DT Perf Sentry — Accessing Raw Data :: SAS(R) IT Resource Management 3.7: Administrator's Guide

Preparing DT Perf Sentry Data for SAS IT Resource Management

SAS IT Resource Management provides both a native DT Perf Sentry adapter and an adapter based on MXG (DT Perf Sentry with MXG). SAS IT Resource Management supplies aggregations with the native DT Perf Sentry adapter. Therefore, using the native DT Perf Sentry adapter is recommended.

Note: Demand Technology Performance Sentry software is included in your SAS Software Depot for SAS IT Resource Management when the server tier is licensed on a Windows system. The executable software that installs Demand Technology Performance Sentry is in the products\perfsentry__94110__prt__xx__sp0__1 folder of the SAS Software Depot. The Performance Sentry license enables you to manage up to 100 Windows systems, and expires 180 days after installation. At that time, you must contact Demand Technology to arrange to continue the use of this software at your site. For information about this software, see http://www.demandtech.com.

The Demand Technology Performance Sentry product (formerly NTSMF) collects a variety of Windows NT performance objects and their associated counters. DT Perf Sentry gathers and calculates object counter values that are based on the counter type. It then writes them on a periodic basis to an ASCII-formatted, comma-delimited, or tab-delimited data file. This file is input directly into SAS IT Resource Management.

The following requirements apply to the collection of DT Perf Sentry data:

For Windows and UNIX operating environments, if you transfer files across operating systems, make sure that the files retain their ASCII format. (If you want to process your data on z/OS, then the data must be converted from ASCII format to EBCDIC. For information, see Preparing DT Perf Sentry Data for Processing on z/OS.)
Discovery records must be collected in DT Perf Sentry smf log files and must be written for all types of data records.
If your version of Performance Sentry Administration enables you to select which Discovery record types are collected, select the type 5 records. However, record types 6 and 7 can also be selected because these records do not add any significant overhead in terms of space or performance.
Compressed and uncompressed records can be processed.
The delimiter that is used in DT Perf Sentry data must be a comma or a tab character.
_Total records must not be written to the data file.
DT Perf Sentry filters must not be used.

For information about the performance areas that are collected by DT Perf Sentry, see DT Perf Sentry Adapter - DT Perf Sentry Server-Based Domain Categories and DT Perf Sentry Adapter - DT Perf Sentry Exchange Domain Category.

Preparing DT Perf Sentry Data for Processing on z/OS

In addition to the preceding requirements, if you want to process DT Perf Sentry logs on z/OS, you must allocate a PDS with the following DCB attributes on z/OS:

DSORG=PO,RECFM=VB,LRECL=256

Note: Accept the default for BLKSIZE.

Extracting Data from DT Perf Sentry

The log file that is created by the DT Perf Sentry agent program can be input directly into SAS IT Resource Management 3.1.1 and later. It contains two types of records:

discovery records that contain the format of the data records
data Interval records that contain the counters for the performance areas that are being measured

Each DT Perf Sentry SMF file should be maintained as a separate SMF file. Concatenating SMF files is not recommended. The DT Perf Sentry adapter accepts the pathname to either a raw data file or a directory that contains the input files for the adapter.

If a directory is specified, the directory cannot contain subdirectories or any files other than valid DT Perf Sentry raw data files. DT Perf Sentry does not manage the transferal of the data to a central location.

On the UNIX and Windows operating environments, place the multiple SMF files into a single directory where they can be input to the staging transformation in SAS IT Resource Management. No other files or subdirectories should be in this directory. Use the file management utility of your choice to transfer data.
On the z/OS operating environment, use the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to transmit each smf log on to a unique PDS member. FTP converts each smf log from ASCII to EBCDIC as it is transmitted. By specifying the PDS name in the input location, each member is processed.

For more information, see the Demand Technology Performance Sentry (NTSMF) User Guide.

Notes about DT Perf Sentry

After installation, DT Perf Sentry logs the performance data that is based on default parameter values that are stored in the chosen Data Collection Set (DCS). The parameter values determine what data elements to collect and how frequently to collect them.

For best results, use these collection sets: “Default Collection Set” for Windows server and “Exchange Server Starter Set” for Exchange.

For more information about Data Collection Sets, see the "Performance Sentry Administration" chapter of the Demand Technology Performance Sentry (NTSMF) User Guide for version 4. This document is also available at http://demandtech.com in the Product Documentation section of the Downloads tab.

These collection sets are designed to correspond to the aggregations that SAS IT Resource Management provides for the DT Perf Sentry adapter. However, you do not have to use these sets in order to load DT Perf Sentry data into SAS IT Resource Management IT data marts. You can modify the objects and counters within the Data Collection Sets as needed.

Note: You can also access the ITRM Windows Server and ITRM Exchange collection sets for prior versions of Demand Technology Performance Sentry from this website: http://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/DTPerfSentry/index.html.