Before installing and using the software to generate reports, you should have an understanding of how data collection occurs. The Performance Reporting Manager add-on uses the history logging capability for agent machines that is provided by the Sun Management Center 3.0 software. A data collection service is created on the server layer. The following types of data are collected:
Hardware system data
Hardware configuration data
Software package data
Software patch data
Performance (history.log) data
Process data
The data is logged on the agent machines. The data collection service on the server layer collects this data from the agent machines and then stores it. The data returned in reports comes from the data stored on the server or stored on the agent machine.
Raw data is the term given to data that is logged in the history log files located on the agent machines. The ability to log raw data is a feature contained of Sun Management Center 3.0 base product. This data can be logged either on a single machine, or on a group of machines by using the grouping capability. If you use the grouping capability, the data is logged at the time interval you specify in the Property Logging dialog box for the data property. The grouping capability is a feature of the Premier Management Applications add-on to Sun Management Center 3.0. For more information about the grouping capability, see Data Properties and Sun Management Center 3.0 User's Guide.
Raw data is retained on the agent machine for eight days. This limit is necessary because the total volume of raw data is very large. Data will start purging after eight days. For example, on the ninth day, the first day of raw data is purged from the agent machine. At any given time on the agent machine, the last eight days of raw data is available. Before this data is purged, summary records are preserved. For more information regarding this process, see Roll-up Process.
Before the raw data is purged, the data is summarized, or “rolled-up”, at predefined intervals. Roll-up data is the term given to the data that has been summarized. Before any raw data is purged, the minimum, maximum, and average values are calculated and can be preserved in several ways.
Hourly data is the term given to data that is summarized, or rolled-up, every hour. The raw data for each hour is processed to create a summary record for that hour. For example, if raw data is logged every five minutes, a total of twelve raw records are available in one hour. When this data is rolled-up after one hour, the twelve raw records are processed in order to find the minimum, maximum, and average values during that hour. One summary record is generated for the twelve raw records. The hourly data is first computed on the agent machine, and is then brought over to the server machine where it is added to the database.
This method is the way raw data is rolled-up into hourly data at the end of each hour.
The daily, weekly, and monthly values are calculated in a similar manner. The maximum, minimum, and average values are also calculated for each period.
Polling starts after the Performance Reporting Manager software is installed and set up, and once the server is started. The Sun Management Center 3.0 server starts polling the agent machines every hour to collect the data logged on those machines. Logged data is available for reports at the following intervals:
Hardware system data: 90 minutes after the server is started
Patch and package data: 30 minutes after the server is started
Hardware configuration data: 90 minutes after the server is started
Data on the agent machines is collected at different times. Data is logged on an agent machine after the following time intervals:
Hardware system and hardware configuration data: Every 12 hours
Patch and package data: Every 12 hours
Performance data: According to the logging interval specified in the Property Logging Setting dialog box. This data is stored in the circular history.log file.
Process data: Every 15 minutes
The data collection service on the server layer collects the data in the following manner:
Agent machines: Data is collected from those machines that are in the current server context and have the Performance Reporting Manager software installed.
Performance data: Roll-up data is collected every hour.