Tandem provides training in performance analysis and tuning. Currently, Software
Education offers a course called Performance Analysis and Tuning.
Application Sizing
Application sizing is the process of forecasting the effects of new applications on your
system through the use of models to determine how well new applications will handle
their intended workloads. Application sizing consists of three steps:
1. Establishing the requirements and strategy
2. Developing a model of existing usage and using it to forecast future requirements
3. Reporting results to the capacity-planning staff
Step 1—Establishing the Requirements and Strategy
The application-sizing requirements and strategy are based on the service-level
agreements. Service-level agreements specify the level of service that your operations
group should provide and are usually developed through negotiations between your
operations organization and the organization’s users. The application-sizing staff uses
the service agreements to develop strategic performance requirements and to analyze the
effects of a new application on the system.
Step 2—Forecasting
Forecasting consists of the following tasks:
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Identifying business entities, transactions, and transaction volumes, and translating
this information into computer transactions and volumes.
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Developing transaction and database profiles. For example, for each transaction,
how many input and output functions are performed? What is the screen size in
bytes?
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Determining the resource demand for each transaction. For example, what is the cost
per transaction in processing time?
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Given the information gathered above, determining the type of hardware
configuration and the amount of disk space needed.
Note. For more information about the operations staff and the delegation of duties, refer to
Section 2, “The Operations Staff.”