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  The File I/O Performance Monitor

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hIOmon WMI Browser Screen Shots -
"Device-Based" I/O Summary Display Examples

Product Info

The hIOmon WMI Browser includes several "Device-Based" File I/O Summary displays (which require the hIOmon "Summarized Data Licensing Option"); these displays give you a complete but concise, aggregated view of your real-time I/O activity in terms of your particular logical and/or physical disk (i.e., at the "physical-device level" within the operating system) devices.  These displays provide a summarized profile of the file (and device) I/O operations upon a specific device basis as observed and monitored by the hIOmon I/O Monitor in accordance with the selected Filter Selection.

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Supporting a comprehensive set of vital I/O performance metrics (including minimum, average, and maximum response times; I/O Operations per Second (IOPS); data transfer sizes and rates; system file cache metrics; random/sequential access percentages; queue lengths, idle times and more), the hIOmon WMI Browser Device I/O Summary displays let you easily see the actual I/O performance of your particular files upon an aggregated logical/physical basis.

The "Device Summary" metrics provided by hIOmon upon an individual "logical device" basis represent summarized (i.e., aggregated) file I/O operation performance metrics reflecting all of a particular device's monitored files collectively.  Note that files and directories that have not been specified (via the active/loaded Filter Selection) to be monitored by hIOmon will not be included within the "Device Summary" metrics for the associated logical device; only those files and directories for which hIOmon has collected file I/O operation performance metrics will be included within the Device Summary metrics for the respective device.

In the case of "physical devices", the "Device Summary" metrics represent the "Physical Device Extended Metrics" for the particular "physical device" provided upon a summarized (aggregated) basis.  These "Device Summary" metrics generally reflect those physical device I/O operations that were performed so as to satisfy file I/O operations which were also monitored by hIOmon at the associated file level (i.e., they basically reflect "physical device" I/O operations that were required to complete file I/O operations for those files that were also being monitored by hIOmon).

In short, the "Device Summary" metrics for logical devices enables you to collect, display, and export file I/O operation performance metrics quickly and easily upon a collective (i.e., overall total) basis limited to those particular files of interest to you (and with those files not being monitored by hIOmon excluded from the "device summary" metrics for the respective logical device).

Similarly, the "Device Summary" metrics for physical devices lets you collect, display, and export metrics quickly and easily upon an overall, individual physical-device basis for those I/O operations performed beneath the file system at the "physical device" level within the operating system (upon either an entire physical disk basis and/or for a physical disk partition/volume).

The following screen shot illustrates an example that shows the real-time summarized I/O operation performance metrics upon a "Top Ten Devices" basis and in a requested sort sequence; note that similar displays for "Top Ten Files" and "Top Ten Processes" are also supported.

"Top Ten Devices" Performance Metrics

Top Ten Devices Display

As shown in the screen shot above, the hIOmon WMI Browser "Top Ten Devices" menu option display can be used to show the names of the current "Top Ten Devices" based upon a particular sort order sequence that you can choose (with more than 190 sort order sequences available), with an explanation of the selected sort order sequence included within the display.  In addition to the specific sort order sequence, you can also select whether the sort order is to be in ascending order (with descending order the default) along with the particular I/O operation performance metrics of interest that are to be included within the display table (e.g., the associated metrics reflecting the counts of random access read and write I/O operations separately along with the overall total amount of data transferred by random access I/O operations have been explicitly added to the display table in the example above).  A multiple sort-order sequence option is also supported.

Note that in the example above the values shown in row 5 for the "G" logical device represent the respective metric values collectively for all files monitored by hIOmon that reside upon the "G" lettered drive/device.  The metrics for the individual "physical device volumes" are identified by the "\Device\Harddisk..." prefix.

Also note that "<DASD>" represents metrics for I/O operations monitored by hIOmon but for which no specific file name was available (or applicable in the case of the metrics for the "physical devices"), with the additional "VMM" suffix indicating I/O operations whose operating system flags indicated the involvement by the system "Virtual Memory Manager" (such as for a paging request).

In addition to metrics reflecting "random access I/O operations", a similar set of metrics can also be collected, displayed, and exported for sequential access I/O operations.

Note that hIOmon not only collects I/O operation metrics upon a random access and sequential access basis separately, but also includes separate metrics for the amount of data transferred.  Moreover, hIOmon can also capture both I/O operation counts and data transfer amounts separately for random and sequential access I/O operations involving the system file cache.

Only hIOmon provides such a robust set of random/sequential I/O operation performance metrics, which can be a great aid in helping you determine the actual I/O characteristics of your particular applications and in adjusting your storage configuration to properly meet these application I/O characteristics. 

The "Refresh" button can be used to refresh the display table (i.e., update the table contents with the most recent metric values).  Note that metric values that have changed are highlighted in bold.

To display other devices (within the same sort order sequence) beyond the initial "Top Ten", simply enter the desired starting number in the input box provided.  For example, to display the next ten top devices (that is, the next ten devices immediately below the top ten devices), you can enter a starting number value of 11; this will result in processes eleven (11) through twenty (20) being displayed within the table.  The starting number value enables you to display the other devices below the top ten based upon your requested sort order.

Sort Order Sequence Options

The hIOmon WMI Browser "Top Ten" displays allow you to request a particular sort order sequence; more than 190 sort order sequences are supported including the following (note that "SystemCache" represents "System Cache Metrics" and "PhyDev" represents "Physical Device Extended Metrics").

hyperI/O^sm -  improving the performance of storage I/O in computer servers