Perf::ARM is a very simple XS wrapper around the Application
Response Measurement interface. To quote the ARM FAQ:
(
http://www.cmg.org/regions/cmgarmw/armfaq.html)
"What is ARM?
ARM stands for Application Response Measurement. It is an API
jointly developed by an industry partnership that is used to
monitor the availability and performance of applications. This
monitoring is done from the perspective of the application itself,
so it reflects those units of work that are important from the
perspective of the business."
Basically, putting the arm_start and arm_stop calls in your C
(and now perl) code will allow you to gather and view performance data
with HP Openview tools, including Glance, and other consumers
of ARM data, like Tivoli's tools.
Documentation and links:
- as usual, try 'perldoc ARM.pm' or after install, 'perdoc Perf::ARM'
for usage info
- the test scripts in the t/ directory may serve as interesting
examples to get you started
- check out
+ ARM FAQ at
http://www.cmg.org/regions/cmgarmw/armfaq.html
+ CMG ARM Working Group info page at
http://www.cmg.org/regions/cmgarmw/
+ HP-UX: /opt/perf/include/arm.h or /usr/include/arm.h
+ Glance docs at
http://www.openview.hp.com/products/
Prerequisites:
- perl 5.005 or later
The module has only been heavily used with 5.6 -- older versions
may or may not work. Please report problems to me. In
particular, some implementations of libarm use threads, which
has not worked well for me with perl 5.004_04.
- A functioning cc, gcc, or ANSI compliant C compiler
- the ARM include file - generally /usr/include/arm.h
- a functioning ARM library (check for /usr/lib/libarm.* or build
and use the libarm from the CMG ARM SDK)
for HP-UX, this means the Measureware Glance Pak's libarm.sl
The default HP-UX installation includes a NOP library that
will allow an application that links with ARM to run, but
no ARM instrumentation will really be collected. The
same is true for this perl module -- it is possible to
use the perl ARM calls without checking error codes, and
a NOP libarm will be silently ignored. However, the
'make test' step of the Perf::ARM module installation *does*
check error codes, so it will fail if the any arm_* related
calls fail. Calls to the NOP library will fail, so the
'make test' will fail as well.
HP-UX Installation notes:
- see /usr/include/arm.h for a list of the errors that
can be returned from the calls. Hint: search for ARM_INVID to jump
to the error code listing.
- You may need to make adjustments to your /var/opt/perf/ttd.conf
file to allow arm_init() and arm_getid() to succeed. See the
ttd.conf(4) man page for more information.
Current limitations:
- 'make test' does not pass for the ARM SDK no-operation
(NULL) shared libraries, as the module expects real return
codes. The libagent library from the SDK works fine.
- the arm_update() routine is not supported yet
- user metrics and correlators have not been tested
- the module has only been tested on an HP-UX 11.00 system
using the Measureware/Glance libarm.sl
- this is my first submission to CPAN and my first XS module --
doubtless it shows. :) Feedback, suggestions,
constructive criticism, and random assistance are very welcome
- the tests included in t/ are very rudimentary
- some versions of perl built with usemymalloc='y' fail. Workaround:
rebuild with usemymalloc='n'.
Glance note:
- on HP-UX systems with the Glance/Measureware tools, you may also
find a line like this useful for seeing the ARM traffic:
glance -adviser_only -j 5 -syntax /opt/perf/examples/adviser/arm
Acknowledgements:
- Many thanks to Doug Grumann for the ARM examples and insights
- David Carter has sent several improvements to the tests and
demonstrated how to use Inline. Look for these in an upcoming
version of Perf::ARM.
Copyright (c) 2001 Hewlett-Packard Company. All rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it
and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
