Chapter 15 Resource Control Functionality in the Solaris Management Console

This chapter describes the resource control and performance monitoring features in the Solaris Management Console. Only a subset of the resource management features can be controlled using the console.

You can use the console to monitor system performance and to enter the resource control values shown in Table 15–1 for projects, tasks, and processes. The console provides a convenient, secure alternative to the command-line interface (CLI) for managing hundreds of configuration parameters that are spread across many systems. Each system is managed individually. The console's graphical interface supports all experience levels.

The following topics are covered.

• Using the Console (Task Map)

• Console Overview

• Management Scope

• Performance Tool

• Resource Controls Tab

• Console References

Using the Console (Task Map)

Task	Description	For Instructions
Use the console	Start the Solaris Management Console in a local environment or in a name service or directory service environment. Note that the performance tool is not available in a name service environment.	Starting the Solaris Management Console in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration and Using the Solaris Management Tools in a Name Service Environment (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration
Monitor system performance	Access the Performance tool under System Status.	How to Access the Performance Tool
Add resource controls to projects	Access the Resource Controls tab under System Configuration.	How to Access the Resource Controls Tab

Console Overview

Resource management functionality is a component of the Solaris Management Console. The console is a container for GUI-based administrative tools that are stored in collections called toolboxes. For information on the console and how to use it, see Chapter 2, Working With the Solaris Management Console (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

When you use the console and its tools, the main source of documentation is the online help system in the console itself. For a description of the documentation available in the online help, see Solaris Management Console (Overview) in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

Management Scope

The term management scope refers to the name service environment that you choose to use with the selected management tool. The management scope choices for the resource control and performance tools are the/etc/project local file, or NIS.

The management scope that you select during a console session should correspond to the primary name service that is identified in the /etc/nsswitch.conf file.

Performance Tool

The Performance tool is used to monitor resource utilization. Resource utilization can be summarized for the system, viewed by project, or viewed for an individual user.

Figure 15–1 Performance Tool in the Solaris Management Console

How to Access the Performance Tool

The Performance tool is located under System Status in the Navigation pane. To access the Performance tool, do the following:

1. Click the System Status control entity in the Navigation pane.

   The control entity is used to expand menu items in the Navigation pane.

2. Click the Performance control entity.

3. Click the System control entity.

4. Double-click Summary, Projects, or Users.

   Your choice depends on the usage you want to monitor.

Monitoring by System

Values are shown for the following attributes.

Attribute	Description
Active Processes	Number of processes that are active on the system
Physical Memory Used	Amount of system memory that is in use
Physical Memory Free	Amount of system memory that is available
Swap Used	Amount of system swap space that is in use
Swap Free	Amount of free system swap space
Page Rate	Rate of system paging activity
System Calls	Number of system calls per second
Network Packets	Number of network packets that are transmitted per second
CPU Usage	Percentage of CPU that is currently in use
Load Average	Number of processes in the system run queue which are averaged over the last 1, 5, and 15 minutes

Monitoring by Project or User Name

Values are shown for the following attributes.

Attribute	Short Name	Description
Input Blocks	inblk	Number of blocks read
Blocks Written	oublk	Number of blocks written
Chars Read/Written	ioch	Number of characters read and written
Data Page Fault Sleep Time	dftime	Amount of time spent processing data page faults
Involuntary Context Switches	ictx	Number of involuntary context switches
System Mode Time	stime	Amount of time spent in the kernel mode
Major Page Faults	majfl	Number of major page faults
Messages Received	mrcv	Number of messages received
Messages Sent	msend	Number of messages sent
Minor Page Faults	minf	Number of minor page faults
Num Processes	nprocs	Number of processes owned by the user or the project
Num LWPs	count	Number of lightweight processes
Other Sleep Time	slptime	Sleep time other than tftime, dftime, kftime, and ltime
CPU Time	pctcpu	Percentage of recent CPU time used by the process, the user, or the project
Memory Used	pctmem	Percentage of system memory used by the process, the user, or the project
Heap Size	brksize	Amount of memory allocated for the process data segment
Resident Set Size	rsssize	Current amount of memory claimed by the process
Process Image Size	size	Size of the process image in Kbytes
Signals Received	sigs	Number of signals received
Stopped Time	stoptime	Amount of time spent in the stopped state
Swap Operations	swaps	Number of swap operations in progress
System Calls Made	sysc	Number of system calls made over the last time interval
System Page Fault Sleep Time	kftime	Amount of time spent processing page faults
System Trap Time	ttime	Amount of time spent processing system traps
Text Page Fault Sleep Time	tftime	Amount of time spent processing text page faults
User Lock Wait Sleep Time	ltime	Amount of time spent waiting for user locks
User Mode Time	utime	Amount of time spent in the user mode
User and System Mode Time	time	The cumulative CPU execution time
Voluntary Context Switches	vctx	Number of voluntary context switches
Wait CPU Time	wtime	Amount of time spent waiting for CPU (latency)

Resource Controls Tab

Resource controls allow you to associate a project with a set of resource constraints. These constraints determine the allowable resource usage of tasks and processes that run in the context of the project.

Figure 15–2 Resource Controls Tab in the Solaris Management Console

How to Access the Resource Controls Tab

The Resource Controls tab is located under System Configuration in the Navigation pane. To access Resource Controls, do the following:

1. Click the System Configuration control entity in the Navigation pane.

2. Double-click Projects.

3. Click on a project in the console main window to select it.

4. Select Properties from the Action menu.

5. Click the Resource Controls tab.

   View, add, edit, or delete resource control values for processes, projects, and tasks.

Resource Controls You Can Set

The following table shows the resource controls that can be set in the console. The table describes the resource that is constrained by each control. The table also identifies the default units that are used by the project database for that resource. The default units are of two types:

• Quantities represent a limited amount.

• Indexes represent a maximum valid identifier.

Thus, project.cpu-shares specifies the number of shares to which the project is entitled. process.max-file-descriptor specifies the highest file number that can be assigned to a process by the open(2) system call.

Table 15–1 Standard Resource Controls Available in the Solaris Management Console

Control Name	Description	Default Unit
project.cpu-shares	The number of CPU shares that are granted to this project for use with the fair share scheduler (FSS) (see the FSS(7) man page)	Quantity (shares)
task.max-cpu-time	Maximum CPU time that is available to this task's processes	Time (seconds)
task.max-lwps	Maximum number of LWPs simultaneously available to this task's processes	Quantity (LWPs)
process.max-cpu-time	Maximum CPU time that is available to this process	Time (seconds)
process.max-file-descriptor	Maximum file descriptor index that is available to this process	Index (maximum file descriptor)
process.max-file-size	Maximum file offset that is available for writing by this process	Size (bytes)
process.max-core-size	Maximum size of a core file that is created by this process	Size (bytes)
process.max-data-size	Maximum heap memory that is available to this process	Size (bytes)
process.max-stack-size	Maximum stack memory segment that is available to this process	Size (bytes)
process.max-address-space	Maximum amount of address space, as summed over segment sizes, available to this process	Size (bytes)

Setting Values

You can view, add, edit, or delete resource control values for processes, projects, and tasks. These operations are performed through dialog boxes in the console.

Resource controls and values are viewed in tables in the console. The Resource Control column lists the resource controls that can be set. The Value column displays the properties that are associated with each resource control. In the table, these values are enclosed in parentheses, and they appear as plain text separated by commas. The values in parentheses comprise an “action clause.” Each action clause is composed of a threshold, a privilege level, one signal, and one local action that is associated with the particular threshold. Each resource control can have multiple action clauses, which are also separated by commas.

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Note –

On a running system, values that are altered in the project database through the console only take effect for new tasks that are started in a project.

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Console References

For information on projects and tasks, see Chapter 2, Projects and Tasks (Overview). For information on resource controls, see Chapter 6, Resource Controls (Overview). For information on the fair share scheduler (FSS), see Chapter 8, Fair Share Scheduler (Overview).

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Note –

Not all resource controls can be set in the console. See Table 15–1 for the list of controls that can be set in the console.

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