Scenario: Running the IBM AIX Dynamic System Optimizer

This scenario provides a practical example of how and when you can use the AIX® Dynamic System Optimizer.

You are running a POWER7® processor-based system with the IBM® AIX 6.1 with Technology Level 8 operating system. You installed the AIX Dynamic System Optimizer package on the system because you recently changed the system. You want to ensure that the current system settings are optimized.

The ASO daemon is running, but it is in hibernate mode. You enable the ASO daemon by entering the following command on the AIX command line:

asoo -o aso_active=1

Now that the ASO daemon is running, you check the aso.log file to verify that the daemon is running. You see the following message:

Jun 21 02:05:41 p7machine aso:notice aso[3604612]: ASO enabled by tunable

If the setting for the asoo_active parameter is already set to 1 when you attempt to start ASO, no new message is logged.

After a few weeks, you are interested in seeing whether the AIX Dynamic System Optimizer discovered any workloads that benefitted from the optimization. You know that the log provides information about whether the optimizations were applied, so you look at the aso_process.log file to determine whether any changes occurred to the system.

You cannot quickly find an entry that contains any information that is related to workload1. You use a grep tool to find workload1 in the log file.

The ID for the workload is in braces before the workload name. You search for the ID that was related to workload1 throughout the log file and determine what actions were taken on that workload.

You realize that workload1 was identified as a possible candidate for optimization, and AIX Dynamic System Optimizer automatically started the optimization.