Press Release
February 22, 2002
The Art of Squeezing Blood from a Stone--O'Reilly Releases New Edition of System Performance Tuning
Sebastopol, CA--Tackling the subject of system performance actually
depends on an understanding of two distinct areas, explains Gian-Paolo
Musumeci, coauthor with Mike Loukides of the new edition of "System
Performance Tuning" (O'Reilly, US $39.95). These are performance
tuning, which Musumeci describes as "the art of increasing performance
for a specific application set, also known as 'squeezing blood from a
stone'" and capacity planning, or "deciding what hardware to purchase
to fulfill a given role, also known as 'fortune telling.'" Adding stone
squeezing and fortune telling to their already formidable array of
skills is yet another challenge that system administrators face these
days, many of whom are under great pressure to optimize system
performance without additional spending. In this completely updated
new book, Musumeci and Loukides show system administrators how to make
the best use of existing systems while minimizing the purchase of new
equipment.
"The desire to go faster appears to be integral to human nature," says
Musumeci. "In light of the present economic contraction, there's a need
to go faster while spending less, making sure that we extract the most
out of what we have. System
Performance Tuning endeavors to help
professionals deliver on that need."
"There's a particular need for this book right now," adds Loukides.
"Even though computers have gotten much, much faster in the past
decade, it's a mistake to think that performance isn't a problem. CPU
speeds are faster by a factor of fifty of more, but memory speeds and
disk speeds haven't increased by the same amount. So, while we have
incredibly fast CPUs, they tend to spend most of their time waiting for
data rather than doing productive work. This was a problem when I wrote
the first edition and it's only gotten worse.
"At the same time we're doing much more business online, and computers
are even more important to business processes than they were a decade
ago," Loukides continues. "And most important, we're now in a
recession, and companies are being very cautious about what they're
willing to spend. Two years ago, a manager might have said, 'That
server's too slow? Buy a faster one.' Today a manager is more likely to
say, 'We don't have the budget to buy more hardware.' Which means that
you have to squeeze more performance out of the equipment you have on
hand. Computing load isn't going to go down; if you can't buy more
computing power, the only thing you can do is use the systems you have
more effectively."
The book takes an holistic approach to system performance. The authors
suggest that system performance tuning is very much about the
underlying hardware and how it is abstracted. Truly understanding the
behavior of the system, they claim, involves a detailed knowledge of
the inner workings of the machine. The book focuses on Solaris and
Linux systems, with expanded coverage of the I/O and networking
subsystems, and new material covering disk arrays, microprocessors, and
code tuning. Other topics include workflow characterization and
management, benchmarks, CPU architecture and performance, and
optimizing use of memory.
"The most important thing readers can take away from this book is an
understanding of how all the factors involved in performance
engineering fit together," says Musumeci. "Something about that
understanding never becomes obsolete; it's a frame of mind. That's part
of the legacy of System Performance Tuning and why the first edition
of the book sold well ten years after it was first published. This is
one of those books where the whole is worth more than the sum of
individual parts."
System administrators/engineers, systems architects, consultants,
individuals in academic and enterprise computing will all benefit from
reading System Performance Tuning, Second Edition.
What the critics said about the first edition:
"System Performance Tuning takes a pragmatic approach to performance
analysis and improvement.... This book is a 'must' for anyone who has
an interest in making their Unix system run faster and more
efficiently. It deals effectively with a complex subject that could
require a multiple-volume series."
--Stephan M. Chan, CommUNIXations,
April 1991
"Once again, System Performance Tuning by Mike Loukides was a
valuable reference. (Everyone has a copy by now, right?)"
--Dinah
McNutt, SunExpert, December 1991
"...the large variety of issues make the book helpful for the
administrator of a large multi-user system as well as the engineer
using a Unix PC on his desk."
--Unix User, November 1991
"A book dedicated to system tuning is a welcome addition to the
libraries of system administrators. I have seen some tuning information
in one or two system administration books, but a book solely devoted to
the subject was sorely needed. Mike Loukides explores many aspects of
system tuning, which you may well have grappled with at your site. His
book is easy to read, and it flows logically from topic to
topic...People who tune Unix systems will appreciate the information in
this book."
--Root Journal, Sept/Oct. 1991
Online Resources:
System Performance
Tuning, 2nd Edition
By Gian-Paolo C. Musumeci and Mike Loukides
ISBN 0-596-00284-X, 334 pages, $39.95 (US), $59.95 (CAN)
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
About O'Reilly
O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.
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