Disk Space - OS Test

This test monitors the space usage of every disk partition on an LPAR guest.

Target of the test : An IBM pSeries server

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every combination of LPAR:disk_partition.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test period

How often should the test be executed

Host

The IP address of the host for which this test is to be configured.

Port

Indicate the port at which the specified Host listens. By default, this is NULL.

Real ServerName

Specify the name of the pSeries server in the Real ServerName text box. If the target pSeries server has been auto-discovered using HMC, the server name will be set automatically in the Real ServerName text box. However, while configuring this test for a pSeries server that has been manually added, you have to explicitly provide the server name in the Real ServerName text box.

Note:

To obtain the real server name, a user can login to the target pSeries server as a valid pSeries user, go to the shell prompt of the server, and execute the following command: lssyscfg - r sys -F name

Is Managed By

By selecting an option from the Is Managed By list, indicate whether the target pSeries server is managed using an HMC server or an IVM (Integrated Virtual Manager) server. If the target server has been auto-discovered via an HMC server, the HMC option will be automatically chosen from this list.

Management Server, Management User, Management Password

This test connects to an HMC/IVM server to perform LPAR discovery and to collect host-level and "outside view" metrics from the pSeries server. To enable this communication, first, provide the IP address/host name of the HMC/IVM server in the Management Server text box. If the eG manager had automatically discovered the target pSeries server by connecting to an HMC server in the environment, then, the IP address/host name and user credentials pertaining to that HMC server will be automatically displayed in the Management Server, Management User, and Management Password text boxes.

However, if the pSeries server being monitored was manually added to the eG Enterprise system (and not auto-discovered via the HMC server), then, you will have to explicitly indicate whether the target pSeries server is managed by an HMC server or an IVM server by selecting an option from the Is Managed By list. If the HMC option is chosen, then, you will have to provide the IP address of the HMC server that manages the target pSeries server in the Management Server text box. In such a case, in the Management User and Management Password text boxes, you will have to provide the credentials of an HMC user who is assigned the hmcviewer role.

On the other hand, if the IVM option is chosen from the Is Managed By list, it implies that the IP address/host name and user credentials pertaining to that IVM server has to be explicitly provided in the Management Server, Management User, and Management Password text boxes.

Confirm Password

Confirm the HMC Password by retyping it here

Domain

Set the Domain parameter to none.

Admin User, Admin Password, Confirm Password

The eG agent remotely communicates with each discovered LPAR on the pSeries server to obtain their "inside view". For this, the eG agent will have to be configured with the credentials of a valid user with access rights to each LPAR. If a single user is authorized to access all the LPARs on the pSeries server, provide the name and password of the user in the Admin User and Admin Passsword text boxes, and confirm the password by retyping it in the Confirm Password text box. On the other hand, if the test needs to communicate with different LPARs using different user accounts, then, multiple user names and passwords will have to be provided. To help administrators provide these multiple user details quickly and easily, the eG administrative interface embeds a special configuration page. To know how to use this page, refer to Configuring Users for LPAR Monitoring.

SSL

By default, the HMC/IVM server (as the case may be) is not SSL-enabled. This indicates that by default, the eG agent communicates with the HMC/IVM server using HTTP. Accordingly, the SSL flag is set to No by default. If you configure the HMC/IVM server to use SSL, then make sure that the SSL flag is set to Yes, so that the eG agent communicates with the HMC/IVM server using HTTPS.

Ignore VMs Inside View

Administrators of some high security LPAR environments might not have permissions to internally monitor one/more LPARs. The eG agent can be configured to not obtain the 'inside view' of such ‘inaccessible’ VMs using the Ignore VMs Inside View parameter.  Against this parameter, you can provide a comma-separated list of LPAR names, or LPAR name patterns, for which the inside view need not be obtained. For instance, your Ignore VMs Inside View specification can be: *lp,aixlp*,lin*. Here, the * (asterisk) is used to denote leading and trailing spaces (as the case may be). By default, this parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent obtains the inside view of all LPARs on a pSeries server by default.

Note:

While performing LPAR discovery, the eG agent will not discover the operating system of the LPARs configured in the Ignore VMs Inside View text box.

Exclude VMs

Administrators of some virtualized environments may not want to monitor some of their less-critical LPARs both from 'outside' and from 'inside'. The eG agent in this case can be configured to completely exclude such LPARs from its monitoring purview. To achieve this, provide a comma-separated list of LPARs to be excluded from monitoring in the Exclude VMs text box. Instead of LPARs, LPAR name patterns can also be provided here in a comma-separated list. For example, your Exclude VMs pecification can be: *lp,aixlp*,lin*. Here, the * (asterisk) is used to denote leading and trailing spaces (as the case may be). By default, this parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent obtains the inside and outside views of all AIX LPARs on a virtual host by default. By providing a comma-separated list of LPARs/LPAR name patterns in the Exclude VMs text box, you can make sure the eG agent stops collecting 'inside' and 'outside' view metrics for a configured set of LPARs.

High Security

In highly secure environments, eG Enterprise could not perform agentless monitoring on the pSeries server using SSH. To enable monitoring of the target pSeries host in such environments, eG Enterprise offers the High Security flag. Setting this flag to Yes indicates that eG Enterprise will connect to the target pSeries server in a more secure way and collect performance metrics. However, you can set this flag to No if the eG Enterprise is allowed to connect to the target host normally.

Exclude

By default, this test excludes a few disk partitions from monitoring. These include disks storing snapshots, user's runtime information, boot strap files, and container daemons. If you want, you can alter this default list by appending more partitions to it separated by commas, or by removing a few existing partitions from it. Wild card patterns are also supported.

Automated Action Enabled

Optionally, you can configure this test to automatically initiate a disk cleanup action, if any LPAR on any VM is found to be running out of free disk space. This way, you can enable the test to pre-empt a potential space crunch and ensure the peak performance and uninterrupted functioning of applications running on the VMs. To enable the test to take such corrective action automatically, set this flag to Yes (default: No).

Drive Utilization Limit

This parameter applies only if the 'Automated Action Enabled' flag is set to 'Yes'.

By default, this parameter is set to 95%. This means that, by default, this test will automatically cleanup unwanted files (eg., temp files) on any disk for which the Percent usage measure reports the value 95% or higher. This way, the test makes sure that there is always adequate free space on disks for the use of virtual applications. If you want, you can change the value of this parameter to suit the needs of your environment.

DD Frequency

Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD frequency.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Total capacity

Indicates the total capacity of a disk partition.

MB

 

Used space

Indicates the amount of space used in a disk partition.

MB

 

Free space

Indicates the current free space available for each disk partition of a system.

MB

 

Percent usage

Indicates the percentage of space usage on each disk partition of a system.

Percent

A value close to 100% can indicate a potential problem situation where applications executing on the guest may not be able to write data to the disk partition(s) with very high usage.