Perfstat Filters and Grapher

Disclaimer

This page describes a set of NetApp internal tools for graphing performance data collected by perfstat. These tools should be considered as prototypes for more robust perfstat visualization tools under development and consideration. You should not expect any long term support for them. In the short term, besides serving as prototypes for guiding development of supportable tools, they are meant for the use of NetApp Performance Engineers performing analysis of perfstat data.

Introduction

The perfstat filters are a set of Perl scripts which extract performance data from perfstat files and produce time-sequenced CSV files.

The perfstat grapher is an Excel template containing VBA macros that can import these CSV files into an Excel Workbook and produce a number of charts.

Requirements

Perl 5.6 or above
Microsoft Excel 2000 or 2002, optionally Word 2000 or Word 2002
(More recent versions of the Microsoft Office products should work, but I have not tried them)

Known Problems

Running the Perl scripts under Windows does not always work. You should run these under UNIX.
Raidgroup related charts sometimes have incorrect timescales.

Revision History

Version 0.5 – 10/27/2004

Added a few charts for CIFS response times. To create these charts you need to either rerun

psf_get_all_data.pl or
psf_get_all_of_one_output.pl cifs_hist.txt and psf_get_all_of_one_output.pl cifs_hist_stats.txt

Fixed a bug in all sysstat related charts which would give garbage in the chart timescale for some perfstats files.
Fixed a bug in charting of per LUN data that would cause some data to in the wrong place in the chart related to the timescale. To get this fix you need to rerun psf_get_all_data.pl .

Version 0.2 - 10/06/2004

Fixed a number of bugs in Perfstat.xlt macros that would drop you into the VBA debugger if some files were not found.
Added a menu item to set the label for chart titles, so you don't need to modify the 'filers' sheet.
Added several new charts for CPs and for Windows Logical Disk stats.
Fixed a bug which would prevent the Perl scripts from running under Windows.

Installation

Download and unzip/untar the archive. (visual_perfstat.tar, visual_perfstat.zip)

Contents are :

a na_psf/ 0K
a na_psf/Excel_templates/ 0K
a na_psf/Excel_templates/Perfstat.xlt 564K
a na_psf/docs/ 0K
a na_psf/docs/psf.ht5.gif 24K
a na_psf/docs/psf.ht2.gif 27K
a na_psf/docs/psf.ht3.gif 30K
a na_psf/docs/psf.ht4.gif 26K
a na_psf/docs/psf.ht1.gif 22K
a na_psf/docs/psf.html 11K
a na_psf/doc_templates/ 0K
a na_psf/doc_templates/NFS_Perf.doc 43K
a na_psf/doc_templates/NAS_SAN_PerfWide.doc 47K
a na_psf/doc_templates/NAS_SAN_Perf.doc 50K
a na_psf/doc_templates/NFS_PerfWide.doc 50K
a na_psf/doc_templates/SAN_Perf.doc 62K
a na_psf/doc_templates/SAN_PerfWide.doc 63K
a na_psf/doc_templates/SPC_Wide.doc 57K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/ 0K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_wafl_susp.pl 6K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_cp_times.pl 11K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_fcp.pl 3K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_filer_timestamp.pl 3K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_filers.pl 3K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_get_all_data.pl 7K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_get_all_of_one_output.pl 6K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_hist.pl 19K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_ldisk.pl 18K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_lun.pl 30K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_lun_info.pl 4K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_lun_iops_kbs.pl 4K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_qnm_fesc.pl 10K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_san_vol.pl 10K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_split_iterations.pl 3K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_statit.pl 17K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_sysstat.pl 15K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_unix_timestamp.pl 3K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_versions.pl 7K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_vol.pl 29K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_vol_info.pl 4K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_wafl.pl 17K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_cp_kinds.pl 10K
a na_psf/perfstat_filters/psf_win_timestamp.pl 3K

Put na_psf/perfstat_filters on your search path.
Move the file na_psf/Excel_templates/Perfstat.xlt into a Windows folder that will be searched for template files by Excel. I use my home web page directory when using Excel 2002 via Terminal Services and
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates when using Excel 2000 on my desktop.

Usage

Typical usage involves the following steps:

Use psf_split_iterations.pl to split a perfstat file containing multiple iterations into a set of files, with one file per iteration. This script takes one argument, which is the name of the multi-iteration perfstat file.
Use psf_get_all_data.pl to produce a set of CSV files from the set of perfstat iteration files. This script optionally takes one argument which is a common and unique substring of the names of the individual perfstat iteration files. If no argument is given all files in the working directory having names containing the substring 'perfstat' are processed. The data of each such file is concatenated into a set of CSV files. The CSV files are placed in a directory/folder named <filername>_psf_files.
Use Excel to create a New workbook based on the Perfstat.xlt template.
Import the CSV files into the Workbook using a menu item provided in Perfstat.xlt.
Make the charts using the Perfstat Menu items.
Optionally customize the charts.
Export the charts to a Word document template or Web page using a Perfstat.xlt menu item.

Example - Filtering

     bash$ psf_split_iterations.pl perfstat-output-20040826-0858-1030.txt

     This will result in the creation of one file for each iteration contained

     in the input perfstat file. These files will be named <perfstta.perfstat.<iteration>.txt

bash$ ls

perfstat-output-20040826-0858-1030.txt  perfstat.2.txt         perfstat.7.txt

perfstat.1.txt                          perfstat.3.txt         perfstat.8.txt

perfstat.10.txt                         perfstat.4.txt         perfstat.9.txt

perfstat.11.txt                         perfstat.5.txt

perfstat.12.txt                         perfstat.6.txt

bash$ psf_get_all_data.pl

bash$ ls *psf_files sggosdr0_psf_files:

cp_kinds.txt            lun_hist.txt        lun_rt_ge_16.txt        sysstat.txt             wafl.txt

cp_times.txt            lun_hist_stats.txt  lun_summ.txt            versions.txt            wafl_susp.txt

file_timestamp_map.txt  lun_info.txt        nfsv3_hist.txt          vol.txt

filer.txt               lun_iops_kbs.txt    nfsv3_hist_stats.txt    vol_by_rg.txt

lun.txt                 lun_rt_ge_1024.txt  statit.txt              vol_by_rg_tot.txt

lun_detail.txt          lun_rt_ge_128.txt   statit_summ.txt         vol_summ.txt

sggosp00_psf_files:

cp_kinds.txt            lun_hist.txt        lun_rt_ge_16.txt        sysstat.txt             wafl.txt

cp_times.txt            lun_hist_stats.txt  lun_summ.txt            versions.txt            wafl_susp.txt

file_timestamp_map.txt  lun_info.txt        nfsv3_hist.txt          vol.txt

filer.txt               lun_iops_kbs.txt    nfsv3_hist_stats.txt    vol_by_rg.txt

lun.txt                 lun_rt_ge_1024.txt  statit.txt              vol_by_rg_tot.txt

lun_detail.txt          lun_rt_ge_128.txt   statit_summ.txt         vol_summ.txt

Example - Graphing

Click Start->Programs->MicroSoft Excel

Click File->New

Select Perfstat.xlt and click OK.

This willl result in the creation of a new Workbook having an additional Menu on the Menu Bar, named 'Perfstat'. The Perfstat Menu provides access to the macros for Importing the perfstat CSV files and making charts.

The Perfstat.xlt template also has a Sheet named "Intro" that has baic usage instructions.

Importing the Perfstat CSV Files

Click Perfstat->ImportData .

This will bring up a browser dialogue box that you can use to navigate to the folder containing the CSV files. Once there, select the file named statit.txt and double-click or click OK.

This will start the import process. The import process involves reading all of the CSV files into the Workbook, sorting the data in time order, and in some cases adding derived columns.

The sheets created from the import process are named the same as the filenames (without the .txt extension). Because of the number of sheets and the number of Charts that will be created, the sheets are made non-visible. If you need to see the sheets you can use the Perfstat menu item 'View Sheets' and 'Hide Sheets'.

Making Charts

Once the CSV files have been imported, the next step is to make Excel charts from the data.

Click Perfstat->MakeAllCharts. This will start a process of creating all of the defined charts. When the process is complete a List Box will pop up that can help navigate through the charts. The List Box gives the name of each Chart and a brief description of it. To view a chart, select the name and click OK. This List Box is also available through the menu item Perfstat->ViewCharts.

Customizing Charts

The obvious way to customize charts is to use normal Excel functions. There are also a few more automated ways to customize them.

One simple customization that is often useful is to change the labeling of the chart titles. All chart titles include the name of the filer the data is from. You can change this behavior by explicitly setting the desired label with the Perfstat->SetChartTitleLabel menu item. This will display a simple text box in which you can type in whatever label you like. Subsequent charts created will contain this text in their Title.

The other customization available is to Zoom into a smaller rangeof time for a particular chart. To do this, first find the chart you are interested in. Then click Perfstat->Zoom. A dialogue box will pop-up with slider bars to change the time-scale of the chart. By default a new chart will be created with the new time-scale, leaving the original chart unchanged. To change this behavior and modify the original chart, clear the check-box labelled 'Duplicate Chart'.

Exporting Charts to Documents or Web Pages

There are several reasons you may want to export the set of charts to a document or web page.

You may want to create a report containing some charts and don't want to have to cut-and-paste for hours.
The size of the Excel file after importing a large quantity of data and creating all of the charts can be very large. I have seen some files in excess of 100 MB. In the export process, we paste Pictures of the charts into documents/web pages which significantly reduces the size.
You may want to compare charts from different runs by putting them in the same web page or document.

The mechanism for exporting charts is based on Microsoft Word documents containing bookmarks. While these are not Templates in the Microsoft use of the word, they act as templates by containing boilerplate text and bookmarks for where charts should be inserted during the Export process. The bookmarks have the same name as the Chart Names of charts to be inserted. A few such template Word documents are included, or you can make your own.

The export process results in the production of a Word document that can then be used as it is or saved as a Web page.

The expected usage of this export mechanism is that you would use an existing template document to collect the charts in one place and then add text to the document before saving to explain what is going on.

If the purpose of the document (or Web page) is to compare two perfstat samples, you would run through the entire process using one set of perfstat data, saving the Word document as a Word Document. Then you would go through the entire process with the second set of perfstat data. But this time when you export the charts to Word, you would choose the previously saved document as the base rather than a blank template document. Because the bookmarks still exist in the document at the correct locations, each chart from the second set of data is inserted immediately before the corresponding chart from the first set of data.

When producing such comparison documents, you may want to have the chart heights reduced so that two charts can be easily seen on a display at the same time. There is a check box option to achieve this height reduction when you start to export the charts.

[Example TBD]