Chapter 2. General System Tuning
This chapter contains general tuning that can be performed on a standard Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation. It is important that these are performed first, in order to better see the benefits of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Real Time kernel.
It is recommended that you read these sections first. They contain background information on how to modify tuning parameters and will help you perform the other tasks in this book:
When are you ready to begin tuning, perform these steps first, as they will provide the greatest benefit:
When you are ready to start some fine-tuning on your system, then try the other sections in this chapter:
When you have completed all the tuning suggestions in this chapter, move on to Chapter 3, Realtime-Specific Tuning
2.1. Using the Tuna Interface
Throughout this book, instructions are given for tuning the Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Real Time kernel directly. The Tuna interface is a tool that assists you with making changes. It has a graphical interface, or can be run through the command shell.
Tuna can be used to change attributes of threads (scheduling policy, scheduler priority and processor affinity) and interrupts (processor affinity). The tool is designed to be used on a running system, and changes take place immediately. This allows any application-specific measurement tools to see and analyze system performance immediately after the changes have been made.
