Chapter 13. Troubleshooting system performance issues
This chapter covers
- Understanding and measuring your system behavior
- Controlling application and client demands on system resources
- Multilevel strategies for addressing resource shortages
- Strategies for effective ongoing monitoring protocols
Do “cascading chaos” and “impending doom” describe your IT operations right now? Are your servers slow and unresponsive? Do your customers complain about poor application performance? Or have you stopped bragging about the unbelievable experience you get from your new-ish workstation?
Even if it’s not as bad as all that, life won’t always progress smoothly. The fact that, by definition, we’re always trying to squeeze the greatest possible value from our IT investments means that sometimes we’ll push a bit too far: stressed systems will sometimes break, and complicated software stack elements will sometimes stop working together.
The secret to a long and happy life is to anticipate trouble, quickly identify the symptoms and causes, and apply the right fixes at the right time. And this should help in your work as an IT admin as well.