Observing performance trends

You can use reports and graphs to summarize data over periods of several days, weeks, or months to observe trends in performance. Pay special attention to peak periods of activity, for new applications and for the system as a whole. During peak periods, constraints and response-time problems are most evident.

Some trends to look for are:
  • Increases in response times, number of I/Os, resource contention, and processor usage
  • Changing workload patterns over a period
  • Changes in the transaction distribution and frequency
  • Changes in the SQL activity pattern