Many stories of the popular author Patrick McManus, contain references to a mysterious concoction, “Whatchagot Stew”. The recipe for this stew is summarized as being whatever people have on hand, tossed together and boiled for some period of time. The name being derived from how you start cooking it...

No, not because it stinks; not because it brings tears to your eyes; but because performance has layers. This is the first of a series of articles dealing with the layers of the performance onion. Hopefully they will be valuable to System Admins and also Content Providers in getting a better understanding...