HP Caliper Ktrace Features Guide

• Quickly identify the source of repeatable problems.
• Determine if error routines are being invoked.
• Determine if a function is being passed the proper parameters.
• Identify who failed to release a resource.
• Identify who shut off interrupts.
You analyze performance issues:
• Determine what an unresponsive CPU is doing.
• Identify a process that is switched out during a critical time.
• Determine if caller, callee sequences and timing have a path length problem.
• Determine if contention for shared resources is a scalability problem.
• Identify who shut off interrupts.
The following table provides an example of the data collected by ktracer and
displayed by ktracedump:
Seq Cpu PID TID Caller Function AbsSec ElUSec
100 1 7626 40674 bubbleup ext_int 913.650 37.601
101 1 7626 40674 ext_int clock_int 913.650 1.191
102 1 7626 40674 lv_parread lv_begin 913.651 933.205
103 1 7626 40674 lv_begin lv_startpv 913.651 17.893
104 1 7626 40674 lv_startpv ia64dsk_strategy 913.651 5.604
105 1 7626 40674 ia64dsk_strategy escsi_strategy 913.651 50.542
106 1 7626 40674 swidle idle 913.651 29.289
107 1 -1 -1 bubbleup ext_int 913.660 8924.825
108 1 -1 -1 ext_int clock_int 913.660 13.555
Ktrace Command Format
To access ktracer and ktracedump through HP Caliper's Command line interface,
the commands are as follows:
caliper ktrace --ktracer-args="options"
caliper ktrace --ktracedump-args="options"
To access ktracer and ktracedump through a shell prompt, the commands are as
follows:
ktracer options
ktracedump options
The options are defined in the ktracer(1M) and ktracedump(1M) manpages and in
Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 of this manual.
For simplicity throughout this manual, the ktracer and ktracedump commands are
shown in the above abbreviated form.
12 HP Caliper Ktrace Feature Overview