When you monitor database server performance, you use tools from the host operating system and command-line utilities that you can run at regular intervals from scripts or batch files. You also use performance monitoring tools with a graphical interface to monitor critical aspects of performance as queries and transactions are performed.
The database server relies on the operating system of the host computer to provide access to system resources such as the CPU, memory, and various unbuffered disk I/O interfaces and files. Each operating system has its own set of utilities for reporting how system resources are used. Different implementations of some operating systems have monitoring utilities with the same name but different options and informational displays.
You might be able to use some of the following typical UNIX operating-system resource-monitor utilities.
For details on how to monitor your operating-system resources, consult the reference manual or your system administration guide.
To capture the status of system resources at regular intervals, use scheduling tools that are available with your host operating system (for example, cron) as part of your performance monitoring system.
Windows supplies a Performance Monitor (perfmon.exe) that can monitor resources such as processor, memory, cache, threads, and processes. The Performance Monitor also provides charts, alerts, reports, and the ability to save information to log files for later analysis.
For more information on how to use the Performance Monitor, consult your operating-system manuals.
The database server provides utilities to capture snapshot information about your configuration and performance. It also provides the system-monitoring interface (SMI) for monitoring performance from within your application.
You can use these utilities regularly to build a historical profile of database activity, which you can compare with current operating-system resource-utilization data. These comparisons can help you discover which database server activities have the greatest impact on system-resource utilization. You can use this information to identify and manage your high-impact activities or adjust your database server or operating-system configuration.
The database server tools and utilities that you can use for performance monitoring include:
You can use onstat, onlog, or oncheck commands invoked by the cron scheduling facility to capture performance-related information at regular intervals and build a historical performance profile of your database server application. The following sections describe these utilities.
You can use SQL SELECT statements to query the system-monitoring interface (SMI) from within your application.
The SMI tables are a collection of tables and pseudo-tables in the sysmaster database that contain dynamically updated information about the operation of the database server. The database server constructs these tables in memory but does not record them on disk. The onstat utility options obtain information from these SMI tables.
You can use cron and SQL scripts with DB–Access or onstat utility options to query SMI tables at regular intervals. For information about SQL scripts, see the IBM Informix: DB–Access User's Guide. For information about SMI tables, see your IBM Informix: Dynamic Server Administrator's Reference.
You can use ON–Monitor to check the current database server configuration. For information about ON–Monitor, see your IBM Informix: Administrator's Reference.
You can use onperf to display database server activity with the Motif window manager. For information about onperf, see The onperf Utility on UNIX.
IBM Informix Server Administrator (ISA) is a browser-based tool that provides Web-based system administration for the entire range of Informix database servers. ISA is the first in a new generation of browser-based, cross-platform administrative tools. It provides access to every Informix database server command-line function and presents the output in an easy-to-read format.
The database server CD-ROM distributed with your product includes ISA. For information on how to install ISA, see the following file on the CD-ROM.
With ISA, you can use a browser to perform these common database server administrative tasks:
You also can enter any Informix utility, UNIX shell command, or Windows command (for example, oncheck -cd; ls -l).
You can use the onstat utility to check the current status of the database server and monitor the activities of the database server. This utility displays a wide variety of performance-related and status information contained within the SMI tables. For a complete list of all onstat options, use onstat - -. For a complete display of all the information that onstat gathers, use onstat-a.
The following table lists onstat options that display general performance-related information.
For more information about options that provide performance-related information, see Monitoring Database Server Resources. For a list and explanation of onstat -g arguments, see your IBM Informix: Dynamic Server Administrator's Reference.
Enterprise Edition Home | Express Edition Home | [ Top of Page | Previous Page | Next Page | Contents | Index ]