Course description
By passing this exam, you become a Red Hat Certified Specialist in Performance Tuning, which also counts toward becoming a Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA).
Course structure
You should be able to perform the tasks listed below:
Use utilities to analyze system behavior
- Use utilities such as vmstat, iostat, mpstat, sar, gnome-system-monitor, top, powertop, and others to analyze and report system and application behavior
- Use utilities such as Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) to analyze system behaviour
- Use utilities such as dmesg, dmidecode, and sosreport to profile system hardware configurations
Monitor and alter kernel behavior
- Use /proc/sys, sysctl, and /sys to examine, modify, and set kernel run-time parameters
- Configure kernel behavior by altering module parameters
Analyze system and application performance
- Analyze system and application behavior using tools such as ps, top, and Valgrind
- Configure systems to run SystemTap scripts
- Use the eBPF family of tools (e.g. syscount, gethostlatency and others) to diagnose system and application behavior
- 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
Tune running systems
- Alter process priorities of both new and existing processes
- Select and configure tuned profiles
- Manage system resource usage using control groups
Tune memory utilization
- Configure systems to support alternate page sizes for applications that use large amounts of memory
Configure disk and file subsystems
- Select proper I/O scheduling algorithm
- Tune file system layout for a given use
Tune network performance
- Calculate network buffer sizes based on known quantities such as bandwidth and round-trip time
- Set system buffer sizes based on those calculations
As with all Red Hat performance-based exams, configurations must persist after reboot without intervention.
