UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook, 5th Edition

29	Performance Analysis

Performance analysis and tuning are often treated as a form of system administration witchcraft. They’re not really witchcraft, but they do qualify as both science and art. The “science” part involves making careful quantitative measurements and applying the scientific method. The “art” part relates to the need to balance resources in a practical, level-headed way, since optimizing for one application or user can result in other applications or users suffering. As with so many things in life, you will often find that it’s impossible to make everyone happy.

Folks often assert that today’s performance problems ...