In the fast-moving corporate environment, system stewards are constantly occupied. Assistance engineers from Red Hat are always seeking tools that can simplify procedures and provide swift, practical perspectives, particularly when aiding clients. Lately, I’ve been utilizing the pcp-xsos utility to assist me with examining resource utilization.

As a system administrator, I frequently initiate a system evaluation by utilizing comprehensive recaps from performance recordings of each process that’s using memory, CPU, IO, and so forth. The Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) bundled with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a robust toolkit with plenty of valuable commands and options, but it’s simple to feel overwhelmed with so much data. In essence, drawing a practical conclusion from your performance data can be a protracted process, especially when managing large PCP archive files.

The pcp-xsos tool lessens analysis time from minutes to just seconds. It produces high-level summaries of resource utilization directly from a PCP archive, using a single-sample-any-offset method to streamline the data review process. This significantly minimizes the time required to comprehend the status of your system.

Displayed below:

1. Effectiveness: Using pcp-xsos, you can receive a thorough overview of resources in mere seconds. This saves precious time during the analysis procedure. Quick responses are especially crucial during critical incidents where each minute is vital.
2. Enhanced client satisfaction: Swift analysis often results in prompt solutions. By reducing your response time, you can deliver a superior overall experience for your clientele.
3. In-depth insights: Despite its speed, pcp-xsos doesn’t compromise on the level of information it offers. It provides detailed insights into memory usage, CPU performance, and other key metrics, allowing you to quickly grasp the situation and begin devising a resolution.
4. User-friendly: The pcp-xsos utility streamlines the otherwise intricate task of sorting through multiple PCP commands and options, making it user-friendly for experienced engineers and newcomers alike.

There’s no need to delay trying out pcp-xsos. It will soon be part of RHEL by default, but the tool functions with any PCP version you already have installed, and it doesn’t require additional dependencies beyond PCP. Download it and test it for yourself:

$ sudo yum install pcp-zeroconf
$ sudo wget -o /usr/libexec/pcp/bin/pcp-xsos https://github.com/performancecopilot/xsos-pcp/blob/main/pcp-xsos
$ pcp xsos

It’s that simple. In no time, you’ll have a system summary, displayed live from your active system. Once you have some recorded data in /var/log/pcp/pmlogger (the pcp-zeroconf package installation sets that up automatically), you can use the --archive option to view historical data as well.

Performance Co-Pilot archives are platform-agnostic, and our commitment to backward compatibility ensures that new tools like pcp-xsos can analyze them, even if the data was recorded many years ago.

Working on an embedded ARM device? Or perhaps an s390 mainframe? Or an x86 laptop? No problem! PCP archives from any host can be analyzed on any other host.

The pcp-xsos is a simple tool that is definitely worth adding to your analysis toolbox. It boasts a clear and uncomplicated interface matched only by its sampling efficiency. Give it a shot today because you deserve a breather!