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  The I/O Performance Monitor

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hIOmon I/O Performance Monitor  ---  Architecture

Designed with a flexible, adaptable, scalable architecture, the hIOmon I/O Performance Monitor Licensed Software package is comprised of three (3) main software components:

• The hIOmon Presentation Client,

• The hIOmon Manager, and

• The hIOmon I/O Monitor.

Each of these components is described briefly below.  Several of the other major hIOmon components (e.g., the hIOmon CLI and WMI support) are also briefly noted below along with the unique capability of hIOmon to concurrently monitor I/O operations at three levels within the operating system I/O stack.

NOTE: 

There are hIOmon licensing restrictions as to the number of hIOmon Managers that can be concurrently accessed by a single hIOmon Presentation Client (and likewise the number of hIOmon Presentation Clients and other hIOmon Clients that can concurrently access a single hIOmon Manager).  Please see the hIOmon component descriptions below for additional details.

 hIOmon™ Architecture

hIOmon Presentation Client

The hIOmon Presentation Client is a Java™-based application that provides a standard windows-type graphical user interface (GUI).  This GUI communicates with the hIOmon Manager to set the various control and management options of the hIOmon I/O Monitor (such as which particular files are to be monitored and the particular types of performance information to be collected).  The Presentation Client is also used to display the collected I/O performance information (in either real-time or "replay" display modes).

The base hIOmon license subscription fee allows the Presentation Client to access a single hIOmon Manager at any given time.  Optional hIOmon licensing options are available (for an additional fee) that permit the hIOmon Presentation Client to concurrently access multiple hIOmon Managers.

NOTE:   As a standard Java-based application, the hIOmon Presentation Client can run on any operating system platform that supports the Sun™ Java 2.0 Runtime Environment (JRE) Release 1.6.0 or higher.

hIOmon Manager

The hIOmon Manager runs as an operating-system service (or daemon).  It manages the hIOmon "I/O Monitor" (largely based upon control option requests set by the hIOmon Presentation Client, or other hIOmon clients such as the hIOmon CLI or hIOmon WMI support); it also transforms, records, and transfers the collected I/O performance information to the Presentation Client (or other hIOmon clients).  The hIOmon Manager allows the hIOmon I/O Monitor and various hIOmon clients to be much more simpler, faster and efficient in operation.

As shown in the figure above, the hIOmon Manager is capable of:

• Concurrently transferring in real-time mode the I/O performance information that it has just retrieved from the hIOmon I/O Monitor to one or more Presentation Clients (or other hIOmon clients such as the hIOmon CLI, the hIOmon WMI support, and/or the hIOmon Performance/System Monitor support);

• Saving to a specified disk file (for subsequent "replay" mode display), the I/O performance information that it has just retrieved from the hIOmon I/O Monitor.  The hIOmon Manager can also concurrently save the real-time I/O operation performance information to one or more hIOmon Manager Export Files along with saving to the disk file to be used for subsequent "replay" mode display;

• Concurrently transferring to one or more Presentation Clients in replay mode display, the I/O performance information that had been previously saved within a specified disk file for replay mode display;

• Concurrently transferring in real-time mode the I/O performance information that it has just retrieved from the hIOmon I/O Monitor to one or more Presentation Clients and at the same time save this I/O performance information to a specified "hIOmon File I/O Log" disk file for subsequent "replay" mode display and/or export to a hIOmon Manager Export File.

The hIOmon Manager can satisfy Presentation Client requests for I/O performance information in replay mode even when the hIOmon I/O Monitor is not enabled to collect I/O operation performance metrics.

The base hIOmon license subscription fee allows the hIOmon Manager to be accessed by a single hIOmon Presentation Client (or other hIOmon Client) at any given time.  Optional hIOmon licensing options are available (for an additional fee) that permit the hIOmon Manager to be accessed concurrently by more than one hIOmon Presentation Client or other hIOmon Client.

hIOmon I/O Monitor

The hIOmon I/O Monitor is a lightweight component that performs the actual monitoring of the selected file and device I/O operations; based upon such monitoring, it collects the requested I/O performance information (which it maintains within its memory buffers until retrieved by the hIOmon Manager).  While normally not required, hIOmon allows you to optionally configure the size and amount of this memory buffer usage.

The hIOmon Manager can be configured to automatically start the I/O Monitor so that the I/O Monitor will begin file and device I/O performance monitoring (using a default set of selection criteria that you specify) when the hIOmon Manager is started.  As part of this automatic start of the hIOmon I/O Monitor, the hIOmon Manager can also be optionally configured so that it will automatically save the I/O performance information to a specified default disk file (for subsequent Presentation Client "replay" mode display) and/or the default export file(s).

The hIOmon I/O Monitor is very efficient and introduces negligible overhead into the overall file/device I/O operation (especially when compared to the typical time durations of I/O operations).  It does not require any application or file system modifications nor does it require operating system code changes.

Windows Command-Line-Interface (CLI) Support Components

In addition to the three main components described above, the hIOmon I/O Performance Monitor also includes the hIOmonCLI component that, in conjunction with the hIOmon Client Communication DLL component, provides the "Command Line Interface" support.  Please refer to the "hIOmon Command Line Interface (CLI) Support" chapter within the hIOmon User Guide document for more information about the hIOmonCLI component, the hIOmon Client Communication DLL component, and the hIOmon CLI support.

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Support Components

The hIOmon I/O Performance Monitor additionally includes the hIOmon WMI Support DLL component that, in conjunction with the hIOmon Client Communication DLL, provides the hIOmon “Windows® WMI Support”.  The "hIOmon WMI Browser" (an HTML application) is also included which enables the simple use of Microsoft® Internet Explorer to easily control hIOmon operation as well as display the real-time summarized I/O operation performance metrics collected by hIOmon.  The hIOmon "Disk I/O Ranger Display Add-On" also makes use of the hIOmon WMI support.  Please refer to the "hIOmon WMI Support" chapter within the hIOmon User Guide document for more information about these additional hIOmon components.

Windows Performance/System Monitor Support Components

The hIOmon I/O Performance Monitor also includes the hIOmon Performance Extension DLL (PerfLib) that administers the hIOmon “Windows® PerfMon/SysMon Support”.  The hIOmon PerfLib component works in conjunction with the hIOmon Client Communication DLL component.  Please refer to the "hIOmon Windows PerfMon/SysMon Support" chapter within the hIOmon User Guide document for more information about these two additional hIOmon components.

Concurrent Monitoring of Three Levels within the I/O Stack

By observing the actual file I/O operation activity performed by your particular applications, hIOmon can both measure and monitor disk I/O operations up at the application level upon an individual, specific file basis.

As shown by the figure below, the hIOmon software can also optionally monitor "raw disk" I/O operations, especially at either the “physical volume” and/or the “physical device” levels within the operating system for partitioned/formatted volumes (see the “Raw Device Support and Physical Device Extended Metrics" descriptions for additional information).

In addition, the hIOmon software supports the monitoring of I/O operations concurrently at all three levels (i.e., at the application/file level, the physical volume level, and the physical device level).  This unique capability of the hIOmon software enables you to observe and capture a much more complete picture of how your particular I/O operation activity actually traverses the I/O stack within the operating system.

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