Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!uxc!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!kailand!pwolfe
From: pwolfe@kailand.KAI.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: slow ps
Message-ID: <2400053@kailand>
Date: 21 May 89 19:11:00 GMT
References: <11749@well.UUCP>
Lines: 19
Nf-ID: #R:well.UUCP:11749:kailand:2400053:000:932
Nf-From: kailand.KAI.COM!pwolfe    May 21 14:11:00 1989


> /* Written by pokey@well.UUCP in kailand:comp.sys.sequent */
> Since we switched from a Vax to a Balance 8, the ps command has been
> unacceptably slow.  As in many minutes for a simple ps -x.  Everything
> else runs nice and fast, so what's the deal?  Has anyone else come
> across this problem?

No.  The output from the command "ps -x" starts displaying within a second on
our Balance.  It uses a file in /tmp (.ps_data), is it possible that your
/tmp is located on a very slow and/or very busy disk?

Look at the output of "pstat -T", and check the number of max processes.
Maybe your process table is too large (changed in kernel config parameters).

Check out the latest SURF proceedings for Ron Parsons article on tuning Dynix
V3.0 systems.  Besides being entertaining, it contains oodles of useful
information about measuring and tuning system performace.

Patrick Wolfe	(pat@kai.com, {uunet,uiucuxc,sequent}!kailand!pat)