Monitoring database performance

One of the major tasks involved in administering the Content Manager OnDemand database is to monitor the database performance and tune the system to keep optimization information up-to-date.

This section briefly describes the tools that are available to do these tasks in DB2®. For more detailed information, see the DB2 Administration Guide. If you are using some other database management product, please see your product information for help with doing these tasks.

Administration tools

DB2 provides GUI tools to help you administer the database from one central location called the "Control Center". From the Control Center, you get a clear overview of all the objects that make up the Content Manager OnDemand database. The Command Center® enables you to issue DB2 database commands, SQL statements, and operating system commands. The Alert Center notifies you when thresholds that you have set have been exceeded. The Journal allows you to view the status of jobs and to view the messages log. The Knowledge Center gives you quick access to the information in the DB2 product manuals and sample programs and provides access to other sources of DB2 information on the Web.

Start of change For some functions that you can perform with the GUI tools, you are given the option of using a SmartGuide. SmartGuides are invoked from the pop-up menus in the Control Center. They provide a greater level of help by prompting you step-by-step on how to enter the information necessary for the task that you are doing and even making calculations and recommendations based on information that you supply. SmartGuides are very useful if you are a new database administrator or someone who only administers a database occasionally. See the online help for Control Center for a list of available SmartGuides and how to use them. End of change

From Control Center, you can administer database objects for the DB2 family of products for UNIX, and Windows. You can also administer DB2 for z/OS® subsystems from the Control Center if an Administration Server (DAS) is running on the DB2 for z/OS system and if a DB2 Connect™ product is available to the client on which the Control Center is running. See your DB2 information for details.

You can administer the following database objects from the Control Center:
  • Systems
  • Instances
  • Databases
  • Tables
  • Indexes
  • Users and Groups
You can do the following tasks from the Control Center:
  • Manage database objects. For example, you can create, alter, and drop table spaces; you can also manage users.
  • Manage data. For example, you can import, export, and reorganize data and gather statistics.
  • Schedule jobs.
  • Perform preventative maintenance by backing up the database.
  • Monitor performance and perform troubleshooting.
  • Configure and tune instances and databases.

Monitoring database performance

The Performance Monitor provides information about the state of DB2 and the data that it controls. It is a graphical utility that you can customize for your database environment. You can define thresholds or zones that trigger warnings or alarms when the values being collected by the Performance Monitor are not within acceptable ranges. When a threshold is reached, you can specify that you want any or all of the following actions to occur:
  • You are notified through the Alert Center
  • You receive an audible alarm
  • A program is run
  • A message is displayed
  • No notification is given

You can monitor DB2 objects such as instances, databases, tables, table spaces, and connections by selecting the object in the Control Center and clicking mouse button two. From there, you can choose to start monitoring activity.

When an object is being monitored, its color represents the severity of a problem as defined by the thresholds that you have defined. Green signifies that the monitor is running and everything is fine. Yellow is a warning and signifies that the monitor is reaching the thresholds that you have set. Red indicates an alarm and that the monitor has reached the threshold. You can use the predefined monitors that are included with DB2 or you can create your own monitors. See the DB2 Administration Guide for a list of the predefined monitors. See the online help for examples of how to use the predefined monitors and how to create your own monitors.

You can use the Performance Monitor when you need to monitor an existing problem or when you want to observe the performance of your system. It lets you take a snapshot of database activity and performance data at a point in time. These snapshots are used for comparison over time. The information can help you to identify and analyze potential problems, or identify exception conditions which are based on thresholds that you set. You should use the Performance Monitor if you need to know the performance of the database manager and the Content Manager OnDemand database at a single point in time and look at trends over time. You can also use it to get a visual overview of what elements are in a state of alarm. This helps you to identify which parameters may need tuning. You can then look closely at the parameters that have been set for that element and change them to improve performance.

You can use the Performance Monitor to see if bottlenecks are hardware related. For example, you may want to monitor database connection activity or table space, buffer pool, and I/O activity. To see if bottlenecks are hardware related, you would analyze the information collected by the Performance Monitor if:
  • Too many database tasks are scheduled during peak time
  • There is a high number of user connections
  • Database partitioning (hardware load balancing) is not well optimized
  • The server is being used for more than just a database server