A database administrator regularly need to address database performance issues. But database performance and tuning is not always an easy task because it can sometimes involve several complicated processes to find bottlenecks. For several years now, I use a free tool named ASEMON released under GNU GPL license (yes, it is open source !!). ASEMON is developed and maintained by Jean-Paul Martin at Sybase France. Here is a short description of the product…
1°) What is ASEMON ?
ASEMON is an efficient and reliable tool that collect and store performance metrics from various Sybase products such as Sybase ASE, Replication Server and Sybase IQ. It is made of two components:
asemon_logger: a java agent that collects metrics from a monitored Sybase products and store that metrics into an ASE database. Because asemon_logger is written in java, it can be installed on various platforms such as Windows, Linux or Unix.
asemon_report: a set of php pages to query and extract reports from the asemon_logger’s database for later analysis. It can be installed on your own intranet if a php web server is available. Asemon_report also comes with apache and php all pre-configured for Windows, so you can install and use it on your desktop.
2°) Metrics captured by asemon_logger (overview):
Sybase Adaptive Server:
AseMon relies essentially on MDA tables to collect Sybase Adaptive Server metrics (see how to install mda tables). All general and sysmonitors counters (not mda based) are also captured. You can easily track down heavy sql statements with context of execution and sql plan, objects activity, blocking and deadlocks situations.
Sybase Replication Server:
AseMon monitors replication server queues usage and activity, replication agent and dsi activity. All new replication server counters from version 15 are captured as well.
Sybase IQ:
AseMon provides metrics about iq_status, asa statistics, connections and versionning.
3°) More about ASEMON:
ASEMON is definitely a "must have" for Sybase DBA. To know more about the product capabilities I suggest to install and try it in a development or testing environment first. Indeed, some fine configuration is needed to collect some metrics on dataservers with heavy worlkoad.
ASEMON is available for download at sourceforge.net:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/asemon/
A powerpoint presentation is available here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/asemon/files/ASEMON_presentation_V01.ppt/download
A Wiki is available here:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/asemon/
asemon_logger screenshots:
- asemon_logger main page:
- Summary statistics for dataserver activity:
- Statements statistics:
- Detailed statements statistics with sql plan:
- Processes details:
- Tables and indexes fragmentation analysis:
- Spinlocks statistics:
- Trends (about 25 Key Performance Indicators):
- sp_sysmon reports:
