Course Title: OpenVMS System Performance Management

The .PDF files for this course should be used for a lecture-lab in a classroom with an instructor and lab equipment. Use Adobe Acrobat Reader V3 or V4 to read the .PDF files. 

This version replaces the March 1999 version (EY-X841E-L0.0001) of this course.

FORMAT
Lecture/Lab

LENGTH
5 days

PRODUCT OVERVIEW
This course presents OpenVMS performance under three subsystems: memory management, 
I/O, and CPU. 

COURSE ABSTRACT
This course features:

-Isolating performance bottlenecks to one of the three subsystems. 
-Effects of SYSGEN parameters on each of the subsystems, when to change these 
 parameters, and when other management modifications or the purchase of new hardware are 
 required.   
-Sufficiency (keeping the system running), as well as tuning considerations.
-The relative merits/drawbacks of using AUTOGEN. 

COURSE OUTLINE

1. GENERAL PERFORMANCE TOPICS
-Performance Issues
-Performance Bottlenecks
-OpenVMS Performance Tools
-LAYOUT OF VIRTUAL ADDRESS SPACE
-Layout of Virtual Address Space
-P0 Space
-P1 Space
-S0/S1/S2 Space
2. IMAGE ACTIVATION AND PAGING
-Page Faults
-Producing an Image File
-Image Activation and paging
3. Valid Pages and the Free and Modified Page Lists
-The Free List Fault Rate
-The Modified List Fault Rate
-Secondary Hard Faults
4. INTERPRETING PAGING METRICS
-Sample Display from $MONITOR Page
-Interpreting the $MONITOR Page Display
-Interpreting Paging Metrics
5. WORKING SETS AND AUTOMATIC WORKING SET ADJUSTMENT
-The Working Set List
-Working Set Size vs. Working Set List Size
-Parameters Affecting the Working Set List Size
-Working Set List Parameter Relationships
-Automatic Working Set Adjustment
-AWSA Mechanics
-Working Set Performance Considerations
-AWSA Performance Considerations
6. LOCALITY AND PAGING PERFORMANCE
-Locality
-Locality Issues
-Effects of Poor Locality
-Effect of Improving Locality
7. SHARED IMAGE COSTS AND BENEFITS
-Shared Image Costs and Benefits
-Shared and Other Install Benefits
-Image Activation and Paging
-Shared Image Benefits
-Resident Images
-Shared Address Data
8. THE MODIFIED PAGE LIST AND MODIFIED PAGE WRITING
-The Modified Page List
-Modified Page List Parameters and Metrics
-Modified Page List Performance Considerations
-MPL Performance and Analysis
9. THE SWAPPER AND MEMORY RECLAMATION
-The Swapper and Memory Reclamation
10. SYSTEM FAULTS
-System Faults
11. GENERAL I/O FLOW
-General I/O Flow
-Geometry of Disks
-Time-Based Components of a Disk Transfer
-Optimization of Disk Transfers
-Virtual I/O Cache
-RMS File Concepts
12. ANALYZING THE EFFECTS OF FRAGMENTATION
-Fragmentation
-Spindle Contention
13. CONTROLLER OPTIMIZATONS
-Controller Optimizations
-Locating Bottlenecks
-Other Optimizations through Layered Products
-Volume Shadowing
-Disk Striping
-RAID
14. FILES-11 ODS-2 CONCEPTS
-Files-11 Terminology
-Directory Concepts
-Files-11 Reserved Files
-File Open Operation
15. CONTIGUITY AND THE FILE SYSTEM
-Window Turns
-Split Transfers
16. FILE SYSTEM CACHES
-File System Caches
17. RMS STRUCTURES AND DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
-Structure for Record Organizations
-File Organizations
-Sequential and Relative File Structure
-Indexed File Organization
-Indexed File Structure Descriptions
-Structures Supporting Alternate Keys
-RMS Interfaces for Affecting File Structure
-Factors Affecting Bucket Splits
-Duplicate Keys for Data Records
-Compression
-Alignment Considerations
18. RMS UTILITIES
-File Definition Language
-Techniques for Creating Data Files Using and FDL File
-Creating a Data File from an FDL File
-Optimizing RMS Indexed Files
19. RMS I/O BUFFERING CONSIDERATIONS
-Buffers and Buckets
-Read Ahead
-Write Behind
-Deferred Write
-Setting Up Multiple Buffers
-Determining the Number of Local Buffers
20. MONITOR RMS
-MONITOR RMS
21. UNDERSTANDING CPU PERFORMANCE
-Understanding CPU Ratings
-CPU Performance and Symmetric Multiprocessing
22. UNDERSTANDING TIME SPENT IN MODES
-Kernel Mode
-Executive Mode
-Supervisor Mode
-User Mode
-Interrupt Stack/State Time
-MP Synchronization time
-Idle Time
-Compatibility mode Time
-Analyzing Time Spent in Modes
23. OPENVMS SCHEDULING AND PRIORITIES
-Quantum and CPU Time
-Priorities
-States of Concern
24. PIXSCAN AND DORMANTWAIT
-PIXSCAN
-DORMANTWAIT
25. LOCKING CONCEPTS
-Locking Concepts
-Other Characteristics of Locks
-Application Design and Locking Performance
-Interpreting the $MONITOR LOCK Display
26. DISTRIBUTED LOCKING CONCEPTS
-Distributed Locking Concepts
-The LOCKDIRWT SYSGEN Parameter
-Performance Issues with Distributed Locking
27. THE MSCP SERVER
-The MSCP Server
-Interpreting $MONITOR MSCP


TARGET AUDIENCE
OpenVMS system managers, applications programmers, and system programmers.

COURSE OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
-Interpret performance metrics supplied by:
	-The MONITOR utility
	-DCL commands including:
		SHOW SYSTEM
		SHOW STATUS
		SHOW MEMORY
		The INSTALL utility
-Identify bottlenecks in the following subsystems:
	-Memory Management
	-I/O
	-CPU
-Size working set parameters.
-Monitor page file space.
-Describe the advantages of balancing disk I/O.
-Improve the performance characteristics of indexed files using the CONVERT utility.
-Identify factors contributing to time spent executing in processor modes.
-Describe file locking design considerations to attain good performance.
-Monitor distributed lock traffic and impact its performance.
-Identify the impact of changing key system parameters.

PREREQUISITES
Before taking this course, students should be able to:
-Set up accounts.
-Use SYSGEN/SYSMAN to change a system parameter.
-Run AUTOGEN.
-Use the INSTALL utility.
-INITIALIZE and MOUNT a disk.

DELIVERY REQUIREMENTS FOR INSTRUCTOR-LED TRAINING

Instructor:

-Projection unit for use with laptop

Each student:

Hardware:
-Alpha system with CD reader
-64MB+ of memory
-Two disks (2GB+)
-Networked and/or clustered

Software:  
-OpenVMS V7.2 
-Documentation CD (QA-MT3AE-G87.2)
-C compiler

You should recompile and link the source files to ensure they run correctly.


