Information Systems:Monitoring system performance on IBM i

Collection Services

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_61/rzahx/rzahxcollectdatacs.htm

Collects system management data in a management collection object (*MGTCOL) in library QMPGDATA.

Our configuration is -

                     Configure Perf Collection (CFGPFRCOL)                     
                                                                               
Type choices, press Enter.                                                     
                                                                               
Default interval . . . . . . . .   15.00         *SAME, .25, .50, 1.0, 5.0...  
Collection library . . . . . . .   QMPGDATA      Name, *SAME                   
Default collection profile . . .   *STANDARDP    *SAME, *MINIMUM, *STANDARD... 
Cycle time . . . . . . . . . . .   000000        Time, *SAME                   
Cycle interval . . . . . . . . .   24            *SAME, 1-24 hours             
Collection retention period:                                                   
  Number of units  . . . . . . .   00024         *SAME, 1-720, *PERM           
  Unit of time . . . . . . . . .   *HOURS        *HOURS, *DAYS                 
Create database files  . . . . .   *YES          *SAME, *YES, *NO              

Our performance is collected at 15 minute intervals. Collection lasts for 24 hours. The collection object is kept for 24 hours. The information is written to the data bases as it is collected.

                         Work with Objects Using PDM                  BART     
                                                                               
Library . . . . .   QMPGDATA         Position to . . . . . . . .               
                                     Position to type  . . . . .               
                                                                               
Type options, press Enter.                                                     
  2=Change       3=Copy        4=Delete      5=Display       7=Rename          
  8=Display description        9=Save       10=Restore      11=Move ...        
                                                                               
Opt  Object      Type        Size        Text                                  
     Q083000045  *MGTCOL      221458432                                        
     Q084000049  *MGTCOL      194449408                                        

Q083000045 was created yesterday just after midnight, and collected data for 24 hours. Q084000049 was created just after midnight today, and is still collecting.

‘83’ and ‘84’ are the numbers of the day in this year; 45 and 49 was the time the collector was created (ie 00:00:45).

Archive Performance Data

Every night at 10 minutes to midnight, the performance data is appended to our data files. We do this because collection services builds a new member every time it starts; which makes it difficult for us to use the data.

The program that runs is WEBPRDP/PMGETDATA, which appends data for the current day into files in WEBPRDD. (They are named PMCPU, PMDISK, PMDOMINO, and PMPOOL.)

View Performance Data in InfoNet

Go to InfoNet / I.T. / Performance Data.

There are two options. 'By time' shows performance up to last night (when PMGETDATA copies data into our files). 'Today' copies data from the collectors into temporary work files, and will show data up to 15 minutes ago.

Problem When Upgrading Operating System

If IBM makes a change to their performance monitoring data files, we have to change our work files to match. You might as well update all eight files; instead of trying to figure out which have changed and which haven't.

These files are in library WEBPRDD.

Files Appended Every Night at 11:50PM
PMCPU          SYSTEM CPU PERFORMANCE DATA         
PMDISK         DISK UNIT PERFORMANCE DATA          
PMDOMINO       DOMINO FOR ISERIES PERFORMANCE DATA 
PMPOOL         SYSTEM STORAGE POOL PERFORMANCE DATA

Temporary Files used to Look at Today's Performance
PMTEMPCPU      SYSTEM CPU PERFORMANCE DATA         
PMTEMPDSK      DISK UNIT PERFORMANCE DATA          
PMTEMPDOM      DOMINO FOR ISERIES PERFORMANCE DATA 
PMTEMPPOOL     SYSTEM STORAGE POOL PERFORMANCE DATA

These are the system files in QMPGDATA

QAPMSYSCPU     SYSTEM CPU PERFORMANCE DATA
QAPMDISK       DISK UNIT PERFORMANCE DATA 
QAPMDOMINO     DOMINO FOR ISERIES PERFORMANCE DATA 
QAPMPOOLB      SYSTEM STORAGE POOL PERFORMANCE DATA

On a command line, key in WRKOBJPDM WEBPRDD and press enter. Position to PM, position to type *FILE, and press enter.

Use option 7=Rename on the first four files, and, for example, add 'BU' to the end of each. (If the 'BU' files still exist from the last upgrade, you can delete them now.) Delete the four files starting with PMTEMP.

Recreate these files by copying them from IBM's performance data library. (Cut and paste these onto a long command line. To get this, within PDM press F10.)

CPYF FROMFILE(QMPGDATA/QAPMSYSCPU) TOFILE(WEBPRDD/PMCPU)      CRTFILE(*YES)
CPYF FROMFILE(QMPGDATA/QAPMDISK)   TOFILE(WEBPRDD/PMDISK)     CRTFILE(*YES)
CPYF FROMFILE(QMPGDATA/QAPMDOMINO) TOFILE(WEBPRDD/PMDOMINO)   CRTFILE(*YES)
CPYF FROMFILE(QMPGDATA/QAPMPOOLB)  TOFILE(WEBPRDD/PMPOOL)     CRTFILE(*YES)
CPYF FROMFILE(QMPGDATA/QAPMSYSCPU) TOFILE(WEBPRDD/PMTEMPCPU)  CRTFILE(*YES)
CPYF FROMFILE(QMPGDATA/QAPMDISK)   TOFILE(WEBPRDD/PMTEMPDSK)  CRTFILE(*YES)
CPYF FROMFILE(QMPGDATA/QAPMDOMINO) TOFILE(WEBPRDD/PMTEMPDOM)  CRTFILE(*YES)
CPYF FROMFILE(QMPGDATA/QAPMPOOLB)  TOFILE(WEBPRDD/PMTEMPPOOL) CRTFILE(*YES)

These new files will have the same authority as the original system files; which is *PUBLIC *EXCLUDE. That will have to be changed.

On a command line, key in WRKOBJ WEBPRDD/PM* and press enter. Use option 2=Edit Authority on the eight files just created, and change user *PUBLIC to have object authority of *ALL. (Note that you have to press enter twice to update.)

Then you have to copy the historical data into these new files. The temporary file are created from scratch every time they are used, so they don't need this. (Cut and paste these onto a long command line.)

CPYF FROMFILE(WEBPRDD/PMCPUBU)    TOFILE(WEBPRDD/PMCPU)    MBROPT(*REPLACE) FMTOPT(*MAP *DROP)
CPYF FROMFILE(WEBPRDD/PMDISKBU)   TOFILE(WEBPRDD/PMDISK)   MBROPT(*REPLACE) FMTOPT(*MAP *DROP)
CPYF FROMFILE(WEBPRDD/PMDOMINOBU) TOFILE(WEBPRDD/PMDOMINO) MBROPT(*REPLACE) FMTOPT(*MAP *DROP)
CPYF FROMFILE(WEBPRDD/PMPOOLBU)   TOFILE(WEBPRDD/PMPOOL)   MBROPT(*REPLACE) FMTOPT(*MAP *DROP)