Tunable Parameters Test

For each LPAR executing on a pSeries server, this test reports how well the LPAR is utilizing the virtual memory. This test is disabled by default. To enable the test, go to the enable / disable tests page using the menu sequence : Agents -> Tests -> Enable/Disable, pick the IBM pSeries server as the desired Component type, set Performance as the Test type, choose the test from the disabled tests list, and click on the < button to move the test to the ENABLED TESTS list. Finally, click the Update button.

Target of the test : An IBM pSeries server

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each powered-on guest on the IBM pSeries server being monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter	Description
Test period	How often should the test be executed
Host	The IP address of the host for which this test is to be configured.
Port	Indicate the port at which the specified Host listens. By default, this is NULL.
Real ServerName	Specify the name of the pSeries server in the Real ServerName text box. If the target pSeries server has been auto-discovered using HMC, the server name will be set automatically in the Real ServerName text box. However, while configuring this test for a pSeries server that has been manually added, you have to explicitly provide the server name in the Real ServerName text box. Note: To obtain the real server name, a user can login to the target pSeries server as a valid pSeries user, go to the shell prompt of the server, and execute the following command: lssyscfg - r sys -F name
Is Managed By	By selecting an option from the Is Managed By list, indicate whether the target pSeries server is managed using an HMC server or an IVM (Integrated Virtual Manager) server. If the target server has been auto-discovered via an HMC server, the HMC option will be automatically chosen from this list.
Management Server, Management User, Management Password	This test connects to an HMC/IVM server to perform LPAR discovery and to collect host-level and "outside view" metrics from the pSeries server. To enable this communication, first, provide the IP address/host name of the HMC/IVM server in the Management Server text box. If the eG manager had automatically discovered the target pSeries server by connecting to an HMC server in the environment, then, the IP address/host name and user credentials pertaining to that HMC server will be automatically displayed in the Management Server, Management User, and Management Password text boxes. However, if the pSeries server being monitored was manually added to the eG Enterprise system (and not auto-discovered via the HMC server), then, you will have to explicitly indicate whether the target pSeries server is managed by an HMC server or an IVM server by selecting an option from the Is Managed By list. If the HMC option is chosen, then, you will have to provide the IP address of the HMC server that manages the target pSeries server in the Management Server text box. In such a case, in the Management User and Management Password text boxes, you will have to provide the credentials of an HMC user who is assigned the hmcviewer role. On the other hand, if the IVM option is chosen from the Is Managed By list, it implies that the IP address/host name and user credentials pertaining to that IVM server has to be explicitly provided in the Management Server, Management User, and Management Password text boxes.
Confirm Password	Confirm the HMC Password by retyping it here
Domain	Set the Domain parameter to none.
Admin User, Admin Password, Confirm Password	The eG agent remotely communicates with each discovered LPAR on the pSeries server to obtain their "inside view". For this, the eG agent will have to be configured with the credentials of a valid user with access rights to each LPAR. If a single user is authorized to access all the LPARs on the pSeries server, provide the name and password of the user in the Admin User and Admin Password text boxes, and confirm the password by retyping it in the Confirm Password text box. On the other hand, if the test needs to communicate with different LPARs using different user accounts, then, multiple user names and passwords will have to be provided. To help administrators provide these multiple user details quickly and easily, the eG administrative interface embeds a special configuration page. To know how to use this page, refer to Configuring Users for LPAR Monitoring.
SSL	By default, the HMC/IVM server (as the case may be) is not SSL-enabled. This indicates that by default, the eG agent communicates with the HMC/IVM server using HTTP. Accordingly, the SSL flag is set to No by default. If you configure the HMC/IVM server to use SSL, then make sure that the SSL flag is set to Yes, so that the eG agent communicates with the HMC/IVM server using HTTPS.
Ignore VMs Inside View	Administrators of some high security LPAR environments might not have permissions to internally monitor one/more LPARs. The eG agent can be configured to not obtain the 'inside view' of such ‘inaccessible’ VMs using the Ignore VMs Inside View parameter. Against this parameter, you can provide a comma-separated list of LPAR names, or LPAR name patterns, for which the inside view need not be obtained. For instance, your Ignore VMs Inside View specification can be: lp,aixlp,lin. Here, the (asterisk) is used to denote leading and trailing spaces (as the case may be). By default, this parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent obtains the inside view of all LPARs on a pSeries server by default. Note: While performing LPAR discovery, the eG agent will not discover the operating system of the LPARs configured in the Ignore VMs Inside View text box.
Exclude VMs	Administrators of some virtualized environments may not want to monitor some of their less-critical LPARs both from 'outside' and from 'inside'. The eG agent in this case can be configured to completely exclude such LPARs from its monitoring purview. To achieve this, provide a comma-separated list of LPARs to be excluded from monitoring in the Exclude VMs text box. Instead of LPARs, LPAR name patterns can also be provided here in a comma-separated list. For example, your Exclude VMs pecification can be: lp,aixlp,lin. Here, the (asterisk) is used to denote leading and trailing spaces (as the case may be). By default, this parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent obtains the inside and outside views of all AIX LPARs on a virtual host by default. By providing a comma-separated list of LPARs/LPAR name patterns in the Exclude VMs text box, you can make sure the eG agent stops collecting 'inside' and 'outside' view metrics for a configured set of LPARs.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Real memory pages	Indicates the size of the real memory in KBytes.	Kbytes	4 Kb equals to 1 page.
Lruable pages	Indicates the number of 4 KB pages considered for replacement.	Number	This number excludes the pages used for VMM(Virtual memeory manager) internal pages, and the pages used for the pinned part of the kernel text.
Free pages	Indicates the number of 4 KB pages currently used by the file cache.	Number
Memory pools	Indicates the number of memory pools.	Number
Pinned pages	Indicates the number of pinned 4KB pages.	Number
Maximum pinnable memory	Indicates the tuning parameter (managed using vmo) specifying the percentage of real memory which can be pinned.	Percent
Minimum persistent memory	This measure indicates the tuning parameter (managed using vmo) in percentage of real memory.	Percent	This specifies the point below which file pages are protected from the re-page algorithm.
Maximum persistent memory	Indicates the Tuning parameter (managed using vmo) in percentage of real memory.	Percent	This specifies the point above which the page stealing algorithm steals only file pages.
Persistent file cache	Indicates the percentage of memory currently used by the file cache.	Percent
Currently used file cache memory	Indicates the number of pages that are currently used by the file cache.	Number
Memory used by compressed pages	Indicates the percentage of memory that are relatively compressed.	Number
Compressed memory pages	Indicates the number of unused pages that are relatively compressed and stored in memory.	Number
Memory occupied by client pages	Indicates the number of unused pages that are relatively compressed and stored in memory.	Number
Maximum memory for client pages	Indicates a limit on the maximum amount of memory that should be used to cache non-computational client pages; It is the maximum percentage of memory which can be used for client pages.	Number	Because all non-computational client pages are a subset of the total number of non-computational permanent storage pages, the maxclient limit must always be less than or equal to the maxperm limit.
Client pages	Indicates the number of client pages.	Number
Pageouts scheduled for client filesystems	Indicates the number of pageouts scheduled for client file systems.	Number
Pending disk I/O requests blocked	Indicates the number of pending disk I/O requests that have been blocked since the pbuf are not available.	Number	Pbufs are pinned memory buffers used to hold I/O requests at the logical volume manager layer.
Paging space I/O requests blocked	Indicates the number of paging space I/O requests that have been blocked since the psbufs are not available.	Number	Psbufs are pinned memory buffers used to hold I/O requests at the virtual memory manager layer.
Filesystem I/O requests blocked	Indicates the number of filesystem I/O requests blocked because no fsbuf was available.	Number	Fsbufs are pinned memory buffers used to hold I/O requests in the filesystem layer.
Client filesystem I/O requests blocked	Indicates the number of client filesystem I/O requests blocked because no fsbuf was available.	Number	NFS (Network File System) and VxFS (Veritas) are client filesystems. Fsbufs are pinned memory buffers used to hold I/O requests in the filesystem layer.
External pager client filesystem I/O requests blocked	Indicates the number of external pager client filesystem I/O requests blocked because no fsbuf was available.	Number	JFS2 is an external pager client filesystem. Fsbuf are pinned memory buffers used to hold I/O requests in the filesystem layer.