Monitoring on z/VM

6.10 z/VM guest

z/VM® monitoring tools must read performance data. For monitoring Linux® instances, this data is APPLDATA monitor records.

Linux instances must write these records for the tool to read, as shown in Figure 1.

This graphic shows agents on multiple Linux instances within a z/VM system providing APPLDATA records to a performance monitoring tool. — Figure 1. Linux instances write APPLDATA records for performance monitoring tools

Both user space applications and the Linux kernel can write performance data to APPLDATA records. Applications use the monwriter device driver to write APPLDATA records. The Linux kernel can be configured to collect system level data such as memory, CPU usage, and network-related data, and write it to data records.

For file system size data, there is a command, mon_fsstatd. This user space tool uses the monwriter device driver to write file system size information as defined records.

For process data, there is a command, mon_procd. This user space tool uses the monwriter device driver to write system information as defined records.

In summary, Linux on z/VM supports writing and collecting performance data as follows:

The Linux kernel can write z/VM monitor data for Linux instances, see Writing kernel APPLDATA records.
Linux applications that are running on z/VM guests can write z/VM monitor data, see Writing z/VM monitor records.
You can collect monitor file system size information, see mon_fsstatd – Monitor z/VM guest file system size.
You can collect system information about up to 100 concurrently running processes, see mon_procd – Monitor Linux on z/VM.