Advanced Tools for AIX Performance Analysis

Develop the skills to use kernel traces, trace based utilities, and svmon to measure and analyze CPU, memory, and I/O performance issues on IBM systems running AIX. Reinforce each lecture during extensive hands-on lab exercises and get practical experience applicable to their performance management requirements.

• Use the trace facility to collect data and create a trace report
• Use the kernel trace facilities to analyze CPU performance issues
• Describe causes and impacts of high context switching rates
• Identify what causes a thread to be blocked and later woken up
• Explain the relationship between the output of svmon -G, svmon -P, and svmon -S
• Calculate the amount of memory in use on the system
• Explain the relationship between svmon, vmstat, and ipcs output
• Categorize the memory in use on the system by segment type
• Identify which processes are using the most memory or paging space
• Describe the characteristics of asynchronous I/O, synchronous I/O, direct I/O, and concurrent I/O
• Identify if the expected type of I/O is being executed
• Tune asynchronous I/O

You are expected to have extensive AIX skills. These skills can be obtained by attending the following courses:

• AIX Power Systems for AIX IV: Performance Management (AN510) or have the equivalent extensive AIX skills

The audience for this training includes AIX technical support personnel, performance benchmark personnel, and AIX system administrators.