Performance Analyst Options Dialog Box

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The Performance Analyst Options dialog box is where you can specify various refresh intervals, threshold polling, and datasource overrides among other settings. You can set or change defaults that are both global and platform-specific.

Notepad blue icon 2.pngNote: The settings on the Global and Datasource tabs apply to all datasource platforms. The SQL Server, Sybase ASE, and DB2 tab settings are platform-specific. Some options on the platform-specific tabs may look as if they are available to you, but in reality they are not. For example, if you are connected to an Oracle datasource, changing the Monitoring Refresh interval on the Sybase tab is a hollow gesture.

To open the Performance Analyst Options dialog box

  • Open the Performance Analyst, and then scroll down to Options on the drop-down menu.
  • Right-click in the Performance Analyst window for the target datasource, and then select Options.
  • Move your mouse over the Performance Analyst toolbar, and then click the multicolored square (Options appears in a tool tip under the hand icon).

The following table describes the tabs of the Performance Analyst Options dialog:

Tab Settings Option / Description

Global

Engine

  • SQL metric refresh interval. Sets the time, in seconds, between collect cycles for the SQL metrics reflected in Performance Analyst. SQL metrics include all non-operating system metrics.
  • OS metric refresh interval. Sets the time, in seconds, between collect cycles for all operating system-related metrics reflected in Performance Analyst. OS metrics include all metrics shown on the OS page.
  • Threshold polling. Determines which metrics, if any, you want to test against your pre-set thresholds. The possible settings for the Threshold polling box are:
    • All Metrics. Polls all metrics.
    • Current Page Only. Polls only those metrics reflected on the currently-open page in Performance Analyst.
    • Off. Turns off polling. If polling is turned off, Performance Analyst does not activate Alarms.
  • Threshold polling interval. Set the time, in seconds, between collect cycles for threshold-related metrics. Once collected, the polled metrics are compared to the pre-set thresholds. If you select Off in the Threshold polling box, Performance Analyst does not poll these metrics, regardless of the interval.
  • Run queries for all tabs. Determines whether you want Performance Analyst to refresh all tabs according to the SQL metric refresh interval. If Run queries for all tabs is not checked, Performance Analyst runs queries only for the current tab.

Visual

  • Show alarms icon in system tray. Determines whether you want Performance Analyst alarms to appear in the Windows System Tray on the lower right-hand side of your screen. If you select Show alarms icon in system tray, Performance Analyst places an icon in the Windows System Tray each time an alarm is raised.
  • Number of Historic Values in Graphs. Specifies the number of values in the graphs.

Datasource

Operating System

  • OS type. Selects the operating system type for the current datasource. The options are:
    • MS Windows. Select MS Windows for all supported types of Microsoft Windows.
    • Unix or Linux. Select Unix or Linux if you operating system is any flavor of Unix.
  • Host name. Specifies the name of the host for the current datasource, if necessary. Performance Analyst automatically fills in any detectable information, including the Host name box.
  • Username. Selects a local or network username that Performance Analyst can use to connect to the datasource. If you select the Use Datasource Username and Password check box, the Username box is unavailable.
  • Password. Selects a local or network password that Performance Analyst can use to connect to the datasource. If you select the Use Datasource Username and Password check box, the Password box is unavailable.
  • Protocol. Specifies a protocol for communicating with datasources on Unix-based operating systems. The options are:
    • SSH
    • Telnet
    • Rlogin
  • Use Datasource Username and Password. Specifies whether you want to use the datasource username and password to connect to the datasource as opposed to a network or operating system username and password.
  • Save Username and Password. Saves the username and password that appear in the Username and Password boxes.

Overrides

  • SQL metric refresh interval. Overrides the SQL metric refresh interval in the Global tab for the current datasource. The SQL metric refresh interval specifies the time, in seconds, between collect cycles for the SQL metrics reflected in Performance Analyst. SQL metrics include all non-operating system metrics.
  • OS metric refresh interval. Overrides the OS metric refresh interval in the Global tab for the current datasource. The OS metric refresh interval specifies the time, in seconds, between collect cycles for all operating system-related metrics reflected in Performance Analyst. OS metrics include all metrics shown on the OS page.

SQL Server

Global Options

  • SQL Profiling Enabled. Performance Analyst requires some privileges that go along with SQL Server Profiler in order to return some statistics for SQL Server databases. Check SQL Profiling Enabled to ensure that Performance Analyst can collect all the necessary metrics.

New Datasource Defaults

  • Start SQL Profiling. Sets new datasources to start SQL Profiling when they are monitored by Performance Analyst.
  • SQL Profiling refresh interval. Sets the default time for new datasources, in seconds, between collect cycles for the SQL metrics that require the SQL Server Profiler.

Current Datasource Settings

  • Start SQL Profiling. Sets current datasources to start SQL Profiling when they are monitored by Performance Analyst.
  • SQL Profiling refresh interval. Sets the default time for current datasources, in seconds, between collect cycles for the SQL metrics that require the SQL Server Profiler.

Sybase

Global Options

  • Monitoring Table refresh interval. Specifies, in seconds, the amount of time between refreshes for the Monitoring Table. The Monitoring Table is a table installed by Performance Analyst used to store various metric-related information. The default is 15 seconds.

New Datasource Defaults

  • Use noclear option in sp_sysmon. Performance Analyst sessions are started with the sp_sysmon noclear option, ensuring that monitor values are stored in a temporary file. If monitoring is being used by another application, those results are not impacted by the Performance Analyst session zeroing out counters.

Notepad blue icon 2.pngNote: The noclear option is available for Sybase ASE.

Current Datasource Defaults

These settings are only available with a Performance Analyst session active against a Sybase ASE datasource. The settings only apply to current sessions. The Monitoring Table refresh interval and Use noclear option in sp_sysmon settings let you override the selections in the identically-named settings in the Global Options and New Datasource Defaults groups.

  • Use custom sample query. Builds a custom sampling query and checks the database response time by reviewing the Sample Query Response Time graph on the Database home page.

DB2

Monitor Settings

  • Monitor Switches. Sets monitor switches ON for the current session. When check marks are visible, that means they were previously set as defaults. Check or uncheck the boxes as you wish. Monitor settings are available for Buffer Pool. Statement, Lock, Table, Sort, Unit of Work. Metrics for all checked elements are gathered in the current session.
  • SQL Statement Cache. Collects SQL statements on each refresh, collects SQL statement only when you are on the Top SQL pages, or chooses not to collect any SQL statements.
  • Database System Monitor Heap. Shows the current value, in pages, allocated for the database system monitor data. The amount of memory required for monitoring depends on the number of monitoring applications, switch settings, and the level of database activity. If you see frequent heap overflow errors in the output message window when monitoring DB2 through Performance Analyst, adjust the setting here.
  • Save settings as default. Sets the monitoring settings as a default for the current DB2 database or for the current session only.