Recent versions of AIX record performance data by default for the last 7 days.
This would be extremely useful to create performance graph for a server where you do not have your NMON scheduled on crontab
By default, AIX uses “topasrec” to record a performance data which you can see them as a default entry in /etc/inittab as shown below

labserver:/ # cat /etc/inittab |grep topas
xmdaily:2:once:/usr/bin/topasrec -L -s 300 -R 1 -r 6 -o /etc/perf/daily/ -ypersistent=1 2>&1 >/dev/null #Start local binary recording
labserver:/ #

By default 7 days worth of performance data are recorded, and they are stored in /etc/perf/daily.
The files will have a “.topas” file extension and the file name includes the date as shown below
labserver:/ # ls -l /etc/perf/daily
-rw-r–r– 1 root system 27715164 Feb 02 23:54 labserver_170202.topas
-rw-r–r– 1 root system 27621532 Feb 03 23:51 labserver_170203.topas
-rw-r–r– 1 root system 27715164 Feb 04 23:50 labserver_170204.topas
-rw-r–r– 1 root system 27715164 Feb 05 23:49 labserver_170205.topas
-rw-r–r– 1 root system 27621532 Feb 06 23:45 labserver_170206.topas
-rw-r–r– 1 root system 27715164 Feb 07 23:59 labserver_170207.topas
-rw-r–r– 1 root system 23969884 Feb 08 23:53 labserver_170208.topas
labserver:/ #
Here’s the trick you can use with this binary .topas file to convert them as a NMON csv file with command “topasout -a” as shown below

labserver:/ #cd /etc/perf/daily
labserver:/ #topasout -a labserver_170202.topas

labserver:/etc/perf/daily # ls -ltr
-rw-r–r– 1 root system 27715164 Feb 02 23:54 labserver_170202.topas
-rw-r–r– 1 root system 27621532 Feb 03 23:51 labserver_170203.topas
-rw-r–r– 1 root system 27715164 Feb 04 23:50 labserver_170204.topas
-rw-r–r– 1 root system 27715164 Feb 05 23:49 labserver_170205.topas
-rw-r–r– 1 root system 27621532 Feb 06 23:45 labserver_170206.topas
-rw-r–r– 1 root system 27715164 Feb 07 23:59 labserver_170207.topas
-rw-r–r– 1 root system 23969884 Feb 08 23:53 labserver_170208.topas
-rw-r–r– 1 root system 2822505 Feb 08 20:47 labserver_170202.topas.csv
labserver:/etc/perf/daily #

Now, You can take the NMON csv file and use NMON analyzer to create performance graphs.