12.2 ESALPS overview

< Day Day Up >

In developing this redbook, we use ESALPS by Velocity Software to provide performance monitoring tools designed for z/VM and its Linux guests:

ESALPS can be used to monitor VM system performance and analyze bottlenecks. It can be used as a real-time performance monitor, and also for analysis of history and trend files of accumulated performance data.

As a real-time monitor, ESALPS provides displays of VM CPU, LPAR, channel, and I/O performance, as well as resource consumption, response times, and communication rates. When installed and configured for Linux monitoring, ESALPS can report Linux-specific performance data, and also Linux CPU utilization, Linux memory utilization, Linux network activity, and Linux filesystem usage.

ESALPS, the Linux Performance Suite, is a suite of products provided by Velocity Software. The products that make up the suite include:

ESAMAP	The VM Monitor Analysis Program, providing performance reports on all aspects of VM/ESA and z/VM performance.
ESAMON	The VM Real Time Monitor, providing real-time analysis of performance.
ESATCP	The network and Linux data collection program, providing data collection for NT, Unix, and Linux servers, as well as network data.
ESAWEB	A very fast, VM-based Web server.

In addition to these four products, ESALPS provides a Web-based interface to view performance data through a Web browser and many control facilities.

12.2.1 Monitoring requirements

Many requirements for data collection are met by ESALPS. Data is provided for:

Capacity planning

Long-term data in the form of a performance database (PDB) is needed as input to long-term capacity planning and trend analysis. Full historical data functions are provided with collection and many forms of data extraction tools.
Performance analysis

Trend data enables an analyst to detect performance changes in any of thousands of potential problem areas. The performance database allows analysts to determine which changes occurred in the system. Reporting on specific periods of time can be performed, enabling an in-depth performance analysis of performance problems.
Real-time performance

Beyond the traditional "entry level" real-time performance reporting of the top users and system utilization, real-time performance analysis is provided for all subsystems, user activity, and Linux (and many other platforms) servers. Network data is also provided real time.
Linux data

With the advent of virtual Linux server farms on z/VM, performance data is required.

12.2.2 Standard interfaces

ESALPS uses standard interfaces for all data collection. The advantage to using the standard interfaces provided is that when there are a multitude of releases and distributions available, the standard interfaces provide consistent data sources. Supported interfaces include:

z/VM. A "monitor interface" has been available since 1988. Since then, this interface has provided a consistent view of performance of VM systems.
Network performance. This is collected using simple network management protocol (SNMP), the standard for network management.
NETSNMP. An open source software package, it provides host data for Linux and other platforms.
VM applications. This data interface is used by applications to insert data into the monitor stream consistent with the standard monitor interface. ESATCP uses this interface to ensure consistent data collection that allows full integration of Linux and VM data.

12.2.3 Performance database

ESALPS provides both real-time data and historical data for in-depth analysis. The performance data is collected daily with a one-minute granularity based on the monitor interval. A longer term archive is collected, usually with a granularity of 15 minutes. This performance database (PDB) includes VM data, Linux data, and network data.

12.2.4 Real-time monitoring with ESAMON

ESAMON uses:

Historical reporting
Linux reporting
Network reporting

Velocity Software has been in business since 1988, supporting the VM environment. With a focus on VM, and now z/VM, Velocity Software added TCP/IP network analysis and then Linux, Microsoft® Windows NT®, Sun, and other platforms to the product data collection facilities.

< Day Day Up >