[Mullins02] Section 10.3. System Monitoring

System Monitoring

ADBMS environment should be continually monitored for performancedegradation and problems. Some DBMSs provide built-in monitors toaccomplish rudimentary monitoring. Additional performance monitoringsolutions such as BMC Software's PATROL or Omegamon from CandleCorporation can be deployed to provide more robust monitoringfunctionality, such as dynamic alerting, and proactive management ofperformance problems. Refer to the sidebar “Sybase SP_MONITOR

Performancemonitors are available for every aspect of the system environment, notjust the DBMS. So you may be able to monitor the operating system,network, transaction server, and any other system middleware forperformance problems. A DBA must be able to operate and understand theoutput of the monitoring solutions available to him. The performancemonitor acts as a window into the efficiency of the database system (orlack thereof).

The performance monitor acts as a window into the efficiency of the database system.

Sybase SP_MONITOR

The SP_MONITOR system procedure is a rudimentary tool supplied by Sybase with its DBMS. When the procedure is run, it displays DBMS activity in terms of the following performance-oriented numbers:

• last run: date and time that SP_MONITOR was last executed

• current run: date and time that SP_MONITOR was run to produce this report

• seconds: total number of seconds since the last SP_MONITOR was run

• cpu busy: CPU time, in milliseconds, that the server CPU spent performing Sybase work

• io busy: CPU time, in milliseconds, that the server CPU spent performing Sybase I/O operations

• idle: CPU time, in milliseconds, that Sybase has been idle

• packets received: number of input packets read by Sybase

• packets sent: number of output packets sent by Sybase

• packet errors: number of errors detected by Sybase while reading and writing packets

• total read: number of disk reads performed by Sybase

• total write: number of disk writes performed by Sybase

• total errors: total number of errors detected by Sybase while reading or writing

• connections: number of logins or attempted logins to Sybase

The numbers are cumulative since the last time SP_MONITOR was executed.