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Tuning group buffer pools


After global locking, the next most important area of data sharing tuning involves determining:

  • Whether the group buffer pools are the right size
  • Whether the pools have the correct ratio of directory to data entries to support your workload, based on the amount of inter-Db2 sharing that is occurring

If one of these resources is lacking, overhead increases in the group buffer pools, the coupling facility, and the local pools. The increased overhead can cause unnecessary I/O.

To tune the group buffer pools

  1. On the Data Sharing Wizard (WZDSHAR), select Review Group (Session) to see an overview of key statistics about:

    • Global contention
    • Group buffer pool performance
    • GBP-dependent page sets
    • Coupling facility activity (castouts, failures)
    >W1 =WZDSGMEM=========(DBGHC====*=======)10MAR2011==16:33:40====MVDB2====D====2
     Db2      MVS      Global   Total           Read Hit %    GBP
     Target   System   Cont. %  Lockouts  ..... 0...50..100   DEP Castouts Failures
     DB1HC    SYSC         3.76        4   14.0 **              1        4        0
     Db2HC    SYSC         1.57        6   22.2 **              1       23        0

    This view shows you some of the key indicators per member and lets you quickly identify whether you have any performance issues to analyze. The counts shown are for the time since Db2 was started.

    From here, you can hyperlink on any Db2 to see all group buffer pool statistics for both the current interval and the session data since Db2 startup. Alternatively, you can return to WZDSHAR to follow some of the analysis paths.

  2. Press F3 to return to the Data Sharing Wizard (WZDSHAR)
  3. Select Check GBPs.The GBP analysis section of the Data Sharing Wizard is displayed. This decision panel provides options to analyze GBP size and the ratio of directory to data entries.

     W1 =WZDSBOPT=========(DBGHC====DB******)10MAR2011==16:35:19====MVDB2====D====1
      ** DATA SHARING WIZARD - GBPs          Group GBP Values DBGK
      Check Totals per GBP
        (Select GBP for Detail)                               Interval   Session
      . GBP Size Too Small?                  Read Hit %......      0.0       6.2
        (Low Hit% / Cache Full)              Miss-Cache Full.        0         0
                                             Curr. Chngd Pgs.        0
      . Too Few Directory Entries?           Dir.Reclaims....        0         0
        (Reclaims Cause XI/DASD Reads)       XIs/Dir.Recl....        0         0
      . Too Few Data Entries?
        (Castouts More Frequent)             Castouts........        6        95
        (Castout Too Slow)                   Write Fail-Stor.        0         0

    Three diagnostic paths are available. For this session, you are going to follow the path to analyze directory entries. Even if the pools are large enough, a lack of directory entries (used to register each page) can cause problems.

    The key indicators on the right help you decide whether you need to do additional analysis by following one or more paths. On this panel, all of these values are for the whole group, summarized for all GBPs.

    Possible symptoms of too few directory entries are:

    • The occurrence of directory reclaims so that new pages can be registered
    • Cross-invalidations of pages in the members’ local buffer pools, occurring because of these directory reclaims

    If one of these indicators is greater than 0, the field is highlighted in red.

  4. Hyperlink on Too Few Directory Entries?.A tabular list of all defined group buffer pools is displayed.

    >W1 =WZDSGBR==========(DBGHC====*=======)10MAR2011==16:36:09====MVDB2====D====9
      GBP     Curr.  Pend.    Dir.    Data   Directory  XI from   XI Read Read Hit
     Name     Ratio  Ratio  Entries  Entries  Reclaims Dir.Recl.    Miss     Ratio
     BP0          5      5      942      187         0         0        3      6.2
     BP1                          0        0         0         0        0      0.0
     BP2                          0        0         0         0        0      0.0
     BP4                          0        0         0         0        0      0.0
     BP5                          0        0         0         0        0      0.0
     BP9                          0        0         0         0        0      0.0
     BP11                         0        0         0         0        0      0.0
     BP32K                        0        0         0         0        0      0.0
     BP32K9                       0        0         0         0        0      0.0

    Now you can see each group buffer pool with the current definitions, the two key indicators that you saw before for all pools (Directory Reclaims and XI from Dir. Recl. columns), and some additional related statistics.

  5. Select a single GBP for further analysis.

     W1 =WZDSGBRD=========(DBGHC====DB******)10MAR2011==16:37:11====MVDB2====D====1
      GBP Directory Entry Analysis - Detail  BP0
                                             Interval           Session
      Reclaims for Directory Entries?               0                 0
        (GBP Page/Dir Reused)
      Directory Reclaims Causing XI?                0                 0
        (Local VP Pages Invalidated)
      Also Increasing DASD Reads?
        . Check Members for:
          * XI Miss ==> DASD Reads
      GBP Hit Ratio Low?
        . Check Members for:
          * Low GBP Hit Ratio
      Definitions
        Total Size (4K Blocks)                    256
        Directory Entries                         942
        Data Entries                              187
        Current Ratio                             5
        Pending Ratio                             5

    This analysis panel provides details to help you determine whether a group buffer pool might have too few directory entries to support its part of the data sharing workload. This panel addresses the main issue—whether directory reclaims are causing cross-invalidations (XI) and probably increasing I/O.

    In this panel, you now see the two key indicators again, but as interval (current activity) and session (total since Db2 startup) counts.

    The answer to the additional question of whether this situation is increasing DASD reads can be seen only by looking at statistics per member instead of at the group level.

  6. Hyperlink on Check Members for XI Miss.A view containing data sharing session activity counts per member for this group buffer pool is displayed.

     W1 =WZDSGBSA=========(DBGHC====*=======)10MAR2011==16:39:02====MVDB2====D====2
      GBP    Db2       Read  XI Read  NF Read  Changed   Clean Sync Read Async Read
     Name    Target   Hit %    Miss     Miss    Writes  Writes     Total      Total
     BP0     DB1HC     14.0        3       40       12       0        50          0
     BP0     DB2HC     22.2        1       13       20       0        18          0

    The XI Read Miss column now shows whether any members had to do additional I/O to read in pages lost through reclaims and cross-invalidation. Non zero counts are highlighted. From here, you can also hyperlink on a GBP to see interval and session counts for that GBP.

    You have seen a few of the most important areas for data sharing monitoring. You have used a Single System Image context to enable you to monitor all members of a group, both individually and summarized, and to pull all of the relevant data together. Now you have the tools to master the new and complex data sharing performance issues.

  7. Return to EZDB2.

 

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