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System Performance Tuning: Help for Unix Administrators 2nd Edition

by Gian-Paolo Musumeci (Author), Mike Loukides (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 9 ratings
See all formats and editions
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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.
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  1. ISBN-10
    059600284X
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0596002848
  3. Edition
    2nd
  4. Publisher
    O'Reilly Media
  5. Publication date
    March 12, 2002
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    7 x 0.91 x 9.19 inches
  8. Print length
    350 pages
  9. See all details
Next slide of product details
Amazon First Reads | Editors' picks at exclusive prices

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.

About the Author

Mike Loukides is an editor for O'Reilly & Associates. He is the author of System Performance Tuning and UNIX for FORTRAN Programmers. Mike's interests are system administration, networking, programming languages, and computer architecture. His academic background includes degrees in electrical engineering (B.S.) and English literature (Ph.D.).

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ O'Reilly Media; 2nd edition (March 12, 2002)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 350 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 059600284X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0596002848
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.18 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 0.91 x 9.19 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 9 ratings

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  1. Michael Kosta Loukides

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
9 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

W. Ewien
5.0 out of 5 stars good
Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2014
Verified Purchase
The book is right and thanks for Amazon make shopping books as easy as 123. really like it.
will keep buying them.
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Geoff S.
3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, but now woefully out-of-date
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2012
This is an excellent book, but, ten years later, it's now woefully out-of-date. It has a heavy emphasis on Solaris, whose use is in steep decline. Many of the technologies (SCSI, SBus) are obsolete. Other technologies (SSD, SATA, SAS) were not practicable at the time. There are still useful sections, but it's up to the reader to work out what parts are no longer applicable.

Hopefully O'Reilly is working on a worthy successor.
3 people found this helpful
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John Muirhead-Gould
1.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly Disappointed
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2006
I have relied on O'Reilly for many UNIX SA topics. System Performance Tuning was a very boring read for me. It seemed to cover too many topics, none in enough depth. I really was eager to learn about the intricacies of the vmstat, iostat, etc. commands. While the book does discuss them, it sprinkles the use of them throughout the book, and relies very heavily on the Solaris variety of them.

I was under the impression that this book would be targeted for seasoned SA's. I was very wrong- there is no need for discussions on how "threads are not processes" or generic definitions of what RAID or a network is; prior knowledge of these should all be assumed in this kind of book.

Not only was the book poorly constructed and not nearly deep enough, but there were also technical mistakes throughout. This really bugs me: once I see a single glaring mistake in a technical book, I begin to second-guess anything that doesn't appear right (even though it may be correct!)

I hope the next version is better done.
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Bhaskar Chowdhury
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book
Reviewed in India on June 18, 2022
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A must read for people who is inclined to know nitty gritty details of the operating system management.Recommended. Invaluable resource.
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Marc
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for what I needed!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2017
Verified Purchase
Bought this for work. I'm kinda new to Linux and I somehow managed to have landed myself a job doing Linux. So I read this book and it teaches you little tricks and tips about Linux and its performance.
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Rajendra Ladkat
4.0 out of 5 stars Best if you plan for SRE
Reviewed in India on September 10, 2022
Verified Purchase
Good starting point for SRE
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Emmanuel Oboh
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 12, 2014
Verified Purchase
great book and good seller
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