Request for infomation on how AIX uses it's swap.

System Administrator steves at ingres.com
Fri Apr 26 01:48:52 AEST 1991


Dear Netlanders and IBM unix guru(s),

I'm working on configuring some applications (using X and our dbms) on an AIX 
box with a number of X terminals, but our requirements (in terms of system 
resources:- memory & swap) are spiraling.  What I'm missing is details about how
AIX is using these resources and ways of monitoring that usage. 

Can anyone help me with this? Here come detailed questions...

1. It's rumoured that AIX divides it's swap into 3 sections : one for data, one
   for text segments, one for "Client paging". 
   - Is the boundary between these sections dynamic ?
   - How do I see/influence these boundaries ?
   - How can I monitor the "client paging" (apparently the X terminals can page
     to the UNIX. Is this by magic ? Can I watch it happen ?

2. Are their tools I can use to watch how the memory & swap are divided amongst
   the processes ? 
   -  "ps vax" gives me numbers with column headers, but I dont know how they're
      calculated. If text segs are shared, (or libs) are they counted twice for 
      RSS, SIZE etc ? 
   -  How can I examine the way the swap is used ?
   -  Does anyone have desciptions of how AIX is allotting memory ?
   -  Does anyone have desciptions of how X stations allotcate memory ?

3. Are their any special bugs/problems on a X station using an AIX as a
   server ?

I'd be grateful for any replies (to steves at troll.ingres.COM ) and I'll
roll up the responses and post them back.

Cheers,						Steve Sheil.

PS : Any opinions expressed above are those of the author and not shared by 
     ASK / Ingres products division bv. 



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