Getting Ready for VM Capacity Planning Studies AMERICAS TECHNICAL SALES SUPPORT

Transcription

1 Getting Ready for VM Capacity Planning Studies AMERICAS TECHNICAL SALES SUPPORT Page 1 of 18

2 INTRODUCTION This document introduces the IBM Americas Techline Capacity Planning Process for VM systems. The term VM has been used throughout this document to indicate z/vm or VM/ESA. If you have received a softcopy of this document, you may want to check for its latest version, available in TECHDOCS at under the name GRCP2KVMv1r0.PDF This document should be used in conjunction with the Using the CP2000 VM Extract Utility CP2KVMXT. The above guide is the document you will need to perform the data extraction itself, and it can be found at A major difference with the VM process versus the z/os process is that the data extraction needs to be performed at the customers own sites. No tapes can be shipped to the Washington Systems Center. The final EDF file, which is used as an input to the CP2000 Capacity Planning tool, needs to be sent to Techline via Lotus Notes or ed via the internet. The following pages describe the requirements for the IBM Americas Techline Organization to run a processor capacity planning analysis for VM/ESA and z/vm customers. Page 2 of 18

3 WHY VM/ESA and z/vm CAPACITY STUDIES? Linux for zseries has created a new demand in the marketplace for z/vm. Customers now need to understand better their LINUX instances running under z/vm. It is a well known fact that LINUX can run natively in a zseries server, however, under z/vm the customer can spawn hundreds of virtual LINUX servers, all controlled by the virtualization mechanisms built into z/vm. Each LINUX instance is seen by z/vm as a single workload, in the same level as TCP/IP, RSCS, etc. Let us not forget the traditional z/vm use as a native operating system or running VSE/ESA as a guest under VM. These customers need to do capacity planning as well For details about LINUX virtualization under VM, the following documents are recommended: - Building Linux Systems Under IBM VM - Linux on IBM zseries and S/390: Cloning Linux Images in z/vm - Linux on IBM zseries and S/390: High Availability for z/vm and Linux Other related documents are available: - IBMers: - Business Partners and non-ibmers: RUNNING BOTH VM & MVS Please, be aware that, if the customer has any form of MVS (MVS/ESA, OS/390, z/os) in the same system as they have VM (VM/ESA, zvm), Techline will also need to receive data related to the MVS side of the machine. In this case, along with your solicitation for VM capacity planning, make sure to indicate that the machine also runs MVS. A separate data collection guide will be sent to the sales rep/customer, in addition to this document. It is critical that we get data from all LPARs on the processor over the same time period(s) of time, same duration, same CECID, and the same CPU model to do a proper capacity analysis. Page 3 of 18

4 PERFORMANCE DATA COLLECTION z/vm has its own features and products dedicated to collect performance data. Some of these products are chargeable products, such as VMPRF that collects and formats performance data obtained from the machine. Since these products are not part of the z/vm base, not all customers have performance data collection products on their systems. To extend the capability of performing a capacity planning analysis to z/vm and z/vm guests, the IBM Washington Systems Center Advanced Technical Support (ATS) has developed a tool, named CP2KVMXT which is freely distributed to IBMers and Business Partners. It enables the use of the z/vm built-in MONITOR data and it creates a file that is used as an input to the CP2000 Capacity Planning Tool (EDF file). Page 4 of 18

5 z/vm vs. z/os: A Different Approach in Performing Data Collection for Capacity Planning The methodology of collecting data from z/vm differs a lot from the previous one Techline used with OS/390 and z/os operating systems. It is z/vm s nature to generate enormous amount of data when the monitor is running. If one collects this data in a disk and generates tapes from it, the number of tapes could reach the hundreds. It is important to note that the intervals and durations are very important for capacity planning purposes. The Interval tells the monitor when to collect sample data. On busy systems, it is necessary to keep this fairly short to prevent counters from wrapping more than once within an interval. The downside of using a short interval is that it generates a lot of data. The Duration on the other hand, accumulates the values from two or more intervals into the longer period of time (i.e., 60 minutes) that is more natural to deal with in capacity planning. Both the CP2KEXTR (MVS extract) and CP2KVMXT (VM extract) utilities prompt for a value. If an LPAR'ed system is being modeled, then the specified duration (and start/stop times) should be the same for all images on the CEC. VM system administrators are interested in short durations, and the amount of data generated is not a problem. They may be interested in data from a specific day, or even from a specific hour, and then collect samples every 5 minutes (interval) during the entire hour (duration). This data provides valuable information for the system administrator; however, it would not be appropriate for Capacity Planning Studies, which require long duration periods. With longer duration periods, the amount of data generated is very large. This z/vm characteristic prevents Techline to receive data tapes and run the extract tool from an IBM site. In other words, what this means is that the new tool being provided (CP2KVMXT) to produce the CP2000 input file (EDF file) NEEDS TO BE RUN AT THE CUSTOMERS SITES. However, to minimize the disk impact in the customers system, the new CP2KVMXT V1.2 supports a direct connection to the VM CP Monitor. This new function will be useful because it eliminates the need for a large amount of DASD space on the customer system to hold the CP Monitor file. Page 5 of 18

6 TIME INTERVALS / DURATIONS - EXAMPLES Capacity Planning analyzes trends over a longer period of time. Ideally, the duration should be defined for days or weeks, collecting samples related to several hours per day. To contain the number of samples within a reasonable number, the time intervals used are not 5 minutes, but 15, 30 or even 60 minutes, with durations as large as 5, 7 or even 30 days. Unlike the z/os version of CP2KEXTR, the z/vm version of CP2KVMXT does only contiguous stretches of time. If you stop the monitor (ie, at 6pm) then CP2KVMXT will finish and write out the EDF file. CP2000 accepts only one EDF per image, and currently there is no utility to combine EDFs. Hence, one can do Monday 8am thru Friday 6pm, but the only way to do M-F 8a- 6pm is to measure continuously Monday-Friday (generating one EDF with (4*24)+9=105 hourly samples in it), load the resulting EDF into CP2000, then delete the 6pm-8am samples. As with z/os CP2KEXTR, however, the DASD numbers in the SYS macro will remain the same; they are not adjusted. Examples: 1) As an example, a Capacity Planning study may require data from Monday to Friday, every 30 minutes, for 10 continuous hours (8AM to 6PM). 2) Another possible scenario could be a customer interested in two distinct windows, from 8AM to 12PM and then from 2PM to 6PM, in hourly intervals. 3) A different customer may be interested in the batch workload, from 12AM to 6AM in 15 minutes intervals. The correct selection of the time intervals and duration period are crucial for the capacity planning success, and it should be defined in agreement with the customers needs. For all examples above, the monitor needs to run continuously, until the end of the duration. After the tool is run, the EDF file can be transmitted to Techline, along with the request for a capacity study. To create a call in Techline, please use the existing procedures for IBMers and for Business Partners. Page 6 of 18

7 Responsibilities YOU - 1. Engage Techline by using one of the means described at and request zseries capacity planning. TECHLINE - Contacts you to begin the following process: 1. IBM Rep & Techline Rep discuss account situation, objectives & decide on appropriateness of tools. Techline sends GETTING READY FOR VM CAPACITY PLANNING STUDIES (GRCP2KVM, this document) to the IBM Rep. 2. Techline sends Getting Started with VM Capacity Planning: A QuickGuide for Customers (GSVMCP) to the IBM Rep. 3. A rep alerts Techline if there are z/os partitions as well on the z/vm machine so that Techline can send the z/os data collection guide. 4. IBM Rep gives "GSVMCP" to customer or Techline can send it directly to the customer contact. 5. Customer fills out "GSVMCP", with help of Techline, if required. 6. Customer runs the required VM tools to produce the EDF file, with FTSS help, if required. 7. Customer s EDF to the IBM Rep and Techline rep. 8. Techline will the IBM Rep & the customer to acknowledge receipt of the EDF file. 9. Techline will execute the Capacity Planning tools, as appropriate for the request. 10. Techline will contact the customer & work with them to further clarify & verify the provided information, if necessary. 11. Techline will discuss the findings with the IBM Rep in preparation for a customer presentation. 12. Techline will assist, by phone, with the presentation to the customer or we can do the presentation by phone. Page 7 of 18

8 UNDERSTANDING THE REQUIREMENTS You will need to prepare the customer s system to be able to perform the extract process. First of all, download the pre-requisite files and have them ready to be loaded into the customer s system. The same way that software for PCs is distributed compressed (with applications such as PKZIP), VM files can also be compressed with an application named VMARC. You can recognize a VM application that has been compressed by its filetype: FILENAME VMARC. In the PC environment, the application s filename suffix would be: *.vmarc (or *.vma in older Windows systems). Since the files will be downloaded from the Web to a personal computer, you will need the means to transport (or to send) the files to the customer. The required files are small in size and they will fit in a regular diskette. Once the files are in the customer s site, an upload to the VM system is required, as well as some specific setup type commands. Note: Refer to Appendix C for instructions on moving these files to the customer's VM system. The files you will need to download are: 1) Using the CP2000 VM Extract Utility CP2KVMXT -> This is the is the document you will need to perform the data extraction itself, and it can be found at IBMers: BPs: ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/software/mktsupport/techdocs/cp2kvmxt_ug.pdf THIS DOCUMENT IS A MUST. 2) CP2KVMXT VMARC -> This is the extract tool used to generate an Enterprise Data File (EDF), to be used as an input to CP2000. It supports SCPs running native, as well as those running in LPAR mode. For details, please refer to the documentation link listed below. Your source depends whether you are an IBMer or a Business Partner. IBM employees may obtain the CP2000 VM Extract program from The CPSTOOLS disk: EXEC TOOLS SENDTO WSCVM TOOLS CPSTOOLS GET CP2KVMXT PACKAGE the Capacity Planning Support website at TechDocs: Page 8 of 18

9 Business Partners and other non-ibm employees may obtain the CP2KVMXT package from the IBM VM Download Packages website at or from ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/software/mktsupport/techdocs/cp2kvmxt.vmarc Use of tools from the VM Download site is conditional on the Agreement for Downloading from the IBM VM Download Library at Please note that the CP2000 modeling tool itself is available only to IBM employees and IBM Business Partners. 3) MONVIEW VMARC -> It provides an effective way in playing with VM/ESA and z/vm monitor data. It is written mostly in REXX, with some Assembler, and it exploits CMS Pipelines. Included in the package is documentation, a front-end exec (MONVIEW EXEC), and formatting programs. The main tool takes monitor data produced by the MONWRITE utility and creates a CMS file where each monitor record is represented by a single record in the file. Other tools in the package allow for selecting individual fields. In addition, several of the tools can be used as Pipeline stages. You may obtain your copy from: 4) VMARC MODULE -> To allow the unpacking of VM compressed files, once you upload these files to VM (in binary mode), you will need to use the module VMARC MODULE to unpack the files. This module can be obtained from a link in the URL indicated below: section To download VMARC itself:, or directly from Note: if you are running VM/ESA you will need to apply APAR VM61031 in order for VMARC MODULE to work correctly on your system. 5) VMARC HELPCMS (optional) -> Help file for the VMARC MODULE. This file can be obtained from a link in the URL indicated below: section To download VMARC itself:, or directly from FOR DETAILS IN GETTING THE FILES INTO THE CUSTOMER s SYSTEM, PLEASE REFER TO APPENDIX C MOVING THE FILES TO THE CUSTOMER s VM SYSTEM Page 9 of 18

10 CUSTOMER s WORKLOAD INFORMATION Please provide a list of which workloads are important to the customer. Note that since LINUX instances are guests under z/vm, the performance data collected will refer to each LINUX instance (or other Operating System loaded as z/vm guest) as a z/vm workload. In other words, there will be no details about the LINUX instance, such as the utilization of the APACHE server or any other LINUX application. The Capacity Planning report will provide the data for the entire LINUX instance, as an entity. Page 10 of 18

11 APPENDIX A Techline s Capacity Planning Team Greg Cahill (212) FAX (212) gccahil@us.ibm.com Alex Choung (770) FAX (770) alexch@us.ibm.com Peter Chu (925) FAX (925) pmchu@us.ibm.com Pak Gee (925) FAX (925) ptgee@us.ibm.com Barry Hart (630) FAX (630) bkhart@us.ibm.com Bob Kohler (414) FAX (414) rakohle@us.ibm.com Lee Lemon (770) FAX (770) lrlemon@us.ibm.com Janice Liang (630) FAX (630) jcliang@us.ibm.com Jack McKee (770) FAX (770) mckeej@us.ibm.com Michael Moffatt (905) FAX (905) mmoffatt@ca.ibm.com Robert Nadai (248) FAX (248) bnadai@us.ibm.com Eduardo Oliveira (770) FAX (770) eduardoc@us.ibm.com Jerry Sly (301) FAX (301) jsly@us.ibm.com Ken Uchida (310) FAX (310) kuchida@us.ibm.com Alan Wiggins (972) FAX (972) awiggin1@us.ibm.com John Wojcik (781) FAX (781) johnwoj@us.ibm.com Page 11 of 18

12 APPENDIX B MOVING THE FILES TO THE CUSTOMER s VM SYSTEM 1) Use any appropriate program to upload (in binary) the previous described files to the customer s VM system: a) CP2KVMXT VMARC b) MONVIEW VMARC c) VMARC MODULE d) VMARC HELPCMS (optional) If you are using the IBM Personal Communications as your software to perform the upload to the host, make sure that the settings are correct for VM systems. Verify it as illustrated below: 1 Communication Settings - UPLOAD 1.1) Open your PC Communicator 3270 emulation session and logon to your VM system 1.2) Select ACTIONS 1.3) Select Send File to Host Page 12 of 18

13 The File Transfer Settings panel will appear: To ensure the transfer settings are correctly set, let us now do the following: 1.4) Click on the Options pushbutton. 1.5) Make sure the screen File Transfer Settings, tab General, looks like the screen below: - Make also sure Host Type indicates VM/CMS. 1.6) Select the VM tab. Make sure the Transfer Type binary, the Record Format is Variable. Page 13 of 18

14 1.7) If you already have the binary transfer settings as described above, just hit <CANCEL>, otherwise, change the values and hit <SAVE>, <OK> to confirm the change, and then <OK> again to exit the panel. 1.8) The last step brought you back to the main transfer panel. Select binary, click in <BROWSE> and select the files to be uploaded. Hold the <CTRL> key for multiple selections. Page 14 of 18

15 Note that after the upload is completed, the VM files automatically received a BIN suffix to its filetype. You will need to rename all files to their original names. As an example, see the screen below: Repeat this Process for the remaining files you just uploaded Page 15 of 18

16 After you finish the renaming process, the files should look like: Page 16 of 18

17 2) Run the VMARC filetype files through this pipeline (where 'fn' is the name of the file you uploaded): PIPE < fn VMARC A fblock > fn VMARC A F 80 Example: Repeat this process ONLY for the files with VMARC as filetype. 3) Run VMARC MODULE itself through this pipeline: PIPE < VMARC MODULE A deblock cms > VMARC MODULE A 4) (This step is optional. Follow this step only if you have downloaded the file) Upload and deblock VMARC HELPCMS to use it, just like you did for the module. 5) Unpack the files with VMARC as filetype by using VMARC: VMARC UNPK fn VMARC A Page 17 of 18

18 6) This will produce the following output for CP2KVMXT VMARC: 7) and the following output for MONVIEW VMARC: 8) You are done!!! Now, go to the Using the CP2000 VM Extract Utility CP2KVMXT Guide and proceed with the data extraction. GOOD LUCK! Page 18 of 18