pmview is a generalized 3D Open Inventor tool for the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP). It supports the dynamic display of clusters of related performance metrics as utilization blocks (or towers) on a common base plane.

pmview is the base utility behind performance metrics visualization tools such as dkvis, mpvis, osvis and nfsvis. pmview is also used by a range of related tools that are specific to optional Performance Domain Agents (PMDAs) and/or PCP add-on products. pmview may also be used to generate customized 3D performance displays.

Normally, pmview operates in `live' mode where performance metrics are fetched in real-time from a host running the PCP collector software. The default behavior is to fetch metrics from the local host. pmview can also replay archives of performance metrics and allow the user to interactively control the current replay time and rate using a VCR paradigm. This is particularly useful for retrospective comparisons and for post-mortem analysis of performance problems where a remote system is not accessible or a performance analyst is not available on-site.

Any performance metrics with numeric value semantics from any number of hosts or archives may be visualized. pmview examines the semantics of the metrics and where sensible, converts fetched metric values to a rate before scaling.

pmview is capable of invoking other PCP tools such as pmchart(1) and pmdumptext(1) for further analysis of the performance information behind thepmview display. While operating in `live' mode, it can also invoke pmlogger(1) to record values of the metric instances in the current scene for further analysis at a later time.

As shown in Figure 1-1, the pmview window is comprised of a menu bar, time and scale controls, metric and time values, and an `examiner' Open Inventor viewer which displays the 3D scene.

The 3D scene displays performance metrics as colored blocks arranged in a grid on grey base planes. Each block may represent a single performance metric, or a stack of several performance metrics. The height and/or color of the block changes as the value of the associated metric (or metric instance) changes. Labels may be added to the scene to help identify groups of metrics.

A configuration file (as specified by the -c option, or read from standard input) is used to specify the position, color, maximum values, labels and metric instances in the scene. The maximum value acts as a normalization factor and is used to scale the block height proportional to the metric values. Metric values which exceed the associated maximum value are displayed as blocks at the maximum height with their color changed to white. If a metric is unavailable, the block will have minimum height and be colored grey.

Descriptions of the Menu Bar options may be found in the following sections:

The components of the display (see Figure 1-2) are described in the following sections:

The `?' button on the right-hand edge of the window may be used to display detailed help on how to use the Inventor Viewer.