System Performance Tuning, 2nd Edition (O'Reilly System Administration) [Paperback]

Gian-Paolo D. Musumeci (Author), Mike Loukides (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2002

System Performance Tuning answers one of the most fundamental questions you can ask about your computer: How can I get it to do more work without buying more hardware? In the current economic downturn, performance tuning takes on a new importance. It allows system administrators to make the best use of existing systems and minimize the purchase of new equipment. Well-tuned systems save money and time that would otherwise be wasted dealing with slowdowns and errors. Performance tuning always involves compromises; unless system administrators know what the compromises are, they can't make intelligent decisions.

Tuning is an essential skill for system administrators who face the problem of adapting the speed of a computer system to the speed requirements imposed by the real world. It requires a detailed understanding of the inner workings of the computer and its architecture. System Performance Tuning covers two distinct areas: performance tuning, or the art of increasing performance for a specific application, and capacity planning, or deciding what hardware best fulfills a given role. Underpinning both subjects is the science of computer architecture. This book focuses on the operating system, the underlying hardware, and their interactions. Topics covered include:

• Real and perceived performance problems, introducing capacity planning and performance monitoring (highlighting their strengths and weaknesses).
• An integrated description of all the major tools at a system administrator's disposal for tracking down system performance problems.
• Background on modern memory handling techniques, including the memory-caching filesystem implementations in Solaris and AIX. Updated sections on memory conservation and computing memory requirements.
• In depth discussion of disk interfaces, bandwidth capacity considerations, and RAID systems.
• Comprehensive discussion of NFS and greatly expanded discussion of networking.
• Workload management and code tuning.
• Special topics such as tuning Web servers for various types of content delivery and developments in cross-machine parallel computing

For system administrators who want a hands-on introduction to system performance, this is the book to recommend.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The easy way to solve a performance problem--and the one to which hardware manufacturers love to call attention--is to apply more horsepower to the application in question. It's safe to bet that a server upgrade will speed things up. True information technology professionals, however, won't take the easy way out when dealing with an increased workload for older systems. They'll do their best to wring top performance (with required reliability) from existing hardware, thus improving their organizations' return on capital investment and demonstrating their own engineering skills. The second edition of System Performance Tuning offers advice on where to look for bottlenecks in applications--both local and networked--that run under Unix. It also offers advice on provisioning new systems, which is to say it offers advice on deciding how much computing power is enough for a new system to be implemented.

Emphasizing Solaris 8 and, to a lesser extent, Linux, the new version of this book represents a significant revision (the first came out in 1990 and was pretty badly obsolete). There's coverage of advances in hardware--multiple processors, RAID storage, faster and cheaper memory, and networked devices--as well as consideration of changes in the demands placed on machines (after all, few people were concerned about Web server performance in 1990). Administrators will get plenty of value from the authors' discussion of what goes on during, for example, a series of large store-to-disk operations, and be better able to optimize their systems. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to get top performance from computer systems (those running Linux and especially Sun Solaris 8) without adding processor capacity, memory, and other resources at potentially great expense. The authors explain the ways in which operating systems and applications use processors, memory, persistent storage, and networks, and point out potential bottlenecks. They also show how to use tools--such as execution timers--that you can use to benchmark performance changes.

From the Publisher

System Performance Tuning answers one of the most fundamental questions you can ask about your UNIX-based computer: How can I get it to do more work without buying more hardware? Anyone who has ever used a computer has wished that the system was faster, particularly at times when it was under heavy load. If your system gets sluggish when you start a big job, if it feels as if you spend hours waiting for remote file access to complete, if your system stops dead when several users are active at the same time, you need to read this book. Some performance problems do require you to buy a bigger or faster computer, but many can be solved simply by making better use of the resources you already have. Contents include: Real and perceived performance problems. Simple tricks to improve keyboard response. Locating your problem; finding out what your system is doing. Using tools such as at and batch to manage system load. Surviving without a lot of memory. Configuring your I/O system for the best throughput. Detecting an overworked or malfunctioning network. Building a kernel that uses your system more efficiently. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 350 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 2nd edition (February 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 059600284X
• ISBN-13: 978-0596002848
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,130,509 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good when it's right, but be careful..., May 13, 2003

A Kid's Review

This review is from: System Performance Tuning, 2nd Edition (O'Reilly System Administration) (Paperback)

I had looked at the first edition of this book many times, but not bought it because of the age of the information. At long last--a second edition! Completely updated, and current!

Many parts of this book are top-notch. It does an excellent job of drilling down the process tree, caching processes (memory and disk, and the structures of both), and bottlenecks such as latency. I learned a lot, and I've got a fair background in performance tuning.

However...

The "Solaris and Linux" part is a joke--they could have eliminated all of the Linux tuning instruction/reference, and the book might have lost 15 pages. Clearly the authors aren't nearly as familiar with Linux as they are with Solaris. Not a big deal, but it's misleadingly marketed.

Furthermore, there are many MANY mistakes in the text--mistakes that, if read as given, run absolutely counter to the way the system behaves. Weren't there ANY proofreaders for this book? Also, the sections on disk performance and reliability (i.e. RAID arrays) were confusing and inconsistent. This is a subject I know and know well, and can only assume that the authors simply don't 'get' some of the stuff they're trying to present.

Buried in all of these mistakes and shortcomings is a 5-star book just screaming to get out. If they fixed the things I've mentioned, this would be THE standard reference--the performance tuning version of Evi Nemeth (et. al)'s Unix sysadmin handbook.

As it is, it's very useful, but get a second reference on anything you can't puzzle out--you might be right.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent guide to system performance and architecture, February 14, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: System Performance Tuning, 2nd Edition (O'Reilly System Administration) (Paperback)

The second edition brings a well known classic in system administration up to date, focusing on both the theory and principals governing system performance, along with a set of excellent practical examples that can be applied to see immediate results.

The book is great for both introductory and advanced administrators, and covers the full gamut of performance, from code to disk to CPU. What is especially refreshing is the focus on practical performance tuning, helping to make tuning you do have maximal benefit for your applications.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Previous revies refer to an older version, February 14, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: System Performance Tuning, 2nd Edition (O'Reilly System Administration) (Paperback)

Please note that the previous reviews refer to the first edition of this book. This is the second edition, which was released in February 2002 and is up-to-date.