Tuning SYSVR3 (Esix Rev D) (LONG!)

[Bill Heiser]

My Esix system is used for some program development (mostly programs
for school), some running VP/ix to run a few DOS apps, USENET News,
and BBS software.  The SAR report I have enclosed is fairly typical
of an average day.  I'm concerned about the high figures in the
%wio and %sys columns.  Is this typical for this kind of system?
The biggest user right now is usenet news, processing between 7 and 12MB
of news per day.

[system description:  80386/25 no cache, 8mb 70ns DRAMS, 300MB SCSI
drive (CDC Wren IV), drive caching turned ON, Adaptec 1542b host adapter,
ATI VGA Wonder, NEC Multisync II)].

If this is atypical, I'm interested in hearing suggestions on which
kernel parameters I might change to improve system performance.  For
example, should I increase the amount of buffer cache?   If I need
to do things like that, and need more RAM, I can beef it up to 16MB.
Under most circumstances, the system has a couple of megs free, although
of course it drops right down when I run Xwindows.

Thanks in advance for advice on this topic.

(would a "sar -a" be more useful than just this report?)

unixland unixland 3.2 2 i386    11/20/90

00:00:00    %usr    %sys    %wio   %idle
00:20:00       0       0       1      99
00:40:02       0       0       1      99
01:00:03       3       5       2      91
01:20:05       3      39      58       0
01:40:07       6      15      79       0
02:00:01       8      11      38      42
02:20:04       5      35      28      33
02:40:03       1       1      11      86
03:00:00       0       0       1      99
03:20:00       0       0       1      99
03:40:02       0       0       1      99
04:00:00       0       0       1      99
04:20:00       0       0       1      99
04:40:02       0       0       1      99
05:00:01       0       0       1      98
05:20:00       0       0       1      99
05:40:02       2      30       1      68
06:00:00       4      10      35      50
06:20:00       0       0       1      99
06:40:02       0       0       1      99
07:00:01       1       7       1      91
07:20:00       3      14      22      61
07:40:02       0       0       1      98
08:00:02       1       6       5      88
08:20:00       2       2       8      87
08:40:03       2       4       8      86
09:00:00       1       2       4      93
09:20:00       0       0       1      99
09:40:03       1       1       2      96
10:00:00       1       3       3      93
10:20:00       0       0       3      96
10:40:02       0       0       1      98
11:00:00       0       0       1      99
11:20:00       1       1       2      96
11:40:02       1       3       2      94
12:00:00       2       3       4      91
12:20:00       2       1       1      96
12:40:02       4       3       4      90
13:00:01       1       7       3      89
13:20:05       7      34      29      30
13:40:02       2       2       5      90
14:00:01       3       9       3      84
14:20:06       6      19      26      48
14:40:02       2       3       6      89

Average        2       6       9      83


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