Brief description
The name GiAPA is an acronym of the words describing the aim of the software product:
Global iSeries Application Performance Analyzer
Hiding all the complex data collection and analysis in the program logic, the goal of enabling the average programmer and operator to pinpoint performance issues was achieved.
In addition, with detailed data for all jobs and tasks every 15 seconds available, the GiAPA data base has become an unprecedented tool for operations being responsible for controlling use of resources and producing usage information and trend reports to management.
GiAPA basically works in 3 steps:
- Collection of performance data, stored in a compressed binary format.
- Expansion and analysis of the collected data.
- Reporting – Interactive use of displayed or printed reports and graphics
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Runs in batch typically using less than 0.1 % of one CPU, for which reason data normally is collected 24/7. The data is stored in a compressed binary format using a minimum of disk space. Complete attributes and use of 22 types of resources are received for all active jobs from operating system APIs every 15 seconds. This data is processed real-time. If a job within a 15 seconds collection interval use so many resources that it might have or cause a performance problem, GiAPA also retrieves data for all open files and the program call stack. |
CPU efficient ! Uses < 0,1 % CPU Collects data for all jobs every 15 sec.s |
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Fully automatic - no "experts" needed. Output detail level determined by installation parameters |
Runs in a batch job, creates a number of data base file members containing the results to be used as input for the numerous (exception) reports and charts. Data for a day, an hour, or a whole week, etc. may be selected. Can be scheduled to run e.g. every night, or requested interactively if e.g. a recent incident should be analyzed immediately. Data from jobs suffering from or potentially causing performance problems are kept individually by GiAPA for further analysis – data for other jobs or tasks are kept summarized by type and interval, unless all details explicitly are requested. All this is done transparent to the user, but installation parameters can influence the limits for when detailed data should be kept. |
Reports for Management , Operations and Develoment
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After expansion/analysis a large number of displayed or printed reports and graphics can be requested interactively. The output is available summarized in many ways and levels, or very detailed down to job-id per 15 seconds, combined with extensive selection and sort options. Details for jobs that used any significant amount of resources are automatically kept and detailed performance analysis requires only few keystrokes rather than expensive external assistance. The results are available as traditional reports including all needed details, but can within seconds be converted to charts. |
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Additional features
Apart from the above basic functions of GiAPA there are quite a number of additional features, like possibilities for additional performance investigations, analysis of data base files, data import/export and housekeeping.