Introduction to performance tuning
Performance tuning is achieved through the investigation of truth about undesirable system and application behavior. These behavioral truths are not always what they appear to be, often leading to misdiagnosed problems.
WHAM's track record of optimizing any type of application for scalability, availability and performance is possible through innovative analysis of Unix kernel-based metrics. These metrics are monitored through the use of distributed agents that install in minutes and use a "zero footprint", consuming minimal computing resources.
This unobtrusive monitoring provides quantifiable real-time performance measurement across distributed systems and applications.
FocalPoint Performance Analysis Suite
FocalPoint provides centralized point of coordination for performance analysis of measurement data collected by distributed agents. Designed for deployment on a dedicated system, FocalPoint is a comprehensive suite of high performance tuning and capacity planning tools:
Resolver Resource Monitor
A powerful system and application monitoring tool, Resolver enables system administrators, performance analysts, and capacity planners to quickly identify and resolve system performance issues impacting the productivity of their organization. Resolver brings performance measurement to a new level of refinement and is in production use at many Fortune 500 companies today. 
Refractor Multi-tier Analyzer
Refractor allows you to easily identify and isolate system and application performance problems, regardless of where they exist within a multi-tier architecture. Complex timing calculations are performed and compared across all tiers of the system, with results immediately displayed in easily understood formats.
Silhouette Profiling Agent
Capable of collecting over 1,000 samples per second, the Silhouette profiling agent introduces unprecedented sampling rates and precision. With less than 1% overhead per CPU, Silhouette provides traces to individual function levels with no re-linking or recompiling required. These powerful new capabilities allow you to quickly pinpoint performance hotspots, providing unparalleled statistical accuracy in less time and reduced operational overhead.
Rangefinder Capacity Data Collector
Rangefinder continuously acquires data from multiple hosts, allowing end users to accumulate, view, clarify, and archive historical performance data for incisive capacity analysis. Daily resource activity can be displayed in increments of minutes, hours, days, or any user-defined interval. Rangefinder's extended capabilities provides the validated basis for system architects, capacity planners and others to make informed architecture decisions affecting the future growth - and associated purchasing decisions - of their distributed systems.
Vista Performance Analysis Portal
Vista takes system analysis and performance optimization to the next level by providing an easy-to-use interface for creating and viewing plots using event data gathered by Rangefinder's capacity data collector. Since Vista is web based, performance behavior and capacity planning information can be accessed and viewed by anyone, anywhere.
In its base configuration, FocalPoint is delivered with a single Resolver resource monitor license assigned to a fixed IP address, and 40 concurrent, floating Agent/CPU licenses. Additional Resolver and Agent/CPU licenses are available at additional cost.
Nomad Mobile Analysis Platform
Nomad provides system administrators and performance tuners a self-contained, dedicated, mobile platform for system analysis and performance tuning. Pre-integrated with a laptop PC running the Linux operating system, Nomad is combines three powerful WHAM measurement and analysis components:
In its base configuration*, Nomad comes preinstalled on a high performance laptop:
- 2GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor-M
- 512MB of RAM
- 60GB hard disk
- 16x10x24 CD-RW / 8X DVD-ROM
- 56K Modem
- 10/100 Ethernet Adapter
- 16.1" UXGA active-matrix display
- Linux operating system
Nomad includes a Resolver resource monitor license assigned to the laptop's processor identifier, but capable of being used from any IP address, and 24 concurrent, floating Silhouette Profiling Agent licenses. Additional concurrent Silhouette licenses are available at additional cost.
* Other configurations are available.
