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Due to processing by IBM, this request was reassigned to have the following updated attributes:
Brand - Servers and Systems Software
Product family - IBM Spectrum Scale
Product - Spectrum Scale (formerly known as GPFS) - Private RFEs
Component - Product functionality
For recording keeping, the previous attributes were:
Brand - Servers and Systems Software
Product family - IBM Spectrum Scale
Product - Spectrum Scale (formerly known as GPFS) - Private RFEs
Component - Technical Foundation
As noted in a previous comment, when GPFS uses the trace subsystem provided by the OS (which is the case on AIX and Windows), there's not much that can be done in GPFS about the trace overhead. On Linux, GPFS uses its own custom trace subsystem. The need to keep the trace overhead low is very well understood and appreciated. There have been successive improvements in this area in GPFS versions V3.3, V3.4, V3.5, and V4.1. We'll continue to work on further improvements, although at this point the low-hanging fruit has been picked, and the law of diminishing returns will be a major factor.
The basic reason GPFS trace collection is so resource-intensive is the level of code complexity. In order to record the events with enough detail to allow effective troubleshooting, data needs to be records at the rate of megabytes per second. It is very hard to do something like this with near-zero overhead under any circumstances. The verbosity of tracing can be controlled at a very fine level already, by varying individual trace levels. Obviously, it's possible to get the tracing overhead to a lower level by making the trace less verbose, but just as obviously this would make the trace less useful. So there's a need for a delicate balancing act, in keeping the trace verbose enough to allow troubleshooting while keeping the overhead to a reasonable level.
On AIX, GPFS uses built-in trace facility in AIX OS. So this request should be routed to the AIX team to enhance performance of current AIX trace facility.
Creating a new RFE based on Community RFE #54499 in product GPFS.