vt
NAME
vt - Starts the Visualization Tool, which is an X-Windows tool that
enables you to visualize performance characteristics of your
partition, or playback traces generalized from a POE program.
SYNOPSIS
vt [-tracefile trace_file] [-tfile trace_file] [-configfile configuration_file]
[-cfile configuration_file] [-spath directory_list] [-norm] [-cmap] [-go]
The vt command starts the Visualization Tool for visualizing
performance characteristics of a program or the system. This
X-Windows tool consists of a group of displays which present specific,
often complex, information is easily-interpretable forms such as bar
charts and strip graphs. VT can be used to play back traces generated
during a program's execution (trace visualization), or as an online
monitor to study the operational status and activity of processor
nodes (performance monitoring).
FLAGS
-tracefile or -tfile
Loads a specified trace file for playback. (A trace
file can also be loaded after VT is started.)
-configfile or -cfile
Loads a specified configuration file. A configuration
file contains previously saved arrangements of VT
windows as well as input field specifications. (A
configuration file can also be loaded after VT is
started.)
-spath Indicates a search path to a program's source code.
Like the AIX PATH environment variable, this is a
series of colon-delimited directory names to search.
Unless the program's source is in the current
directory, the search path is needed to display it in
the VT's Source Code view. (A search path to the
program's source code can also be indicated after VT is
started.)
-norm Indicates that the SP system Resource Manager is
unavailable. In performance monitoring mode, VT
normally uses the Resource Manager to learn which nodes
are available for monitoring. If this flag is
specified, VT instead gets this information from the
host list file indicated by the MP_HOSTFILE environment
variable, and from the LAN. If you are going to use VT
for online performance monitoring of a cluster or mixed
environment, you must use this flag.
-cmap Requests a private color map. If this flag is not
used, VT attempts to use the default color map shared
by all active X-Windows applications. Depending on the
number of active X-Windows applications, there might
not be enough available colors for VT. When this
happens, VT displays a message indicating the
spectrum(s) it cannot allocate, and uses black in place
of the unallocated color(s). VT will still run, but in
extreme cases some display spectrums may be unusable
because of the missing color(s). When you use this
flag, VT makes a private copy of the default X-Windows
color map.
-go Starts playing back the trace file immediately upon
starting VT. When you use this flag, you must also
specify a trace file and a configuration file using the
-tracefile (or -tfile) flag and the -configfile (or
-cfile) flags.
-log_file Specifies the file name where the results of the trace
file post-processing will be written. The default name
is $HOME/tracefilename.pplog.
-h, -?, or -help
Gets help information.
-mp_source Specifies which task's source code is displayed in the
Source Code view.
DESCRIPTION
The vt command starts the Visualization Tool. This is an X-Windows
tool for visualizing performance characteristics of your program and
system. It consists of a group of displays, or views, which present
complex information in easily-interpretable forms such as bar charts
and strip graphs. The VT views can be used for trace visualization
and online performance monitoring.
o In trace visualization mode, VT plays back statistical and event
records, or trace records, generated during a program's execution.
In this mode, VT can visualize information about the user's
program as well as the program's use of the underlying system.
The visualized information can help in tuning the program to
optimize its use of the underlying system.
o In performance monitoring mode, VT acts as an online monitor
showing the operational status and activity of each of the
processor nodes on an SP system or RS/6000 network cluster. In
this mode, VT only displays system statistics and not
communication information. In order to use VT for performance
monitoring, a Statistics Collector Daemon process named digd needs
to be running on each of the nodes you wish to monitor. The
daemon feeds VT with the AIX kernel statistics it displays, and is
created on each of your nodes as part of the Visualization Tool's
installation procedure. The digd statistics collector daemon can
also feed information to the System Status Array started by the
poestat command.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
MP_HOSTFILE This environment variable is normally associated
with node allocation. However, it is also checked
by the vt command when running with the -norm
option. It determines the name of a host list
file to use to select nodes that are available for
monitoring. If not set, the default is host.list
in your current directory.
EXAMPLES
To load the trace file mytrace, the configuration file myconfig, and
to begin playback immediately upon starting VT:
vt -tfile mytrace -cfile myconfig -go
To start VT and add the directories /u/files/source and /u/hink/source
to the source code search path:
vt -spath /u/files/source:/u/hink/source
To start VT for performance monitoring if you are in an environment
where the SP system Resource Manager is not available:
vt -norm
FILES
host.list (Default host list file)
/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Vt (Xdefaults file)
$HOME/tracefilename.pplog (Default file name where the results of the
trace file post-processing will be written)
RELATED INFORMATION
Commands: poestat(1)