PM for Power Systems

PM for Power Systems is available in both ‘no additional charge’ and ‘nominal charge’ options depending on the level of detail you wish to see on a routine basis. Some functions are common to both versions of the offering.

First, functions included in both offerings:

Graphs available on demand - PM for Power Systems graphs are available electronically where and when you need them through Web-based browser access, securely and privately. Note: You will require Adobe Acrobat to view or print.

Server information page - Summary performance and actionable icon’s for each system or LPAR you have elected to monitor with PM for Power Systems are all displayed on one screen. This allows you to view all your system information quickly for spotting problem areas as well as allowing you to easily access your entitled graphs and select the respective systems or LPARs you want to include in any upgrade sizing.

PM for Power Systems integration with IBM Systems Workload Estimator - As mentioned above on sizing future system requirements, your PM for Power Systems data for your system can be integrated with the IBM Systems Workload Estimator to help understand future system requirements or opportunities.

If your PM for Power Systems model (or System i or System p model) is covered under an IBM Hardware Maintenance Agreement or warranty, you'll have the benefit of these functions at no extra charge: PM for Power Systems Management Summary Graph: This graph provides a quick snapshot of your system's current utilization and growth trends. Updated monthly, this graph gives critical management information for average and peak average utilization for those partitions being monitored. The summary graphs are available ‘interactively’ meaning the user has access to the graphs for viewing and printing. The user may also select the timeframe for up to the previous 24 months that they would like to see graphed. This allows for easy comparison of a previous operating environment versus today.

Information graphed includes for IBM i: total processor utilization, interactive processor utilization and disk capacity utilization. For AIX: total processor utilization, file system capacity and disk system capacity. In all cases, the current utilization is shown for average and peak average and a projection, based on growth trends, is made on how many months remain for growth per the configuration of the system or partition.

• For an example of the Management Summary Graph for IBM i (13KB)
• For an example of the Management Summary Graph for AIX (115KB)

The nominal charge report option is designed to provide you reporting on many facets of your system, not just those summary items in the ‘no additional charge’ option. In addition to the many detailed reports, the ‘Interactive Graphing’ function is enabled for many of the graphs thereby allowing you to ‘drill down’ to a more specific time period of interest. To learn more about the costs of the detailed report option, click on the contacts and follow the instructions for the country of choice. Depending upon country, the offering is available as an IBM Global Services stand alone offering or as part of the IBM Enhanced Technical Support or other packaged offerings.

The detailed monthly report set includes:
These reports and graphs, available through an IBM Global Services fee offering, provide the detailed information you need to clearly visualize the growth of your system, and to help diagnose existing performance problems.

• For an example of the Detailed Report Graph for IBM i (114KB)
• For an example of the Detailed Report Graph for AIX (1.0MB)

The Redbook (PDF, 5.75MB) also provides a good overview the detail reports.

The PM for Power Systems Interactive Graphing function allows you to interactively customize the graphing of your performance data within one business day of receipt by IBM. The ability to use the interactive graphing capability on the previous day’s business is enabled only when you subscribe to the PM for Power Systems nominal charge service offering. Viewing utilization results as of the previous day can help you ensure high availability to your internal and external clients, manage your system service level, identify constrained resources and analyze unexpected peaks among other things. 

Functionally, the Interactive Graphing function works the same for IBM i or AIX users of Performance Management for Power System. For a brief video on its use in the i environment, please click here.

PM for Power Systems collects non-proprietary utilization and growth information from the system or partitions you elect to monitor. PM for Power Systems is an optional function for the client’s use. This automatic collection occurs on an ongoing basis. Using the IBM Electronic Service Agent (ESA), your system or partition then automatically transmits the collected data to IBM on a routine basis. IBM maintains a rolling 25 month history of your system’s utilization and growth information for graphing. The customer is provided access to the collected data at IBM via secure Internet ID and password provided to the customer when the customer system first transmits data.

For users of IBM i, the collector code is already installed as part of the i operating system. In this case, the user only has to initiate data transmission as part of ESA. ESA, which ships along with current releases of IBM i, does have to be set up for connection to IBM.

For users of AIX, the PM AIX Collection Agent is integrated in the operating system for AIX V6.1 TL 3, 4 and AIX V5.3 TL 9, 10, 11*. If you desire to use PM AIX Collection Agent support for any release older than the above, you must continue to download the original collection agent (pmaix.rte) version 6.0.6.0. ESA also has to be activated for connection to IBM for transmission of the data.

To learn more about how to get started, visit the getting started instructions for AIX or for IBM i:

• IBM i
• AIX V6.1 TL 3, 4 and AIX V5.3 TL 9, 10, 11 PM AIX Collection Agent*
• AIX V6.1 TL2, AIX 5.3 TL8 and prior releases (pmaix.rte)

Security features - precaution is taken at every step of the process.

• Data is collected only at the operating system level...no process, user or application level data is involved
• Data is transmitted to a secure IBM connection
• Data is processed by IBM internal systems
• Reports and analysis are accessed through a secure Web site.