Systems Performance

The Complete Guide to Optimizing Systems Performance Written by the winner of the 2013 LISA Award for Outstanding Achievement in System Administration Large-scale enterprise, cloud, and virtualized computing systems have introduced serious performance challenges. Now, internationally renowned performance expert Brendan Gregg has brought together proven methodologies, tools, and metrics for analyzing and tuning even the most complex environments. Systems Performance: Enterprise and the Cloud focuses on Linux® and Unix® performance, while illuminating performance issues that are relevant to all operating systems. You’ll gain deep insight into how systems work and perform, and learn methodologies for analyzing and improving system and application performance. Gregg presents examples from bare-metal systems and virtualized cloud tenants running Linux-based Ubuntu®, Fedora®, CentOS, and the illumos-based Joyent® SmartOSTM and OmniTI OmniOS®. He systematically covers modern systems performance, including the “traditional” analysis of CPUs, memory, disks, and networks, and new areas including cloud computing and dynamic tracing. This book also helps you identify and fix the “unknown unknowns” of complex performance: bottlenecks that emerge from elements and interactions you were not aware of. The text concludes with a detailed case study, showing how a real cloud customer issue was analyzed from start to finish. Coverage includes • Modern performance analysis and tuning: terminology, concepts, models, methods, and techniques • Dynamic tracing techniques and tools, including examples of DTrace, SystemTap, and perf • Kernel internals: uncovering what the OS is doing • Using system observability tools, interfaces, and frameworks • Understanding and monitoring application performance • Optimizing CPUs: processors, cores, hardware threads, caches, interconnects, and kernel scheduling • Memory optimization: virtual memory, paging, swapping, memory architectures, busses, address spaces, and allocators • File system I/O, including caching • Storage devices/controllers, disk I/O workloads, RAID, and kernel I/O • Network-related performance issues: protocols, sockets, interfaces, and physical connections • Performance implications of OS and hardware-based virtualization, and new issues encountered with cloud computing • Benchmarking: getting accurate results and avoiding common mistakes This guide is indispensable for anyone who operates enterprise or cloud environments: system, network, database, and web admins; developers; and other professionals. For students and others new to optimization, it also provides exercises reflecting Gregg’s extensive instructional experience.

Systems performance analysis and tuning lead to a better end-user experience and lower costs, especially for cloud computing environments that charge by the OS instance. Systems Performance, 2nd Edition covers concepts, strategy, tools, and tuning for operating systems and applications, using Linux-based operating systems as the primary example. World-renowned systems performance expert Brendan Gregg summarizes relevant operating system, hardware, and application theory to quickly get professionals up to speed even if they've never analyzed performance before, and to refresh and update advanced readers' knowledge. Gregg illuminates the latest tools and techniques, including extended BPF, showing how to get the most out of your systems in cloud, web, and large-scale enterprise environments. He covers these and other key topics: Hardware, kernel, and application internals, and how they perform Methodologies for rapid performance analysis of complex systems Optimizing CPU, memory, file system, disk, and networking usage Sophisticated profiling and tracing with perf, Ftrace, and BPF (BCC and bpftrace) Performance challenges associated with cloud computing hypervisors Benchmarking more effectively Fully updated for current Linux operating systems and environments, Systems Performance, 2nd Edition addresses issues that apply to any computer system. The book will be a go-to reference for many years to come and recommended reading at many tech companies, like its predecessor first edition.

Systems Performance, Second Edition, covers concepts, strategy, tools, and tuning for operating systems and applications, using Linux-based operating systems as the primary example. A deep understanding of these tools and techniques is critical for developers today. Implementing the strategies described in this thoroughly revised and updated edition can lead to a better end-user experience and lower costs, especially for cloud computing environments that charge by the OS instance. Systems performance expert and best-selling author Brendan Gregg summarizes relevant operating system, hardware, and application theory to quickly get professionals up to speed even if theyve never analyzed performance before. Gregg then provides in-depth explanations of the latest tools and techniques, including extended BPF, and shows how to get the most out of cloud, web, and large-scale enterprise systems. Key topics covered include Hardware, kernel, and application internals, and how they perform Methodologies for rapid performance analysis of complex systems Optimizing CPU, memory, file system, disk, and networking usage Sophisticated profiling and tracing with perf, Ftrace, and BPF (BCC and bpftrace) Performance challenges associated with cloud computing hypervisors Benchmarking more effectively Featuring up-to-date coverage of Linux operating systems and environments, Systems Performance, Second Edition, also addresses issues that apply to any computer system. The book will be a go-to reference for many years to come and, like the first edition, required reading at leading tech companies. Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

Table of contents

Written with computer scientists and engineers in mind, this book brings queueing theory decisively back to computer science.

Manufacturing industries are devoted to producing high-quality products in the most economical and timely manner. Quality, economics, and time not only indicate the customer-satisfaction level, but also measure the manufacturing per formance of a company. Today's manufacturing environments are becoming more and more complex, flexible, and information-intensive. Companies invest into the information technologies such as computers, communication networks, sensors, actuators, and other equipment that give them an abundance of information about their materials and resources. In the face of global competition, a manufacturing company's survival is becoming more dependent on how best this influx of in formation is utilized. Consequently, there evolves a great need for sophisticated tools of performance analysis that use this information to help decision makers in choosing the right course of action. These tools will have the capability of data analysis, modeling, computer simulation, and optimization for use in designing products and processes. International competition also has had its impact on manufacturing education and the government's support of it in the US. We see more courses offered in this area in industrial engineering and manufacturing systems engineering departments, operations research programs, and business schools. In fact, we see an increasing number of manufacturing systems engineering departments and manufacturing research centers in universities not only in the US but also in Europe, Japan, and many developing countries.

An overview of queueing network modelling. Conducting a modelling study. Fundamental laws. General analytic technique. Bounds on performance. Models with one job class. Models with multiple job classes. Flow equivalence and hierarchical modelling. Representing specific subsystems. Memory. Disk I/O. Processors. Parameterization. Existing systems. Evolving systems. Proposed systems. Perspective. Using queueing network modelling software. Appendices. Constructing a model from RMF data. An implementation of single class, exact MVA. An implementation of multiple class, exact MVA. Load dependent service centers. Index.

An experiential and skills-building approach, exploring the realities and complexities of performance management and encouraging a reflective, adaptable outlook and equipping readers to conduct performance management in the future. The book presents the theoretical underpinnings and the practical applications of key topics in detail, with practical concepts or skills highlighted in terms of how they fit into the Performance Management system. Learning features include: "Developing PMS Skills" boxes, highlighting a particular skill "PMS in Practice" boxes, showcasing real-life examples from around the world "Experiential Exercises", to encourage active learning A comprehensive suite of free online resources, including PowerPoint Slides, full journal articles, and self-review questions an be found at https://study.sagepub.com/varma Suitable for Performance Management modules on Human Resource Management, General Management and Organisational Behaviour courses.