Datacenter uses job objects, new kernel objects that Microsoft introduced in Win2K. Job objects control groups of related processes, letting you manage the processes as single units. You can use Process Control to set rules for how much of the system's resources a job objectcontrolled process group can utilize. (For more information about job objects and Datacenter hardware, see Greg Todd, "Win2K Datacenter Server," December 2000.)
To monitor processes, Process Control launches a separate tool, procconmd8.exe. This program is the enforcer (or as Microsoft more mildly terms, the mediator) that polices your system for broken configuration rules. Even if you stop Process Control (e.g., to change configuration schemes or rules), the mediator continues running, safeguarding the environment.
Unisys, like most Datacenter OEMs, supplies proprietary tools in addition to those that Microsoft builds into Datacenter. Unisys's Integrated Management System (IMS) is a partition-management application. The application's GUI displays the processes involved in assigning hardware components to partitions. The GUI uses an icon with two arrows forming a circle to indicate that a partition is running; an icon with one arrow forming a half-circle indicates that a partition is alive but not running.
Unisys also preinstalls a variety of scripts, some of which the smallest window in Figure 1 lists. You can run these scripts manually or combine scripts with monitoring functions to perform hardware-to-process affinity tasks. For example, you can combine a Performance Monitor alert with a script that will reassign processors to a process's I/O tasks when that process uses more I/O than the currently assigned processors can handle easily. Scripts can also run monitors to collect information about the environment. You can launch them manually at any time or run them in the background at startup. You can configure scripts to send alerts that suggest appropriate environment changes to administrators, or you can configure the scripts to make the changes automatically. Other Datacenter OEMs provide similar administrative tools. For more information about Datacenter OEMs, see Buyer's Guide, "Datacenter OEMs," page 79.
Another helpful feature is the snapshot you can take of the Datacenter system, at intervals you choose. Snapshots contain information about running programs, hardware utilization, and other aspects of the system's environment. Reviewing this information will help you decide how to optimize the system.
Playing with Datacenter
Like most of you, I don't own a Datacenter server, so I took the opportunity to walk through some tasks that Datacenter administrators might perform. I reassigned processors to processes manually and by using scripts. I also moved sub-pods from one partition to another.
Of course, I used a best-practices mentality and viewed the current states of partitions and groups before I made any changes. You can easily check system overviews and specific information about partitions and process groups. Figure 1 shows reports of performance and the processes and groups involved in moving processor sub-pods.
Reassigning processors to processes within a partition is an on-the-fly adjustment. In future Datacenter versions, Microsoft plans to overcome the OS's inability to perform on-the-fly reassignments of CPUs to partitions. Currently, reassigning a sub-pod to another partition causes the affected partitions to reboot; reassigning MSUs requires a complete system reboot.
By the end of the day, Datacenter's Performance Monitor environment reports impressed me more than the ease with which the server implements tasks. Incredulously, I observed the performance levels and the hardware you can adjust to maintain those levels. Heavy-duty database I/O and CPU utilization tests (from Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange Server running individually and both at once) produced lower utilization numbers than I thought possible. Tasks that would severely stress my Win2K servers, and other servers more robust than mine, never produced utilization percentages beyond the teens on the ES7000 the lab technicians tested during my visit.
At the Unisys lab, I realized what scalability can mean. When I said this out loud, the technicians in the room were nice enough to avoid patronizing smiles and replies; all I heard was a subtle "Uh-huh."
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