Organizations

Computer Measurement Group (CMG)
        Holds annual International Conference
        Many regional US groups and International groups

ACM SIGMETRICS, the ACM Special Interest Group (SIG) for the computer/communication system performance community


Capacity Planning

CMG conference proceedings from 1997 through 2005 a unique collection of papers about capacity planning, performance engineering, and performance management

Dr. Neil Gunther's Site and Blog

Guerrilla Capacity Planning by Neil J. Gunther

Performance management and capacity planning CMG papers written by BMC Software and pre-acquisition BGS employees

Dr. Bernie Domanski's papers and presentations

Dr. Norton's publications include papers on Simalytic Modeling as well as a number of other modeling related topics

Capacity Planning and Performance Tuning Resources from Fortuitous

Adrian Cockcroft's Blog performance, modeling, and capacity planning

Capacity Planning for Internet Services. Quick planning techniques for high growth rates by Adrian Cockcroft and Bill Walker

Open Source Capacity & Performance Management Tools for Windows & Unix Systems by Brian Johnson

System Management by Exception by Igor Trubin

Using Transaction Cost Analysis for Site Capacity Planning from Microsoft

Capacity Model for Internet Transactions from Microsoft

A Capacity Planning Framework for Multi-tier Enterprise Services with Real Workloads

Capacity Planning for Internet Service Networks by Geoff Huston

Capacity Planning: An Essential Tool for Managing Web Services by Virgílio A.F. Almeida and Daniel A. Menascé

IBM Server and ERP Sizing Guides

Capacity Planning Directory

Quantitative System Performance the classic text by Lazowska, Zahorjan, Graham, and Sevcik


Tuning

It is often difficult to separate information how to design systems with good performance (architecture, performance patterns, language structures, etc.) from information how to tune and deploy systems, quite often both sides are considered. Although more tuning- and product - oriented links are placed here, a lot of related information can be found in the Performance section. See also Bottlenecks.

Wilson Mar's performance tuning notes mainly Windows and .Net
Performance Methodology, Terminology and Concepts Tutorial from Intel
Jaqui Lynch's Publications including UNIX, AIX, Linux, and Apache performance tuning
Performance monitoring and capacity planning by Randy Johnson and Harris Kern, mostly DBMS-related tuning
PerformanceWiki performance / tuning tips

Windows
Windows 2000 Performance Tuning Microsoft white paper
Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2003 Microsoft white paper
Windows Server 2003 Performance and Scalability Microsoft white paper
Windows System Resource Manager

Linux/Unix
Tuning IBM xSeries Servers for Performance IBM Redbook (Windows, Linux, NetWare, VMware)
SarCheck Linux & UNIX performance analysis and performance tuning tool
Solaris Internals and Performance FAQ
AIX 5L Practical Performance Tools and Tuning Guide IBM Redbook
Database Performance Tuning on AIX IBM Redbook
Tuning Red Hat Enterprise Linux on IBM Eserver xSeries Servers IBM Redpaper
IBM System Planning Tool for POWER processor-based systems
IBM System i and System p System Planning and Deployment: Simplifying Logical Partitioning IBM Redpaper
AIX and Midrange Virtualization by Jaqui Lynch

VMware
VMware Technical Resources a lot of performance-related technical papers
Performance Best Practices and Benchmarking Guidelines VMware Infrastructure 3 version 3.5 with ESX 3.5, ESXi 3.5, and VirtualCenter 2.5

Virtualization
V or Not to V: A Practical Guide to Virtualization paper and presentation by Gene Fernando

Apache Web (aka IBM HTTP) Server
Apache 1.3 Performance Notes
Apache 2.0 Performance Tuning
Apache Performance and Security Guide by Nasim Mansurov
Tuning Apache Web Servers for Speed by Dean Gaudet

Microsoft IIS
The Art and Science of Web Server Tuning with Internet Information Services 5.0
IIS 6.0 Performance Tuning

WebLogic
Workload Management in WebLogic Server 9.0 by Naresh Revanuru
Avoiding Unnecessary JSP Recompilation by Nagesh Susarla
WebLogic 9.2 Server Performance and Tuning manual
WebLogic 9.1 Server Performance and Tuning manual
WebLogic 9.0 Server Performance and Tuning manual
WebLogic 8.1 Server Performance and Tuning manual
WebLogic 7.0 Server Performance and Tuning manual

WebSphere
WebSphere Application Server V6: Scalability and Performance Handbook
WebSphere 6.0 Tuning Performance from WebSphere documentation
WebSphere 5.1 Performance Tuning and Monitoring (pdf) from WebSphere documentation
WebSphere 5.0.2 Performance Tuning and Monitoring (pdf) from WebSphere documentation
WebSphere V5.1 Performance, Scalability, and High Availability IBM Redbook
DB2 UDB V8 and WebSphere V5 Performance Tuning and Operations Guide IBM Redbook
Meet the experts: Stacy Joines and Gary Hunt on WebSphere performance
Monitoring WebSphere Application Performance on z/OS

MQ
Performance: Getting the Most Out of WebSphereMQ

Microsoft SQL Server
SQL Server 2008, Monitoring and Performance from Microsoft MSDN
SQL Server 2005, Database Engine Administrator InfoCenter from Microsoft MSDN
SQL Server 2000, Optimizing Database Performance Overview from Microsoft MSDN
SQL Server 2000, Monitoring Server Performance and Activity from Microsoft MSDN
SQL Server Performance site about Microsoft SQL Server performance tuning and optimization
Analyzing and Optimizing Performance SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services, from Microsoft MSDN
SQL Nitro, network acceleration for SQL Server

Oracle
Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide 11g Release 1 (11.1) manual from Oracle
Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide 10g Release 2 (10.2) manual from Oracle
Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide and Reference 9i Release 2 (9.2) manual from Oracle
Oracle database performance problems and tuning by SearchOracle.com (free registration required)
Oracle Statspack Survival Guide
Automatic Workload Repository
Learning Guide: Performance tuning by SearchOracle.com (free registration required)

DB2
DB2 UDB Practical Performance Tuning by John Maenpaa
DB2 8.2 Administration Guide: Performance (pdf) from DB2 8 documentation
DB2 7.2 Administration Guide: Performance (pdf) from DB2 7 documentation
DB2 UDB V7.1 Performance Tuning Guide IBM Redbook
DB2 Performance Expert for Multiplatforms V2 IBM Redbook
DB2PORTAL.com DB2 resources for the mainframe
DB2 UDB for z/OS Version 8 Performance Topics IBM Redbook
DB2 UDB for z/OS: Design Guidelines for High Performance and Availability IBM Redbook
DB2 for z/OS: DB2 Universal Database concurrency by Fred Whitlark
A Deep Blue View of DB2 Performance: IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE for DB2 Performance Expert on z/OS IBM Redbook
Local vs Remote Database Access: A Performance Test IBM Redpaper
DB2 UDB V8 and WebSphere V5 Performance Tuning and Operations Guide IBM Redbook

MySQL
MySQL Server Performance Tuning by Jeremy Zawodny (free Linux Magazine registration required)
MySQL 5.1 Reference Manual


Modeling Tools

Each vendor site provide many interesting documents about modeling, capacity planning, performance management, etc.

BMC Performance Assurance solutions (former BEST/1, Patrol Perform &Predict)

TeamQuest
        How to Do Capacity Planning

Metron Athene, "provides ITIL-compliant capacity management, automatic performance analysis and reporting for UNIX, Linux, Windows and Mainframe Servers."

HyPerformix Integrated Performance Suite
    Uses "discrete event simulation modeling technology".
    For some time Mercury promoted HyPerformix as Mercury Capacity Planning. Integrated with Mercury products.     LoadRunner is one of data sources for Hyperformix.
    Wilson Mar's notes

OPNET IT Guru Systems Planner

PDQ - open source from Dr. Neil Gunther

Ptolemy II is a set of Java packages supporting heterogeneous, concurrent modeling and design from UC at Berkeley, free for academic and commercial use.

Microsoft System Center Capacity Planner

A Collection of Modelling and Simulation Resources on the Internet by Andrea Emilio Rizzoli


Application Performance Management Tools

A new class of software for performance monitoring and diagnostics in production or under load. Basic monitoring (using operating systems tools and utilities) are considered in the Monitoring section.

Gartner Magic Quadrant for J2EE Application Server Management, 2005

Oracle Enterprise Manager manages Oracle and non-Oracle technologies within a single console. Oracle Application Diagnostics for Java.

HP Diagnostics (former Mercury) is integrated with both Performance and Business Availability Centers. Includes Mercury Diagnostics for J2EE (former LoadRunner Transaction Breakdown), .Net and ERP/CRM (Siebel, Oracle, and SAP NetWeaver) and Deep Diagnostics for J2EE (former Performant OptiBench).

Wily Introscope gives the ability to quickly isolate and resolve performance issues in each stage of the application lifecycle. J2EE.

Precise Software Application Performance Management (was also Symantec, Veritas) solutions to optimize the performance and availability of enterprise applications including J2EE, .NET, databases (DB2, Oracle, and SQL Server), and ERP/CRM (SAP, PeopleSoft, Siebel, and Oracle Applications).

Quest Application Management (including former Sitraka products) optimizing performance and availability for J2EE, Oracle E-Business, PeopleSoft, SAP, Siebel.
        Spotlight for WebLogic and Spotlight on WebSphere real-time diagnostics, freeware edition
Quest Database Management  ensures database quality, performance, and availability for Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, MySQL, and Sybase.

IBM Tivoli Application Management, including products from acquired Cyanea and Candle
Large-Scale Implementation of IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager IBM Redpaper
IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager V6.0 Family: Installation, Configuration, and Basic Usage IBM Redbook

IBM Enterprise Workload Manager Resources. An IBM attempt to extend the mainframe technology to other platforms.
IBM Enterprise Workload Manager V2.1 IBM Redbook
Hardening the EWLM Performance Data IBM Redpaper
Performance monitoring with Enterprise Workload Manager. Enable ARM instrumentation for end-to-end performance monitoring in IBM middleware on AIX and Linux by CheKim Chhuor

Compuware Vantage products, including Vantage Analyzer for J2EE
Compuware Strobe application performance management for z/OS applications

OPNET application performance solutions including Panorama (former Altaworks) "realtime application monitoring and analytics".

QuickVision from ClearApp Production Monitoring & Diagnostics for WebLogic and WebSphere (former Acsera)

Identify AppSight is positioned a little differently. "AppSight's patented Black Box technology monitors application execution and captures a synchronized record of user activity, configuration, and code execution in real time. Simply play back the Black Box log to quickly pinpoint the root cause of problems. That's any problem - performance, configuration, functional, or user errors - in Windows, .NET, and J2EE applications". Part of BMC Software.

BEZ Systems BEZPlus Predictive Performance Management solutions for Oracle, DB2, and Teradata.

Symphoniq TrueView "monitors Web application performance from browser to back-end to automatically detect and diagnose problems inside or outside the datacenter."

Nimsoft (acquired Indicative) proactive service level, application performance and business service management

dynaTrace performance diagnostics of Java/J2EE and .NET Applications, promises a deep look into the inner workings of applications under load

Performance Management directory from KnowledgeStorm


Enterprise Monitoring Tools

Tools allowing monitoring of multiple servers including alerting and reporting. Basic monitoring (using operating systems tools and utilities) are considered in the Monitoring section.

PerfMan from ISM, cross-platform from Windows to z/OS

PerfCap Performance Management and Capacity Planning software, supported on IBM-AIX, HP-UX, SUN Solaris, Tru64 Unix, Linux, Windows NT/2000/XP and OpenVMS platforms

WHAM monitoring and low-overhead profiling for AIX, Solaris, and Linux

Performance SeNTry (also known as NTSMF) from Demand Technology, high-performance Windows performance monitor

Sysload from Sysload Software, cross-platform including agents for databases and applications

Meta-View Performance Manager from Lund, Windows and different flavors of UNIX

Performance and Availability Management from NetIQ

PROGNOSIS from Integrated Research (IR), "real-time, systems management software for high-availability computing environments"

Performance Management from ASG (acquired Landmark)

MonitorIT from Breakout Software, "Complete WINDOWS, SNMP, & SYSLOG Monitoring"

Heroix multiplatform, automated monitoring and management software

ProactiveNet end-to-end performance monitoring and real-time analysis to identify performance issues

List of Free Performance Monitoring Tools from MFJ Associates


Transaction Tracking / Business Activity Monitoring

Oracle Enterprise Manager Real User Experience Insight (former Moniforce UXInsight) monitors real user activity, provide analysis and notifications

HP TransactionVision (former Bristol Technology) tracks customer transactions throughout their entire lifecycle. It provides Business Process Monitoring that increases visibility into your customer facing transactions.

SeaView/RTM (Response Time Monitor) "passively captures network packets via a spanned port on the server switch. The software discovers and captures granular data describing all application sessions in real time. Built into the SeaView architecture is the ability to plug in application-specific modules that probe deeply into captured packets to measure the performance of actual business transactions."

TeaLeaf "provides real-time, browser-level visibility into every customer's online experience."

OpTier "delivers end-to-end visibility and control of all business transactions, across all tiers."

Quest End User Management

Coradiant End-User Experience Management

Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) directory from KnowledgeStorm


Performance-Related Technologies

DataSynapse virtualizes applications across a real-time infrastructure

Appistry Enterprise Application Fabric (Appistry EAF) "software-based environment for running large-scale, time-critical applications on commodity-grade computers, without sacrificing dependability or manageability"


Network Performance Management

NetPerformance.com "the first Web site dedicated to network performance management"

Guide to Network Performance Management and Network Performance Management from TechTarget (free registration required)

The End All of Network Performance Management by Bruce Boardman, six network performance management products tested (Argent Guardian 6.0a, Compuware Vantage 8, Concord eHealth Suite 5.0.2, NetScout nGenius Performance Manager 1.4, NetQoS SuperAgent 3.0, and ProactiveNet 4.1.2)

Network Performance Directory

List of Free Performance Monitoring Tools from MFJ Associates

John Sellens's System and Network Monitoring Page

NetQoS "Performance First Network Management"


Books

Click on the book or its title to see book information and reviews (if available) on Amazon.com