HP-UX Tuning and Performance: Concepts, Tools, and Methods (Hewlett-Packard Professional Books) [Paperback]

Robert F. Sauers (Author), Peter S. Weygant (Author), Hewlett-Packard Professional Books (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0131027166 | ISBN-13: 978-0131027169 | Publication Date: July 7, 1999 | Edition: 1ST

10271-5 The "must-have" performance guide for every HP-UX administrator and developer! HP-UX Tuning and Performance is the first book to take the guesswork out of maximizing HP-UX performance! This book introduces a comprehensive, systematic performance management methodology that addresses every stage in the lifecycle of an HP-UX system. Two of Hewlett-Packard's leading HP-UX performance experts present specific metrics, symptoms, and solutions for each key element of an HP-UX system, including hardware, the OS platform, and application development. Coverage includes: *Identifying and addressing bottlenecks: CPU, memory, disk, network, and beyond. *Key tradeoffs impacting performance in both uniprocessor and SMP environments *Choosing the right performance metrics-and using them correctly *Compiler optimization and application profiling *Designing applications for maximum performance HP-UX Tuning and Performance introduces the best generic UNIX and HP-UX specific tools for performance management and demonstrates practical ways to instrument HP-UX systems so that your measurements truly represent real-world performance.Whether you're an HP-UX sys admin, net admin, developer, or capacity planner, it's your complete guide to getting all the performance you paid for!

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Computer consultants shouldn't be "parts-replacers" any more than auto mechanics--there's no point in aimlessly trying a solution before you're reasonably sure you've found one that's going to solve the problem. The authors of HP-UX Tuning and Performance: Concepts, Tools, and Methods know this. It's just one of many righteous nuggets of knowledge Hewlett-Packard employees Robert F. Sauers and Peter S. Weygant convey to their readers as they describe good administration practices for HP's Unix variant. The HP-UX operating system serves as the showcase for their knowledge, but much of what's in this book applies to other environments as well.

The first task of the troubleshooter is to figure out what the problem is, which involves both looking at the machine (through a variety of measurement and monitoring software) and talking to the users (using interviews to figure out what's wrong and what changes are needed). The authors document lots of diagnostics tools, including GlancePlus, PerfView, and a variety of network tools and interview strategies. They explain how various HP-UX conditions manifest themselves in terms of symptoms, and provide explicit instructions for solving problems. They also dig into the principles of good HP-UX software design, promoting the idea that the programmer and administrator are on the same team (and indeed are frequently the same person). --David Wall

Topics covered: Most aspects of getting HP-UX systems to run as efficiently as possible, including performance measurement and assessment, bottleneck identification, CPU load monitors, disk usage monitors, memory analyzers, application design, and kernel tuning.

From the Inside Flap

Preface Maximizing the performance of Unix systems is a challenge that requires a specialized understanding of operating system behavior and an intimate acquaintance with system tools that assist in tuning. This book brings you some of this complex knowledge in chapters that provide general background, hardware and software performance concepts, reference material on performance tools, and detailed practical suggestions for application development and tuning. Part 1 offers a performance management methodology as a way of introducing the world of performance management. Part 2 presents an array of performance monitoring tools, some of them specific to HP-UX, and some of them available on other Unix operating systems as well. Part 3 describes bottleneck analysis, and relates operating system concepts to tuning strategies that use the tools presented in Part 2. Finally, Part 4 sketches the complex topic of application tuning. Tuning the operating system is often not enough; designing for performance is equally important. Hewlett-Packard's HP 9000 computer systems (both Series 700 workstation and Series 800 servers) use the HP-UX operating system. This is a version of Unix that is based on both System V Unix and BSD (Berkeley) Unix. The authors are most familiar with HP-UX, and therefore, the specific operating system architecture and tuning suggestions presented in this book apply directly to HP-UX. However, HP-UX conforms to the IEEE Portable Operating System Standard (Posix) P1003.1 and P1003.2. It also conforms to the System V Interface Definition (SVID) Release 3 (based on System V Release 4) and the X/Open Portability Guide. Because of this conformance to both de jure and de facto standards by the HP-UX operating system, the concepts presented in this book may be applied to other versions of the Unix operating system, although the specifics may differ.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; 1ST edition (July 7, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131027166
• ISBN-13: 978-0131027169
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,544,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars MODEST BOOK ABOUT PERFORMANCE, September 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: HP-UX Tuning and Performance: Concepts, Tools, and Methods (Hewlett-Packard Professional Books) (Paperback)

This book is a fairly decent book about performance issues and is perfect for the beginner to the world of sys admininistration. However, as an experienced admin I found 85% of the material redundant or just plain common sense. The routine commands and compilation methods are geared to the begginer. There are few case studies and the ones listed were quite bland. The layout of the book was excellent though. Recommend to any one who is a beginner or who has not taken a performance tuning class. Joe Holbrook, CET, CNST Certified HP Technical Proffesional

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a must-have book for all HP-UX administrator, October 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: HP-UX Tuning and Performance: Concepts, Tools, and Methods (Hewlett-Packard Professional Books) (Paperback)

The only book I can find in the market which talks about HP-UX tuning and an excellent one too ! It does not just cover HP-UX specific tools and methods but performance management methodology as well. I personally find it helpful and I am sure it's not just another "dust-collecting" book on the shelf.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Material is pretty good....which it was presented better., August 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: HP-UX Tuning and Performance: Concepts, Tools, and Methods (Hewlett-Packard Professional Books) (Paperback)

The more I read this book, the better I find it. There's alot of really good material that it's almost impossible to know about outside of the HP Labs.

However, as a SA/Consultant..the book has confirmed the most common reason for systems that have bottlenecks.....it's because they are written and compiled by programmers who are not aware of HP-UX internals.

Most of the performance bottlenecks therefore, come way after a Unix Administrator whould be able to do much about them. Perhaps, this book would most benefit the software developers who write or port code.