What is "PEAK_PERFORMANCE" line in Active IQ Digital Advisor or the headroom in ONTAP?
Applies to
- ONTAP 9
- Active IQ (AIQUM)
- CPU/DISK utilization
Answer
- The peak performance line represents the limit after which performance may become degraded.
    - It is a calculated value based on a complex internal algorithm of your platform type and historical workload.
 
- After resource ( CPU/DISK ) utilization reaches the peak performance line, the latency may increase.
- The difference between the current utilization and peak performance line represents performance capacity (HEADROOM).
    - Note: Active IQ Unified Manager's performance capacity graphs allow for more refined computation which can be done separately from ONTAP but have the same concept as ONTAP's onboard headroom calculations
 
- To understand if the issue is based on CPU/DISK utilization see the following KB: How do I know if CPU is causing a performance issue?
Additional Information
- The resource_headroom_aggr and resource_headroom_cpu objects can be used to calculate headroom
Example: The aggregate headroom output is shown below
Note: The output is the same for CPU headroom
Cluster::> set -privilege diag
Warning: These diagnostic commands are for use by NetApp personnel only.
Do you want to continue? {y|n}: y
Cluster::*> statistics start -object resource_headroom_ (Tab key pushed here)
    resource_headroom_aggr resource_headroom_cpu
Cluster::*> statistics start -object resource_headroom_aggr
Statistics collection is being started for sample-id: sample_219
Cluster::*> statistics show
Object: resource_headroom_aggr
Instance: DISK_HDD_node1_1_FC_1_9efd97e7-9c33-4252-8598-88424de957cc
Start-time: 1/10/2023 23:09:53
End-time: 1/10/2023 23:09:56
Elapsed-time: 3s
Scope: node1
    Counter                                                     Value
    -------------------------------- --------------------------------
    current_driver_qtime                                          0us
    current_latency                                               0us
    current_ops                                                     0
    current_utilization                                            0%
    ewm_std_dev_daily                                               -
                                 ops                                9
                   optimal_point_ops                               37
                             latency                            35580
               optimal_point_latency                           374170
                         utilization                                9
           optimal_point_utilization                               26
    ewm_std_dev_hourly                                              -
                                 ops                                4
                   optimal_point_ops                               36
                             latency                            19376
               optimal_point_latency                           160386
                         utilization                                1
           optimal_point_utilization                               20
...
 
- Optimal outputs are provided in groupings like 'ewm_std_dev_daily' and 'ewm_std_dev_hourly'.
- The delta between the current and optimal values is the Headroom Available for the resource.
- If the current values (or current_utilization in AIQUM) exceed the optimal point values (or peak_performance in AIQUM) it is expected to see potentially high increases in resource latency which could translate to increases in protocol/client data latency.
| current_latency | The current operation latency of the resource. Units are microseconds. | 
| current_ops | The current throughput of the resource in ops. This is derived from an approximation of client ops. Units are ops/s. | 
| current_utilization | The current utilization of the resource. Units are percent. | 
| optimal_point_ops | The optimal point of ops derived from the latency/utilzation curve for the given interval (daily, hourly, etc). This is derived from an approximation of client ops. Units are ops/s. | 
| optimal_point_latency | The optimal latency point of the latency/utilization curve for the given interval (daily, hourly, etc). This is derived from network and system latency per volume workload. Units are microseconds. | 
| optimal_point_utilization | The optimal utilization point of the latency/utilization curve for the given interval (daily, hourly, etc). Units are percent. | 
