Collecting the output for the z/VM virtualization tests

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To analyze our performance test run results, we used specific steps to gather the output for our test runs.

WebSphere® Studio Workload Simulator

Before making any performance runs, several things were done to tune the systems. The steps we took were:
  1. Run the WebSphere tuning script
    1. Take the application server down
    2. Backup your WebSphere system by issuing the following command from the /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/default/bin/ directory: 
      backup.sh <backup name> -nostop
    3. FTP the trade_tune.jacl file to your WebSphere Application Server system
    4. Start your WebSphere Application Server
    5. Run the WebSphere tuning script by issuing the following shell script with the -f flag from the /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/default/bin # ./ directory: 
      wsadmin.sh -f /home/trade_tune.jacl server server1
      Note that your path will point to wherever you FTP'd the script. The script also needs the keyword "server" and the name of your application server.
  2. Run the Trade DB2® tuning script
    1. Backup your DB2 UDB system by issuing the following commands:
      1. db2 connect to tradedb
      2. db2 get db cfg for tradedb > <some file name>
      3. db2 terminate
    2. Run the Trade tune database script as db2inst1
Note: You only need to run the WebSphere and DB2 tuning scripts once (at the beginning) during your testing. Once run, any subsequent reboots will not change the values.
The following sequence of events was used for each measurement:
  1. Start DB2
  2. Start WebSphere
  3. Start the IBM® HTTP Server
  4. Run the WebSphere Studio Workload Simulator reset Trade DB script
  5. Run the WebSphere Studio Workload Simulator repopulate Trade DB script
  6. Run runstats on the DB2 UDB system. To do this, enter the following commands while under your DB2 userid:
    1. db2 connect to tradedb
    2. db2 reorgchk update statistics
    3. db2 terminate
    4. db2stop force
    5. db2start
  7. Reboot the DB2 UDB, WebSphere Application Server, and IBM HTTP Server Linux® guests
  8. Start DB2 UDB
  9. Start WebSphere
  10. Start IBM HTTP Server
  11. Start the VM performance monitor
  12. Run the WebSphere Studio Workload Simulator script

    Have it run for 20 minutes. The first five minutes will be used as a "warmup" period.

  13. Issue the following command at the beginning and end of each run: 
    run netstat -s
  14. Stop the VM performance monitor after 20 minutes
  15. Stop the measurement collections
  16. Stop all servers, DB2, WebSphere, and IBM HTTP Server
  17. Gather measurement data and WebSphere Studio Workload Simulator results

Below is a sample of the output produced by WebSphere Studio Workload Simulator. The key items that were used for throughput are Page element throughput, Transactions throughput, and average Page Element response time.

Cumulative statistics are printed every 5 minutes and at the end of the WebSphere Studio Workload Simulator execution time interval, which was set to 1200 seconds for each of our measurements. 
=========================Cumulative Statistics==========================
IWL0038I Run time = 00:15:02
IWL0007I Clients completed = 0/30
IWL0059I Page elements = 629404
IWL0060I Page element throughput = 697.325 /s
IWL0059I Transactions = 521099
IWL0060I Transaction throughput = 577.332 /s
IWL0059I Network I/O errors = 0
IWL0059I Web server errors = 0
IWL0059I Num of pages retrieved = 629404
IWL0060I Page throughput = 697.325 /s
IWL0060I HTTP data read = 5657.374 MB
IWL0060I HTTP data written = 240.236 MB
IWL0060I HTTP avg. page element response time = 0.041
IWL0060I HTTP avg. page element response time = 0.041 
        (with all clients concurrently running)
======== S h a r e d   V a r i a b l e   R e p o r t ========
int curClient = 358
==== E n d   S h a r e d   V a r i a b l e   R e p o r t ====