Section 1, Task 2: Start Your Data Collection software Action 1: Start the logging and collector software, if it is not already running.

To set up MeasureWare to monitor your systems, issue this command on each system:

mwa start

(The mwa command is located in the bin subdirectory of the directory in which MeasureWare is installed.)

This will start MeasureWare's SCOPE/UX and other appropriate demons to begin monitoring your system. (This command should probably be part of your system initialization script. See the MeasureWare User's Manual and Installation Manual for details on installing and starting MeasureWare.)

Run the MeasureWare extract utility (from the MeasureWare bin directory) to "export" the metrics to a file. You tell the extract command which metrics you want to export in an extract "report file". An example of this file usually appears in file data/reptall in the directory that MeasureWare is installed in.

Though the extraction and processing (by a CxPROCES macro) of the data can theoretically occur at any interval, we recommend daily processing of the data.

For more information on using the extract command, see the man page for extract.

Note that IT Service Vision requires the following additions/updates to the default list of metrics in the example report file.

• Include DATE and TIME for every data type.

  DATE and TIME are generated automatically in the MeasureWare data record header, but the header value is accurate only to a second. By requesting DATE and TIME explicitly, your DATETIME values in your PDB DETAIL data sets will be more accurate (to hundredths of a second).

• Do not request HISTOGRAM-type metrics.

  Histogram data is more useful for online quick inquiries into the MeasureWare data rather than for long term, historical analysis with IT Service Vision software. Also, histogram data can produce errors in the extract utility.

• Use FORMAT BINARY instead of FORMAT ASCII.

  IT Service Vision expects the exported data to be in binary format.

• Use LAYOUT SINGLE instead of LAYOUT multiple.

  LAYOUT MULTIPLE data typically contains many placeholder records (ones with zero or negative counts) that are difficult to detect and remove from your PDB and which serve no purpose for long term analysis.

• Do not request CONFIGURATION data

  CONFIGURATION data is not supported by IT Service Vision.

When using CxPROCES to read MeasureWare data, you may get the message "Variable XXXXXXX is uninitialized" in your initial run with a table. This is an indication that you have a variable that has KEPT=YES in its IT Service Vision dictionary definition, but you have not requested it by means of your MeasureWare report file. The IT Service Vision tables defined for MeasureWare data include metrics for all operating systems supported by MeasureWare and so may include metrics that you are not interested in. Some MeasureWare metrics defined to IT Service Vision have status KEPT=NO. These metrics are typically duplicate information (for example, GBL_DISK_PHYS_IO has KEPT=NO because GBL_DISK_PHYS_IO_RATE is KEPT=YES and is the same information but in the form of a rate). You should review and update your IT Service Vision dictionary table definitions: mark the variables you are not requesting by means of the report file to have KEPT=NO; mark as KEPT=YES those metrics that you want to retain.

For additional information on collecting and analyzing MeasureWare data with IT Service Vision, see the IT Service Vision Showroom.

There is also an example of a script that will use the MeasureWare extract command to export data for reading into IT Service Vision in the IT Service Vision Showroom.