topic Re: Measurement Interface for Linux in Operating System - Linux

Measurement Interface for Linux

Paddy_1 — Wed, 14 Apr 2004 17:01:44 GMT

Hi Everybody.,

I understand that we have "midaemon" ported to Linux though Measureware itself is not available.

I am wondering if there are any other open source implementation of Measurement Interface to kernel a la HP-UX

Thank You
Paddy

Re: Measurement Interface for Linux

Steven E. Protter — Wed, 14 Apr 2004 19:06:10 GMT

All I know of are sar data collection scripts. Which is what the pros on HP-UX use anway. Attaching an hpux version that will require some porting.

SEP

Re: Measurement Interface for Linux

Paddy_1 — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 10:07:40 GMT

Excellent Stuff! No doubt but here is what I am looking for in terms of a programmatic interface.We all know midaemon is at the heart of performance data collection for the HP-UX kernel and I am looking for an exact equivalent of it in Linux.
If one is not available I am inclined to ask you what would be the difficulty in writing one so that people who are used to the HP perf tools can re-use their analytic skills.

Any ideas??

Re: Measurement Interface for Linux

Paddy_1 — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 10:10:13 GMT

Steven,

One more point.sar runs in userland and so do many other diagnostic commands.
I am wondering what if there is a interface that communicates with the kernel modules and presents a consistent API for other profiling and accounting tools to be built upon.

Thanks
Paddy

Re: Measurement Interface for Linux

Fred Ruffet — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 11:02:24 GMT

Maybe you could use contents of /proc pseudo filesystem.

Re: Measurement Interface for Linux

Paddy_1 — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 11:38:06 GMT

Sorry I didnt get the /proc filesystem idea.
If you dont mind Could you please elaborate.

Re: Measurement Interface for Linux

Martin P.J. Zinser — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 14:49:18 GMT

Hello Paddy,

he refers to the fact that linux presents many performance relevant data via the /proc pseudo filesystem. Do an ls /proc . The "files" in there contain various information about your system.

You should have a file proc.txt on your system
(in my case /usr/src/linux-2.6.1-1.65/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt)

else you can look it up e.g. at

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/x8758.html

Greetings, Martin

Re: Measurement Interface for Linux

Paddy_1 — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 19:12:46 GMT

Thanks Martin.I just was not sure if the collection happened at the user level or kernel level.Let me explore these in depth.

Meanwhile,I am welcome to other alternatives as well.

Thanks for the replies.

Paddy

Re: Measurement Interface for Linux

dirk dierickx — Fri, 16 Apr 2004 00:55:57 GMT

also sar related, the great tool sarcheck is in beta for linux right now: http://www.sarcheck.com/sclinux.htm

when using ITO agents, there is a performance agent included (version 7.x) that is basicly a lightweight measureware.

Re: Measurement Interface for Linux

Jarle Bjorgeengen — Fri, 16 Apr 2004 02:39:57 GMT

The full Perfermance agent and Glance exist for Linux.

You can download trial version of them here.

http://openview.hp.com/downloads/downloads.html#evaluation

It will log perfview-viewable/-analyzable data.

Rgds Jarle

Re: Measurement Interface for Linux

Paddy_1 — Fri, 16 Apr 2004 08:49:38 GMT

I understand that Glance and PerfView are still available.
My question is about lack of MeasureWare for Linux while there is "midaemon" running.
With MWA I can write a parm file which helps separation of the data that can be later visualised by PerfView.

I would also be interested in knowing why is it so difficult for MWA to be ported for Linux.

Thanks
Paddy

Re: Measurement Interface for Linux

Jarle Bjorgeengen — Tue, 20 Apr 2004 02:23:40 GMT

Hi Paddy,

there might be som confusion of terms here.

HP Perfomance agent is what used to be called measureware (MWA).

Install the performance agent from the link i posted, and I bet you have the parm file, and full mwa functionality.

And yes it is for Linux platform.

Best regards
Jarle BjÃ¸rgeengen
HP Suppor