O'Reilly has released a new edition of "System Performance Tuning" by
Gian-Paolo Musumeci and Mike Loukides. The authors contend that
tackling system performance actually depends on an understanding of two
distinct areas: "the art of increasing performance for a specific
application set, also known as `squeezing blood from a stone'" and
capacity planning, or "deciding what hardware to purchase to fulfill a
given role, also known as `fortune telling.'" This completely updated
new book shows system administrators how to make the best use of
existing systems while minimizing the purchase of new equipment.
"The desire to go faster appears to be integral to human nature," says
Musumeci. "In light of the present economic contraction, there's a need
to go faster while spending less, making sure that we extract the most
out of what we have...."
"There's a particular need for this book right now," adds Loukides.
"Even though computers have gotten much, much faster in the past
decade, it's a mistake to think that performance isn't a problem. CPU
speeds are faster by a factor of fifty of more, but memory speeds and
disk speeds haven't increased by the same amount. So, while we have
incredibly fast CPUs, they tend to spend most of their time waiting for
data rather than doing productive work. This was a problem when I wrote
the first edition and it's only gotten worse."
The book takes an holistic approach to system performance. The authors
suggest that system performance tuning is very much about the
underlying hardware and how it is abstracted. Truly understanding the
behavior of the system, they claim, involves a detailed knowledge of
the inner workings of the machine. The book focuses on the SolarisTM
Operating Environment (Solaris OE) and the Linux system, with expanded
coverage of the I/O and networking subsystems and new material covering
disk arrays, microprocessors, and code tuning. Other topics include
workflow characterization and management, benchmarks, CPU architecture
and performance and optimizing use of memory.
Chapter 4, "Memory," is available free online at:
For more information about the book, including Table of Contents,
index, author bios and samples, see:
Read More ...