WO2002082277A1 - Ameliorations des performances de systemes informatiques par translation des fichiers sur des dispositifs - Google Patents

Ameliorations des performances de systemes informatiques par translation des fichiers sur des dispositifs Download PDF

Info

Publication number
WO2002082277A1
WO2002082277A1 PCT/AU2002/000434 AU0200434W WO02082277A1 WO 2002082277 A1 WO2002082277 A1 WO 2002082277A1 AU 0200434 W AU0200434 W AU 0200434W WO 02082277 A1 WO02082277 A1 WO 02082277A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
drive
computer system
files
information
analysis
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/AU2002/000434
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
Adrian Sheedy
Colin Lillywhite
Andrew Trigg
James Ross
James O'reilly
Original Assignee
Platypus Technology Holdings, Inc.
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Platypus Technology Holdings, Inc. filed Critical Platypus Technology Holdings, Inc.
Publication of WO2002082277A1 publication Critical patent/WO2002082277A1/fr

Links

Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F3/00—Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
    • G06F3/06—Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers, e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers
    • G06F3/0601—Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
    • G06F3/0628—Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems making use of a particular technique
    • G06F3/0653—Monitoring storage devices or systems
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F11/00—Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
    • G06F11/30—Monitoring
    • G06F11/34—Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation ; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment
    • G06F11/3466—Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
    • G06F11/3476—Data logging
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F11/00—Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
    • G06F11/30—Monitoring
    • G06F11/34—Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation ; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment
    • G06F11/3466—Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
    • G06F11/3485—Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring for I/O devices
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F3/00—Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
    • G06F3/06—Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers, e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers
    • G06F3/0601—Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
    • G06F3/0602—Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems specifically adapted to achieve a particular effect
    • G06F3/061—Improving I/O performance
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F3/00—Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
    • G06F3/06—Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers, e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers
    • G06F3/0601—Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
    • G06F3/0628—Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems making use of a particular technique
    • G06F3/0646—Horizontal data movement in storage systems, i.e. moving data in between storage devices or systems
    • G06F3/0647—Migration mechanisms
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F3/00—Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
    • G06F3/06—Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers, e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers
    • G06F3/0601—Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
    • G06F3/0668—Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems adopting a particular infrastructure
    • G06F3/0671—In-line storage system
    • G06F3/0683—Plurality of storage devices

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to the performance of computer systems, and in particular, to obtaining performance improvements of a computer system by first identifying and then relocating certain files on an electronic device which then becomes part of the computer system.
  • the present invention seeks to provide a method for achieving improved performance of a computer system, and, a computer readable medium of instructions for achieving improved performance of a computer system, or identifying files which if relocated may contribute to improved performance of the computer system.
  • the present invention provides a method for improving the performance of a computer system, the computer system including a drive and an improved performance drive, the method including the steps of: obtaining I/O information of the drive of the computer system for files on the drive which are accessed on the computer system, the I/O information obtained by monitoring software; identifying which of the files substantially affect the performance of the computer system by analysing the I/O information; and relocating selected files to the improved performance drive based on the analysis of the I/O information, thereby effecting an improvement in the performance of the computer system without requiring that all files in the computer system be relocated to the improved performance drive.
  • the present invention also seeks to provide a method of identifying to a user possible performance improvements in a computer system by relocating identified files in the computer system, the computer system including a drive and the possibility of attaching an improved performance drive, the method including the steps of: installing monitoring software in the computer system; obtaining I/O information of the drive of the computer system for files on the drive which are accessed on the computer system, the I/O information obtained by the monitoring software; transmitting the I/O information to an analysis web-site; and the analysis web-site presenting the I/O information to the user in a manner that facilitates the user to readily identify which of the monitored files substantially affect the performance of the computer system.
  • the present invention also seeks to provide a method of estimating an expected performance improvement in a computer system if selected files were to be relocated from a first drive to a second drive, the second drive being an improved performance drive, the method including the steps of: obtaining I/O information of the first drive for a selected file on the first drive; calculating a first Read/Write Performance value as a function of Read/Write operations, Read/Write speeds, file seek time, the volume of data addressed, and the data read stream speed for the selected file on the first drive; obtaining I/O information of the second drive for a selected file on the second drive; calculating a second Read/Write Performance value as a function of Read/Write operations, Read/Write speeds, file seek time, the volume of data addressed, and the data read stream speed for the selected file on the second drive; using the calculated first and second Read/Write Performance values to estimate the expected performance improvement of the computer system if selected files are relocated to the second drive.
  • the present invention also seeks to provide a method of providing an analysis report to a user of a computer system which identifies a possible performance improvement in the computer system if identified files in the computer system were to be relocated from a drive of the computer system to an improved performance drive, the method including the steps of: obtaining I/O information of the drive of the computer system for files on the drive which are accessed on the computer system, the I/O information obtained by monitoring software resident on the computer system, the I/O information including Drive Read Time, Average Drive Read Queue Length, Drive Write Time, Average Drive Write Queue Length, Drive Read Bytes/sec, Drive Write Bytes/sec, and Processor Time; amalgamating the I/O information into fixed time period snapshots; transmitting the I/O information to an analysis means; and the analysis means generating the analysis report.
  • the I O information can include seek times, read times and write times. Furthermore, the selected files can be relocated manually by a user, or automatically by the monitoring software or other software as a result of the analysis of the I/O information. Also, I/O information relating to a particular drive, a particular directory on the drive, or a particular file type can be selectively obtained. According to another embodiment reports can be generated or calculations can be performed at an analysis web-site, and I/O information can be transmitted to the web-site as a XML file. Furthermore, I O information can be automatically transmitted to the analysis web-site by the monitoring software.
  • the present invention also provides a computer readable medium of instructions for obtaining I/O information of a drive of a computer system for all files on the drive which are accessed during operation of the computer system, the computer readable medium of instructions including procedures adapted to: monitor the I/O activity of a drive of the computer system; store I/O information for each file accessed on the drive; provide a user interface allowing the user to control aspects of the monitoring of drive I/O activity via the user interface; and output the I/O information for subsequent analysis.
  • the present invention also provides a computer readable medium of instructions for assisting to achieve improved performance of a computer system, the computer system including a first drive and a second drive, the second drive being an improved performance drive, and the computer readable medium of instructions including procedures adapted to: monitor the I/O activity of at least the first drive of the computer system; store I/O information for each file accessed on at least the first drive; provide a user interface allowing the user to control aspects of the monitoring of at least the first drive I/O activity via the user interface; calculate an expected performance improvement in the computer system if files were to be relocated from the first drive to the second drive; and relocate selected files to the second drive based on the expected performance improvement calculations.
  • the present invention furthermore provides a software tool used in analysing the performance of a drive in a computer system, the software tool residing on the computer system and allowing a user to: start or stop logging I/O activity on the drive; log computer system performance data; log I/O data for a file on the drive; and close the software tool and cease logging.
  • the software tool and the analysis software are integrated.
  • the computer system performance data can include drive, processor, memory and process data.
  • a computer readable medium of instructions and/or a method which dynamically relocates selected files on an improved performance drive can monitor any or all drives in a computer system.
  • a computer readable medium of instructions and/or a method which records the I/O of databases on remote database servers can reside on a web-site.
  • Figure 1 illustrates an embodiment of the present invention wherein, the figure shows a method for achieving improved performance of a computer system
  • Figure 2 illustrates an example of a user interface for the monitoring software.
  • the present invention provides a method for achieving improved performance of a computer system. It should be noted that in the specification reference is made to a drive of a computer system, however, this is taken to be a reference to any, some or all of the drives in a computer system. That is, the present invention may equally be applied to all drives in a computer system whether those drives are similar devices or not. In accordance with a further particular embodiment of the present invention software is provided which is able to simultaneously or selectively monitor one, some or all drives of a computer system.
  • drive should also be considered to relate to local or non-local drives, that is, I/O file information may also be monitored where the file is transferred over some form of network - the drive may be remote to some parts of the computer system. As mentioned previously, this may refer to numerous remote drives.
  • drive should be interpreted broadly, a drive is used to refer to any form of memory device which can be incorporated into a computer system.
  • Such devices include, for example, disks, solid state storage devices, magnetic storage devices, optical storage devices, devices that store data using quantum physics phenomenon, etc..
  • file should be interpreted broadly and be taken to be a reference to any type of computer file, data, information, database, program, record or the like. Moreover, the file itself may contain any type or format of program, data or information, for example, text, ASCII, binary, executable, etc..
  • the method 10 can be used to improve the performance of a computer system.
  • the step 20 involves placing monitoring software in a computer system so that the monitoring software can identify or be used to assist in identifying files on a drive which place a substantial load on the computer system.
  • monitoring factors such as seek times, read times, write times, etc. (i.e. I/O information) for a file the monitoring software can build a list of information which contains data on each file on the drive accessed by the computer system's operating system.
  • the step 30 then involves either manually or automatically searching through the data obtained by the monitoring software to identify which files may provide an improvement in system performance if these files were relocated to a faster or improved performance drive.
  • analysis step 40 calculations, graphs, tables, estimations, etc. can be used to quantify the expected improvements should files (or a file) be moved to a faster drive. It should also be noted that in a particular embodiment actual calculations need not be performed as by simply relocating a number of identified files which substantially load a computer system to a faster drive an improvement in computer system performance should naturally follow. However, it is preferred that a quantitative analysis is made prior to relocation of files.
  • step 50 the files substantially loading the computer system according to some criteria, which may or may not be preselected, are moved to a faster drive.
  • the files may be manually moved, or automatically moved by software provided to perform such a task which looks at step 40 calculations, estimations or other related information and moves files accordingly.
  • monitoring software software to monitor I/O activity on a drive
  • the monitoring software can be used to identify files which impact the system, allowing an administrator or other person to move certain identified files onto an improved performance drive such as a fast solid-state drive system.
  • the identification/movement or files may also occur automatically.
  • the monitoring software is a single executable file (Operating System (OS) permitting) which generally does not require an installation program.
  • OS Operating System
  • the monitoring software automatically logs system file events and can display a real-time list of the all files with drive I/O activity. Users can be allowed to customise what they wish to have monitored by selecting which drives, directories or file types they wish to have monitored or analysed.
  • a Windows (NT, 2000, etc.) GUI interface is presented in figure 2. Naturally, this GUI may be significantly varied but is presented to assist the reader understand the scope of the present invention and the invention's embodiments.
  • Similar command-line versions of the monitoring software can also be built for OS's that do not always have a graphical user interface.
  • the monitoring software can also collect pre-defined statistics from the OS with regard to "system availability” and "system usage”. This allows analysis at a later stage of how drive I/O activity impacts other components of the computer system, and whether there is "room” for growth in the speed of drive I/O activity.
  • the drive I/O activity is amalgamated in fixed-time "snapshots" where each transaction line can be recorded or summarised over the time interval.
  • the performance statistics of the system can continue to be collected in fixed-time intervals. All data is recorded in a file in a directory, for example where the monitoring software is located. Various snapshot time periods, recorded file types or stored data locations could be used.
  • users would receive the actual monitoring software that collects data of drive I/O activity. If required, this data could then be sent to a specialist for analysis and the preparation of a customer report advising how the user might improve their system.
  • the monitoring program can recognise the existence of a database server, for example SQL server, Oracle, or DB2, and log statistics or I/O information specific to these database servers.
  • a database server for example SQL server, Oracle, or DB2
  • a method or software to analyse the data/results from the monitoring software may be provided as a method, a software program (on the host system or a remote system), a series of algorithms embedded in a spreadsheet, manually performed, or a combination of these means. Analysis of results from the monitoring software could be effected by the monitoring software itself or a user transmitting results to a web-site.
  • the web-site may contain analysis software, or the web-site may pass the results to a analysis person or further analysis software.
  • an improved performance drive can have on the speed of drive I/O activity
  • the nature of the I/O can broadly be categorized by the volume of transactions and whether the transactions were read or write operations. This allows one to formulate or estimate a global disk I/O speed, if required. Once this has been established in the system the impact the improved performance drive can have if certain identified files are relocated to the improved performance drive can be estimated.
  • the results of the analysis can be presented to a customer (or user) in a report.
  • the first step in preparing an analysis report is to take the data from the monitoring software and then analyse this data. This can provide a performance impact assessment, if all or some of the files having disk I/O activity during the monitoring period are placed on the improved performance drive.
  • Part of the analysis report may show how much a particular process will be impacted by improving I/O performance (remembering that the system processes are not made up exclusively of disk I/O activity).
  • a further part of the analysis report may show which files have the greatest impact on performance if allocated to an improved performance drive such as a solid-state system.
  • a further part of the analysis report may show the performance gains to be made, by the allocation of files to the improved performance drive of a particular size, thereby possibly showing an optimum or acceptable price per performance for allocation of files.
  • the two previous embodiments described separately in sections A and B may be combined to allow monitoring and analysis to be performed on a particular computer system.
  • Analysis software integrated with monitoring software
  • This combination monitoring and analysis software can be provided with the ability to automatically (or dynamically) relocate files with or without user approval, or may simply inform a user of statistics or recommendations thereby allowing the user to manually relocate files.
  • the combined monitoring and analysis methods can be incorporated into a firmware application that can perform the analysis and allocation of files to a faster device (or drive) on the fly, that is by dynamic allocation.
  • the method/software would identify the files best suited for a faster storage device and automatically relocate these files, possibly subject to user selected options.
  • SSD solid state drive
  • Examples of SSDs include the drives sold under the brand names QrkDATA and QikDRlNE by the applicant. These SSD drives can be grouped, for example, as 32 bit (QikDRlNE32), 64 bit (QikDRlNE64), QikDATA (including all performance variants), etc.. It should be reinforced to the reader that the present invention applies to any type or form of improved performance drive/device which can become part of a computer system and on which files can be relocated, and should not be considered to be limited to only SSDs.
  • the monitoring software is preferably a single executable file (OS permitting) that does not require an installation program.
  • the monitoring software can begin automatically logging system file events and show a real-time list of the all files with drive I/O activity. There can be provided an option to save the list so that the list can be viewed elsewhere or -l ie-mailed to an organisation or person for analysis. Users are able to filter the drives and files to be monitored. Users can select which drive(s) will be monitored, which directory or directories, and even which files or file types.
  • the monitoring software program has been developed for Windows NT, 2000 or XP, however, other platforms and applications can be supported.
  • the monitoring software consists of an executable and a kernel-mode file system filter driver.
  • the filter driver is actually contained within the executable. It is written to the disk and loaded at runtime, then deleted when the monitoring software exits. Installation can simply require putting the executable onto a local drive.
  • the monitoring software collects the list of performance counters on the system and then informs the file system to notify the system driver every time a program reads or writes data. This way the monitoring software can log all read and write activity to all files.
  • the filter driver is no longer logging file system activity, but it is not deactivated and deleted until the system is rebooted. This is because data loss may occur if the driver is forcibly removed from the device list during normal system activity. Inserting filter drivers during system operation is safe. It is acceptable to delete the actual system file, as its image is normally loaded into the system.
  • the monitoring software logs all data to a .xml file in the same directory as the monitoring software. As the file extension suggests, the format is XML. Logging happens at a fixed time period, for example every five seconds. An option can be provided for the time period to be set by a user. A summary of performance data and file I/O can be generated and written to the log file.
  • a command-line version can also be built for OS's that do not always have a graphical user interface.
  • the drive or disk I/O activity can be accumulated in two ways. Firstly it can be amalgamated in fixed-time "snapshots" or each transaction line can be recorded. The performance statistics of the system can continue to be collected in fixed time intervals, for example five-second intervals. All data is recorded in a file in a particular directory.
  • Architecture :
  • the fundamental architecture is not required to differ between operating systems, but the application would.
  • the monitoring software integrates into the file system of the OS and watches all activity. In order to collect realistic data, it is important that the monitoring software has a low impact on overall system performance. It should have a relatively small memory profile, and have minimal impact on the CPU.
  • users would only receive a monitoring software program that collects data and sends it to a specialist organisation for analysis.
  • the identification of the most-used files and any drive I/O graphs are not performed or provided on the users system.
  • the organisation can generate reports from the data sent to the organisation and send the reports back to the user.
  • the monitoring software may build up a sizeable database of transactions over time that could lead to an adverse impact on the computer system's overall performance.
  • the shut down features can include a time limit, a monitoring software log file size limit, a disk free space limit and a monitoring software CPU usage limit.
  • the output .xml file typically has two components as its output. The first is logged when recording starts and details which performance statistics will be monitored and which processes are currently running on the system. An example is shown in Table I.
  • the second component of the output is the fixed-period time interval snapshots, for example five-second periods, and summations of all performance statistics and disk I/O activity.
  • the performance statistics are shown in Table II using a menu system.
  • the disk I/O activity statistics collected can include:
  • Path The full path and file-name accessed for disk I/O activity during the interval Transactions The count of reads and writes that have been performed on the file during the interval Bytes Read The bytes read from the file during the interval
  • the monitoring software can also collect pre-defined statistics from the operating system with regard to "system availability" and "system usage”.
  • the disk I/O activity is amalgamated in five-second "snapshots" where each transaction line can be recorded or summarised over the time interval.
  • the performance statistics of the system can continue to be collected in five-second intervals.
  • data can be recorded in an ASCII file (eg. .txt, .xml, ect.), or any other desirable type of file, in any location, for example the root directory of the monitoring software.
  • Using the monitoring software is relatively simple. Referring to the embodiment as illustrated in figure 2, a user sets the number of minutes to log file I/O and clicks Start Logging. The program will stop after the selected time has elapsed. All data is logged to the .xml file in the same directory as the program.
  • the user may simply click Start and Stop during the times that logging is desired.
  • an .xml file is appended to earlier files rather than files being overwritten. For improved clarity during analysis, it is recommended that a meaningful description of what is being logged be entered into the Comment field prior to clicking Start. After logging data is completed, the .xml file is ready for analysis.
  • Possibilities for proceeding with analysis of logged data of I/O information include, emailing to an address for analysis or uploading to a web-site for analysis, where the analysis could be performed manually or automatically by appropriate software, or having further software resident on the user's system perform the analysis.
  • the monitoring software measures the successful requests from programs running on the system as they are sent to and from a storage device driver(s). So when a program wants to read the 100 th byte from a file, the monitoring software logs a 1-byte read. The storage device driver often turns this into a read of an entire 4KB block. But it will only pass back the contents of the requested byte. The time taken to return this single byte is also measured, so the monitoring software knows how long each transaction takes.
  • the monitoring software's concept of a transaction is also defined as a single request for an arbitrary length of data from (or to) a file. So a transaction could be any length, 1 byte or longer.
  • I/O collected by the monitoring software there are five aspects to I/O collected by the monitoring software. These are relevant to each transaction (or request): (1) Is it a read or a write request?; (2) What file is the request for?; (3) How much data is requested?; (4) How long did the request take to complete?; (5) What process initiated the request?
  • Start Logging The 'Start Logging' button is illustrated in figure 2 and begins the process of storing all file I/O and performance data to the .xml file. A date/time stamp is written to the .xml file every time this button is clicked. For example:
  • Stop Logging This button ends the current logging activity and readies the monitoring software to continue logging.
  • This button stops any logging that is happening and closes the monitoring software.
  • Options can be provided to the user by the GUI. Examples could include: Stop Logging after (minutes):
  • This checkbox will force a check of the Logfile size before it is written to at each data collection point. If the selected size is exceeded, then logging will cease.
  • This checkbox forces a check of the free disk space and stops logging if there is less than 5MB free. Naturally, other quantities of free space could be provided for.
  • This checkbox forces a check of the CPU overhead that the monitoring software is causing. If it is too high then logging will cease. Naturally, other quantities of CPU % could be provided for.
  • This checkbox will cause logging of some performance counters at the same time the file I/O is logged.
  • the counters that can be logged include (non-exhaustive list):
  • This checkbox causes logging to take place only when the disk queue length is over, for example, 1.5/sec, or the bytes read/written /sec is over 500,000.
  • This checkbox selects whether I/O activity will be logged into the output .xml file.
  • the 'Summary' radio button causes the I/O transactions to be summarised for each file in the sampling period.
  • the 'All Transactions' radio button logs every transaction as it happens.
  • the user can also be provided with the option of entering a comment describing what is being logged in a comment field of the GUI.
  • An upload data option for example and upload XML data option, can also be provided by the GUI. Such a feature can enable a user to directly upload the log file produced by the program to an analysis web-site.
  • An analysis procedure can be used to analyse file I/O information, system activity and drive I/O activity. Such analysis may include: Predicting a performance improvement on a system by installing an improved performance drive, possibly showing a graph of predicted performance increases as a function of relocating certain files to the improved performance d ⁇ ve; or a view of the data collected can display a graph of the disk access over time. This will enable users to see a difference between I/O on, for example, a standard HDD and on an improved performance drive.
  • the monito ⁇ ng software can send I/O information (logged data or information forming log files) to an analysis web-site.
  • the analysis web- site is designed to permit uploading of the monitoring software log files from anywhere via the internet, and then display various reports on the data.
  • the purpose of the analysis web-site is to quickly decide if there is really an I/O bottleneck that a high-performance storage system can fix, and then to identify which files or directories should benefit the most.
  • the analysis web-site can be built on Java servlets and XSL.
  • a user would preferably be required to login to the web-site. After a successful login, the user can choose to upload log files from a local hard drive. Uploading is simply a matter of browsing for the log file, entering a description, and clicking an Upload button. It can also be provided that the web-site would recognise any file compression and automatically uncompress.
  • the reports can be presented on the analysis web-site after the analysis has been automatically performed by the web-site.
  • Types of reports can include the following:
  • File I/O Statistics (All Files): This report is a list of all reads and writes on all drives over time. Each five second snapshot is listed and the reads, writes, and transaction count are shown. The initial view shows only the data, but clicking on links in the report can show rudimentary bar graphs of the scaled activity over time. This allows a user to scroll down the page and see the trend in I/O over time. Clicking on the date and time link shows the detail of all I/O data during that snapshot.
  • Performance Counter Statistics The perfmon-type data that the monitoring software collects can be presented with optional graphs to assist in identifying important events. Such graphs also assist a user to spot trends in system performance.
  • Processor Usage Statistics Each process running on the system is recorded and the average amount of CPU time the process used in the last five seconds (or other set time period) is recorded. The graphs assist in quickly identifying the CPU drains and the trends throughout the time data was collected.
  • Total Directory Activity This report displays the cumulative amount of data read and written to every directory where I/O was recorded. This allows a user to instantly view which directories could be moved to high-performance storage. In situations where there is a small amount of I/O to many files this report can calculate the totals and possibly present a very different view to the Top 20 report.
  • Total Disk Activity This report shows the I/O to each logical disk or drive in the system. By using this report a user can see the drives that had the most I/O activity.
  • Total Process Activity This report lists the processes in the system that created I/O, and the amount of I/O they performed. This allows a user to identify the processes that are causing the most significant I/O activity on the system.
  • Snapshot Details Report Clicking on a snapshot link in any of the previous reports brings up details about that five second snapshot.
  • a full or further analysis request can also be provided for on the analysis web-site by a user clicking an icon.
  • a full or further analysis request would be performed manually, although not necessarily.
  • the analysis website could also provide: The ability to select portions of a log file to analyse, for example if most of the I/O activity was in a short identifiable period;
  • analysis report can be significantly varied or customised according to a particular situation or customer.
  • aforementioned or other analysis reports could be provided in paper form, by email, as a computer file, etc..
  • the reports or the analysis itself can be produced or performed by software, mathematical algorithms, manually, etc. or any combination thereof, and thus may be automatically or manually generated, in whole or in part.
  • Analysis Methodology Generally, there are two desired outputs from analysing I/O information log files: (1) to establish if there is an I/O bottleneck, and ascertain the cause; and (2) to produce a report that can be passed back to the customer/user.
  • Qdmon process If this process is running then an improved performance drive, such as a QikDATA drive, was once or still is installed in the system.
  • High CPU Usage and High Transaction Count Sometimes, the system overhead of managing a huge transaction load can be the reason for high CPU usage. This can mean that fast storage may actually reduce the CPU time that the system uses, allowing more processing for other processes or even more I/O.
  • Transaction Count As there are system and seek overheads in each request that a program makes for I/O, a very high number of transactions can signify that the I/O is being spread over random parts of a disk - perfect for a storage system that can handle high transaction loads. On the other hand, a relatively low transaction count with high volume can signify a streaming application that can benefit from fast I/O.
  • Single Threaded Applications Many applications do not divide their operation into multiple threads that can take advantage of more than one processor.
  • NTVDM N Virtual DOS Machine
  • the invention may also be said broadly to consist in the parts, elements and features refe ⁇ ed to or indicated in the specification of the application, individually or collectively, in any or all combinations of two or more of said parts, elements or features, and where specific integers are mentioned herein which have known equivalents in the art to which the invention relates, such known equivalents are deemed to be incorporated herein as if individually set forth.

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
  • General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Human Computer Interaction (AREA)
  • Computer Hardware Design (AREA)
  • Quality & Reliability (AREA)
  • Debugging And Monitoring (AREA)

Abstract

La présente invention se rapporte à l'amélioration des performances d'un système informatique. Un logiciel de surveillance est intégré à un système informatique de manière que ce logiciel puisse identifier ou faciliter l'identification des fichiers qui sont présents sur un périphérique et infligent au système informatique une charge importante. L'identification des fichiers peut être effectuée automatiquement par le logiciel, manuellement ou au moyen de données transmises à un site web. Du fait qu'il contrôle les facteurs associés à un fichier tels que les temps de recherche, les temps de lecture, les temps d'écriture, etc., le logiciel de surveillance peut élaborer une liste d'informations qui contient des données sur chaque fichier présent sur le périphérique auquel a accès le système d'exploitation du système informatique. L'identification ultérieure des fichiers peut entraîner une amélioration des performances du système si ces fichiers sont déplacés vers un périphérique plus rapide ou à performance améliorée. Il est également possible d'effectuer des calculs ou des évaluations pour quantifier les améliorations attendues si un ou plusieurs fichiers sont déplacés vers un périphérique plus rapide. Les fichiers servant au chargement du système informatique sont déplacés vers un périphérique plus rapide. Ces fichiers peuvent être déplacés manuellement ou automatiquement par le logiciel conçu pour effectuer une telle tâche.
PCT/AU2002/000434 2001-04-06 2002-04-05 Ameliorations des performances de systemes informatiques par translation des fichiers sur des dispositifs WO2002082277A1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
AUPR4287A AUPR428701A0 (en) 2001-04-06 2001-04-06 Computer system performance improvements by relocation of files on devices
AUPR4287 2001-04-06

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2002082277A1 true WO2002082277A1 (fr) 2002-10-17

Family

ID=3828287

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
PCT/AU2002/000434 WO2002082277A1 (fr) 2001-04-06 2002-04-05 Ameliorations des performances de systemes informatiques par translation des fichiers sur des dispositifs

Country Status (2)

Country Link
AU (1) AUPR428701A0 (fr)
WO (1) WO2002082277A1 (fr)

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US7899987B2 (en) 2007-05-15 2011-03-01 Sandisk Il Ltd. File storage in a computer system with diverse storage media
WO2012131753A1 (fr) * 2011-03-25 2012-10-04 Hitachi, Ltd. Système de stockage et procédé de gestion des performances dudit système de stockage

Citations (10)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4542458A (en) * 1982-05-21 1985-09-17 Hitachi, Ltd. Method of and apparatus for assigning software resources to memory devices
US5131087A (en) * 1988-12-29 1992-07-14 Storage Technology Corporation Computer system having apparatus for automatically redistributing data records stored therein
US5333311A (en) * 1990-12-10 1994-07-26 Alsoft, Inc. Optimizing a magnetic disk by allocating files by the frequency a file is accessed/updated or by designating a file to a fixed location on a disk
US5355475A (en) * 1990-10-30 1994-10-11 Hitachi, Ltd. Method of relocating file and system therefor
US5422890A (en) * 1991-11-19 1995-06-06 Compaq Computer Corporation Method for dynamically measuring computer disk error rates
US5559984A (en) * 1993-09-28 1996-09-24 Hitachi, Ltd. Distributed file system permitting each user to enhance cache hit ratio in file access mode
US5819030A (en) * 1996-07-03 1998-10-06 Microsoft Corporation System and method for configuring a server computer for optimal performance for a particular server type
US5860083A (en) * 1996-11-26 1999-01-12 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Data storage system having flash memory and disk drive
US5884298A (en) * 1996-03-29 1999-03-16 Cygnet Storage Solutions, Inc. Method for accessing and updating a library of optical discs
US5893139A (en) * 1995-07-31 1999-04-06 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Data storage device and storage method in which algorithms are provided for calculating access frequencies of data

Patent Citations (10)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4542458A (en) * 1982-05-21 1985-09-17 Hitachi, Ltd. Method of and apparatus for assigning software resources to memory devices
US5131087A (en) * 1988-12-29 1992-07-14 Storage Technology Corporation Computer system having apparatus for automatically redistributing data records stored therein
US5355475A (en) * 1990-10-30 1994-10-11 Hitachi, Ltd. Method of relocating file and system therefor
US5333311A (en) * 1990-12-10 1994-07-26 Alsoft, Inc. Optimizing a magnetic disk by allocating files by the frequency a file is accessed/updated or by designating a file to a fixed location on a disk
US5422890A (en) * 1991-11-19 1995-06-06 Compaq Computer Corporation Method for dynamically measuring computer disk error rates
US5559984A (en) * 1993-09-28 1996-09-24 Hitachi, Ltd. Distributed file system permitting each user to enhance cache hit ratio in file access mode
US5893139A (en) * 1995-07-31 1999-04-06 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Data storage device and storage method in which algorithms are provided for calculating access frequencies of data
US5884298A (en) * 1996-03-29 1999-03-16 Cygnet Storage Solutions, Inc. Method for accessing and updating a library of optical discs
US5819030A (en) * 1996-07-03 1998-10-06 Microsoft Corporation System and method for configuring a server computer for optimal performance for a particular server type
US5860083A (en) * 1996-11-26 1999-01-12 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Data storage system having flash memory and disk drive

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US7899987B2 (en) 2007-05-15 2011-03-01 Sandisk Il Ltd. File storage in a computer system with diverse storage media
WO2012131753A1 (fr) * 2011-03-25 2012-10-04 Hitachi, Ltd. Système de stockage et procédé de gestion des performances dudit système de stockage

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
AUPR428701A0 (en) 2001-05-17

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
US7167915B2 (en) Monitoring storage resources used by computer applications distributed across a network
US7552115B2 (en) Method and system for efficient generation of storage reports
US8321479B2 (en) Efficient processing of time series data
US7275097B2 (en) System and method for analyzing input/output activity on local attached storage
US6996807B1 (en) Consolidation and reduction of usage data
US7483918B2 (en) Dynamic physical database design
US20060116981A1 (en) Method and system for automated data collection and analysis of a computer system
US8286139B2 (en) Call stack sampling for threads having latencies exceeding a threshold
JP5208337B2 (ja) クライアント管理ツールにおいてポーリングエージェントを実装するコンピュータシステムおよび方法
US6910036B1 (en) Database performance monitoring method and tool
US7962924B2 (en) System and method for call stack sampling combined with node and instruction tracing
US8407423B2 (en) Automatic determination of read-ahead amount
US20110082837A1 (en) Backup simulation for backing up filesystems to a storage device
US20070150871A1 (en) Autonomically adjusting the collection of performance data from a call stack
JP3967993B2 (ja) ストレージ使用容量表示方法
JP6449804B2 (ja) メモリー被疑部検出のための方法およびシステム
US20120096053A1 (en) Predictive migrate and recall
US7325016B1 (en) Monitoring database performance by obtaining SQL addresses for SQL statements
US20160139961A1 (en) Event summary mode for tracing systems
WO2002082277A1 (fr) Ameliorations des performances de systemes informatiques par translation des fichiers sur des dispositifs
US8024301B2 (en) Automatic database diagnostic usage models
US7630994B1 (en) On the fly summarization of file walk data
Liu et al. Practice guideline for heavy I/O workloads with lustre file systems on TACC supercomputers
US7747882B2 (en) Determining optimal power down of a system while indexes are being rebuilt
CN117194178B (zh) 获得Redis数据变化记录的方法、装置及服务器

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
AK Designated states

Kind code of ref document: A1

Designated state(s): AE AG AL AM AT AU AZ BA BB BG BR BY BZ CA CH CN CO CR CU CZ DE DK DM DZ EC EE ES FI GB GD GE GH GM HR HU ID IL IN IS JP KE KG KP KR KZ LC LK LR LS LT LU LV MA MD MG MK MN MW MX MZ NO NZ OM PH PL PT RO RU SD SE SG SI SK SL TJ TM TN TR TT TZ UA UG US UZ VN YU ZA ZM ZW

AL Designated countries for regional patents

Kind code of ref document: A1

Designated state(s): GH GM KE LS MW MZ SD SL SZ TZ UG ZM ZW AM AZ BY KG KZ MD RU TJ TM AT BE CH CY DE DK ES FI FR GB GR IE IT LU MC NL PT SE TR BF BJ CF CG CI CM GA GN GQ GW ML MR NE SN TD TG

DFPE Request for preliminary examination filed prior to expiration of 19th month from priority date (pct application filed before 20040101)
121 Ep: the epo has been informed by wipo that ep was designated in this application
REG Reference to national code

Ref country code: DE

Ref legal event code: 8642

32PN Ep: public notification in the ep bulletin as address of the adressee cannot be established

Free format text: NOTING OF LOSS OF RIGHTS PURSUANT TO RULE 69(1) EPC (COMMUNICATION OF 14-01-2004, EPO FORM 1205A)

122 Ep: pct application non-entry in european phase
NENP Non-entry into the national phase

Ref country code: JP

WWW Wipo information: withdrawn in national office

Country of ref document: JP