Features: Interactive Performance Tuning Option
Tuning User Language applications can be a difficult process. Faced with poor response time or excessive resource consumption, you must determine the cause. Without the proper information even simple performance bottlenecks are difficult to isolate and correct.
SoftSpy provides the information required to quickly track down performance bottlenecks. SoftSpy shows precisely which lines within requests consume the most system resources.
SoftSpy also provides unsurpassed detail, illuminating the underlying activities associated with system level resource consumption. Armed with this information, it is possible to quickly determine the root cause of performance problems.
Performance Profile
SoftSpy lets you generate detailed performance profiles. Performance profiles can be tailored using an extensive repertoire of statistics that show all facets of an application's behavior. Resource use can even be displayed graphically using histograms.
For example, a performance profile can have a "CPU" column that shows the total milliseconds of CPU time and an "AVG CPU" column that shows the average milliseconds of CPU time spent executing each statement. A "PAGE REQ" column can show the number of page requests performed by the disk buffer monitor for each statement.
This type of performance profile shows statements with excessive CPU consumption. It also shows statements that generate excessive page requests. Excessive page requests very clearly pinpoint performance related problems like the thrashing of images in and out of the buffer pool. Thus SoftSpy can provide detailed information to explain the cause of a CPU or I/O bottleneck.
CCATEMP Usage
In addition to all normal statistics, SoftSpy can show CCATEMP use by line. The use of CCATEMP is a critical performance factor. Excessive use causes buffer pool thrashing that becomes much worse as overall system load increases. Monitoring CCATEMP use lets you see the real problem, even on a lightly loaded system.
Server Table Usage
SoftSpy can show detailed statement level usage of server tables. Cumulative server table use can be shown for all server tables, and individually for tables such as QTBL and VTBL. This line by line information allows you to understand and optimize an application's server table use.
Performance Education
SoftSpy lets application developers display performance information during the normal testing of User Language requests. How well a chosen approach works is easy to observe. This feedback naturally results in application developers learning the best way to use Model 204.
Option Features
The interactive performance tuning option provides a number of features that augment the basic SoftSpy environment to provide a robust performance tuning environment.
Commands
- Establish the interactive performance tuning environment.
- Initiate or terminate the collecting of performance data.
- Scroll to statements in a request based on relative resource consumption.
- Add or remove columns from the source program display showing performance data. Totals, averages, percentages, and histograms that show relative use can be displayed.
SoftSpy Data
A variety of different types of performance related information is available.
- Compile time usage by line for individual server tables and for all server tables combined.
- Total, average, percentage or histogram by statement for all performance related Model 204 statistics including CPU time, page reads, and disk reads and writes.
- Current value of any Model 204 statistic.
- Average usage by statement of CCATEMP pages.
- Current CCATEMP usage.
- CCATEMP usage for a specified found set, sort set, or record list.
- CCATEMP usage for the transaction backout log, the pending update pool, all found sets, all sort sets, or all record lists.
Other SoftSpy Features: Interactive Debugging Option | Quality Assurance Testing Option | Error Audit Option