Re: VIOS and Perf Monitoring

[Jim Oberholtzer <midrangel@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Since VIOS is a subset of AIX there are not any really good tools to 
monitor I/O there.  lvmstat may be the best way to figure that out.  I 
have not checked to see if that command is in VIOS, but it may be, it's 
a staple in AIX.  I don't know if MPG's power tools can monitor VIOS, I 
know they have one that monitors most Unix variants.

Jim Oberholtzer
Chief Technical Architect
Agile Technology Architects


On 8/25/2011 9:07 AM, Kirk Goins wrote:
> Not that all this isn't good discussion<grin>, but my original question was
> basically how to measure disk performance at the VIOS level?  If I didn't
> use VIOS and hosted all my IBM i on top a IBM i partition I could use the
> standard Performance Tools and things like WRKDSKSTS etc.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 5:06 AM, Jim Oberholtzer<midrangel@xxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
>
> > >  Rob,
> > >
> > >  You want to have a standard workload you can test with.  At V7 use the
> > >  wait accounting tooling built in to the OS.  A very good test is loading
> > >  PTFs from an image catalog.  On smaller systems ( 4 or<   drives) it is
> > >  often faster to load the CDs one by one than use the image catalog.  All
> > >  I/O.    I think it starts to even out at about 6 drives.
> > >
> > >  Jim Oberholtzer
> > >  Chief Technical Architect
> > >  Agile Technology Architects
> > >
> > >
> > >  On 8/25/2011 6:57 AM,rob@xxxxxxxxx  wrote:
> > > >  >  If I was to play around and unload/reload a lpar to test this, what would
> > > >  >  be effective measuring?
> > > >  >
> > > >  >
> > > >  >  Rob Berendt
> > > >  >  -- Group Dekko Dept 1600 Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive Garrett, IN 46738
> > > >  >  Ship to: Dock 108 6928N 400E Kendallville, IN 46755
> > > >  >  http://www.dekko.com  From: Kirk Goins<kirkgoins@xxxxxxxxx>  To:
> > > >  >  Midrange Systems Technical Discussion<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>  Date:
> > > >  >  08/24/2011 05:04 PM Subject: Re: VIOS and Perf Monitoring Sent by:
> > > >  >  midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx  According to multiple IBM and NON-IBM
> > > >  >  sources the answer is along these lines... The OS has no idea if these
> > > >  >  disks are real or virtual. The OS will only queue so many I/Os per
> > > >  >  disk arm available ( I think I got that right ). So if the OS only
> > > >  >  sees one 280GB disk it will not handle I/O as well vs having eight
> > > >  >  35GB disk arms. Now the actual number of real disks arms will affect
> > > >  >  how well this concept works. On Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 1:17 PM,
> > > >  >  <rob@xxxxxxxxx>  wrote:
> > > > > >  >>  >    I am still not getting why the OS needs to see multiple arms if they
> > >  are
> > > > > >  >>  >    all virtual.  Instead of one bigger virtual.  It's still physically
> > > >  >  spread
> > > > > >  >>  >    across the multiple arms defined either in VIOS or your hosting
> > > >  >  partition.
> > > > > >  >>  >      Is it some weird thing like "let's calculate your journal receiver
> > >  size
> > > > > >  >>  >    based on the number of arms you have"?
> > > > > >  >>  >
> > > > > >  >>  >
> > > > > >  >>  >    Rob Berendt
> > > > > >  >>  >    --
> > > > > >  >>  >    Group Dekko
> > > > > >  >>  >    Dept 1600
> > > > > >  >>  >    Mail to:  2505 Dekko Drive
> > > > > >  >>  >              Garrett, IN 46738
> > > > > >  >>  >    Ship to:  Dock 108
> > > > > >  >>  >              6928N 400E
> > > > > >  >>  >              Kendallville, IN 46755
> > > > > >  >>  >    http://www.dekko.com
> > > > > >  >>  >
> > > > > >  >>  >
> > > > > >  >>  >
> > > > > >  >>  >
> > > > > >  >>  >
> > > > > >  >>  >    From:   Kirk Goins<kirkgoins@xxxxxxxxx>
> > > > > >  >>  >    To:     Midrange-L<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > > > > >  >>  >    Date:   08/24/2011 04:12 PM
> > > > > >  >>  >    Subject:        VIOS and Perf Monitoring
> > > > > >  >>  >    Sentby:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > > > >  >>  >
> > > > > >  >>  >
> > > > > >  >>  >
> > > > > >  >>  >    I am getting ready to build a system with VIOS as the Hosting OS and
> > > >  >  will
> > > > > >  >>  >    be
> > > > > >  >>  >    running several IBM i partitions.  I know I should use several
> > >  smaller
> > > > > >  >>  >    virtual disks vs 1 big one per partition so the IBM i OS wil see
> > > >  >  multiple
> > > > > >  >>  >    disks/arms.  So lets say I have 4 IBM i Partitions all on top of
> > >  VIOS.
> > > > > >  >>  >    Each
> > > > > >  >>  >    partition will see 8 35GB drives and lets say there are 24 139GB ( or
> > > > > >  >>  >    whatever size VIOS wants to call them ) drives available to VIOS to
> > > > > >  >>  >    allocate
> > > > > >  >>  >    disk space with. So lots of room but could use more arms.  Now I
> > >  start a
> > > > > >  >>  >    really disk intensive process on 2 partitions. How can I tell how
> > >  busy
> > > >  >  the
> > > > > >  >>  >    drives really are at the VIOS level? On a partition with IBM i
> > >  hosting I
> > > > > >  >>  >    can
> > > > > >  >>  >    do WRKDSKSTS on the base IBM i. Just wondering how to approach disk
> > >  perf
> > > > > >  >>  >    issues inthe future.
> > > > > >  >>  >
> > > > > >  >>  >    Thanks
> > > > > >  >>  >
> > > > > >  >>  >    --
> > > > > >  >>  >    Kirk
> > > > > >  >>  >    --