Installing and running the FirstLook utility to gather performance data

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Article ID: 100020987

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Description

The FirstLook package gathers general system performance data by executing Operating System level commands.
 
Such commands include:
  • iostat
  • netstat
  • sar
 
The FirstLook script should be executed while the performance issue in question is occurring.
 

FirstLook is now part of the VRTSspt package which is bundled with the latest versions of the Veritas InfoScale and Storage Foundation packages.   If you are running an old version of Veritas Storage Foundation which comes with an old version of VRTSspt, you can download and install a newer version of VRTSspt by following the instructions in Knowledge Article 000026129 (000026129) which is listed in the Related Articles section of this article.

Resolution

 


By default, Firstlook stores the collected performance statistics in the same directory where the FirstLook program locates, that is. /opt/VRTSspt/FirstLook.   If you want to store the data in a different directory, please copy the FirstLook programs to the new directory before starting FirstLook.  For example, executing FirstLook on Solaris:
 
# mkdir /var/tmp/FirstLook
# cd /opt/VRTSspt/FirstLook
# cp -pr . /var/tmp/FirstLook
# cd /var/tmp/FirstLook
# ./start_look -l
 
Notes:
 
1. Always use the -l option to get lockstat data unless system is very heavily loaded.
2. Note - do not run more than one hour, the logs will overwrite after 60 minutes.
3 . Try to start the script 5 minutes before the performance issue is expected to be seen.
 

 
Files will be saved in Flook__logs in the directory where you start Firstlook.
 
For example:
 
saving FirstLook config info
 
os is type 3 5.10
 
saving patch information
 
Segmentation Fault - core dumped
 
saving package information
 
saving mount information
 
saving modinfo information
 
saving vxprint
 
starting logger in dispatcher class: RT
 

 
Optionally, it is possible to confirm that the FirstLook process is running:
 
bash-3.00# ps -ef | grep look
 
root 19984 1 0 08:58:19 pts/1 0:00 /bin/ksh /var/tmp/FirstLook/Flook_sol
 

 
After enough time to collect useful information, or if the performance issue is intermittent and has stopped, stop FirstLook:
 
bash-3.00# ./stop_look
 

Once the process has stopped (60 seconds, or so), the results will be packaged into a tar file:
 
bash-3.00# ls -hl *.tar
 
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2.2M May 13 09:01 Flook_05_13_09_09:00:18_logs.tar

 

 


 

 

 

Issue/Introduction

Installing and running the FirstLook utility to gather performance data

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