Example: Identifying the performance issues of an application using Veritas Operations Manager
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Example: Identifying the performance issues of an application using Veritas Operations Manager

As an administrator, one of your responsibilities is to ensure the optimum performance of the applications that are running in your datacenter. Performance issues of your critical applications can have significant negative effect on overall business. For example, if you fail to address long I/O access times for the storage network supporting your e-commerce transaction system, the seasonal surge in transactions could cause significant slowness and have financial implications on the business.

With the Storage Insight Add-on for Veritas Operations Manager, you can get visibility from the application down to the spindle. Veritas Operations Manager empowers you to view the detailed storage information of an array. With this added visibility, you can perform storage management operations with confidence.

For detailed information about the storage enclosures in your datacenter and on using Storage Insight Add-on, refer to the Veritas Operations Manager Management Server Add-ons User's Guide.

Note:

You must ensure that you have adequate permissions to access storage views and perform storage management operations on the configurations that the Storage Insight Add-on discovers.

In Veritas Operations Manager, you can view the performance for various objects such as host, volume, disk by using interactive graphs. You can select an object and view graphs for multiple performance parameters. These graphs are line charts. The lines that represent the performance parameters are rendered in different colors. The X-axis represents the time duration and the Y-axis represents the performance parameter. Linear trend line is displayed for every performance parameter.

The performance graphs have options to:

For the complete list of objects and the types of performance graphs, refer to Veritas Operations Manager Management Server Administrator's Guide.

This example explains how you can use the performance graphs on the storage objects in Veritas Operations Manager and the ability to view the application to the spindle mapping, to analyze the following problem:

Problem: The Oracle database that is installed on the LUNs, which are part of IBM XIV enclosure, is slow.

In this example, we use the following names:

Table: Example names

Object

Name

Oracle database

ora_db

Host that you use to access ora_db

lnx_host

This host runs on Linux platform.

Volume, which is associated with ora_db

vxvm_vol

File system, which is associated with ora_db

vxfs_fs

This File System is a VxFS file system.

Disks that are associated with the IBM XIV enclosure on which ora_db is installed

xiv_disk1

xiv_disk2

Any of the following can result in the poor performance of ora_db:

To view the performance graphs for lnx_host associated with ora_db

  1. In the Veritas Operations Manager console, select Manage > Databases.
  2. In the Databases view, locate the row that lists the details of ora_db. Under the Hosts column, click on the host name, lnx_host.
  3. In the details view of lnx_host, click the Performance tab.

To view the performance graphs for vxfs_fs associated with ora_db

  1. In the Veritas Operations Manager console, select Manage > Databases.
  2. In the Databases view, click the name of the database ora_db to view its details.
  3. In the detailed view of ora_db, click the File Systems tab.
  4. In the File Systems view, select the check box for vxfs_fs and, click Actions > Performance.

To view the performance graphs for vxvm_vol associated with ora_db

  1. In the Veritas Operations Manager console, select Manage > Databases.
  2. In the Databases view, click the name of the database ora_db to view its details.
  3. In the detailed view of ora_db, click the Volumes tab.
  4. In the Volumes view, select the check box for vxvm_vol and, click Actions > Performance.

To view the performance graphs for xiv_disk1 or xiv_disk2 associated with ora_db

  1. In the Veritas Operations Manager console, select Manage > Databases.
  2. In the Databases view, click the name of the database ora_db to view its details.
  3. In the detailed view of ora_db, click the Disks tab.
  4. In the Disks view, select the check box for xiv_disk1 or xiv_disk2 and, click Actions > Performance.

To view the performance graphs for the array port associated with ora_db

  1. In the Veritas Operations Manager console, select Manage > Databases.
  2. In the Databases view, click the name of the database ora_db to view its details.
  3. In the detailed view of ora_db, click the Volumes tab.
  4. In the Volumes view, click the name of the volume vxvm_vol to view its details.
  5. In the detailed view of the vxvm_vol, click the LUNs tab.
  6. In the LUNs view, click on a LUN.
  7. In the detailed view of LUNs, click the Array Ports tab.
  8. Select an array port, click Actions > Performance.

Performance charts for xiv_disk1

Performance charts for xiv_disk1

Performance charts for xiv_disk2

Performance charts for xiv_disk2

From the performance graphs of xiv_disk1 and xiv_disk2, you notice an issue with the performance of xiv_disk1. The performance graph of xiv_disk1 displays that the average read latency is higher than the optimum value and the bytes read is lower than the optimum value.

To understand the history of the disk I/O of xiv_disk1, you can use any of the following options that are available on the performance graph:

From the performance graphs, you have identified the low disk I/O issue of xiv_disk1. This issue can adversely affect the performance of the ora_db. You must understand the specific problem that results in the low disk I/O on xiv_disk1. To understand the specific problem, you must analyze the details of xiv_disk1. Understanding the cause of the problem can help you make appropriate decisions on addressing the performance issue of the ora_db.

As xiv_disk1 and xiv_disk2 are part of IBM XIV enclosure, you can view the detailed information on them with the help of Storage Insight Add-on.

Note:

You must configure the deep discovery for IBM XIV storage enclosures to view the details of xiv_disk1 and xiv_disk2.

For information on managing the Storage Insight Add-on, refer to the Veritas Operations Manager Management Server Add-ons User's Guide.

The following procedure explains how you can view the details of the LUNs that are based on the disks xiv_disk1 and xiv_disk2 in the IBM XIV enclosure. Also, you can view the tiers that are associated with these LUNs.

To view the details of LUNs on which ora_db is installed

  1. In the Veritas Operations Manager console, select Manage > Databases.
  2. In the Databases view, click the name of the database to view its details.
  3. In the details view of ora_db, click the Disks tab.
  4. In the Disks view, locate xiv_disk1 or xiv_disk2. In the LUN column, click the corresponding LUNs.

    This example explains how you can view the details of the LUN associated with xiv_disk1.

  5. In the details view of the LUN associated with xiv_disk1, click Disks.
  6. In the Disks view, locate xiv_disk1. In the Enclosures column, click the name of the enclosure.
  7. In the details view of the enclosure, click the Pool Volumes tab.
  8. In the Pool Volumes view, locate the tier that is assigned to the LUN associated with xiv_disk1. In the Tier column of the Pool Volumes table, understand the tier to which the storage is assigned.

From the Pool Volumes view, you notice that the LUN associated with xiv_disk1 is assigned to a low performance tier. This slow storage tier causes the low I/O of xiv_disk1. The low disk I/O on xiv_disk1 adversely affects the performance of ora_db.

To address this issue, you must provision a new LUN on a high performance tier. Then, you can evacuate the volumes from xiv_disk1 on to the new LUN.

For information on creating tier definitions for LUNs, refer to the Veritas Operations Manager Management Server Add-ons User's Guide.

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