SUMMARY: Performance Analysis, GB interface

From: <Samier.Kesou_at_bfa-berlin.de>
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 12:05:14 +0200

Hello,

i didnt receive to many resposes. I think a performance analysis is always
too specific
on the server and the application which it runs that it can be discussed on
a forum
like this one.

Thanks to Joe Fletcher who pointed me to the tool "alt":


See man alt for details on setting the gigabit card. Essentially you need
# lan_config -ialt0 -a0
to disable autonegotiation. Substitute the name of your card accordingly.
Cheers
Joe

And thanks to Alan who made some remarks about wait io and performance
analysis:


     I'm not familiar with the data presented by collect, so I
     can't comment on whether a particular value of something
     is good or not. Internally, the system tracks five states
     of CPU time; user mode, user node with an elevated "nice",
     kernel mode, idle time and idle, but waiting on I/O. Inside
     the kernel these are counts of some small fractional time
     in mode since boot, but most tools present a percentage
     of the each time since a previous sample.

     In a perfect world there would be no waiting for I/O, but
     devices are rarely able to get and accept data as fast as
     modern CPUs can request it. In a perfect multi-processing
     world, other processes (not waiting on a particular I/O)
     would be able to use that idle. But, the world is rarely
     perfect. A small percentage of time spent waiting for an
     I/O to complete isn't uncommon.

     You could benchmark the devices being used to determine their
     maximum I/O capacity under real loads. Such loads have to
     be specially constructed to eliminate the usual sources of
     waiting. In general, having multiple I/Os to/from a device
     waiting for the device, is the way to maximize the data and
     request rates. For testing an individual device, not making
     have to wait on another device is good. So generally, multiple
     I/O requests out of or to memory, are how you maximize the
     performance of an individual subsystem.

     For a file system, sequential reading of a large file does a
     pretty good job of this with minimal need for custom tools,
     because the file systems generally support read-ahead. They
     have the next I/O waiting for the last one to complete. For
     well allocated files, they also support very long contiguous
     transfers that reduce the time spent generating an I/O and
     allow the subsystem to just move data.

     Getting multiple I/Os to tape, is harder, but check the manual
     page for the tapex command. I think it has a performance test
     built into it.

     Such performance tests of the components will give you an idea
     of what kind of performance you can actually expect out of a
     subsystem. Then, you can compare this to the actual to see
     how far away it is. I can't offer a clue what to expect, but
     for writing to DLT 7000 3-10 MB/sec is reasonable. The actual
     capacity depends on how well the data compresses. Better
     compression of the data supports a higher data rate.

     My understanding of how start-stop mode performs compared to
     streaming on the DLT 7000, is that running in start-stop mode
     compared to streaming will be pretty obvious. Data rates will
     be very poor if not streaming.


Thanks
Samier.

---------------------- Weitergeleitet von Samier Kesou/Extern/11/BfA-Berlin
on 19.09.2001 11:57 ---------------------------


Samier.Kesou_at_bfa-berlin.de on 17.09.2001 14:18:36

An: tru64-unix-managers_at_sws1.ctd.ornl.gov
Kopie: (Blindkopie: Samier Kesou/Extern/11/BfA-Berlin)
Thema: Performance Analysis, GB interface





Hello,

Im in the making of a performance analysis for a backup system. Im using
collect
in the version111.
The system is a Alpha 4100 with a Strogetek Libarary (6 DLT7000 drives on
three
buses) using DUV 40E PK 1.
The cpu goes sometimes into waitio (1-12 idle ticks). Otherwise the cpu
is in
total use.

Question:
Is 1-12 WIO acceptable or not (Could we gain performance if that does not
occure)
What does the process "kernel idle" mean.
How to check if the tape are in "streaming mode" while writing to them (at
least
the write
process seems to be steady)

How to configure a gigabit interface manually (not using autonegotiation)
on
a DUV 40E. lan_config doesnt have any gigabit options. Im not sure if the
consol
supports
gigabit options. The syslog messages says:
vmunix: alt0: Link up Autonegotiated ReceiveFlowControl
Isnt flow control disabled during full duplex?

Thanks
Samier.
Received on Wed Sep 19 2001 - 10:11:27 NZST

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