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This section includes the following topics:
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- About Precise for DB2
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- Components of Precise for DB2
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- How Precise for DB2 works
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- What you can do with Precise for DB2
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- Where to get more information
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About Precise for DB2
Addressing the needs of DBAs, system administrators, managers, quality assurance specialists and planners, Precise for DB2 (Precise for DB2) provides a complete view of database performance by capturing, measuring, and correlating performance metrics from all critical system components.
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Current operational data is displayed to enable easy identification of problematic conditions. Recent operational data, pertaining to designated time periods, enables operations staff to detect problematic conditions that occurred in the past and that are likely to reoccur if not corrected. Performance data is archived and a fully detailed display of the historical data is provided for use in performance, QA, and capacity planning analysis.
Improved performance management
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Precise for DB2 also enables you to focus on and drill down into individual applications, SQL statements and database objects in your system that are responsible for heavy consumption of system and database resources and to quickly find the definitive root cause of performance degradation.
Integration with other Precise products
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For more information, see the Precise Administration Guide.
Components of Precise for DB2
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Precise for DB2 employs a client/server architecture to provide high performance database monitoring and tuning. Precise for DB2 consists of the following components:■ One
- One or more Precise for DB2 Collectors installed on one or more servers in your application
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- Precise for DB2 FocalPoint
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- Tuner
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- Listener
■ Listener
■ PMDB
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- PMDB
- Collector extension, such as the storage collector or ERP Collector
See the relevant product’s manual.
Precise for DB2 agents
The Precise for DB2 Collectors are installed on servers and communicate using TCP/IP. The Collectors collect and analyze DB2 database performance data, which is then stored in flat historical files and later in the PMDB.
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The following agents are available:
Application Performance agent Precise for DB2 provides a complete view of application performance management by capturing, measuring and correlating performance metrics from all critical system components.
SAP™ If ERP support is installed, the Collector also includes SAP. This agent provides data on the activities and resource consumption of packaged application entities. This data can help you identify ERP users, transactions, reports, and so on, that are heavy users of DB2 resources. The current version only supports SAP.
Storage agents EMC Storage.
See “Optional Collector extensions” on page 11.
Precise Listener and Precise for DB2 FocalPoint
Each Precise product has a FocalPoint that communicates with the listeners installed on the monitored servers. The Precise Listener communicates with other Precise components on the same server. For example, the PMDB FocalPoint requests to load data into the PMDB are sent to the Precise Listener. Then, the Precise Listener executes the PMDB loader to aggregate and prepare performance data to be loaded. In a similar way, InformPoints and Insight agents send requests to the Precise Listener.
PMDB loaders
PMDB Loaders periodically load data—collected by the Collectors and stored in the historical files—into the PMDB. When the PMDB Loaders run, the flat historical files—written after the last time data was loaded into the PMDB—are identified and opened. The summarized data is also loaded into the PMDB. Data on the last incomplete time slice is only loaded into the PMDB when the next scheduled load process runs.
Optional Collector extensions
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Precise for Storage is available for the following technologies:
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- EMC Symmetrix
If storage system support is installed, the Collector provides detailed information regarding the I/O resource consumption across the storage devices. By investigating this information, you can relate I/O activity to specific components of the storage device and pinpoint the cause of the I/O performance degradation.
With Precise for Storage it is possible to browse device-specific mappings and statistics information on EMC Symmetrix arrays.
Note: Support for Veritas File System (VxFS) and Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) is available if you have installed Precise for Storage and Veritas Mapping Service (VxMS) on Sun Solaris. For more information, see the Precise Installation Guide or contact Customer Support or your SE.
ERP extensions are available for the following technology:
- SAP
■ SAP
If ERP support is installed, the Collector provides detailed information on the activities and resource consumption of "packaged application" entities. It enables you to identify ERP users, transactions, reports, and so on, that are heavy users of DB2 resources and to drill down to the statements executed by them and the objects they accessed.
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See Precise Administration Guide
How Precise for DB2 works
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Precise for DB2 stores a complete history of your database activity in the PMDB. This provides you with a performance tracking tool that gives you the ability to assess database performance trends and analyze changes in database activities over long periods of time. This data is vital for identifying patterns in resource consumption and predicting future resource consumption in your DB2 database.
The Precise for DB2 Collector runs on your server using a unique, accurate and comprehensive sampling technology that requires low overhead. It collects performance data from an instance and then correlates and loads the data into the PMDB tables. This data is then analyzed and summarized by the FocalPoint. You can later access this data using the Precise for DB2 Web browser interface.
The Precise for DB2 Time Model
An application may wait for many events in DB2. Since the number of events is very large and the meaning of some events is unclear, Precise for DB2 groups various DB2 events into event groups or states and defines the status of sessions currently connected to DB2 by their states. Each DB2 application state is either in DB2 or not in DB2.
In DB2 states
The In DB2 resource consumption graphs give a breakdown of how DB2 is spending its time executing statements and utilities. The wait states with the longest duration indicate the bottlenecks within DB2. Reducing the duration of these wait states improves the response time or alternatively increases the throughput.
The following table lists the existing In DB2 states.
Table 1-1 In DB2 states
In DB2 state Description
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Utility Wait Time spent by the application while waiting during running of a utility (command) such as: backup, restore, load, unload, restart, acquiesce and create a db.
Overall Activity Graphs
The Overall Activity resource consumption graphs display information on total time spent in DB2 and a breakdown of activities outside of DB2. Overall Activity can help answer the question: Is the application spending its time in DB2 or elsewhere?"
The following table lists the Overall Activity states.
Table 1-2 Overall Activity states
Overall Activity state Description
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Phase II Time spent by the application waiting for the coordinator to request DB2 to start commit phase II. This state is also known as an in-doubt transaction.
What you can do with Precise for DB2
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Use Precise for DB2 to detect, diagnose and resolve performance problems in your DB2 database. Precise for DB2 lets you identify real-time performance problems (for example, locking problems) and monitor a complete history of your DB2 database.
You can use Precise for DB2 to:
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- See your whole application status at a glance
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- Support very large installations – hundreds of databases and partitions
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- Resolve performance problems by identifying their root cause and improving statement performance
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- Proactively monitor, analyze, and tune Precise for DB2 data partitions
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- Analyze and tune locking problems
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- Determine whether an I/O problem is caused by a Precise for DB2 application
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- Tune a database object rather than a specific statement that accesses the database object
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- Perform I/O tuning of storage devices
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- Identify the most resource-consuming SQL statement and view a detailed explanation of the execution plan of the
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- SQL statement
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- Recommend which index would provide a better execution plan and reduce resource consumption
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- Monitor your system's current state as well as previous states
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Where to get more information
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More information on Precise, its products, technical notes, and so on, can be found in the Release Notes document for this version.
Precise. Performance intelligence from click to storage. Learn more > >
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