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-
- Optimizing Windows NT
-
- Response Probe
-
-
- 1. Overview
-
- This directory tree contains the Response Probe for the x86, MIPS,
- and Alpha platforms. The principle documentation for the Response
- Probe is in Appendix C of the book "Optimizing Windows NT."
- This file explains what is on this floppy disk.
-
-
- 2. Directory Organization
-
- This directory has three sub-directories. "i386" contains the x86
- executable files, "MIPS" contains the MIPS executable files,
- "ALPHA" contains the ALPHA executable files, and "EXAMPLE" contains
- an example of Response Probe usage.
-
-
- 3. i386 & MIPS & ALPHA
-
- Depending on which platform you are on, you should add the
- corresponding directory to your path. Alternatively, you can copy
- the files from the corresponding directory into a directory on your
- path.
-
- A. Response Probe
-
- The file PROBE.EXE becomes the main controlling process for the
- Response Probe. The file PROBEPRC.EXE is the child process
- which actually applies the workload. You should copy this file
- to files with different names in order to see multiple processes
- separately in Performance Monitor. This techniques is discussed
- in Appendix C of "Optimizing Windows NT". TIMERW32 and STATW32
- are .dll's which are used by the Response Probe to perform timing
- functions. PROBE, TIMERW32, and STATW32, as well as PROBEPRC and
- any copies of it you have made under new names, must all be on your
- PATH in order for the Response Probe to run.
-
- B. CREATFIL
-
- The CREATFIL utlity creates a file of arbitrary size filled with
- binary zeros. You specify the file size you need in kilbytes,
- where 1 kilobyte is equal to 1024 bytes.
-
- Usage:
-
- creatfil <NewFileName> <size in kbytes>
-
- Example:
-
- creatfil access.dat 1024
-
- This example create a file called access.dat filled with 1 megabyte
- of binary zero bytes.
-
- C. WAIT
-
- WAIT is a simple utility used to pause execution of a test. Such pauses
- permit system functions such as the lazy writer to complete operation
- from a prior test before beginning a new one. Wait will sound 5 beeps
- at the start of the pause, and one at the end. This will help you
- perform any manual activities you might need to carry out during the
- pause. The beep time is included as a portion of the pause time and
- does not add to it as long as the pause time is at least 3 seconds.
-
- Usage:
-
- wait <pause time in seconds>
-
- 4. Example
-
- This example is a brief sample of how to set up and run a Response
- Probe experiment. There is a batch file for running the
- experiment, and the parameter files are explained in Appendix C of
- the book. All the above programs are used in this example.
-
- The example creates four processes. They all have the name
- probeprc. As explained in above, if you want to look at them
- separately in Performance Monitor, you must copy PROBEPRC.EXE to
- four new file names, and reference those in the *.SCR files
- instead of PROBEPRC.EXE.
-
- Each process creates four threads.
-
- Each thread has an average 1-second think time. It does an
- average of 100 read/write operations, where each operation
- consists of an unbuffered read followed by an unbuffered
- write. After each read/write pair, it does an average of 10
- milliseconds of computation. During that time it references an
- average of 1 MB of "code" space and 1 MB of data space. The file
- and code space are shared, but the data space is private to each
- of the four processes.
-
- This example uses many of the Response Probe features and should
- give you a good basis for devising whatever experiments you might
- need.
-
- Usage:
-
- doprobe [testtime]
-
- where "testtime" is the length of time to run each of the four
- record sizes ( the default is 5 minutes).