topic Re: memory usage metrics in Operating System - HP-UX

memory usage metrics

John Downs_1 — Tue, 14 May 2002 12:33:31 GMT

I would like to monitor memory usage on my workstations that are running 11.00. But I don't want to spent any money on software packages. Can sar or vmstat give me accurate measurements? If yes which options and which metric? Is there any other free tools that do this?

-john

Re: memory usage metrics

S.K. Chan — Tue, 14 May 2002 12:37:39 GMT

Check the related thread (this was just yesterday..)

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xa56442308663d611abdb0090277a778c,00.html

Re: memory usage metrics

David Burgess — Tue, 14 May 2002 12:39:43 GMT

Hi,

Also take a look at top, iostat and sa.

The following entries will collect stats for you. They are saved in /var/adm/sa

see man sa

0,5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * 0-6 /usr/lib/sa/sa1
5 23 * * 1-5 /usr/lib/sa/sa2 -s 1:00 -e 23:40 -i 300 -A

HTH,

Dave.

Re: memory usage metrics

T G Manikandan — Tue, 14 May 2002 12:41:23 GMT

There is a trial version of Glance plus available here

http://h21007.www2.hp.com/dspp/tech/tech_TechSoftwareDetailPage_IDX/1,1703,1021,00.html

Thanks

Re: memory usage metrics

harry d brown jr — Tue, 14 May 2002 12:45:53 GMT

John,

for ACCURATE memory statistics only glance/measureware will do the job ACCURATELY. For "close enough for government work", then sar and vmstat will do.

glance/measureware has the hooks in the kernel, measuring all the commands that execute in a clock cycle.

But, if you don't want to spend money for glance, then sar and vmstat will have to do.

live free or die
harry

Re: memory usage metrics

Barry O Flanagan — Tue, 14 May 2002 12:46:35 GMT

Don't forget about swapinfo. That should give you a short and sweet version of your current memory usage.

swapinfo -am ...is handy.

Re: memory usage metrics

John Downs_1 — Tue, 14 May 2002 18:26:59 GMT

Thanks for all the good replies. Now I have two more questions. When using vmstat -S I was lead to believe that the si, so and po are the important metrics from this commands when you are interested in memory utilization. Is this true? Next question, according to HP-UX tuning and performance by Sauers and Weygant si and so are process deactivation and reactivation respectively. I thought an so (swap out) whould be deactivation and si (swap in) would be reactivation but the book has it the other way around. Was this a type or is it correct?

Thanks!

-john

Re: memory usage metrics

Paula J Frazer-Campbell — Tue, 14 May 2002 18:39:47 GMT

John

SO is swap out of memory to disk (active)/under control.

SI is swap in to memory from disk (deactive) used / finished.

HTH

Paula

Re: memory usage metrics

harry d brown jr — Tue, 14 May 2002 18:46:58 GMT

John,

deactivation is "so" - if it needs to
reactivation is "si" - gets the page from swap

must be a typo

live free or die
harry

Re: memory usage metrics

Paula J Frazer-Campbell — Tue, 14 May 2002 18:50:01 GMT

Hi Harry

Have I got my logic the wrong way around, I am willing to be corrected.

;^(

Paula

Re: memory usage metrics

harry d brown jr — Tue, 14 May 2002 19:02:10 GMT

Paula, It's probably just a "use" of the words "deactive/active":

by Bill Hassell:
http://www.interex.org/pubcontent/enterprise/may99/06usr.html

live free or die
harry

Re: memory usage metrics

Paula J Frazer-Campbell — Wed, 15 May 2002 08:03:38 GMT

Cheer Harry.

Paula

Re: memory usage metrics

John Downs_1 — Wed, 15 May 2002 10:54:28 GMT

Thanks for all the help, case closed.

-john