nmon for AIX & Linux Performance Monitoring
nmon becomes part of AIX - 21st November 2008
The nmon function now comes with AIX 5.3 TL09, AIX 6.1 TL02 and Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) 2.1 and installed by default.
- This alone is a good reason to update your AIX and VIOS today
The nmon functionality is actually integrated within the topas command (as both tools use the same data source), which can be started in topas mode or nmon mode (just type "nmon"). You can flip between the two modes online by typing "~". You can also start nmon to capture to a file with the regular nmon options (nmon -f ... etc.). This gives you the best of both worlds - one tool to watch the CEC/whole machine view of all your logical partitions (topas -C) and the same tool to drill down into the details of your AIX system in nmon style.
This new AIX version is called topas_nmon and is fully supported by AIX Support so use your regular support channel. It contains the same feature set as "classic" nmon version 12e. The classic version is still supported via the Performance Tool forum and should be used for all older AIX releases but is now "functionally stabilized" i.e. new features will go in to the topas_nmon version. New features planned for topas_nmon come from two sources 1) new advanced features in the next AIX releases and new data that is only available on those new AIX releases, so these are to be added to the topas_nmon version within AIX. Note: as a side effect, there will be no delay in topas_nmon catching up with AIX features.
In topas mode with this release, there are new performance statistics and specific VIOS data for Client LPAR virtual disks and virtual Ethernet. Check the manual pages for details.
nmon for Linux is unaffected by this - expects an update and versions for newer Linux releases soon.
Briefly - What is nmon?
- nmon is short for Nigel's Monitor.
- This free tool gives you a huge amount of important performance information in one go.
It can output the data in a number of ways
- On screen (console, telnet, VNC, putty or X Windows) using curses for low CPU impact which is updated once every two seconds. You hit single characters on you keyboard to enable/disable the various sorts of data.
- Save the data to a comma separated file for analysis and longer term data capture.
- Use this together with nmon Analyser Excel 2000 spreadsheet, which loads the nmon output file and automatically creates dozens of graphs ready for you to study or write performance reports.
- Filter this data, add it to a rrd database (using an excellent freely available utility called rrdtool). This graphs the data to .gif or .png files plus generates the webpage .html file and you can then put the graphs directly on a website automatically on AIX with no need of a Windows based machine.
- Directly put the data into a rrd database for your own analysis
- nmon is a single binary for each operating system, so installing is as very easy as getting the file in your $PATH.
- Why use five or six tools when one free tool can give you everything you need!!
Warnings, Notices and License
- No warranty is given or implied.
- Feel free to use these nmon files any way you like but it is at your own risk.
- Apart from writing to the output file, nmon does not update or change anything on your machine.
What sort of Performance Data?
- CPU utilization
- Memory use
- Kernel statistics and run queue
- Disks I/O rates, transfers, and read/write ratios
- File systems size and free space
- Disk adapters
- Network I/O rates, transfers, and read/write ratios
- Paging space and paging rates
- Machine details, CPU and OS specification
- Top processors
- User defined disk groups
- Asynchronous I/O - AIX only
- Workload Manager - AIX only
- ESS and other disk subsystem - AIX only
- Dynamic LPAR changes - AIX and Linux (on POWER hardware)
Sample Screen shots and Output
Updates
- The nmon tool is updated roughly every six months, or when new operating system releases are available.
- To place your name on the e-mail list to be informed of updates, contact Nigel Griffiths.
nmon Documentation and Information
Support
- Updating to the latest version of nmon fixes ~70% of reported nmon problems!
- nmon Support - nmon is the personal project of the developer (Nigel Griffiths), who supports it directly along with the 1000's nmon users via the Manual, FAQ and Forum - see the below "Documentation and Information" section below for the links.
- nmon is not for problem determination, it assumes your system is working correctly and does not include diagnostics information. So do not raise an IBM AIX Support call with nmon data. AIX Support covers tools from AIX Development - this does not include nmon or nmon data.
- "AIX Support for a performance issue, what should you do? - If nmon (or any other tool) suggests you have a performance issue and you need AIX Support, do the following:
- Have your Support Customer Number ready.
- Collect the configuration data with the snap command, run: snap -a and find the output in /tmp/ibmsupt.
- Collect the important performance data with the perfPMR tools. Download the latest perfPMR version from the IBM Support Website
- this includes an excellent README file. Briefly, unpack perfPMR and then during the problem run: ./perfpmr.sh 600
- Get ready to FTP this data to the AIX Support FTP site.
- Prepare a clear description of the symptoms, all changes you have made to the system and the impact this is having.
- Now call AIX Support and let them know you have snap and perfPMR data ready to send them.
- Advanced users collect snap and perfPMR regularly (say monthly and before system changes or upgrades), so before & after comparisons can be made.
Sample Online Output
nmon Download
| AIX |
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| OS |
Hardware |
OS Version |
Current AIX Release 12e |
Next release |
| AIX |
POWER |
nmon for 5.1, AIX 5.2, AIX 5.3, AIX 6 |
gzip=newer_nmon4aix12e.tar.gz compress=nmon4aix12e.tar.Z zip=nmon4aix12e.zip
Improved nmon start Ksh script for AIX 5.3 TL8 nmon
Now includes AIX 5.1, 5.2, 5.3 & 6.1
Click here for Release Test Instructions - good summary.
Click here for nmon12 Line Items - all the details.
WLM fixed, better SPLPAR, MEMPAGE fixed, WPAR fixed, Multiple CPU pools added, Network online more digits + network & disk "=" KB<-->MB - fcstat and real_process/real_user bug fixes and add LPAR/WPAR identification hints.
Includes stats for: WPAR, NFSv4, Donating, Folding, Disk Service Times, Multiple Page Sizes, Mobility support, VIOS SEA, Fibre Channel and more.
Updated March 30th 2008 |
AIX 5.3 TL09+ and AIX 6.1 TL02 include nmon function within topas and its installed by default.
Special AIX 6.1 TL02 only version, which allows WPAR stats nmon12f_aix612.gz |
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POWER |
nmon for AIX 4.1.5, 4.2.0 and 4.3.3 |
nmon9f_for_aix4.tar.Z |
No more updates for AIX 4 |
| AIX |
POWER |
nmon for AIX 4.3.2 only |
nmon9f_aix432 |
No more updates for AIX 4 |
| Linux |
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| OS |
Hardware |
OS Version |
Old Linux Release 11f
(only use this if you are running these out of data Linux releases) |
Current Release 12a |
| Linux |
POWER |
Name = nmon_power_<distro> |
nmon_power_sles9.zip
nmon_power_sles10.zip
nmon_power_rhel4.zip (works on rhel5 too)
Updated June 25th, 2007
List of fixes:nmon4linux_v11f.txt
If you cant find a suitable version above try this older 2006 level nmon4linux_power_11d.zip |
nmon_power_12a.zip Feb 2009
Contains versions for:
Red Hat RHEL 4.4 and RHEL 5.2
Novell/SUSE SLES 9.3 and SLES 10.2
and SLES 11 pre-GA
Please report issues at
Performance Tools Forum |
| Linux |
x86 |
Name = nmon_x86_<distro> |
nmon_x86_11f.zip RHEL2, RHEL3, RHEL4, SLES9, SLES10, Knoppix5, Debian31, Fedora5
I suspect we only need four versions
1) RHEL2 work around duff kernel
2) 2.4 kernel Debain 31/RHEL3
3) 2.6 kernel and
4) 2.6 kernel with improved /proc/stat
Updated June 26th, 2007 List of fixes:nmon4linux_v11f.txt
Beta for RHEL4 nmon_with_external_monitors.zip
If you cant find a suitable version above try this older 2006 level nmon4linux_x86_11d.zip |
nmon_x86_12a.zip Feb 2009
Contains versions for:
Fedora 10 and OpenSUSE 10
Red Hat RHEL 4.5 and RHEL 5.2
Novell/SUSE SLES 9 and SLES 10
Ubuntu 8.10
Please report issues at
Performance Tools Forum |
| Linux |
x86_64 |
Name = nmon_x86_64_<distro> |
nmon_x86_64_rhel4.zip should be OK for SLES too
Updated June 25th, 2007 List of fixes:nmon4linux_v11f.txt
If you cant find a suitable version above try this older Jan 2007 level nmon4linux_x86_64_b.zip |
nmon_x86_64_12a.zip March 2009
Contains:
Ubuntu 8.10
openSUSE 11
Fedora 10
Please report issues at
Performance Tools Forum |
| Linux |
Mainframe |
Name = nmon_mainframe_<distro> |
nmon_mainframe_rhel4.zip
Reported OK for SLES too 32 and 64bit version.
Updated July 19th, 2007. List of fixes:nmon4linux_v11f.txt |
nmon_mainframe_12a_v2.zip March 2009
Contains:
Red Hat RHEL 5.2 and now RHEL 5.3
Novell/SUSE SLES 10 and now SLES 11
Please report issues at
Performance Tools Forum |
Other nmon tools
nmon on Linux Startup Script
To select the right nmon version Linux startup
nmonmerge
To join two nmon output files into one, you need the nmonmerge filter.
| Download |
Comments |
| nmonmerge.tar.gz |
Binaries nmon merge for AIX and the source code to allow compiling on other platforms and bug fixing. |
nmon2rrd
To convert nmon output files to rrdtool format, you need the nmon2rrd filter.
| Download |
Date |
Comments |
| nmon2rrdv12g.tar |
March 9th 2009 |
User supplied fixes for nmon12e output - with thanks |
| nmon2rrdv12f.tar.gz |
March 6th 2007 |
Fixes an off by one error in the rrd database start time. |
| nmon2rrdv12e.tar.gz |
March 3rd 2007 |
Small bug fixes for "%%" in printf's and more accurate time for the rrd databases - Thanks to Ross Druker for these. |
| nmon2rrdv12d.tar.gz |
Jan 4th 2007 |
Small bug fixes for LPAR, JFS, vpaths.
Now includes new graphs for optional data: NFS, WLM, Large Pages, Paging Space
Still to do: VG stats - does anybody really use/capture these?
Next phase -> add graphs for stats captures but not graphed yet - what do you want?
If you have files that fail with nmon2rrd reduce them to 40 captures & attach them to the Performance Tools Forum |
| nmon2rrdv11.tar.gz |
Dec 27th 2006 |
Improved version 11 and passes my current testset files. |
| nmon2rrdv10.5.tar.gz |
Feb 2006 |
Fixes thanks to Mr Terry Murray |
| nmon2rrdv10.6.tar.gz |
March 2006 |
remove IOADAPT graphs if they are not found/supported like on AIX 5.1 and nmon version 11 memuse extra maxclient and numclient percentages |
| test.nmon.gz |
Old |
Test file for nmon2rrd. If you get no graphs or problems use this to test the scripts, nmon2rrd, rrdtool etc.
Most failures are 1) not capturing enough data snapshots and 2) not checking the log files for errors |
| nmon2rrdv10.0.tar.gz |
Old |
Older version that may help people collecting data from AIX 4 |
Example nmon2rrd usage
Mr Bruce Spencer On the Performance Tools Forum at this link created a couple of scripts that illustrate how the nmon2rrd tool could be automated to convert nmon data files into web pages. All you need to do is to get the nmon file(s) into a directory on a web server, and the script automates everything from there. Thanks Bruce
- Part 1 - shows how to automate the collection, conversion, organization and display of daily nmon data from multiple servers into web pages using the nmon2rrd tool.
- Part 2 - extends Part 1 to include long term trend charts.
- Part 3 - create webpages using nmon2web
External data gatherer for collecting Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA) Stats.
This is an external data gatherer shell script to collect the Shared Ethernet Adapter states that are normally missing from nmon or any other tool. The stats can only be found via entstat AIX command
Setup is:
- export TIMESTAMP=0
- export NMON_SNAP=sea.ksh
- and have this script in the path - sea.ksh
- edit the sea.ksh file to collect data about your adapter - the script by default captures data about en3. Use the VIO Server command: lsdev -virtual to find your SEA name.
- newer script that allows multiple SEA adapters to be monitored - you need to have multiple copies of the file called from a master one and each have a different SEA number at the top of the script - sea2.ksh
Merge the resulting sea.log with the nmon output file with: cat nmonfile.nmon sea.log >merged.nmon
Then process with the nmon analyser as normal - you will find a SEA section in the spreadsheet.
In testing read and write is nearly identical because I FTPed through the SEA and it reads and writes the data from virtual to physical. It peaked at 12 MB/second = 100 Mbit Ethernet. nmon was doing snapshots once a second to make life easier. One issue has not been solved is the stats are per period rather than per second but it is a good start - this is because the script does not know the number of seconds between invocations.
Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA) Stats monitoring on the command line
Here is a script (based on sea.ksh) that just outputs to the screen the details once a second, just as the sea.ksh script above will record to a file.
If en8 is yout SEA the just type: seastat en8
Here is the script seastat
Script to find the peak values in many nmon files
Picture the scene, you have hundreds of captured nmon files and some where in them all there is the peak that you want to investigate further - but which file is it in?. Use this script to find the maximum of the statistic you are interested in so you don't have to analyze every single file looking for the peaks. Kenneth Lobb at IBM had this problem, wrote this script to make life simpler and then agreed to share it.
Here is the Perl script find_max_nmon_val.pl
nmon Introductory Workshop - Free and Online
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Get the details about nmon from the developer himself. This is the details behind nmon, why it was developed, the principles, some of the ways to use it and the frequently asked questions. This presentation is 64 slides with an Audio commentary by the developer for each slide.
This presentation has been presented at conferences which are internal and external - roughly 90 minutes.
Take this Link - nmon Introduction Workshop |
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