Performance data collection for analysis by the IBM Electronic Service Agent

You can use a number of Virtual I/O Server commands to collect various levels of performance data. This data can then be used by the IBM® Electronic Service Agent™ support personnel to diagnose and solve performance problems.

The Virtual I/O Server Version 2.1.2.0 provides commands that you can use to capture performance data. You can then convert this data into a format and file for diagnostic use by the IBM Electronic Service Agent.

You can use the cfgassist command to manage the various types of data recording that the topas and topasrec commands provide. You can use the wkldout command to convert recording data from binary format to ASCII text format. You also can configure the performance management agent to gather data about performance of the Virtual I/O Server.

With the topasrec command, the Virtual I/O Server supports local, central electronics process (CEC), and cluster recording capabilities. These recordings can be either persistent or normal. Persistent recordings are recordings that run on the Virtual I/O Server and continue to run after the Virtual I/O Server reboots. Normal recordings are recordings that run for a specified time interval. The recording data files that are generated are stored in the /home/ios/perf/topas directory path.

Local recordings gather data about the Virtual I/O Server. CEC recordings gather data about any AIX® logical partitions that are running on the same CEC as the Virtual I/O Server. The data collected consists of dedicated and shared logical partition data and includes a set of aggregated values that provide an overview of the partition set. Cluster recordings gather data from a list of hosts that are specified in a cluster configuration file.

The performance manager agent (named perfmgr) collects data about system performance and sends it to support through the Electronic Service Agent (ESA) for processing. When the agent is started, it runs a set of utilities to collect metrics to measure performance. After you configure the performance management agent, you can use the startsvc, stopsvc, lssvc, and cfgsvc commands to manage the agent. You can use the postprocesssvc command to generate an appropriately formatted file from a list of available individual performance data files. This file can then be understood by the Electronic Service Agent.