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  The File I/O Performance Monitor

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hIOmon Presentation Client Screen Shots -
 File I/O Summary Display Examples

Product Info

The hIOmon Presentation Client "File I/O Summary Display" (available through the purchase of the hIOmon "Summarized Data Licensing Option") gives you a complete but concise file-level view of your file and device I/O activity, in either real-time or replay modes.  This display provides a summarized (i.e., aggregated)  profile of the file and device I/O operations observed and monitored by the hIOmon I/O Monitor in accordance with the selected Filter Selection.

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; sequential access percentages; and more), the hIOmon File I/O Summary Display lets you easily see the actual I/O performance of your individual files on a file-level basis.  This hIOmon feature allows you to finally answer, at a glance with empirical data, the question: "How fast are your files?™"

Features

Architecture

Screen Shots

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NOTE:

In addition to its hIOmon Presentation Client support, hIOmon also features support for other client interfaces, including the hIOmon Windows® Performance/System Monitor support, the hIOmon WMI Browser, and the hIOmon CLI support.  And besides support for standard Excel standard charting/graphing functions, the hIOmon software package includes "hIOmon Add-Ons" that provide hIOmon Excel Template/Macros for easily and quickly generating Microsoft® Office Excel Pivot Tables/Charts.    

Example 1

The File I/O Summary Display screen shot on the left (Example 1) is the display for the file Alert that occurred as the result of a Fast I/O read operation which exceeded the "Read Operation Alerts - maximum data transfer rate for a single Read I/O operation" threshold (the threshold value was 60 megabytes per second and the Fast I/O operation completed the read data transfer at a rate of 75.12 megabytes per second).

The file I/O operation activity occurring at the time was the result of the white paper excerpt file being viewed with the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™. 

The second File I/O Summary Display screen shot (to the immediate left, Example 2) is the display for a subsequent file Alert that occurred at sequence ID 128 in the Write I/O trace display; this file alert was the result of the I/O Request Packet (IRP) write operation with sequence ID 127 (which matched the "Write Operation Alerts - maximum data transfer size" threshold; the threshold value is 65536 bytes and the IRP write operation successfully performed a data transfer of 65536 bytes).

The file I/O operation activity occurring at the time was the result of the white paper excerpt file being overwritten with an identical copy of the same file.

Example 2 (above)

Display List Options

The box (pane) on the left side of the File I/O Summary Display contains a "Display List" of (all) device/file names for which there are file I/O operation performance summaries.  You can select a particular device/file name from this Display List to see the associated file I/O operation performance summary information for the respective device/file (which is then shown upon the right side of the File I/O Summary Display; e.g., the selected/highlighted "CaseForFileIOmonitor.pdf" file in the above example).

The specific "Display List Options" currently in effect determine which particular device/file names (or process names) actually appear within the Display List itself (and how they are arranged).  The variety and number of "Display List Options" that can be used to select the devices/files (or processes) of particular interest are shown in the screen shot to the immediate left.  The Display List Options make it even easier and quicker for you to isolate, for instance, the specific files of interest (e.g., the top 5% of accessed files based upon file size, I/O operation count, data transferred, or maximum response time, etc.). 

Display List Table View (below)

You can also optionally view, within a customized table format, the summarized file I/O operation performance metrics associated with the files shown within the Display List.  The "Display List Table View" allows you to easily and quickly compare the performance of the selected files.  Moreover, you can also "export" this summarized file I/O operation performance information to a CSV file (so that you can additionally perform your own unique analysis upon the file I/O operation performance information and/or generate customized charts and graphs).

Describing all of the file I/O performance metrics shown upon the hIOmon File I/O Summary Display is beyond the scope of the screen shot example discussion.  In any case, a few items to note are:

• File size and Device size.  For displays of specific files, the hIOmon File I/O Summary Display includes the size of the file whose file I/O operation performance metrics are being displayed.  The value displayed represents the size (in bytes) of the respective file when the file was opened.  For optional "Device Summary" displays, the values displayed include the capacity (in megabytes) of the respective device and the total space used (in megabytes) on the device at the time that the file I/O operation performance statistics were retrieved by the hIOmon Manager from the hIOmon I/O Monitor.  File/Device size support is also provided in the hIOmon "Export" capability feature as well as in several of the System Event Log record types optionally generated by the hIOmon Manager.  This hIOmon feature can, for example, help in various performance/capacity analysis efforts (where, for instance, a prime objective is the identification of small, but highly active files for optimal storage device placement).

• File fragment count.  For displays of specific files, the hIOmon File I/O Summary Display includes a display of the associated "file fragment count".  This count represents the number of (noncontiguous) fragments (clusters) required to actually contain the file upon the disk device.  File fragmentation has been a common concern when considering file I/O performance.      

• Observation periods.  The file I/O operation performance metrics shown in the hIOmon File I/O Summary Display represent values accumulated or calculated by the hIOmon I/O Monitor over the course of a specific period of time.  The duration of this time (or "Observation") period is dependant upon the particular File I/O Summary type selected for the respective filter within the Filter Selection.  The Observation period can reflect a continuous periodic "snapshot" of the file I/O operation activity (for example, every 30 seconds) or it can reflect the time period starting from when the file was first accessed until either the file is closed (or becomes inactive) or until a file Alert is detected by the hIOmon I/O Monitor.

• Process/User names.  When available, the name of the process is displayed followed by the name of the account/user that were currently active at the time the displayed summarized file I/O operation performance statistics were prepared by the hIOmon I/O Monitor for offload to the hIOmon Manager.   

• Current and overall statistics.  The hIOmon File I/O Summary Display provides file I/O operation performance values for both the current (i.e., most recent) Observation period and overall (i.e., since the start of the initial Observation period).  The "overall" file I/O operation performance metrics are shown either upon a separate line or are enclosed within parentheses.  By providing both current and overall file I/O operation performance metrics within a single display, the hIOmon File I/O Summary Display gives you a complete profile of the file's I/O operation activity and performance.   

• Highlighted alerts.  The occurrence of specific file Alerts is highlighted within the hIOmon File I/O Summary Display through the use of either white or bold text.  White text is used to indicate the detection of the respective file Alert condition by the hIOmon I/O Monitor during the current Observation period; the bold text indicates that the respective file Alert condition had been detected by the hIOmon I/O Monitor overall (i.e., since the start of the initial Observation period).

Consequently, the value 75.12 is highlighted in white text in screen shot Example 1; this value indicates that the hIOmon I/O Monitor during the current Observation period detected the occurrence of a single Read file I/O operation that reached the maximum data transfer rate threshold.  Similarly, the overall Read I/O operation data transfer size of 65536 shown in bold text indicates that the Read Operation 'maximum data transfer size' Alert threshold had been reached (or exceeded) since the start of the initial Observation period. (The IRP Read I/O operation at sequence ID 27 as shown in the I/O Trace Display is the likely culprit).  Screen shot Example 2 also contains a highlighted alert.  In this case it is the Write Operation Maximum Data Transfer Size alert (where the maximum data transfer size value of 65536 for the current Observation period is highlighted in bold text).  Here the Write IRP I/O operation with Sequence ID 127 caused the file Alert (and the File I/O Summary Display shown in screen shot Example 2).  

The 'Highlighted Alerts" feature of the hIOmon File I/O Summary Display is a convenient visual aid that helps you quickly and easily focus in on your specific file I/O operation performance concerns.

• Random and sequential access counts/percentages.  Together with the Read/Write I/O operation ratio (which is also included within the hIOmon File I/O Summary Display), the percentage of random file address accesses is often a very significant factor in file I/O operation performance.  The hIOmon I/O Monitor supports the detection of file offset accesses that are random for Read I/O operations (where only Read I/O operations are considered), for Write I/O operations (where only Write I/O operations are considered), and for Read and Write I/O Operations overall (for successive I/O operations regardless of whether they are a read or write I/O operation).  The hIOmon I/O Monitor also provides similar counts and percentages for sequential file accesses as well as the amount of data transferred respectively by random and sequential file accesses.

The ability to simply glance at the hIOmon File I/O Summary Display and easily see both the read/write ratio along with the random/sequential access percentages for a specific file (including the respective amount of data transferred) can frequently be an important starting point in your evaluations of file I/O operation performance. 

• Time stamp of last completed I/O operations.  The time stamps as observed by the hIOmon I/O Monitor, of the last completed read, write and control I/O operations are also displayed.

• File System Creation, Last Access and Last Write time stamps.   When available, also displayed are the time stamps, according to the file system, when the respective file/directory was created, last accessed and last written. 

• Replay mode.  The hIOmon File I/O Summary display supports both re-play and real-time display modes.  You can use the drop-down box at the top of the display in replay mode to select the particular File I/O Log file whose summarized file I/O operation performance information you want displayed.  File I/O Log files are disk files (maintained by the hIOmon Manager) that are used to optionally contain the file I/O operation performance information collected by the hIOmon I/O Monitor.  The display of the summary file I/O operation performance information in replay mode is essentially identical to the display of summary file I/O operation performance information in the real-time mode.

• Variable retrieval rate.  In replay mode, the hIOmon File I/O Summary display allows you to the change the rate at which the summary file I/O operation performance information is retrieved by the hIOmon Presentation Client from the hIOmon Manager.  This enables you to slow down or increase the rate at which the display is updated with summarized file I/O operation performance information. You can also temporarily pause and then subsequently resume the retrieval of the file I/O operation performance information by the hIOmon Presentation Client. 

• Display List Summary File Information.  Immediately below the Display List within the box (pane) on the left side of the File I/O Summary is a display of certain Display List Options in effect for the Display List (along with a set of summary counters reflecting the files shown within the Display List).  These summary counters include the number of files currently displayed within the Display List along with the total number of files for which there are summarized file I/O operation performance statistics available; similar counters for the directories and devices, file read and write I/O operations, file read and write data transfers, and accumulated file sizes; etc.  The Display List Summary File Information allows you to see at a glance how proportionate the Display List files are in relation to the overall number of accessed files.  Moreover, you can use the Display List Table View feature to display, within a customized table format, the summarized file I/O operation performance information associated with the files shown within the Display List.

• Export.  The hIOmon Presentation Client "Export" feature allows you to export the summarized file I/O operation performance information associated with the File I/O Performance Summary Display as well as that associated with the File I/O Display List Table View Display to separate CSV files.      

With its support of vital file I/O operation performance metrics at the individual file-level, the hIOmon File I/O Summary Display gives you the unique capability of quickly and easily observing and characterizing the I/O operation performance of your specific files. 

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