BlackGold Systems Group Inc.
Business · Office Systems Computer Professionals
Creators of SPFX Software ®
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BlackGold Systems Group Inc. Business · Office Systems Computer Professionals |
Creators of SPFX Software ® |
      
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OverviewPerformance analysis and capacity planning are two management disciplines often overlooked by MIS organizations. The two most commonly cited reasons are lack of time and/or lack of appropriate skills. However, regular performance analysis and capacity planning, like regularly scheduled maintenance for an automobile, can prove invaluable. Trends can be identified before bottlenecks occur. Hardware and/or software resources can be added or changed according to plan rather than reaction. Overall system performance can be enhanced. The SPFX-PA Performance Analyst is a tool designed to assist MIS professionals in the collection, analysis, and management of AS/400 performance and capacity data. By extracting and presenting performance data in formats easily understandable by both technical and management personnel, it greatly reduces the time and skills normally required for a thorough review. The Performance Analyst starts with data collected by IBM's Performance Tools/400 package. On a daily basis, it extracts over 12 key elements of performance for CPU, DASD, memory, and communications. On a weekly basis, it saves and deletes the space-consuming detail performance database files. On a monthly basis, it gathers statistics on disk utilization broken down by 'system', 'user', and 'available' space. Finally, on a monthly basis, it prints a report and/or downloads the extracted data to a MS Excel ® spreadsheet for graphing. Each graph contains Average, Peak, and Guideline values for each performance element, making it very easy to see when resources are becoming scarce. Once completing the initial setup of the Performance Analyst, it is essentially a hands-free operation, except for the displaying and printing of graphs on the PC. To generate the graphs, all that is required is the selection of icons from the SPFX-PA Performance Analyst Windows program icon group. For sites with multiple AS/400's, the Performance Analyst has the ability to collect data on remote machines, and analyze the key performance elements centrally. This is accomplished using the DDM (Distributed Data Management) feature of OS/400. Automatic reporting can also be "turned off" for individual sites. This allows a network manager to monitor and manage the performance of each machine centrally. Included in the Performance Analyst are guideline values for each performance element, as well as a maintenance function allowing modification of this data. All components of the PC graphing application (spreadsheets, macros, floating toolbars, icons) for MS Excel are supplied. Also supplied is sample AS/400 source code so that user-specific data be captured and included in the analysis. This is done through user exit tags in the initial setup. |
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