Novell Documentation: NetWare 6

MONITOR

Purpose

Use at the server console to

View server statistics and activity

Assess server RAM and processor utilization

Set server parameter values

Print server parameter settings to a file

NOTE: The screen saver and the console-locking features have been removed from MONITOR and incorporated in the SCRSAVER utility.

Syntax

[LOAD] [path] MONITOR

Parameter	Use to
path	Specify the path leading to MONITOR if you copied it to a directory other than the default directory.

Using MONITOR

When MONITOR is first loaded, both the General Information window and the Available Options menu are displayed.

The Available Options menu allows you to access additional server information, statistics, and settings. At some windows, you can also perform operations.

The General Information window displays many of the key statistics that MONITOR reports.

The arrow to the left of the vertical line in the Available Options menu indicates that the menu can be scrolled.

HINT: For explanations of options on MONITOR menus as well as lists and statistics, you can press press F1 to access MONITOR's online help when you are running MONITOR at the server console.

You can press Tab to expand and activate any information window. You can press Tab again to toggle back to a list or menu. The active window is always highlighted in yellow.

After a period of inactivity at the Available Options menu, the General Information screen expands by default to allow convenient monitoring of more critical statistics, as shown in the following figure.

The following table describes the fields of General Information.

Field	Explanation
Operating system version and date	The version and release date of the system (upper- left corner of the screen).
Server server name on network tree name	The name of the server and the eDirectory^TM tree name.
Utilization	Average of the server's total processing capacity that was used during the last second (default update interval), expressed as a percentage. The remainder is spent in the idle loop process. On a uniprocessor server, this value reflects processor utilization. On a multiprocessor server, this value is the average utilization of all active processors. For utilization information about individual processors, select MONITOR Available Options > Kernel > Processors. This utilization value will reflect the changes in system configuration as they occur, such as an NLM^TM program being loaded or unloaded, or a volume being mounted or dismounted.
Server Up Time	Time elapsed since the server was most recently started. This value is displayed in the format DD:HH:MM:SS (days:hours:minutes:seconds). Use this information to detect power failures or to determine whether an intruder brought down the server.
Online Processors	The number of enabled and active processors.
Original Cache Buffers	The original size of the cache buffer pool, which is the number of cache buffers available when the server is booted. All memory not used to load NetWare^® (code plus loader) is assigned to the cache buffer pool. Memory is borrowed from this pool as needed. The default size of a cache buffer is a 4096-byte memory page.
Total Cache Buffers	The number of cache buffers currently available for file caching after allocating memory for NetWare. This number decreases as modules are loaded or memory is allocated in other ways. A minimum parameter controls when the server cannot continue to allocate file cache buffers. An alert can be set to report when the number of cache buffers approaches this limit. See SET "File Caching Parameters" on page 237 for a description of these parameters. You can set these parameter values in MONITOR Available Options > Server Parameters > File Caching Parameters. You can also use the SET utility. The Disk Cache Utilization option provides additional file cache buffer statistics for assessing RAM.
Dirty Cache Buffers	Number of cache buffers that contain updated data that has not yet been written to disk. The operating system writes the data to disk either as soon as the cache buffer is filled or else when the Dirty Disk Cache Delay Time elapses (default 3.3 seconds). The trade-off is between allowing small writes to wait the delay time or reducing the delay time and performing two writes. See Improving Disk Reads and Improving Disk Writes in the NetWare Server Disks and Storage Devices Guide. Also, see SET File Caching Parameters for the Traditional File System for description of the parameter that controls the delay time. If the number of dirty buffers is frequently above 50% of Total Cache Buffers, install more RAM for cache. A disk I/O bottleneck may be indicated if the number of dirty buffers remains constant and the number of Current Disk Requests remains high. Consider installing a faster hard disk and controller.
Long Term Cache Hits	Cumulative percentage of requests for disk blocks that were already in cache. Use this value to assess overall disk cache utilization. If this value falls below 90%, install more RAM for cache. Another field to check as you assess RAM is LRU Sitting Time. See Tuning File Cache in the Server Memory Administation Guide.
Current Disk Requests	Number of pending disk I/O requests that are queued for service. Use this value as a measure of the system load for the disk channel. If this number is consistently high, the disk and controller may be too slow. If the number of Dirty Cache Buffers exceeds 50% of Total Cache Buffers and server performance is slow, consider installing faster hard disks.
Packet Receive Buffers	Number of buffers that are available to the file system for holding client requests until they can be processed. Also referred to as communication buffers. The buffer size is fixed and is determined by the network board. The server allocates buffers as needed within minimum and maximum parameter values. For a description of these parameters, see SET Communications Parameters. You can set these parameter values in MONITOR Available Options > Server Parameters > Communications Parameters. You can also use the SET utility.
Directory Cache Buffers	The number of buffers available to the file system to cache the most frequently requested directory entries. The server allocates more directory cache buffers as needed within minimum and maximum parameter values. For a description of these parameters, see SET Directory Caching Parameters for the Traditional File System. You can set these parameter values in MONITOR Available Options > Server Parameters > Disk Caching Parameters. You can also use the SET utility.
Maximum Service Processes	Maximum number of processes (threads or task handlers) the system will allocate to service client NCP^TM requests. The server creates more service processes as needed within minimum and maximum parameters. Once memory is allocated for service processes, it remains allocated even when no longer required. Each service process requires 4 KB of RAM. For a description of these parameters, see SET Miscellaneous Parameters. You can increase the value of Maximum Service Processes in MONITOR Available Options > Server Parameters > Miscellaneous Parameters. You can also use the SET utility.
Current Service Processes	Number of threads or task handlers that are currently allocated to service client NCP requests. As the number of client requests increases, the server creates more service processes within minimum and maximum parameters. As this value approaches the maximum number that can be created, server performance will be adversely affected. An alert appears when the maximum number is reached. For a description of these parameters, see SET Miscellaneous Parameters. You can increase the value of Maximum Service Processes in MONITOR Available Options > Server Parameters > Miscellaneous Parameters. You can also use the SET utility.
Current Connections	Number of current active connections. This includes both licensed and unlicensed connections. Both licensed and unlicensed connections are considered active connections. A license for a NetWare network permits a user to connect to as many servers in an eDirectory tree as needed. An unlicensed connection doesn't consume a license. Connection licenses are no longer managed at the server level. Under Novell Licensing Services (NLS), the licensable entity is a NetWare network connection rather than a server connection. See Understanding Novell Licensing Services in the Novell Licensing Services Administration Guide. You can view a list of active connections from MONITOR Available Options > Connections. All connections described as licensed or unlicensed, authenticated or Not Logged-In, are considered active connections and are tracked by the server
Open Files	Number of files currently being accessed by the server and by other clients. Certain files, such as the hidden files that support eDirectory, are always open.

The following table explains what information can be accessed through MONITOR options.

Menu Option	Use to
Connections	List active connections. Determine connection status---whether connections are licensed or unlicensed, authenticated or Not-Logged-In, or waiting on a lock. View client's network address, connection time, number of requests, kilobytes read, kilobytes written, semaphores used, and number of logical record locks. Determine whether logged-in user has additional rights corresponding to bindery Supervisor rights. Clear UDP and NCP connections before bringing the server down. Send a message to one or more client user connections. HINT: Press F3 to sort the items in the connection list.
Storage Devices	List system storage devices, including hard disks, controllers, adapters, media, magazines, changers, and slots. View divisions of the media's capacity given to the operating system, including partitions, Hot Fix^TM and Mirror objects. View dependencies of each object. View per-device information, such as Media Manager object ID, device type, disk size and capacity, sector size, block size per I/O request, and number of sectors, heads, cylinders. Determine whether the device is activated, registered with Media Manager, marked read-inhibit, writable or write-protected, reserved by an application, or whether it has associated I/O methods. Determine the controller number, the device number (LUN), the adapter number (instance of loaded driver), driver used in accessing the device, and driver type (such as NWPA). Determine the Hot Fix and Mirror status of the NetWare partition. Change the Read After Write Verify status of the hard disk. Activate/deactivate a hard disk. Mount/dismount a removable media device. Lock/unlock a removable media device. (If locked, the media can be ejected only by using a software switch.)
Volumes	View per-volume mount status. See which file system is used on each volume. View per-volume information on loaded name spaces. View per-volume information on compression status, suballocation, file migration status, and number of migrated files. See whether volume is read-only. View per-volume information on block size, sectors per block, total blocks, and number of free blocks, blocks dedicated to file allocation table, freeable and nonfreeable blocks in the salvage system. View per-volume number of blocks dedicated to directory entry tables, directory entries, and directory entries in use. View amount of space allocated to store long names, name spaces, and cookies that provide the location of nearline and offline storage.
LAN/WAN Drivers	List LAN driver instances loaded on the server. View the LAN driver version, logical board number (LAN driver instance), and the protocols or frame types bound to it. View node and network address. View generic per-driver counters for total packets transmitted and received, specific types of receive and transmit failures, adapter resets, and packets queued for transmission. View per-driver counters associated with a specific method of media access control or topology, such as those for Ethernet, token-ring, or FDDI. View per-driver custom counters associated with a particular type of model of network board. (Check the documentation that comes with the driver.) For information on each LAN driver counter, see LAN Driver Statistics.
Loaded Modules	List modules loaded on the system by name. Recover unused memory pages (garbage collection) per module. View major version, minor version, revision number, and creation date of the module. View bytes of memory required to load this module (code, data, and messages). View amount of memory requested by the NLM^TM for its use in bytes and nodes. View the module's load flags. List resources allocated by the module (resource tags). View resource tag memory usage. HINT: Press F3 to sort the modules by bytes of allocated memory or date of creation, in addition to name.
File Open/Lock Activity	Check a file's lock activity and status. View number of client connections using this file, whether locked, logged, or open. Determine number of connections opening this file requesting read access and write access. Determine number of connections opening this file requesting that other stations not be allowed to read or write to the file. View which clients have open files. View mounted volumes and directories on each volume. View files in a directory.
Disk Cache Utilization	View disk cache block request statistics, including total cache block requests, the number of times a block request had to wait because there were no available cache blocks, long and short term cache hits and dirty cache hits. Use the Long Term Cache Hits information (the percentage of time the operating system retrieves the data it needs directly from cache) to assess cache utilization. For explanations and guidelines, see Assessing Server RAM and Tuning File Cache in the Server Memory Administration Guide. HINT: For more information on these statistics, press F1 for help while in this screen.
System Resources	View server memory usage in bytes for the cache buffer pool, allocated memory in movable and nonmovable memory pools, code and data memory, and total server work memory. View allocated memory information for the entire system or for one selected system module. List tracked resource types and determine which modules use the resource. List resource tags and associated modules. Determine a module's use of resource by type, its owning module, address space, and amount of resource. Determine resource usage by owning module, address space, and resource type. HINT: Press F3 for sort options for Resource Tags.
Virtual Memory	View virtual memory by address spaces or swap files. View the number of NLM programs loaded in each address space. View per-address space information, including number of times the address space faulted and restarted, and elapsed time since the last fault. View page faults statistics. View amount of allocated memory the NLM requested, in bytes and nodes. Recover unused memory pages (garbage collection) in the OS address space. View amount of mapped physical memory pages backing the OS address space. View statistics for page-in and page-out requests. View information and statistics on swap pages, including maximum size, minimum size, current size, free file space, minimum free file space, and used file space.
Kernel	View kernel information by all threads, processors, interrupts, and busiest threads. View the list of all threads running on the system In NetWare 5, all threads running on a NetWare server are grouped into two categories called NetWare Application and Java Application. To access NetWare 5 thread information, you select Kernel > Applications > NetWare Application [or] Java Application. In NetWare 6, threads are not categorized on the basis of the application. All threads can be viewed from a common category in MONITOR called All Threads. To view NetWare 6 thread information, you simply select Kernel > All Threads. See whether a processor is online or offline. View processing load as a percentage both per-processor and for all processors combined. View number of threads bound to online processor. View number of interrupts fired on processor and the amount of time spent processing interrupts. List all registered interrupts. List all Interrupt Service Routines registered to a selected interrupt. View the number of interrupts handled by a specific Interrupt Service Routine, both per-processor or for all processors combined. Determine interrupt type and number of Interrupt Service Routines executed per-interrupt. List the busiest threads in the Threads option. View per-thread information, including parent module, current state, reason thread is suspended, processor execution time, thread's stack size, soft affinity or hard affinity.
Server Parameters	Set values for server parameters. This menu provides the same functionality as the SET command. For descriptions of parameter categories and individual parameters, see SET.

For a description of the MONITOR Server Parameters, see the tables for each parameter category in SET.

Additional Information

Topic	See
Assessing server RAM	Assessing Server RAM
Checking for disk errors	Checking for Disk Errors Checking Server Error Logs
LAN and WAN driver statistics	LAN Driver Statistics
Clearing workstation connections	Clearing a Workstation Connection CLEAR STATION
Sending a message to a logged-in client	Sending Console Messages to Workstations
Increasing packet receive (communications) buffers	SET Communications Parameters Increasing Maximum and Minimum Packet Receive Buffers
Setting values of server parameters	SET Setting Server Parameter Values