Introduction › How to Address an Issue in the Metrics Panel

How to Address an Issue in the Metrics Panel

This scenario shows how a database administrator investigates and responds to an issue that appears in the Metrics panel.

The following diagram and text detail the steps the DBA takes to investigate the issue:

During regular morning tasks, the DBA notices a spike in the Metrics panel for the buffer pool critical threshold. When the number of active buffers reaches 95 percent, DB2 has reached the buffer pool critical threshold (data manager threshold). This event causes DB2 to use different, more CPU-intensive algorithms to manage the buffer pool to free or release pages as soon as possible. When this threshold is reached for one buffer pool, the immediate release of pages occurs in all buffer pools.

Based on the potential significant impact to performance, the DBA completes the following steps:

1. Stop the scrolling feature of the Metrics panel.
2. Hover over the metric to more closely examine the context of the spike.
3. Click the metric to view a larger graphical representation version of the metric in a dashboard.

   The spike indicates that the active buffers are at 98 percent.

4. Launch the Investigator from the Metrics panel.

   The Investigator opens with the tree expanded to the area in question.

5. Drill down to view specific buffer pools that are exhibiting the problem.
6. Add the DBA Command Manager for DB2 to a dashboard.
7. Execute a DB2 EXPLAIN on the SQL statement and returns the access path information from the EXPLAIN statement and CA-supplied rules and recommendations, related to the SQL submitted.

   With this information, the DBA can continue troubleshooting efforts. This scenario shows one of the many ways that you can use CA Chorus tools to troubleshoot with this discipline.