Theory of System Performance Tuning

Theory of System Performance Tuning

The standard IRIX System configuration is designed for a broad range of uses, and adjusts itself to operate efficiently under all but the most unusual and extreme conditions. The operating system controls the execution of programs in memory and the movement of programs from disk to memory and back to disk.

The basic method of system tuning is as follows:

monitor system performance using various utilities,
adjust specific values (for example, the maximum number of processes),
reboot the system if necessary, and
test the performance of the new system to see if it is improved.

Note that performance tuning cannot expand the capabilities of a system beyond its hardware capacity. You may need to add hardware, in particular another disk or additional memory, to improve performance.

Files Used for Kernel Tuning
Overview of Kernel Tunable Parameters