The wlmmon and wlmperf commands provide graphical views of Workload Manager (WLM) resource activities by class.
wlmmon
wlmperf
The wlmmon and wlmperf commands generate resource usage reports of system WLM activity. The wlmperf command, which is part of the Performance Toolbox (PTX), can generate reports from trend recordings made by the PTX daemons for periods covering minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months. The wlmmon command, which ships with the base AIX, generates reports only for the latest 24-hour period and has no usage options. Three types of visual reports can be generated:
The type of report can be customized to cover specified WLM classes over specific time periods. In addition, the WLM activity from two different time periods can be compared (trended) for any chosen display type.
These reports are generated from data that is collected using the same mechanism as the wlmstat command. However, the wlmmon and wlmperf commands use recordings made by a daemon that must operate at all times to collect WLM data. For the wlmmon command, this daemon is called xmwlm, and ships with the base AIX. For the wlmperf command, this daemon is called xmtrend and ships with the PTX.
While the wlmstat command provides a per-second view of WLM activity, it is not suited for the long-term analysis. To supplement the wlmstat command, the wlmmon and wlmperf commands provide reports of WLM activity over much longer time periods, with minimal system impact. The reports generated by this tool are based off samplings made by the associated recording daemon. These daemons sample the WLM and system statistics at a very high rate (measured in seconds), but only record supersampled values at low rate (measured in minutes). These values represent the minimum, maximum, mean, and standard deviation values for each collected statistic over the recording period.
Upon startup, the Report Browser displays. The browser shows a collection of reports. The type of display, which is user configurable, is based off the properties chosen to generate the report.
Report Browser menu options:
| New | Create report |
| Close | Exit browser |
| Open | Display a selected report |
| Properties | Allow the properties of a report to be viewed and edited |
| Delete | Delete a selected report |
The Report Properties Panel allows the user to define the attributes that control the actual graphical representation of the WLM data. There are three tabbed panes in this panel:
| Report Name | A user-editable field for naming the report. Reports should end with the .rpt extension |
The first tabbed pane allows the user to edit the general properties of a display as follows:
| Trend Box | Indicates that a trend report of the selected type will be generated. Trend reports allow the comparison of two different time periods on the same display. Selecting this box enables the End of first interval field for editing. |
| Resource | Allows selections for the WLM resources to be displayed (such as CPU or memory). Refer to the WLM user's guide and documentation for information about the resources that can be managed. |
| Width of interval | Represents the period of time
covered by any display type measuring either from the latest values available
in the recording, or from user-input time selections. Interval widths are
selected from this menu. The available selections vary, depending upon the
tool being used:
|
| End of first interval | Represents the end time of a period of interest for generating a trend report. The first interval always represents a time period ending earlier than the last interval. This field can only be edited if the Trend Box is selected. |
| End of last interval | Represents the end time of a period
of interest for trend and non-trend reports The last interval always represents
the latest time frame to be used in generating a display report. There are
two exclusive selection options for this field:
|
The second tabbed pane allows users to define the set of WLM tiers and classes to be included in a report.
| Scope | Allows the user to select a tier or class-based scope for the display. This display will vary, as tier and class concepts vary between the AIX releases (AIX 4.3 classes versus AIX 5.1 superclass and subclass definitions). |
| Selection | Allows selection of including and excluding the WLM tiers or classes available in the recording. |
The third tabbed pane of the Report Properties Panel provides advanced options, primarily for the snapshot display. For snapshots, exclusive methods for coloring the display are provided for user selection. Option 1 ignores the minimum and maximum settings defined in the configuration of the WLM environment. Option 2 uses the minimum and maximum settings.
There are three types of report displays:
Each of these displays has the following common elements:
| WLM Console | Selections for printing or closing the display. |
| Time Period | Displays the time period defined in the Report Properties Panel. For trend reports comparing two time periods, two time displays are shown. |
| Tier Column | Displays the tier number associated with a class. For AIX 5.1, the column has two entries, for superclass tier (left) and subclass tier (right). |
| Class Column | Displays the class name. |
| Resource Columns | Displays the resource information based off of the type of graphical report selection chosen. These are described below. |
| Status Area | Displays a set of global system performance metrics that are also recorded to aid in analysis. The set displayed may vary between AIX releases, but will include metrics such as run, queue, swap queue, and CPU busy. |
This display is a quick "Am I OK?" overview. The display focuses on showing class resource relationships based off user-specified variation from the defined target shares. To select or adjust the variation parameters for this display, use the Report Properties Panel Advanced Menu.
If the snapshot display is trended, the earlier (first) analysis period is shown by an arrow pointing from the earlier measurement to the later (second) measurement. If there has been no change between the periods, no arrow is shown.
In this display, the resource columns are displayed in bar-graph style, along with the percentage of measured resource activity over the time period specified. The percentage is calculated based off the total system resources defined by the WLM subsystem. If the detailed display is trended, the later (second) measurement is shown above the earlier (first) measurement interval.
The third type of display report is a tabulation report. In this report, the following fields are provided:
| Number Sampled | Number of recorded samples for this period |
| Share Value | Computed share value target by WLM |
| Mean Value | Calculated average over the sample period |
| Standard Deviation | Computed standard deviation |
| Defined Min | Class minimum defined in WLM limits |
| Observed Min | Actual observed minimum across time period |
| Defined Soft Max | Class soft maximum defined in WLM limits |
| Defined Hard Max | Class hard maximum defined in WLM limits |
| Observed Max | Actual observed minimum across time period |
The daemons create recordings in the /etc/perf/wlm directory. For the base AIX tool wlmmon, these recordings are limited to the last 24-hour period.
For the Performance Toolbox tool wlmperf, these recordings are limited to 1 year. For the PTX, the xmtrend daemon is used, and uses a configuration file for recording preferences. A sample of this configuration file for WLM-- related recordings is located at /usr/lpp/perfagent.server/xmtrend_wlm.cf. Recording customization, startup, and operation are the same as those described for the xmtrend daemon.
For the base AIX, the xmwlm daemon is used and cannot be customized.
For recordings to be created, adequate disk allocations must be made for the /etc/perf/wlm directory, allowing at least 10 MB of disk space. Additionally, the daemon should be started from an /etc/inittab entry so that recordings can automatically restart after system reboots. The daemon will operate whether the WLM subsystem is in active, passive, or disabled (off) modes. However, recording activity is limited when WLM is off.
Java 1.3 perfagent.tools
A warning message is issued by the tool if no WLM recordings are located.
| /usr/bin/wlmmon | base AIX |
| /usr/bin/xmwlm | base AIX |
| /usr/bin/wlmperf | Performance Toolbox |
| /usr/lpp/perfagent.server/xmtrend.cf | Performance Toolbox |
| wlmmon and xmwlm | Located in the perfagent.tools fileset. |
| wlmperf and xmtrend | Available only with the Performance Toolbox product media. |
The wlmstat, wlmcntrl, and topas commands.