A+UMA Performance Data Manager

Performance Management

With A+UMA(TM) you can measure performance, so you can manage performance. The management of distributed open systems is one of the greatest challenges facing the successful development and deployment of enterprise-wide client/server systems. When performance problems arise, the simple solution of buying more hardware is out-of-date. A+UMA Performance Data Manager from Amdahl provides the foundation for solving performance problems for distributed open systems by collecting and managing key performance data. A+UMA is part of the A+Performance Management Suite(TM) of products and is based on the Universal Measurement Architecture (UMA) Specifications. UMA is specifically intended to provide a set of specifications that allows multiple vendors to collect, manage, and provide access to performance data from heterogeneous systems. For users faced with the challenges of managing the performance of multiple, distributed, heterogeneous systems, A+UMA is the answer.

A+UMA's agent/manager implementation

Many organizations want to centrally manage their distributed systems to increase efficiency and reduce personnel costs. The Amdahl A+UMA implementation provides this through an agent/manager implementation. A typical configuration includes many agents and a few managers. A+UMA is the agent that collects and stores the data. The managers then run the Measurement Application Programs (MAPs) that access and use this data.

A+UMA features

• Provides a single collection and management tool to improve data synchronization and correlation
• Seamless access between historical and current data
• Flexible,user-defined collection intervals
• Collects nearly 200 metrics including CPU, memory, disk, I/O, and process data
• UMADS Basic Reporter (UBR) provides tabular reports from the A+UMA data to input to other applications
• UMA-based MAPS can link to SNMP network management systems to provide network-wide alarms and alerts

A+UMA benefits

• Reduces staff requirements because A+UMA provides a single access point, but not a fixed location, for all performance metrics, allowing the performance analyst to spend time managing the systems rather than collecting the data.
• With A+UMA on multiple, heterogeneous platforms in an enterprise, the entire environment can be managed consistently.
• Easier data correlation through synchronized, time- stamped data.
• Reduced systems overhead by using a single collector to satisfy multiple requests for the same data.

The UMA specifications

A+UMA is Amdahl's initial implementation of the UMA specifications which define three layers and two interfaces: The top layer consists of Measurement Applications or MAPs. These take the UMA information and display it, usually in a GUI format so that it can be understood and acted upon by performance analysts. MAPs communicate with the UMA data management layer through the Measurement Layer Interface. Other Amdahl A+Performance Management Suite products such as A+OpenTune(TM) Performance Monitor and A+OpenWatch(TM) Distributed Threshold Monitor are MAPs that use the A+UMA data. A+UMA combines the Data Services Layer, Measurement Control Layer, and the Data Providers into one. A+UMA accepts requests from MAPs, schedules the collection and synchronization of data, and manages the data for the MAPs. A+UMA performs the function of the data collection layer by collecting the raw data.

Supported platforms

Amdahl provides A+UMA to collect data from the following server platforms:

- AIX/6000 3.2 and up

- HP-UX 9.0 and up

- Solaris(TM)2.3 and up

- Solaris A+Edition(TM)

- SunOS 4.1

- UTS(R) Version 2

- UTS Version 4

Amdahl Measurement Applications Programs such as A+OpenTune and A+OpenWatch run on Solaris 2.3 and up.

System requirements

• 4MB resident 6MB virtual
• 5 MB disk A+UMA
• 50 MB-100 MB disk for data. More space may be required depending on options selected.

Other A+ performance management products

A+Performance Management software products include A+UMA Performance Data Manager, A+OpenTune Performance Monitor and A+OpenWatch Distributed Threshold Monitor. These Amdahl products are offered to support customers with distributed, heterogeneous systems.

Other A+ software products

Other A+ software products include operating system enhancements, software management, storage management, security and information management. The A+ brand assures the buyer of Amdahl's worldwide customer support and quality reputation.