Achieving SLAs

In the spring of 2007, we spoke with several IT Directors and Managers who told us they found it difficult or impossible to:

1. Measure and report Service Level Agreement attainments
2. Determine whether a performance problem was a database problem or not, and, if a problem was related to database performance, then it was equally difficult to know what resource was the bottleneck

Eight months later, in the fall of 2007, DBI released a solution to these difficult problems and published a blog on the complex monitoring and mathematics required to solve these problems. Three years later, IBM released DB2 9.7 FP1 with new "time spent" monitoring elements that still fall short of providing the complete and accurate answer.

In just a mouse click or two, for any time period of interest, we'll graphically show you:

• Average Database Transaction Response time (e.g. 2.0 Seconds)
• How much time is spent inside the database (e.g. 1.5 Seconds, 75%)
• How much time is spent outside the database (e.g. 0.5 Seconds, 25%)
• Of the time spent inside the database, what is the bottleneck?
  • How much time is CPU time (e.g. 1.0 Second, 66.6%)
  • How much time is Read I/O time (e.g. 0.3 Seconds, 20%)
  • How much time is Write I/O time (e.g. 0.1 Seconds, 6.6%)
  • How much time is Sort time (e.g. 0.1 Seconds, 6.6%)
  • How much time is Lock time (e.g. 0 Seconds, 0%)
• How many transactions, and what percent, completed in less than 1 second, less than 3 seconds, less than 5, 10, 15, and 30 seconds, and greater than 30 seconds. SLA tiers can be adjusted to customer needs.

More importantly, if the database is CPU bound, I/O bound, or sort bound just click on the pie slice corresponding to that particular time spent resource and we will isolate the statements that are the leading causes of that bottleneck. A solution is just another mouse click away.

If response times are too slow or if you are not happy with SLA attainments, just click a button and we will automatically isolate the statements that were the leading cause of SLA failure during the timeframe of interest. Again, a solution is just another mouse click away.

Really. We've almost made it too easy.

Trend Graphs

With DBI, you can provide graphs to senior management that document SLA attainments and response times for any time period of interest - such as month to date, the prior month, the prior quarter, or the last 720 days. You and your teams have worked hard to deliver quality performance at minimal costs - with DBI performance trend graphs you will be well equipped to document your success.

Our #1 Job is helping you look great. Our #2 job is giving you the evidence to prove it.