About this Course

This course will help you better understand the techniques of performance analysis and capacity planning on Power Systems and LPARS with IBM i. You will also develop an appreciation of how IBM i operates and interfaces with applications. You will build skills to better manage performance and capacity on Power Systems and LPARS. This course explains IBM i concepts, including the Technology Independent Machine Interface (TIMI), main storage pools, auxiliary storage pools, management of jobs, threads, tasks, job run-time structure, performance monitoring, data collection, and analysis of performance data. This course includes hands-on activities using performance data from Power Systems with IBM i to help you appreciate the concepts discussed.

While this course includes IBM i V7R1 content, it is suitable for those currently using prior versions of IBM i. First, we will focus on teaching the performance management process, the performance considerations of key hardware components and virtualization options, and tuning options to help optimize performance. During these lectures, you will gain an appreciation of the unique storage management and work management components in the IBM i architecture, and how these components need to be managed for optimal performance. Then, the class will focus on the tools and techniques to monitor, analyze, and plan for performance. The primary analysis tool that will be used is the Performance Data Investigator (PDI) which is included with IBM Navigator for i. PDI is also used with IBM Systems Workload Estimator (WLE) for capacity planning activities.

Audience Profile

This intermediate course is for System Administrators

Course Content

During this course, students will:

• Acquire the skills to better manage performance on Power Systems with IBM i
• Enhance your knowledge of IBM i storage management, job/thread/task management, and the use of performance data collection, monitoring and analysis tools to better manage work on IBM i
• Learn how to manage the latest virtualization and logical partitioning features of Power Systems with IBM i for optimal performance
• Learn the latest tools and methodologies in IBM i V7R1 and IBM i V6R1 to manage and analyze system and application performance
• Get hands-on experience with Performance Data Investigator in IBM Navigator for i, and tools such as Job Watcher and Disk Watcher through hands-on lab exercises
• Learn how to use Performance Data Investigator, IBM Workload Estimator and other performance tools to perform sizing and capacity planning on Power Systems with IBM i
• Learn methodologies for identifying and selecting appropriate performance data when planning upgrades and other capacity planning tasks

Prerequisites

It is advantageous if you have completed the following course or if you have equivalent skills or experience on the IBM i work management and basic tuning:

• Power Systems with IBM i Structure, Tailoring and Basic Tuning (OL230)

Knowledge of IBM WebQuery for i or other query options will be useful.

Course Outline

1. Performance management process
2. IBM Power Systems performance considerations
3. Components of performance
4. Disk performance considerations
5. Logical partition performance considerations
6. Work management review and tuning options
7. Real-time monitoring
8. Collection Services: Data collection
9. Performance Data Investigator overview
10. Investigating data: Collection Services
11. Performance Tools reports and graphs
12. Capacity planning
13. Collection Services data files
14. Run-time (run/wait) analysis
15. Advanced Performance Analysis Investigating with Disk Watcher and Job Watcher