The Every Computer Performance Book

This is a short, occasionally funny, book covers the four main tools of performance work: Performance Monitoring, Capacity Planning, Load Testing, and Modeling.

For a performance book, this one has several unique features. It works for any collection of computers you have. It teaches you how to use whatever meters they give you and how to discover more about those meters than the documentation reveals. It only requires the most simple math on your part, yet it allows you to easily use some fairly advanced techniques to do important work quickly. It is full of practical advice from someone that has been there and done good work on live systems and websites all over the world. It is buzzword free and written in a clear, conversational style.