Introduction to NonStop Operations Management

Performance Management
Introduction to NonStop Operations Management–125507
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Analysis of Problem and Recommendations
Analysis of Problem and Recommendations
Because of its growing environment, SJ County Medical is often faced with system
performance problems that require action by the performance-analysis-and-tuning (PAT)
staff. Over time, the PAT staff has developed a few techniques for accommodating
hardware growth, alleviating system performance problems, and minimizing down time.
These include:
•
Software configuration practices for maintaining system availability when adding
new hardware (such as adding disks, controllers, and processors)
•
Techniques for improving application availability
Software Considerations When Adding New Hardware
In anticipation of future hardware growth, the PAT staff implemented the following
software configuration practices:
•
System-generation practices. Because G-series installation dictates system
generation for 16 processors (regardless of the number initially installed), the PAT
staff was not required to edit its system’s SYSGEN CONFTEXT file to add
nonexistent processors and disks before running the DSM/SCM program.
To install new hardware, the PAT staff needs only to install a new processor board; it
does not have to bring down the system.
•
NonStop Transaction Manager/MP (TM/MP) practices. Adding extra disks can
require that the NonStop TM/MP product be stopped. To avoid initializing the
NonStop TM/MP product with the new configuration, the PAT staff configured the
audit trail for USAGE,* which includes all volumes. The subsequent START TMF
command automatically includes all available volumes. When the USAGE attribute
of the audit trail does not include all volumes but lists the volumes separately by
name, the NonStop TM/MP product must be initialized with a new configuration.
Techniques for Improving Application Availability
The PAT staff developed the following techniques for improving application availability:
•
Moving files. To improve application performance, the PAT staff moves files to a
less utilized disk to reduce queueing to a specific disk.
To move disks and their associated files to a new processor while an application is
running, the PAT staff uses the NonStop SQL/MP database. With the NonStop
SQL/MP database, it is possible to add and drop partitions of a file while an
application is running.
•
Reorganizing and reloading files. Because records are added and deleted in key-
sequenced files, the PAT staff also reloads or reorganizes files to improve
performance, to reclaim disk space, to avoid chronic block splits or block collapses,
and to provide for adequate slack space. The PAT staff uses the FUP RELOAD
command to reorganize Enscribe and NonStop SQL/MP key-sequenced files online.