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  The File I/O Performance Monitor

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  hIOmon FAQs - hIOmon I/O Monitor

The following Frequently-Asked-Questions (FAQs) relate to the hIOmon I/O Monitor; the answers follow below:

M-Q1.    hIOmon can measure and monitor file I/O operations right at the file level.  Why is this important and how is it done?

M-Q2.    Can I stop/unload the hIOmon I/O Monitor component after it has been started?

hIOmon I/O Monitor Operation and Use

M-Q1.    hIOmon can measure and monitor file I/O operations right at the file level.  Why is this important and how is it done?

M-A1.    Storage I/O operations, for the most part, are rarely measured and monitored, especially in production environments.  Moreover, when they are measured, it is usually at the disk I/O level (which is often problematic and unfortunately provides only gross statistics that are difficult and time-consuming, if at all possible, to correlate to specific files).  Yet, given that files are directly tied to and play such a large and important role in many applications, the performance of file I/O operation activity can have a substantial bearing upon the performance and use of the applications themselves.  In short, the ability to easily and quickly assess and appreciate, especially in immediate empirical terms, the performance of file I/O activity provides the potential for better understanding, substantive improvements, and other benefits directly related to the performance of the associated applications and their use.  Faster files can make applications faster, which in turn promotes better productivity, efficiency, and ROI.  And hIOmon uniquely provides such means for directly measuring and monitoring the speed of files.

The hIOmon File I/O Performance Monitor can measure and monitor file I/O operations right up at the file level, basically where the application makes its file I/O request.  hIOmon essentially intercepts the file I/O operation request at the file system, prior to the file I/O operation request being actually processed by the underlying operating system components (such as device drivers) and the storage devices themselves.  Consequently, hIOmon in effect observes the overall performance of the file I/O operation at the application level; it sees the speed of the file I/O operation access essentially as the requesting application does.  By collecting, in a very efficient manner, the precise time stamps and other detailed information about the individual file I/O operation requests, hIOmon can measure and monitor the performance of the application's file I/O activity at the application/file level.

M-Q2.    Can I stop/unload the hIOmon I/O Monitor component after it has been started?

M-A2.    No, do not try to manually stop/unload the hIOmon I/O Monitor component.  Doing so might cause the hIOmon software, and possibly Windows, to become unstable.  Due to the architecture of the Windows® 7/Vista/XP/2003/2008 operating systems and because of the technical nature of the hIOmon I/O Monitor component, attempts to stop the hIOmon I/O Monitor component might cause system errors (since there could be ongoing I/O operations that could occur while trying to stop and unload the hIOmon I/O Monitor component software).  Note, however, that the hIOmon Manager and the hIOmon Presentation Client components can be stopped (and restarted) as needed.

hyperI/O^sm -  improving the performance of storage I/O in computer servers