Category: ASE: Server Executables

sybmon

sybmon is an undocumented diagnostics tool for Sybase Tech Support. It allows an analysis of the ASE shared memory region. The use of this diagnostics tool is restricted to employees of Sybase Inc. and should under no circumstances be executed without authorisation or instruction by a qualified employee of Sybase. The tool can be started with the dataserver-executable using the command line option -X.

Commands in sybmon

Server commands

• anchors (ASE v12.5), memanchors (v15) - Provides, among others details on the kernel address and the memory resource.
• buffers - shows all buffers. Using command options, the output can be shortened, e.g. by adding the cache-id, dbid or object-id
• caches - shows buffer cache statistics for all or just one specified cache
• dbcclog (v15) - an external tool for analysing log dumps. After loading a dump file, the tool is accessed automatically. Navigating within the tool is analogous to sybmon
• dbtable - shows the dbtable structure of one or all databases
• des - shows object descriptors
• diskmap (v15) - shows the mapping of disk segments for one or all databases.
• dsconfig - shows the server configuration from the DS_CONFIG memory structure
• dtxp - Gives information on distributed transactions (DTM)
• engine_resource - shows engine resources
• hashedpdes (v15) - displays the contents of the PDES hash tables
• housekeeper - information on the housekeeper process
• idaddr (v15) - displays memory pools, assigned to an address
• ides - shows index descriptors for a table object
• keptbufs - shows the buffers held by one or all active processes
• latch - displays diagnostics of the latch manager
• lavaplldiag (v15) - displays the contents of the event buffer
• ldapuainfo (v15) - LDAP user authentication data from resource and engine structures
• lock_sleepq - shows the lock manager sleeptask queue and control blocks regarding deadlocks
• lock_waitq - displays the lock manager waittask queue
• locks - shows all lock currently held or waited for
• memanchors (anchors < v15) - see anchors
• memlog (v15) - the contents of the memory log
• oldestxacts (v15) - information on the oldest active transaction in a database
• page - prints the contents of a page
• pdes (v15) - like hashedpdes - shows the contents of the PDES hash table
• pr_array - information on an array
• pr_chain - scans LINK structures and queues
• pr_deschains (v15) - gives information on global chains or hash tables regarding certain object descriptors
• prbufs - shows active elements in the procedure buffer pool
• print - the contents of the memory structure at a specified address
• procmem (v15) - gives details on the procedure cache
• resource - displays the contents of the resource structure
• showrecovery - information on the status of the current recovery of a database
• site - gives information on site handler and user
• spinlocks - shows all owner of spinlocks or all spinlocks helpd by a process
• sqltext (v15) - display the SQL-text of all or individual active database processes
• srvdes - displays server descriptors
• ssql_hashtab - shows the descriptors hashed in the statement hash table
• traceflags - a list of all active Traceflags, similar to dbcc traceflags
• who - displays all active server processes or alternatively all processes of a spid, all "busy", "idle" or blocked processes
• xact_hashtab (v15) - displays transaction hashed in the transaction manager hash table

Kernel Commands

• alarms - information on system alarms
• bytio - information on bytio structures
• dumpconditions - Currenlty active dump conditions for the server
• elc - displays the contents of the engine local cache
• endpoints - list all active endpoints
• engines - information on active engines
• hbcsockets - displays the host based communication sockets
• kernel - shows the contents of the current server's kernel structure
• kproc - display the current status of one or all processes, including what the process is waiting for
• link - verifys memory links, forward or backward
• mailbox - shows all mailboxes
• memlist - an overview of the current allocation of memory in the server
• memregions - system memory regions and allocations
• mmgrpools - memory manager diagnostics
• mpmpools - gives information on server memory pools
• netfragmem - lists all network memory fragments
• netinfo - information about read, send and cancel queues for networks
• netlist - lists all active networks
• objectfromslot - finds the address of a certain object in a specified memory pool
• queues - information on scheduler queues
• sample - probes the engines of a running server and creates stacktraces for the currently running KPIDs
• socktab - displays a network mask for a certain socket or KPID or for all active sockets
• wt - diagnostics tool for worker threads. Shows, among others, child processes and memory usage

Bridge Kommandos

• bridge - informationen on PCI Bridge server settings
• cell - information about the CELL data of a ASE process
• pciconf - information about the active PCI Bridge configuration
• pcierrlog - displays all old PCI Bridge ERRlog data
• slotinfo - information on PCI Bridge Slot settings
• slotring - information about saved TDS (thread data storage) of the PCI Bridge slotring
• syncqueue - displays the specified synchronisation wait queue of the PCI Bridge and thread specific data

Process Commands

• cursors - shows cursors for one or all active database processes
• kpid - shows process information for a specified kernel process id (kpid)
• opentables - shows opened tables for one or all active database processes
• plancost - shows costs for a query or resource data for a process
• planprint - prints the compiled execution plan for a process or batch
• plcstate - status of the User Log Caches (PLC).
• proc - give information about the SYB_PROC structure in memory
• pss - shows one or all active PSS structures
• rdes - shows the remote sessions descriptors for a process
• recvbuf - displays the TDS buffer contents of a process
• remrecvbuf - displays the TDS buffer contents of a remote process
• remsendbuf - displays the TDS buffer contents of a remote process
• sendbuf - displays the TDS buffer contents of a process
• spid - displays process information
• stacktrace - displays the stacktrace for a process
• treeprint - displays the query tree of a process or information on an individual branch in the tree
• xactinfo - gives information about active transactions of a user

Dump Commands

• extract - extracts a file embedded in a memory dump, e.g. the errorlog
• memdump - dumps the shared memory region of an ASE server to disk
• memload - loads the shared memory region of an ASE server from disk

Symbol Commands

• addr_to_name - gives the name of the function at the specified address range
• ptype - displays the contents of a memory structure
• sizeof - displays the size of a datatype in bytes

Configuration Commands

• ? - help text for sybmon commands
• catalog - creates a catalog of existing shared memory regions
• help - help text for sybmon commands, like "?"
• list - a list of known shared memory regions
• memfault - causes an intended fault in the memory region. To use this, it is necessary to activate test mode
• set - for setting a sybmon configuration variable
• status - displays the status of the shared memory region and of sybmon
• version - version number of sybmon, like @@version

Control Commands

• attach - bind the shared memory region of a server
• detach - unbind the shared memory region of a server
• echo - prints a string on the command line
• execute - reads commands from a file
• exit - terminates sybmon
• halt - halts all processes on an engine
• initialize - executes an initialisation script for sybmon, which either resides in the current directory or in the user's home directory. The file is called .sybmoninit. This file will be read when starting sybmon or called with the initialize command
• log - opens or closes a log file for sybmon or toggles between loggin on and off
• memid - attach the shared memory region of a server using its id
• quit - terminate sybmon, like "exit"
• restart - restarts all process on all engines which were previously halted with "halt"
• shell - execute a shell command
• sleep - pause for the specified number of seconds
• !! (repeat) - execute the last command again