HP XPWatch and HP XPSketch Reference Guide

1 Introduction to HP XPWatch
This chapter describes the features of HP XPWatch (it was earlier known as HP XP
P9000Watch/XPWatch) and the environment required to run it.
Overview
HP XPWatch is a command-line interface utility provided with HP XP7 Performance Advisor. It is
designed for focused troubleshooting and can capture data as frequently as every 5 seconds.
NOTE: The 5 seconds data capture frequency applies to XP or XP7 disk array configured with
any number of LDEVs. If the requested data is more than 2000 LDEVs, the time taken to collect
performance data increases accordingly.
HP XPWatch monitors the performance of the following:
• Array level
• Host groups
• Ports
• Client-Host Interface Processor (CHIP) or Channel Adapter (CHA)
• Array Control Processors (ACPs) or Disk Adapters (DKAs)
• RAID groups
• Logical Devices (LDEVs) of the XP and the XP7 disk arrays
In addition, HP XPWatch monitors the replication status of P-VOLs and S-VOLs in the primary data
center disk array and provides the Sync/Async and CA Journal performance metrics.
HP XPWatch can be used to troubleshoot performance issues, such as:
• Hot spots within the XP or XP7 disk arrays (hard disk drives or RAID groups that are over
utilized compared to the rest of the array)
• Front-end congestion (micro processors (mp) ports)
• Back-end issues
• Cache/Shared Memory issues, usage, contention and so on
• Determining true I/O throughput (from the mp port to the hard disk drive)
• Port I/O spikes
• Poor application response
• Data replication issues
The performance metrics are displayed on the console of the host system. The output data is stored
in comma separated files (.csv) that are generated, one file for each component. The .csv file
generated by HP XPWatch in the Interactive mode can be loaded in HP XPSketch to obtain a visual
representation of the output data.
HP XPWatch offers the following features:
• Focused troubleshooting
• Real-time performance data monitoring and collection for time intervals as low as 5 seconds
• In the “CLI mode” (page 10) (Command Line Interface), the output screen has the timestamp
when the data is retrieved.
• Ability to split data in desired intervals and store them in different files
• Customizable menu size
6 Introduction to HP XPWatch