topas -P output to file

Hi,

I need to output to a file, what will be ftp'ed to windows the output of a topas -P command in AIX. I can't install anything in the server (because it's the bank AIX server) but i need to control and keep the history of the % cpu that my processes use.

I tried to use topas -R >> test.txt but it didn't work. When i use cat test.txt it seems fine, but when i use cat test.txt | more shows a lot of characters that i can't have in my file.

Any help ?

Thx in advance,
JTMartins

Hi,

try rather topasrec or smitty performance / smitty topas ...

To start a report that runs for 5 minutes and collects metrics every 1 minute, enter the following command:

topasrec -L -c 5 -s 60

... the file will be in the directory you were in when starting the record and in the format servername_timestamp.topas ... data will be binary and you can run it through nmon analyzer or generate a report via smitty topas panel.

topas -R

collects data as well and the data is stored automatically in /etc/perf/** but as far as I know there is no possibility to define any values like count or intervals - all you get is the default - and you would need to run it as well through either topasout or nmon analyzer or the smitty panel to really have useful data ...

There was a webinar last year from the AIX virtual usergroup about topas recording - have a look into '2008-9-25_Topas_Recording.wmv' that can be found here:

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/systems/power/community/aix/Central-VUG-Replays/

I hope this helps,
kind regards
zxmaus

If you are only interested in some cpu% values you could configure and use "sar" (man sar). It was designed for exactly this purpose.

If you want to keep the topas-output and only want to get rid of the odd characters (they are steering characters responsible for the nicely formatted output of topas in the terminal) use a simple sed script to only collect into your results file what you are interested in. Post a sample and what you want to keep (in the "Shell Programming and Scripting" section, please) and I'm sure you have a solution within hours.

I hope this helps.

bakunin

could you give me a little help on this? i can import it on windows so i can go further in my analysis?

thx in advance.

jtmartins

Hi,

sure - smitty topas is an AIX smit panel that will perform the work for you and prepare a formatted output that you can put everywhere - i.e. onto your pc.

If you simply copy the raw data, you can take the file and make nmon analyzer read the data and prepare the report for you ... nmon analyzer is an excel macro and can be found here:
IBM developerWorks: Wikis - AIX - nmonanalyser

Kind regards
zxmaus

so let me try to understand, i run topasrec -L -c 5 -s 60
then i run the nmon analyzer?

Yes, you run

topasrec -L -c5 -s60 

and you get a file called servername_date.topas.
Once it's created, you move this file to your pc - with winscp or ftp or whatever is your choice, than you open nmon analyzer and choose the .topas file ... the macro will do its job and produce a nice formatted output in excel (including grafics) about the data that topasrec did collect for you.

Obviously you need excel installed on your pc.

Kind regards
zxmaus

Kind regards
zxmaus

i don't need to use topasout for nothing?

thx in advance
jtmartins