Recording sessions

Recording sessions gather Adaptive Server performance data and store it in files for later analysis. Some attributes of a recording session are:

Monitor Server name – by association, this defines the Adaptive Server whose performance you are monitoring.
Sample interval – this attribute defines how often to collect performance data.
Views, alarms, and filters – views and filters define the data you want to collect. Alarms define actions that can occur when a specified data item hits a predefined threshold value.
Start time and end time – these specifications define the time period during which you want to collect the data.

To create a recording session, use a sequence of commands in the Historical Server isql command interface:

hs_create_recording_session
hs_create_view
hs_create_filter (optional)
hs_create_alarm (optional)
hs_initiate_recording
Use the Record option on the File menu from any Monitor Viewer window in Sybase Central. The Record option invokes a wizard that guides you through the process of creating a recording session.

When you create a recording session, Historical Server assigns it a session ID. You can list the session IDs of defined recording sessions using the hs_list command. That command can also show the complete recording session definition, including view names and the data items, alarms, and filters in the view.

Historical Server stores these recording session definitions in its control file, which resides in the Historical Server home directory. Therefore, hs_list can see only recording session definitions that were created by Historical Server instances using the same home directory that the current Historical Server is using. See “Configuring multiple instances of Historical Server” for more information on configuring Historical Server home directories.

To examine the data gathered by a recording session, you can:

Populate Adaptive Server tables with the data from recording sessions by using the Sybase bulk copy (bcp) utility. See “Bulk copy example” for more information.
Initiate a Historical Server playback session. See “Playback sessions” for more information.