Virtual I/O Server Performance Advisor reports

The Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) Performance Advisor tool provides advisory reports that are related to performance of various subsystems in the VIOS environment.

The output generated by the part command is saved in a .tar file that is created in the current working directory.

The vios_advisor.xml report is present in the output .tar file with the other supporting files. To view the generated report, complete the following steps:

Transfer the generated .tar file to a system that has a browser and a .tar file extractor installed.
Extract the .tar file.
Open the vios_advisor.xml file that is in the extracted directory.

The vios_advisor.xml file structure is based on an XML Schema Definition (XSD) in the /usr/perf/analysis/vios_advisor.xsd file.

Each report is shown in a tabular form, and the descriptions of all of the columns are provided in the following table.

Table 1. Performance metrics
Performance metrics	Description
Measured Value	This metric displays the values that are related to the performance metrics collected over a period.
Recommended Value	This metric displays all the suggested values when the performance metrics pass the critical thresholds.
First Observed	This metric displays the time stamp when the measured value is first observed.
Last Observed	This metric displays the time stamp when the measured value is last observed.
Risk	If either the warning or the critical thresholds are passed, the risk factor is indicated on a scale of 1 - 5 with 1 being the lowest value and 5 being the highest value.
Impact	If either the warning or critical thresholds are passed, the impact is indicated on a scale of 1 - 5 with 1 being the lowest value and 5 being the highest value.

The following are the types of advisory reports that are generated by the VIOS Performance Advisor tool:

System configuration advisory report
CPU (central processing unit) advisory report
Memory advisory report
Disk advisory report
Disk adapter advisory report
I/O activities (disk and network) advisory report

The system configuration advisory report consists of the information that is related to the VIOS configuration, such as processor family, server model, number of cores, frequency at which the cores are running, and the VIOS version. The output is similar to the following figure:

An illustration of the system configuration advisory report

The CPU advisory report consists of the information that is related to the processor resources, such as the number of cores assigned to the VIOS, processor consumption during the monitoring interval, and shared processor pool capacity for shared partitions. The output is similar to the following figure:

An illustration of the CPU advisory report

Note: In the VIOS - CPU table, the status of the variable capacity weight is marked with the Warning icon because the best practice is for the VIOS to have an increased priority of 129 - 255 when in uncapped shared processor mode. See Table 2 for the definitions about the Warning icon.

The memory advisory report consists of the information that is related to the memory resources, such as the available free memory, paging space that is allocated, paging rate, and pinned memory. The output is similar to the following figure:

An illustration of the memory advisory report

Note: In this report, the status of the real memory is marked with the Critical icon because the available memory is less than the 1.5 GB limit specified in the Recommended Value column of the available memory. See Table 2 for the definitions about the Critical icon.

The disk advisory report consists of the information that is related to the disks attached to the VIOS, such as the I/O activities that are getting blocked and I/O latencies. The output is similar to the following figure:

An illustration of the disk advisory report

The disk adapter advisory report consists of information that is related to the Fibre Channel adapters that are connected to the VIOS. This report illustrates the information that is based on the average I/O operations per second, adapter utilization, and running speed. The output is similar to the following figure:

An illustration of the disk adapter advisory report

Note: In this report, the status of the Fibre Channel idle port is marked with the Investigate icon because the tool identifies a Fibre Channel adapter that is not used often. See Table 2 for the definitions about the Investigate icon.

The I/O activity advisory report consists of the following information:

Disk I/O activity, such as average and peak I/O operations per second
Network I/O activity, such as average and peak inflow and outflow I/O per second

The output is similar to the following figure:

An illustration of the I/O activity advisory report

The details related to these advisory reports can also be obtained by clicking the respective report fields from the browser. The following details are available for all the advisory reports:

What Is This: Brief description of the advisory field
Why Important: Significance of the particular advisory field
How to Modify: Details related to the configuration steps that you can use to modify the parameters that are related to the particular advisory field

For example, to know more about the processor capacity, you can click the corresponding row in the VIOS - CPU table and the information is displayed.

Note: The suggested values are based on the behavior during the monitoring period; therefore, the values can be used only as a guideline.

The following table describes the icon definitions.

Table 2. Icon definitions
Icons	Definitions
	Information related to configuration parameters
	Values acceptable in most cases
	Possible performance problem
	Severe performance problem
	Investigation required

Last updated: Thu, October 15, 2020