OSA

OSA Analysis

Specifics - OSA utilization analysis:

An OSA is an Open Systems Adapter. It is a card that is installed in the CEC hardware that is used for communication. To get the data to show the OSA activity for any OSA card that is connected to the LPAR (if shared), the Velocity MIB for osansmp must be installed on a guest system that has the OSA attached. This "attachment" is only to allow the OSA metrics to be acquired. That guest system can only see the LPARS on its Channel Subsystem (up to 15 - the 16th slot is not used). However, the OSA level and LPAR level field numbers do not add up correctly. So, this data can be helpful, but may not be exactly accurate. There is no IBM solution to this issue.

There are two parts of the report - the Configuration and the Performance Metrics. There are two sources, one for the global OSA, and one that represents each LPAR's activity on a shared OSA.

One issue is that the adapters are shared between LPARs so the hardware could track it, but it doesn't seem to report it. Another data source is the ESATCP4 report. This shows traffic by server. The NIC byte metrics are helpful.

ESAOSA - Shows the OSA system configuration. There is only an ESAOSA report (no screen).

Collector Node - This is the server that is collecting data about the OSA card.

Name - This is the name of the OSA card in TCPIP. Doing NETSTAT commands on z/VM can tell more information about the OSA card.

MacAddress Active - This is the MAC address being used currently in the OSA card.

KBytes/Sec In/Out - This is the amount of kilobytes being transfered in the 15 minute interval.

Packets/Sec In/Out - This is the amount of packets being transfered in the 15 minute interval.