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This section includes the following topics:• About
- About the Activity tab
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- How the Activity tab is structured
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- About the entities you can examine in the Activity tab
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- About Statement, Batch, Collapsed Statement, and Collapsed Batch entities
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- How the Activity tab can help you identify performance problems
About the Activity tab
The Activity tab allows you to analyze performance behavior over time or within a given time period. When investigating a performance issue, the Activity tab is an excellent place to start. You can easily identify the performance profile of your Sybase instance and determine who is executing which application, what they are waiting for and how many resources they are consuming. This is the critical information you need to identify the top consumers of your Sybase Instance and its major latencies. By focusing on the top consumers and latencies (wait states) you can maximize the tuning impact on your system, while minimizing the time it takes to obtain results.
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When you perform an action on an element in the lower area (the Association area) the information displayed in the upper area (the Main area) will change to reflect the action you requested. Accordingly, you can control the tab by:• Keeping
- Keeping the entity in the Main area, but selecting a different set of entities to view in the Association area, by selecting an entity from the Association controls list.
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- Switching to a different entity by drilling to another entity from the Association area.
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- Switching to a different view in the Main area, thereby displaying additional information on the selected entity.
About the Main area in the Activity tab
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The Association area displays relevant information on the entities associated with the selected entity (displayed in the Tab heading in the Main area) in a table format. For example, it is possible to associate to Databases, Statements and Logins that are related to a specific Instance, by selecting an entity from the Association Controls list. Notice that some entities, show additional information on the associated entities in different tabs. The tabs are located above the Association area table. Clicking on a tab displays different table columns showing different information for the associated entities. For example, the following tabs show additional information for the Statement entity:• Performance
- Performance
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- In Sybase
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- Statistics
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- Plan
If you want to view additional information on an associated entity, drill down to it, by selecting the entity's row. A drilldown affects the entire tab. When you drill down to another entity, the Tab heading reflects the new selection, the Main area displays information on the selected entity, and the Association area displays the entities that are now associated with the newly selected entity.
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See About drilling down in context on page 18. See About the Main area on page 18. See About the Association area on page 18. See How most tabs are structured on page 15. See Tasks common to most tabs on page 20. See About the Dashboard tab on page 33.
About the entities you can examine in the Activity tab
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The following entities can be examined in the Activity tab:• All
- All Instances
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- Instance and Collector entities
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- Statement/Batch/Collapsed Statement/Collapsed Batch Entities
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- Session and Blocker Session Entities
NOTE The entities listed above have been grouped together logically since they can be described similarly. They appear separately when viewed in the GUI.
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The Tier entity displays the resource consumption of all the instances in the application. The following views are available:• Overview
- Overview
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- In Sybase
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- Instance grouping
About viewing a summary of the performance and resource consumption of all instances
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The table includes the following information:• State
- State - In Sybase state.
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- In Sybase - displays a graphical representation of the Time column.
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- Time - amount of time the selected Tier was in this state.
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- % - percentage of time the selected entity was in this state
NOTE: The table only displays the states the selected entity was in. For example, if the selected entity was not waiting for an I/O Wait during the selected time frame, the table will not display I/O Wait parameters.
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The Instance entity and the common Collector entities display the resource consumption of the entire instance (or the entity selected). When focusing on an instance, or collector entity, such as a program, you can examine how it is performing during the selected time frame.
The table below describes which Collector entities can be examined in the Activity tab.
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The following views are available for the Instance and Collector entities:• Overview
- Overview
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- In Sybase
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- Locking
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- Overall Activity
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- Scalability
About getting an overview Instance and Collector data
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Load Displays information on the following session-related items:• Sessions
- Sessions - number of sessions that occurred during the specified time period of the selected collector entity. For example, if you are viewing the Login entity, this value represents the number of sessions that are connected to the selected Login.
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- Duration (Avg) - average duration for a single session, in the selected collector entity during the selected time frame, calculated by dividing the Duration by the number of Sessions.
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- Duration (Summed) - total amount of time that elapsed for all of the selected collector entity's sessions during the selected time frame.
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- Statement Executions - number of statements executed during the selected time frame that were generated by the selected collector entity's sessions.
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- Statement Duration (Avg) - average duration for a single statement execution, in the selected collector entity during the selected time frame. This value is calculated by dividing the Duration (Summed) parameter by the number of statement executions.
Statistics Displays the following session-related statistics:• CPU
- CPU Time - cumulative CPU time for the collector entity or instance during the selected time frame.
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- Physical I/O Operations - total number of physical I/O operations performed by all sessions connected to the database during the selected time frame.
In Sybase Breakdown Displays collector entity resource consumption (table format) and shows instance breakdown during the selected time frame. The table displays the following information:• State
- State - displays the In Sybase state.
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- In Sybase - displays a graphical representation of the Time column.
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- Time - amount of time the selected collector entity was in this state.
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- % - percentage of time the selected collector entity was in this state
See About session states on page 25.
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The Overall Activity view displays the duration of the activity performed by the selected collector entity during the selected time frame, broken down into the following components:• Waitfor
- Waitfor Command - the amount of time applications were waiting for a Waitfor command.
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- Parallel Sync Wait - the amount of time applications were waiting on a synchronization message from another process in the family.
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- Request Wait - the amount of time applications were in a Request Wait state, defined as the state wherein the server is waiting for a client request.
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- Other Wait - the amount of time applications were in Other states.
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- In Sybase - represents total amount of time spent in Sybase.
See Focusing on information in overtime graphs on page 22.
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Clicking a tab shows additional information on the entities displayed in the Association area table. The rows of the table remain the same; the columns change to display additional details on the entities listed in the table. The information displayed in each tab is described below.
About viewing performance data for Instance and Collector entities
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Statement Executions Number of statements executed during the selected time frame that were generated by the selected entity's sessions.
Table 6-2 Precise information displayed in the Performance tab
Column Description
CPU Time Cumulative CPU time for the entity during the selected time frame.
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The Statement, Batch, Collapsed Statement and Collapsed Batch entities display the performance and resource consumption of their respective entities.
The table below describes which performance and resource consumption information is displayed for the statement, batch, collapsed statement and collapsed batch entities.
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The following views are available for the Statement, Batch, Collapsed Statement and Collapsed Batch entities:• Overview
- Overview
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- Text
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- In Sybase
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- Locking
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- Scalability
About getting an overview of Statement, Collapsed Statement, Batch and Collapsed Batch entities
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Load Displays information on the following session-related items:• Database
- Database - identifies the statement's database.
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- User - identifies the statement's parsing user.
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- Statement Executions - number of times the Collector agent identifies that the statement was executed during the selected time frame.
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- Statement Duration (Avg) - displays the average duration of each statement execution during the selected time frame, calculated by dividing the Duration (Summed) by the number of Statement Executions.
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- Statement Duration (Summed) - total elapsed time required to run all executions of the selected statement or batch during the selected time frame.
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Statistics Displays the following statement-related statistics:• CPU
- CPU Time - cumulative CPU time for the entity during the selected time frame. This value is calculated by the Collector agent as follows (this is an approximate value) - the CPU field in sysprocesses is sampled at the start point and end point. The value sampled at the start point is subtracted from the value sampled at the end point resulting in the CPU Time reported.
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- Physical I/O Operations - total number of physical I/O requests during statement execution during the selected time frame.
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- Parallel Sessions (Min) - certain statements are executed using parallelisms. This counter displays the minimum number of threads used to execute the statement and is calculated by examining the fid column in sysprocesses. Check this counter to verify that the Sybase is implementing the best execution plan for the statement.
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- Parallel Sessions (Max) - certain statements are executed using parallelisms. This counter displays the maximum number of threads used to execute the statement and is calculated by examining the fid column in sysprocesses. Check this counter to verify that the Sybase is implementing the best execution plan for the statement.
In Sybase breakdown Displays resource consumption broken down into states, such as, Using CPU, I/O Wait, Lock Wait, and so on, within the specified time period. This allows you to identify the highest resource consumers.
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See Focusing on information in overtime graphs on page 22.
About viewing scalability for Statement, Collapsed Statement, Batch and Collapsed Batch entities
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The following tabs are displayed in the Association area of the Statement and Batch entities:• Performance
- Performance tab (Statement and Batch)
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- In Sybase tab (Statement and Batch)
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- Statistics tab (Statement and Batch)
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- Plan tab (Statement and Batch)
Clicking a tab shows additional information on the entities displayed in the Association area table. The rows of the table remain the same; the columns change to display additional details on the entities listed in the table. The following tables describe the information displayed in each tab.
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The In Sybase tab contains the In Sybase counter and the breakdown of In Sybase into its states. In Sybase is displayed with a normalized view while all the other counters display the time spent in each state.
About viewing Statistical data for Statement and Batch entities
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The following tabs are displayed in the Association area of the Collapsed Statement and Collapsed Batch entities:• Performance
- Performance tab (Collapsed statement and collapsed batch)
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- In Sybase tab (Collapsed statement and collapsed batch)
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- Statistics tab (Collapsed statement and collapsed batch)
Clicking a tab shows additional information on the entities displayed in the Association area table. The rows of the table remain the same; the columns change to display additional details on the entities listed in the table. The information displayed in each tab is described below.
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The following views are available:• Overview
- Overview
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- In Sybase
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- Locking
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- Overall Activity
About getting an overview of Session and Blocker Session entities
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Lock wait graph The Lock Wait graph shows a breakdown of the Lock Waits and when they occurred over the selected time period.
NOTE The graph displays data in time slices.
About viewing overall activity for Session and Blocker Session entities
The Overall Activity view displays the duration of the activity performed by the selected session within the specified time period, broken down into the following components:• Waitfor
- Waitfor Command - the amount of time applications were waiting for a Waitfor command.
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- Parallel Sync Wait - the amount of time applications were waiting on a synchronization message from another process in the family.
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- Request Wait - the amount of time applications were in a request wait state, defined as the state wherein the server is waiting for a client request.
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- Other Wait - the amount of time applications were in other states.
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- In Sybase - represents total amount of time spent in Sybase.
NOTE The graph displays data in time slices.
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The following tabs are displayed in the Association area of the Instance and Collector entities:• Performance
- Performance tab (Session and Blocker Session)
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- In Sybase tab (Session and Blocker Session)
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- Statistics tab (Session and Blocker Session)
Clicking a tab shows additional information on the entities displayed in the Association area table. The rows of the table remain the same; the columns change to display additional details on the entities listed in the table. The following table describes the information displayed in each tab.
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The In Sybase tab contains the In Sybase counter and the breakdown of In Sybase into its states. In Sybase is displayed with a normalized view while all the other counters display the time spent in each state.
About viewing statistical data for Session and Blocker Session entities
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SPID Displays the system process ID. The SPID is a unique integer assigned to each user connection when the connection is made.
Table 6-10 Information displayed in the Statistics tab
Column Description
CPU Time Cumulative CPU time for the entity during the selected time frame.
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You can identify a performance problem by doing one or more of the following:• Examining
- Examining resource consumption of an entire instance and database
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- Identifying heavy resource consumers
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- Examining resource consumption over time
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- Resolving blocking situations
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- Identifying offending SQL statements
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- Examining the scalability of your application or Sybase servers
Examining resource consumption of an entire instance and database
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To examine the resource consumption of an entire instance and database1. In
- In the Instance list, choose the item you want to analyze.
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- In the Time Frame list, choose the period of time you want to analyze.
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- On the View controls in the Main area, click Overview. Examine the entire instance and determine which are the dominant resources that are consumed by your system.
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- On the Association controls in the Association area, click Databases.
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- On the Performance tab, place the cursor in the In Sybase column of the top database and view the information displayed on its resource consumption.
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| Info |
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As a rule of thumb, a healthy system should have a high Using CPU value, a 10 - 15% I/O Wait, a Log Wait based on the nature of the application, and the remaining states should show values that are as minimum as possible. |
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Identifying heavy resource consumers
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There are several reasons to drill down and focus on different application components:• During
- During the tuning process, you drill down to determine which are the top resource-consuming components. Tuning a component (such as a Database, Login, User, or Machine) that consumes most of the resources, will free them to other entities. The tuning process is an iterative process. You will continue to list all components, examine their resource consumption and focus in on several of them, until you have completed the tuning process.
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- When you try to analyze user experience you need to isolate one user's activity from the other users. To achieve this you can focus in on a single login or machine.
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- When trying to determine which application component to drill down to, take into consideration not only the total In Sybase of the application, but also its number of sessions, executions and average duration. If you do not take these elements into consideration you may try to tune a program that runs once a year, consuming 20 hours, instead of tuning a program that consumes 2 seconds but runs every time a user logs on to the system.
To identify heavy resource consumers1. In
- In the Instance list, choose the item you want to analyze.
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- In the Time Frame list, choose the period of time you want to analyze.
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On the View controls in the Main area, click In Sybase to view a breakdown of the In Sybase time.
Info
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When trying to determine which application component to drill down to, take into consideration not only the total In Sybase of the application, but also its number of Sessions or Executions and Duration (Avg). If you do not take these elements into consideration you may try to tune a program that runs once a year, consuming 20 hours, instead of tuning a program that consumes 2 seconds but runs every time a user logs on to the system.
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- On the Association controls in the Association area, click Programs.
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- On the Performance tab, place the cursor in the In Sybase column of the top program entity and view the information displayed regarding its resource consumption.
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- Drill down on the entity to focus on additional components.
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- Go back to the overview of the instance you originally selected.
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- In the Association area, use the Association controls to select different entities associated with the instance, and analyze the average duration of each entity.
Examining resource consumption over time
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There are several reasons to study a component's performance over time:• When
- When analyzing a performance problem you will want to determine if it is a one-time only problem or has happened before.
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- You will want to identify if there are any patterns or trends. For example, does a particular lock problem always happen on Tuesday at around 10 AM?
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- You will want to determine how your system is behaving throughout an entire day. For example you may observe that during the night your system experiences much more I/O wait than during the day.
To examine resource consumption over time1. In
- In the Instance list, choose the item you want to analyze.
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- In the Time Frame list, choose the period of time you want to analyze.
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- On the View controls in the Main area, click In Sybase.
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- Move the cursor over the bars in the graph to view the instance's resource consumption over time.
Resolving blocking situations
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There are several areas you can focus on when resolving blocking situation:• Look
- Look at the Overview view of your instance (database, program) to understand the percentage of Lock Wait your application suffers.
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- Examine the Lock Wait over a selected time period. By examining resource consumption over time you can identify if Lock Wait occurred all the time, or only on specific dates.
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- Try to gain an understanding of the Lock types your applications were blocked on. An overtime graph of the different Lock types can be displayed in the Locking view.
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- Examine the locked objects. You can display a list of all locked objects and compare them according to lock time.
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- Once you have identified all of the above, you also need to assess who is blocking who. For example, you will need to determine which session is blocking which session? The locks tree displays all the contentions that occurred and shows which sessions were involved in contentions.
To examine locking over time of a database entity1. In
- In the Instance list, choose the item you want to analyze.
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- In the Time Frame list, choose the period of time you want to analyze.
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- In the Association area drill down to the database entity you want to analyze.
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- On the View controls in the Main area, click Locking.
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- Examine the locking of the selected entity in the graph, for the period of time you selected. Move the cursor over the bars in the graph to view the Lock Wait breakdown.
- Examine the locks tree to observe all the contentions that occurred and determine which sessions were involved in contentions.
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- Assess who is blocking who (For example, determine which session is blocking which session. By drilling from the application component with Lock Wait to the Blocker Session entity, you can find the sessions that caused the contention).
Identifying offending SQL statements
Having identified a major resource-consuming entity, you can further drill down to the statements and batches executed by that entity. These may include long running SQL statements and SQL statements that use few resources but were executed frequently. In many cases analyzing the queries executed by the entity and tuning them will result in the most performance gain. For each statement, you can do the following:• View
- View which entities executed the statement.
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- View resources consumed by the statement, which enables you to determine if the statement is CPU or I/O bound, waiting for a lock, etc.
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- View resource consumption patterns, which allow you to observe if the statement execution is affected by excessive use of the same resource by another statement.
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- Tune the statement in the SQL tab.
To identify offending SQL Statements1. In
- In the Instance list, choose the item you want to analyze.
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- In the Time Frame list, choose the period of time you want to analyze.
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- In the Association area, drill down to the top resource-consuming database.
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- On the Association controls in the Association area, click Statements. On the Performance tab view which entities executed the statement and view the resources consumed by the statement.
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- In the Plan tab, in the Association area, view a summary of the statement's access plan.
Examining the scalability of your application or Sybase servers
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To examine the scalability of your application or Sybase servers1. In
- In the Instance list, choose the item you want to analyze.
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- In the Time Frame list, choose the period of time you want to analyze.
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- On the View controls in the Main area, click Scalability.
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- In the Session Duration (Avg) vs. Sessions graph, observe the number of sessions and the impact of the average session duration, over the selected time period. For example, if you observe that average session duration decreases when the number of sessions increase, this may indicate that the application has a scalability problem.
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