HP-UX Workload Manager User's Guide

Introduction
Performance and resource management overview
Chapter 134
Performance and resource management
overview
Performance management is necessary to keep users satisfied and to
ensure that business-critical applications and transactions have the
resources they need. Resource management is necessary to help
companies use computing resources more efficiently and effectively, and
to reduce administration costs. Many companies want to consolidate (1)
their data centers onto fewer systems and (2) multiple applications onto
a single server. Managing both performance and system resources
requires maintaining a dynamic balance that optimizes resource
utilization while also maintaining performance goals, automatically
re-allocating resources in response to changing priorities and conditions.
Basically, performance and resource management requires:
• Monitoring the system to understand how the current combination of
system resources, applications, and users affects performance and
resource utilization
• Controlling performance by managing the system’s resources,
applications, and number of users
The methods to monitor and control performance and resource
utilization can vary greatly.
Table 1-1 explores advantages and disadvantages of several monitoring
methods.
Table 1-1 Performance and resource utilization monitoring methods
Method Advantages Disadvantages
Wait for users’ complaints
about performance
• User-focused
• System configuration is
kept simple to reduce
number of complaints
and speed resolution
• Re-active (not
pro-active)
•Inexact
• Requires one
application/server model
to keep number of calls
low