EX442: Red Hat Enterprise Performance Tuning Exam

You should be able to perform the tasks listed below:

• Use utilities such as vmstat, iostat, mpstat, sar, gnome-system-monitor, top, and powertop to analyze and report system and application behavior
• Configure systems to provide performance metrics, using utilities such as Performance Co-Pilot (PCP)
• Use the pluggable authentication module (PAM) mechanism to implement restrictions on critical system resources
• Use /proc/sys, sysctl, and /sys to examine, modify, and set kernel run-time parameters
• Use utilities such as dmesg, dmidecode, x86info, and sosreport to profile system hardware configurations
• Analyze system and application behavior using tools such as ps, strace, top, and Valgrind
• Configure systems to run SystemTap scripts
• Alter process priorities of both new and existing processes
• Configure systems to support alternate page sizes for applications that use large amounts of memory
• Given multiple versions of applications that perform the same or similar tasks, choose which version of the application to run on a system based on its observed performance characteristics
• Configure disk subsystems for optimal performance using mechanisms such as swap partition placement, I/O scheduling algorithm selection, and file system layout
• Configure kernel behavior by altering module parameters
• Calculate network buffer sizes based on known quantities such as bandwidth and round-trip time, then set system buffer sizes based on those calculations
• Select and configure tuned profiles
• Manage system resource usage using control groups

As with all Red Hat performance-based exams, configurations must persist after reboot without intervention.