Description:
Computer consultants shouldn't be "parts-replacers" any more than auto mechanics--there's no point in aimlessly trying a solution before you're reasonably sure you've found one that's going to solve the problem. The authors of HP-UX Tuning and Performance: Concepts, Tools, and Methods know this. It's just one of many righteous nuggets of knowledge Hewlett-Packard employees Robert F. Sauers and Peter S. Weygant convey to their readers as they describe good administration practices for HP's Unix variant. The HP-UX operating system serves as the showcase for their knowledge, but much of what's in this book applies to other environments as well. The first task of the troubleshooter is to figure out what the problem is, which involves both looking at the machine (through a variety of measurement and monitoring software) and talking to the users (using interviews to figure out what's wrong and what changes are needed). The authors document lots of diagnostics tools, including GlancePlus, PerfView, and a variety of network tools and interview strategies. They explain how various HP-UX conditions manifest themselves in terms of symptoms, and provide explicit instructions for solving problems. They also dig into the principles of good HP-UX software design, promoting the idea that the programmer and administrator are on the same team (and indeed are frequently the same person). --David Wall Topics covered: Most aspects of getting HP-UX systems to run as efficiently as possible, including performance measurement and assessment, bottleneck identification, CPU load monitors, disk usage monitors, memory analyzers, application design, and kernel tuning.
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