Controls

6. Key Metrics View (see 6.3.3, “Legend table” on page 130)

6.3.2 Metrics selection

Depending on the component type, there are different metrics available to be included in the chart. If you click the plus sign (see Figure 6-9 on page 128 box marked “1”), a window is opened that lets you choose the metrics.

The chart can have up to two Y-axes. You can select more than two metrics, however the metrics cannot have more than two different units. For example, you could select the four metrics read I/O rate, write I/O rate, read response time, and write response time in a single chart. If you want to add a cache hit metric, you will need to clear either the I/O rates or the response times. This is because cache hits are expressed as a percentage, which is a different unit.

As of Tivoli Storage Productivity Center V5.2, the metrics are grouped in the Select Chart Metrics window (see Figure 6-10). There are key metrics that are always shown. Additional metrics are available when you click More to expand the metrics window. Within the expanded sections, the metrics are further grouped to make it easier to locate and select metrics.

Figure 6-10 Select Chart Metrics window

Note: Tivoli Storage Productivity Center V5.1 and prior versions displayed time stamps in the time zone of where the Tivoli Storage Productivity Center user interface was running. The Tivoli Storage Productivity Center V5.2.2 web-based GUI will display time stamps based on the time zone where the Tivoli Storage Productivity Center server is installed.

Depending on the component type, you might see different tabs because metrics might be available at different levels. In the upper right corner, you can see how many metrics you have selected across the different tabs. You can clear all of them by clicking the “x” icon next to the number of selected metrics.

6.3.3 Legend table

The legend table contains all the entities that were available from where you launched the performance chart, for the entity that you used for a drill up/drill down action.

You can select up to 10 entities that will be then added to the Resources area. Only those entities be drawn on the diagram area.

Because this legend is designed as a table, it provides some very helpful functions; for example, you can filter and sort it like any other table. In addition, you can change the sorting while still retaining the selection of entities, which is helpful during an analysis.

Average and worst values of the key metrics

In addition to the performance metrics collected, Tivoli Storage Productivity Center will show in the legend table the average and worst (can be high or low values) of the Key Metrics. The values are calculated online based on the time frame and the selected aggregation level (daily, hourly, or by sample) shown in the diagram.

You can change the Key Metrics by clicking the drop-down menu, and select Custom View. This allows you to specify which metrics Tivoli Storage Productivity Center should calculate the average and worst values for.

6.3.4 Resources

The Resource panel on the left shows you the currently selected resources of the legend table. You can quickly switch them on or off by clicking the specific resource name.

Line colors

For better readability, Tivoli Storage Productivity Center will use different colors for the same entity and different line styles for the metrics per entity in the charts. Because there are not that many colors that a visually impaired person can distinguish, the number of entities is limited to 10.

In the case where there is only one entity selected, Tivoli Storage Productivity Center will use different colors for each metric in the performance chart for better readability. Figure 6-11 on page 131 shows an example of a performance chart of a single SAN Volume Controller (SVC) Cluster.

Note: You can select up to six metrics to be displayed in a chart. More metrics can be displayed in the tabular view. To add metrics in the table view, right-click the table head line and select the metrics.

Figure 6-11 Performance chart line colors for a single entity

Highlighting lines

To quickly identify a resource on a chart, you can click the little square or the name in the Resource panel. This dims all other resources. To undo the highlighting, simply click the resource again.

You can highlight more than one resource by using the Control key when clicking an additional resource, similar to selecting multiple rows in a table.

The same can be done with the metrics lines. You can click one to only show this metric for all resources, and click it again to turn this highlighting off, or press the Control key to highlight an additional metric.

6.3.5 Controls

Each performance diagram has three or four icons in the upper right corner, depending on what is displayed:

Chart view

This is the view that is opened by default, so you will only see this icon if you switched to the table view.

Tabular view

You can easily switch between the chart and the table view. When you have displayed more than six metrics in the tabular view, switching back to the chart will only show up to six metrics.

Export data

You can export the data that is visible in the chart or in the table as a CSV file by clicking this icon.

Synchronize time

When you click this icon, the time range settings of this window will be synchronized with all other open external windows with performance charts.

Open in new window (also called pop out)

Open the current chart in an external window (or new tab based on your browser settings) to enlarge the chart.