Davao del Norte State College 1st Sem, SY 2020-2021

Lesson 1 System Performance Analysis and Management

Learning Outcomes:
➢ Formulate simple IT infrastructure security solutions.
Time Frame:
• Week 15

INTRODUCTION
Analysis and performance measurement are integral to planning for operations. They are
central to the success of an objectives-driven, performance-based approach and are often the
most resource-intensive aspect to planning for operations in terms of data, staff expertise, and
simulation tools and models. Analysis and performance measurement are the key activities in
two major elements of the planning for operations approach: 1) the systematic process to
develop and select M&O strategies to meet objectives and 2) system performance monitoring
and evaluation. Performance measures and analysis also play an important role in the
development of operations objectives. Operations data serves as the foundation for these
activities.
This lesson will help you analyze what system performance and management is. So, let us get
started!

ACTIVITY
Say, a PCs system’s performance just abruptly went slow. Now, you wanted to get it fixed right
away. List down your troubleshooting steps in getting it done.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

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Glendell R. Jadraque
Davao del Norte State College 1st Sem, SY 2020-2021

ANALYSIS
1. Why is analysis so important before troubleshooting?
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2. What do you think is the relevance of system performance analysis and management?
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3. Is there any situation wherein you were able to analyze the problem and manage to
provide a direct solution to it? What was it? Explain how did you do it.
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ABSTRACTION
Achieving good performance from a computer or network is an important part of system
administration. This chapter provides an overview of some factors that contribute to managing
the performance of the computer systems in your care.
What's New in Managing System Performance?
Enhanced pfiles Tool
Solaris 10: The /proc file system has been enhanced to include file name information in the
/proc/pic/path directory. This information is used by pfiles to display file names for each file
in the process. This change provides new insight into process behavior.
CPU Performance Counters
Solaris 10: The CPU Performance Counter (CPC) system has been updated to give better access
to the performance analysis features available in the SPARC and x86 platforms that run the
Solaris Operating System.
The CPC commands cpustat and cputrack have enhanced, command-line syntax for specifying
CPU information. For example, in previous versions of the Solaris OS, you were required to
specify two counters.
Where to Find System Performance Tasks
System Performance Task For More Information
Manage processes Managing System Processes (Tasks)

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Glendell R. Jadraque
Davao del Norte State College 1st Sem, SY 2020-2021

Monitor system performance Monitoring System Performance (Tasks)

Change Solaris tunable parameters Solaris Tunable Parameters Reference
Manual
Manage System Performance Tasks Projects and Tasks (Overview), in System
Administration Guide: Virtualization Using
the Solaris Operating System
Manage Processes with FX and FS Fair Share Scheduler (Overview), in System
Schedulers Administration Guide: Virtualization Using
the Solaris Operating System

System Performance and System Resources

The performance of a computer system depends upon how the system uses and allocates its
resources. Monitor your system's performance regularly so that you know how it behaves under
normal conditions. You should have a good idea of what to expect, and be able to recognize a
problem when it occurs.
System resources that affect performance are described in the Table 6-1-1.
Table 6-1-1. System Resources that affect performance
System Resource Description
Central processing unit (CPU) The CPU processes instructions by fetching
instructions from memory and executing
them.
Input/output (I/O) devices I/O devices transfer information into and
out of the computer. Such a device could be
a terminal and keyboard, a disk drive, or a
printer.
Memory Physical (or main) memory is the amount of
random-access memory (RAM) on the
system.

Processes and System Performance

Table 6-1-2 describes terms that are related to processes.
Table 6-1-2. Terms related to processes.
Term Description
Process Any system activity or job. Each time you
boot a system, execute a command, or start
an application, the system activates one or
more processes.
Lightweight process (LWP) A virtual CPU or execution resource. LWPs
are scheduled by the kernel to use available
CPU resources based on their scheduling
class and priority. LWPs include a kernel
thread and an LWP. A kernel thread contains
Institute of Information Technology
IS213 – IT Infrastructure and Network Technologies
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Glendell R. Jadraque
Davao del Norte State College 1st Sem, SY 2020-2021

information that has to be in memory all the

time. An LWP contains information that is
swappable.
Application thread A series of instructions with a separate stack
that can execute independently in a user's
address space. Application threads can be
multiplexed on top of LWPs.

A process can consist of multiple LWPs and multiple application threads. The kernel schedules
a kernel-thread structure, which is the scheduling entity in the SunOS environment. Various
process structures are described in Table 6-1-3.
Table 6-1-3. Various process structures

Structure Description
proc Contains information that pertains to
the whole process and must be in main
memory all the time
kthread Contains information that pertains to
one LWP and must be in main memory
all the time
user Contains the “per process” information
that is swappable
klwp Contains the “per LWP process”
information that is swappable
Structure Description

Figure 6-1-1 illustrates the relationships among these process structures.

Figure 6-1-1: Relationships Among Process Structure

Image Source: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19120-01/open.solaris/819-2380/spconcepts-21354/index.html

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Glendell R. Jadraque
Davao del Norte State College 1st Sem, SY 2020-2021

Most process resources are accessible to all the threads in the process. Almost all process virtual
memory is shared. A change in shared data by one thread is available to the other threads in
the process.
About Monitoring System Performance
While your computer is running, counters in the operating system are incremented to track
various system activities.
System activities that are tracked are as follows:
• Central processing unit (CPU) utilization
• Buffer usage
• Disk and tape input/output (I/O) activity
• Terminal device activity
• System call activity
• Context switching
• File access
• Queue activity
• Kernel tables
• Interprocess communication
• Paging
• Free memory and swap space
• Kernel memory allocation (KMA)
Monitoring Tools
The Solaris software provides several tools to help you track how your system is performing.
Table 6-1-4.
Table 6-1-4. Performance Monitoring Tools
Command Description For More Information
cpustat and cputrack Monitors performance of a cpustat(1M) and cputrack(1)
commands system or a process using CPU
performance counters.
netstat and nfsstat co Displays information about netstat(1M) and nfsstat(1M)
mmands network performance
ps and prstat comma Displays information about Chapter 12, Managing System
nds active processes Processes (Tasks)
sar and sadc comman Collects and reports on system Chapter 13, Monitoring System
ds activity data Performance (Tasks)
Sun Enterprise Collects system activity data on Sun Enterprise SyMON 2.0.1
SyMON Sun's enterprise-level systems Software User's Guide
swap command Displays information about Chapter 21, Configuring
available swap space on your Additional Swap Space
system (Tasks), in System Administration
Guide: Devices and File Systems

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Glendell R. Jadraque
Davao del Norte State College 1st Sem, SY 2020-2021

vmstat and iostat co Summarizes system activity Chapter 13, Monitoring System
mmands data, such as virtual memory Performance (Tasks)
statistics, disk usage, and CPU
activity
cputrack and cpustat Assists in accessing hardware cputrack(1) and cpustat(1M) ma
commands performance counter facilities n pages
provided by microprocessors
kstat and mpstat com Examines the available kernel kstat(1M) and mpstat(1M) man
mands statistics, or kstats, on the pages.
system and reports those
statistics which match the
criteria specified on the
command line.
The mpstat command reports
processor statistics in tabular
form.

APPLICATION
Provide a screenshot of the following:
1. Computer: Windows Task Manager displaying your computer system’s performance.
Mobile Phone: Find out how to display your phone’s system performance.
<insert your screenshots here>
* Note: If you are using both devices, you need to provide both screenshots. Otherwise,
just one.

CLOSURE
Great job! You have finished Lesson 1 of this module. Now, you are ready to move to and learn
Lesson 2, which will discuss IT infrastructure concept and IT infrastructure services. Job well
done!

Institute of Information Technology

IS213 – IT Infrastructure and Network Technologies
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Glendell R. Jadraque