Solaris Common Desktop Environment: User's Guide

Chapter 20 Using Performance Meter

Use the Performance Meter to monitor activity and performance on a workstation. Several performance parameters such as CPU utilization, disk activity, network packets, and the like, can be displayed graphically in this customizable window.

You can monitor performance of local or remote hosts, set up color-coded activity thresholds to warn you of exceptional performance, and log the samples to a file.


Tip –

Performance Meter enables you to identify errant behavior on your system. After identifying the errant behavior, you can use Process Manager (see Chapter 19, Using Process Manager) to identify and kill the errant processes.


To Open Performance Meter

    Click the Performance Meter control on the Font Panel.

    Performance Meter opens and displays the default charts (CPU and disk activity).


    Tip –

    To make Performance Meter's Front Panel icon inactive, use Process Manager to kill the sdtperfmeter process.


Choosing the Host and Parameters to Display

You can monitor performance on your workstation (local) or on another workstation (remote). The View menu lists several performance parameters that you can display for the host you are monitoring.

Graphic

The parameters you choose to monitor may depend on:

Users unfamiliar with system parameters will typically choose to display CPU and disk usage. The typical setup for a more aware user is to display the CPU usage, disk usage, system load, and packets. Here are some hints and tips for choosing what to monitor:

For further information, see Managing System Performance in System Administration Guide: Advanced Administration.

To Specify the Host to Be Monitored

  1. Choose Setup from the Options menu.

    Performance Meter displays the Setup dialog box.

  2. Select the Remote radio button to indicate that you are about to type the name of a remote host.

  3. Type the system name (for example, jupiter) or the IP address (for example, 129.156.220.133) of the remote host.


    Tip –

    To find a host, use Address Manager with Hosts selected on the Find menu.


  4. Click Apply to make your changes take effect.

    Performance Meter accesses the remote host and displays its performance. The system name on the title bar of the Performance Meter main window changes to the name of the remote host.

To Change the Parameters Displayed

  1. Open the View menu to display the list of available parameters.

    Each parameter has a checkbox to indicate whether it is currently selected for display.

  2. Select or deselect the relevant menu item to display or remove any of the parameters.

    You can display any combination of parameters.

Choosing How the Parameters Are Displayed

You can arrange the Performance Meter window in different ways, depending on the number of parameters you have chosen to display, the space available on your desktop, and whether you want to display historical values.

Figure 20–1 Performance Meter Displaying All Parameters

Graphic

To Show/Hide the Menu Bar

    Choose Hide/Show Menubar from the Options menu.

    Performance Meter hides the menu bar.

    You can re-display the menu bar at any time by clicking once on the display area of the Performance Meter main window.

To Show/Hide the Line Chart or Area Chart

    Choose Hide/Show Strip Chart from the Options menu.

    Performance Meter hides the line/area charts for all displayed parameters if they were displayed, or displays the line/area charts if they were hidden.

For each parameter you choose to display, Performance Meter displays:

To Change the Orientation of the Charts

By default, Performance Meter displays the performance charts horizontally (side-by-side). Depending on the number of parameters you monitor and the available space on your desktop, you may want to display them vertically.

  1. Choose Setup from the Options menu.

    Performance Meter displays the Setup dialog box.

  2. Select Vertical or Horizontal to specify the type of chart required.

  3. (Optional) Select the Show Limit Line checkbox if you want your charts to indicate the threshold value using a line.

  4. Click Apply when you are satisfied with the changes you have made.

    Performance Meter displays the performance information in the specified orientation.

To Choose Line Charts or Area Charts

The optional chart displayed for each parameter can be one of the following types:

Graphic

  1. Choose Setup from the Options menu.

    Performance Meter displays the Setup dialog box.

  2. Select the Solid choice button for area charts or the Line choice button for line charts.

  3. (Optional) Select the Show Limit Line checkbox if you want your charts to indicate the threshold value using a line.

  4. Click Apply when you are satisfied with the changes you have made.

    Performance Meter displays the information using the specified charts.

Working With Colors and Thresholds

Performance Meter uses colors and thresholds to help you differentiate between activity that you consider normal and activity that you consider exceptional. If a parameter exceeds a threshold value, the exceptional value is displayed using a different color. By default, values less than the default thresholds are displayed in blue and values exceeding the default thresholds are displayed in red.

The Setup dialog box enables you to change the colors and threshold values.


Tip –

Be consistent in your use of colors: if red means “warning” for one parameter, then it should mean the same for the other.

If you do not know an appropriate threshold value for a parameter, consider using the same color for both “above” and “below” so that you are only monitoring activity.


To Change Chart Colors

  1. Choose Setup from the Options menu.

    Performance Meter displays the Setup dialog box. For each parameter, color selectors enable you to choose the colors for values above and values below the current threshold.

  2. Press mouse button 1 on any of the color selectors and choose a new color.

  3. Click Apply when you are satisfied with the changes you have made.

    Performance Meter applies the new colors to the display.

To Change the Threshold Value for a Parameter

  1. Choose Setup from the Options menu.

    Performance Meter displays the Setup dialog box which contains a Threshold box for each parameter.

  2. Type a new threshold value for the relevant parameter and click Apply.

    Values below the new threshold value are now displayed using the color selected for below, and values above this threshold value are now displayed in the color selected for above.

Table 20–1 Default Threshold Settings
 Parameter Default Threshold Value
 CPU 50%
 Load 2 per second
 Disk 20 per second
 Page 8 per second
 Context 32 per second
 Swap 2 per second
 Interrupts 50 per second
 Packets 16 per second
 Collisions 2 per second
 Errors 2 per second

Logging Samples and Choosing the Sample Interval

By default, Performance Meter samples the activity on the workstation every 2 seconds, and creates a log file containing details of the initial sample only. You can change this sample interval and choose to continually add the sample information to a log file.

To Save Sample Information to a Log File

  1. Choose Setup from the Options menu.

    Performance Meter displays the Setup dialog box.

  2. Select the Log Samples In checkbox.

  3. Type the name of your log file in the Log Samples In text box.

    Use a descriptive name such as the default samples, or if you are monitoring multiple hosts from your workstation: samples_hostname.

    The default location is your home folder, such as /home/fredj/samples.

  4. Click Apply to make your changes take effect.

    Performance Meter creates the specified log file (a text file) if it doesn't exist. Performance Meter continues to append sample details for each sample until you exit Performance Meter. The next time you run Performance Meter, the Log Samples In checkbox will be unselected.

To Change the Sample Interval

  1. Choose Setup from the Options menu.

    Performance Meter displays the Setup dialog box.

  2. Specify a new sample interval in the Sample Every selector.

    The number you specify must be a whole number between 1 and 9 (inclusive). If you are viewing performance on-screen, a low interval such as 3 seconds may be appropriate; if you are logging samples to a log file, a higher interval is useful for restricting the size of your log file.

  3. Click Apply to make your changes take effect.

    Performance Meter samples at the specified rate for this and all future sessions, until you change the value in the Sample Every selector again.