How to trigger a 7-mode perfstat through OnCommand Unified Manager 5.x

Applies to

• Data ONTAP 7 and earlier
• OnCommand Unified Manager 5.x

Description

Performance Advisor is part of OnCommand Unified Manager (DFM) and essentially connects to the Counter Manager in Data ONTAP on a periodic basis, stores those samples on the OnCommand Unified Manager server, and can be configured for multiple controllers. This allows an administrator to have a graphical front-end for performance data and also allows for the history to be retained, reported and alerted upon.

When Performance Advisor is configured, it is constantly running in the background; Perfstat on the other hand will give very detailed information on the performance aspects of Data ONTAP. It usually runs ad-hoc when a detailed view on the performance of a particular controller is required. Perfstat provides more detailed information; however, it does not constantly collect data on every controller.

The important capability of Performance Advisor is to poll, look for a specific scenario, and then trigger a Perfstat collection. This allows capturing details as and when an event happens, rather than relying on a manual Perfstat. A good example is the process of defining a specific performance characteristic and then getting Perfstat to start automatically when that characteristic is next detected.