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author | kaf24@firebug.cl.cam.ac.uk <kaf24@firebug.cl.cam.ac.uk> | 2005-11-15 15:09:58 +0100 |
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committer | kaf24@firebug.cl.cam.ac.uk <kaf24@firebug.cl.cam.ac.uk> | 2005-11-15 15:09:58 +0100 |
commit | 0d5ddb880686349ab6c35a283033f2ecc987dd0f (patch) | |
tree | e2cd550b6670d35f247d2cf14a4b1019a6dbafe7 /tools/xenmon/README | |
parent | 0e3a022f8cfe382c960da254f632eaec4ec6dfcf (diff) | |
download | xen-0d5ddb880686349ab6c35a283033f2ecc987dd0f.tar.gz xen-0d5ddb880686349ab6c35a283033f2ecc987dd0f.tar.bz2 xen-0d5ddb880686349ab6c35a283033f2ecc987dd0f.zip |
The new userland monitoring tool, XenMon.
Signed-off-by: Rob Gardner <rob.gardner@hp.com>
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diff --git a/tools/xenmon/README b/tools/xenmon/README new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..c717daef88 --- /dev/null +++ b/tools/xenmon/README @@ -0,0 +1,104 @@ +Xen Performance Monitor +----------------------- + +The xenmon tools make use of the existing xen tracing feature to provide fine +grained reporting of various domain related metrics. It should be stressed that +the xenmon.py script included here is just an example of the data that may be +displayed. The xenbake demon keeps a large amount of history in a shared memory +area that may be accessed by tools such as xenmon. + +For each domain, xenmon reports various metrics. One part of the display is a +group of metrics that have been accumulated over the last second, while another +part of the display shows data measured over 10 seconds. Other measurement +intervals are possible, but we have just chosen 1s and 10s as an example. + + +Execution Count +--------------- + o The number of times that a domain was scheduled to run (ie, dispatched) over + the measurement interval + + +CPU usage +--------- + o Total time used over the measurement interval + o Usage expressed as a percentage of the measurement interval + o Average cpu time used during each execution of the domain + + +Waiting time +------------ +This is how much time the domain spent waiting to run, or put another way, the +amount of time the domain spent in the "runnable" state (or on the run queue) +but not actually running. Xenmon displays: + + o Total time waiting over the measurement interval + o Wait time expressed as a percentage of the measurement interval + o Average waiting time for each execution of the domain + +Blocked time +------------ +This is how much time the domain spent blocked (or sleeping); Put another way, +the amount of time the domain spent not needing/wanting the cpu because it was +waiting for some event (ie, I/O). Xenmon reports: + + o Total time blocked over the measurement interval + o Blocked time expressed as a percentage of the measurement interval + o Blocked time per I/O (see I/O count below) + +Allocation time +--------------- +This is how much cpu time was allocated to the domain by the scheduler; This is +distinct from cpu usage since the "time slice" given to a domain is frequently +cut short for one reason or another, ie, the domain requests I/O and blocks. +Xenmon reports: + + o Average allocation time per execution (ie, time slice) + o Min and Max allocation times + +I/O Count +--------- +This is a rough measure of I/O requested by the domain. The number of page +exchanges (or page "flips") between the domain and dom0 are counted. The +number of pages exchanged may not accurately reflect the number of bytes +transferred to/from a domain due to partial pages being used by the network +protocols, etc. But it does give a good sense of the magnitude of I/O being +requested by a domain. Xenmon reports: + + o Total number of page exchanges during the measurement interval + o Average number of page exchanges per execution of the domain + + +Usage Notes and issues +---------------------- + - Start xenmon by simply running xenmon.py; The xenbake demon is started and + stopped automatically by xenmon. + - To see the various options for xenmon, run xenmon -h. Ditto for xenbaked. + - xenmon also has an option (-n) to output log data to a file instead of the + curses interface. + - NDOMAINS is defined to be 32, but can be changed by recompiling xenbaked + - Xenmon.py appears to create 1-2% cpu overhead; Part of this is just the + overhead of the python interpreter. Part of it may be the number of trace + records being generated. The number of trace records generated can be + limited by setting the trace mask (with a dom0 Op), which controls which + events cause a trace record to be emitted. + - To exit xenmon, type 'q' + - To cycle the display to other physical cpu's, type 'c' + +Future Work +----------- +o RPC interface to allow external entities to programmatically access processed data +o I/O Count batching to reduce number of trace records generated + +Case Study +---------- +We have written a case study which demonstrates some of the usefulness of +this tool and the metrics reported. It is available at: +http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2005/HPL-2005-187.html + +Authors +------- +Diwaker Gupta <diwaker.gupta@hp.com> +Rob Gardner <rob.gardner@hp.com> +Lucy Cherkasova <lucy.cherkasova.hp.com> + |