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Javier Barroso | 9 Jun 2009 22:51
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vmstat output and process swapped (a question in lpi 301 exam)

Hi,

One of the question of lpi 301 exam (I passed it this morning) was
about the vmstat output.

It simply showed 5-6 lines of the output, and asked about "max number
of process that were swapped in that period".

Where can I get vmstat reference were explain how to get this number ?
vmstat manpage seems to don't give any clue about.

There was at least one ambiguous question in the exam, perhaps, a
button 'ambiguous' in the exam program could help making better the
exams in the future.

Thanks for any tip/linkabout the question

PD: Sorry if is not allow posting about lpi question here (where
should I post it?)

Regards,
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G. Matthew Rice | 10 Jun 2009 01:12

Re: vmstat output and process swapped (a question in lpi 301 exam)

On Tue, 2009-06-09 at 22:51 +0200, Javier Barroso wrote:
> Where can I get vmstat reference were explain how to get this number ?
> vmstat manpage seems to don't give any clue about.

Hi Javier,

It's a read-between-the-lines question.  You need to be able to analyze
the various metrics and "figure it out".

> There was at least one ambiguous question in the exam, perhaps, a
> button 'ambiguous' in the exam program could help making better the
> exams in the future.

There is.  It's called the "Comment" button. ;)

> PD: Sorry if is not allow posting about lpi question here (where
> should I post it?)

This is sooo close to divulging LPI items that you shouldn't post it
anywhere.  In fact, you've already made 3 people call me "freaking out"
about this question.

C'mon, guys.  Really.  Why the preambles?  What's wrong with a straight
forward question like:

   How do I figure out how many processes swapped in a given period with
vmstat?

No mention of exams, not repeating something very close to the exam
question.  Just a simple, "how do I...".
(Continue reading)

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Javier Barroso | 10 Jun 2009 08:31
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Re: vmstat output and process swapped (a question in lpi 301 exam)

Hi,
On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 1:12 AM, G. Matthew Rice<matt@...> wrote:
> On Tue, 2009-06-09 at 22:51 +0200, Javier Barroso wrote:
>> Where can I get vmstat reference were explain how to get this number ?
>> vmstat manpage seems to don't give any clue about.
>
> Hi Javier,
>
> It's a read-between-the-lines question.  You need to be able to analyze
> the various metrics and "figure it out".
If manpage don't talk about that question, I can't "figure it out"

In my debian system column "w" doesn't appear. I take a look to vmstat
in Redhat 4.1 and openSuse 11.0 systems and 'w' doesn't appeart too.

So, if it is a linux exam, why include w column?

From "System Performance Tunning":

w: "runnable-but-swapped" queue

I luckyly hit the answer

>
>
>> There was at least one ambiguous question in the exam, perhaps, a
>> button 'ambiguous' in the exam program could help making better the
>> exams in the future.
>
> There is.  It's called the "Comment" button. ;)
(Continue reading)

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G. Matthew Rice | 12 Jun 2009 18:04

Re: vmstat output and process swapped (a question in lpi 301 exam)

Javier Barroso <javibarroso@...> writes:
> In my debian system column "w" doesn't appear. I take a look to vmstat
> in Redhat 4.1 and openSuse 11.0 systems and 'w' doesn't appeart too.
> 
> So, if it is a linux exam, why include w column?

I have a feeling that this question was created on an older Linux distro.

It used to be there.  I just checked one of the older systems that we manage:

matt <at> newsol:~[101]% vmstat
   procs                      memory    swap          io     system     cpu
 r  b  w   swpd   free   buff  cache  si  so    bi    bo   in    cs  us sy id
 2  0  0 129208  41912 212548 139620   0   0     1     0    0     1   0 0  0

There is another way to tell without the 'w', though ;)

> > There is. It's called the "Comment" button. ;)
> I made a comment, is this comment read by any people ?

They are reviewed before exams are refreshed.

> Thanks for your time

My pleasure.  Also, if you are keen to help improve the exams, in general,
you should consider joining the lpi-examdev mailing list:

        http://list.lpi.org/mailman/listinfo/lpi-examdev

Regards,
(Continue reading)

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