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HP RXForecast Users Manual for MPE Systems
(c)Copyright 1990, 1991 Hewlett-Packard Company HP Part No. B1764-90009 Edition 2 E0391 Printed 19910301 Notice Hewlett-Packard makes no warranty of any kind with regard to this material, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Hewlett-Packard shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this material. Hewlett-Packard assumes no responsibility for the use or reliability of its software on equipment that is not furnished by Hewlett-Packard. This document is protected by copyright. All rights are reserved. No part of this document may be photocopied, reproduced, or translated to another language without the prior written consent of Hewlett-Packard Company. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. Microsoft(R) and MS-DOS(R) are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Lotus and 1-2-3 are U.S. registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation. Hewlett-Packard Company Application Support Division 100 Mayfield Avenue Mountain View, CA 94043 Printing History New editions are complete revisions of the manual. Update packages, which are issued between editions, contain additional and replacement pages to be merged into the manual by the customer. The dates on the title page change only when a new edition or a new update is published. No information is incorporated into a reprinting unless it appears as a prior update; the edition does not change when an update is incorporated. A software code may be printed before the date; this indicates the version level of the software product at the time the manual or update was issued. Many product updates and fixes do not require manual changes, and, conversely, manual corrections may be done without accompanying product changes. Therefore, do not expect a one-to-one correspondence between product updates and manual updates. Edition 1 06/90 B1764-90001 Edition 2 03/91 B1764-90009 Edition 2 contains the following changes: * There are two new metrics: Busy Jobs and Busy Sessions. These are documented in chapter 7 under "Metrics Option." * The Forecasts command dialog box now lists these two new metrics. * The Draw menu and the Zoom menu are modified to reflect changes in the HP LaserRX/MPE product. Introduction HP RXForecast smoothly integrates into the HP LaserRX/MPE user interface. It combines the ease of use of the HP LaserRX/MPE interface with a documented methodology that ensures that any user--whether experienced or a novice at capacity planning--can effectively forecast system resource consumption. Computer capacity planning is a process designed to ensure that sufficient computer resources are available to maintain acceptable performance levels. It is distinct from day-to-day performance management, troubleshooting, or tuning because it means planning future resources to meet growing user demand. It is also an ongoing process that requires a system manager's continual attention. Through capacity planning, you ensure that system users receive the level of performance that they require to work effectively. Capacity planning begins with the collection of performance data, which, for HP LaserRX/MPE and HP RXForecast, is achieved through the SCOPE collector. HP RXForecast uses these same logs of performance data for input to its forecasting routines. HP RXForecast uses time-series based forecasting techniques to predict the service demands of your users. It helps you make decisions on when to acquire additional resources or adjust system load to meet changing demands. See the Capacity Planning Overview for a detailed discussion of capacity planning. Using This Manual This manual is designed to help you get started with HP RXForecast. Chapter 1 Explains how to install HP RXForecast on the PC and simultaneously update HP LaserRX/MPE. Chapter 2 Gets you started using HP RXForecast by working through a number of examples. Chapter 3 Explains the forecasting process and how it relates to HP RXForecast. Chapter 4 Explains how to create and use business unit files. Chapter 5 Gives several case studies that offer you the chance to use HP RXForecast and see how the forecasting process is implemented. Chapter 6 Covers some additional topics, such as effective data management and validation, and offers some tips for using HP RXForecast. Chapter 7 Defines the commands and options of HP RXForecast in alphabetic order. Appendix A Lists additional references for those who want further information on statistics and forecasting. Appendix B Explains the calculations used for the models. Appendix C Lists error messages that you might see while using HP RXForecast and tells you how to correct the problem. We recommend that after you install HP RXForecast, you spend an hour reading and following the steps in Chapter 2 . This chapter demonstrates the functions of HP RXForecast and gives you a good overview of the product. Next, we suggest you spend another hour reading Chapter 3 . As you work through this chapter, you will gain an understanding of the forecasting process as it relates to HP RXForecast. We suggest you skim Chapter 4 to get a superficial understanding of business units. Business units are a rather advanced feature that you probably won't use immediately. A cursory understanding of business units will help you when you go through the example in Chapter 5 . We suggest taking an hour or two with these examples. Chapter 6 is another chapter you might want to skim for the time being. After you have used HP RXForecast for a while, some of these additional topics will be very useful to you. However, we advise reading the section on effective data management soon. You can make optimum use of HP RXForecast by collecting and extracting your data following the guidelines set forth in that section. Finally, use Chapter 7 on an as-needed basis when you want a detailed explanation of a particular command or option. You may take more or less time on any chapter than has been indicated in the paragraphs above. Remember that all these times are rough estimates only. The longer you spend exploring HP RXForecast, the more comfortable you will be with it.