How to use Perflook in Teradata

The perflook script is a tool used to analyze performance behavior of Teradata at the current time.

When to use perflook:

  • The database appears slow or hung: Teradata users are not able to log on to the database, queries are not returning, but you can still access TPA nodes.

  • Queries are running much slower than normal. For example, queries that normally run in minutes are now taking hours.

  • If you see messages like “hot amp,” “high CPU usage,” or “high disk I/O” from Viewpoint system monitor.

How to use Perflook:

# /opt/teradata/gsctools/bin/perflook

2018-07-09 13:29:05 - Running /opt/teradata/gsctools/bin/perflook version # 01.00.00.18

2018-07-09 13:29:06 - Running node level collects

2018-07-09 13:29:49 - Running some automated checks for commonly known performance problems

Archive and compressing perflook.2018-07-09-1329_1-1 files for downloading...

/var/opt/teradata/gsctools/perflook/perflook.2018-07-09-1329_1-1.zip is ready to download.

2018-07-09 13:29:49 - Finished...

The zipped output file is created in the following directory:

  • /var/opt/teradata/gsctools/perflook/

If the database appears hung, perflook may also hang. In this case, use the -d option:

# /opt/teradata/gsctools/bin/perflook -d

Options in Perflook:

-h Print help usage information and exit.

-v Print script version and exit.

-auto

Used when perflook is called from another script (ex: canary query),

this option is used as a headless option.

-l Enable long verbose mode; stores additional ouput of collected in

file puma.TAXlll.

-m Enable memory dumps mode; stores additional output of collected data

in files, mm-c and prgtrace.txt.

-d disables collection of output from database utilities, including

qrysessn and showlocks

-s Single/Same one node information gathering only Overrides any

supplied list of <nodes>

-t Enable stacktraces capture. The output of 'puma -B' is collected.

WARNING: Running puma -B can cause a severe impact on system

performance.

-B Enable stacktraces capture. The output of 'puma -B' is collected.

WARNING: Running puma -B can cause a severe impact on system

performance.

nodes

An optional comma-separated list of bynet nodes, if not specified

data is collected from all nodes on the bynet.

Note: With the -l and/or -m options the output can be huge, these

options are not recommended on large sites unless <nodes> list is

also provided to narrow the collection scope. <nodes> must be the

last argument on the command line.