ECS Instances Test

Elastic Compute Service (ECS) is a high-performance, stable, reliable, and scalable IaaS-level service provided by Alibaba Cloud. ECS eliminates the need to invest in IT hardware up front and allows you to quickly scale computing resources on demand. This makes ECS more convenient and efficient than physical servers. ECS provides a variety of instance types that suit different business needs and help boost business growth.

An ECS instance is a virtual machine that contains basic computing components such as the vCPU, memory, operating system, network, and disk. You can fully customize and modify all configurations of an ECS instance. After you log on to the Alibaba Cloud Management console, you can manage resources and configure the environment of your ECS instances.

Using the ECS Instances test, you can figure out the total number of instances available for the target Alibaba cloud account. You can also track the power status of the instances, and quickly identify instances that are powered off. You can also be alerted whenever a new ECS instance is purchased / terminated by the monitored cloud account.

Target of the test : An Alibaba Cloud Account

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the Alibaba cloud account that is being monitored

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameters	Description
Test period	How often should the test be executed
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured.
Alibaba Access Key and Alibaba Secret Key	This test makes REST API requests to the Alibaba cloud to pull the metrics. For this purpose, the test needs to be configured with an AccessKey pair. An AccessKey pair is typically used to call an operation of an Alibaba Cloud service. It is also used to initiate an API request or use a cloud service SDK to manager cloud resources. An AccessKey pair is characterized by an AccessKey ID and an AccessKey Secret. The AccessKey ID is used to identify a user/cloud account. The AccessKey Secret is used to verify a user/cloud account. The first step to configuring the eG agent with an AccessKey pair is to create an AccessKey pair for the target cloud acount. To achieve this, follow the steps below: Log on to the RAM console by using an Alibaba Cloud account. In the left-side navigation pane, click Users under Identities. On the Users page, click the username of the RAM user for which you want to create an AccessKey pair in the User Logon Name/Display Name column. On the page that appears, click Create AccessKey in the User AccessKeys section. Note: You must enter a verification code if you create an AccessKey pair for the first time. Click Close. Note: The AccessKey secret is displayed only when you create an AccessKey pair. If the AccessKey pair is leaked or lost, you must create a new one. You can create a maximum of two AccessKey pairs. Make note of the AccessKey ID and AccessKey secret, once they are displayed. Then, configure the Alibaba Access Key parameter of the test with the AccessKey ID, and the Alibaba Secret Key parameter with the AccessKey Secret you made note of. If you failed to make note of the AccessKey ID and AccessKey Secret at the time of creating the AccessKey pair, then you can obtain the same at a later point in time. Similarly, if an AccessKey pair pre-exists for the target cloud account, then you do not have to create another one. Instead, you can obtain the AccessKey ID and AccessKey Secret of the existing AccessKey pair and configure the eG agent with the same. For this, follow the steps below: Use an Alibaba Cloud account to log on to the Alibaba Cloud Management console. Move the pointer over the profile picture in the upper-right corner, and click AccessKey. In the Security Tips message that appears, click Continue to manage AccessKey. AccessKey ID and AccessKey Secret are displayed. Make note of the displayed ID and secret. Then, configure the Alibaba Access Key parameter of the test with the AccessKey ID, and the Alibaba Secret Key parameter with the AccessKey Secret you made note of.
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 instances	Indicates the total number of instances currently available for the configured Alibaba user account.	Number	Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to know what are the instances, the type of each instance, when it was created, the operating system of that instance, the region and zone to which that instance belongs, the image from which that instance was created, and the network type, IP addresses, VPC, and security group of each instance.
Instances powered on	Indicates the number of instances that are currently powered on.	Number	Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to identify the powered-on instances.
Instances powered off	Indicates the number of instances that are currently powered off.	Number	Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to identify the powered-off instances.
Added instances	Indicates the total number of instances that were newly purchased by the configured Alibaba user account during the last measurement period.	Number	Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to identify the recently purchased / added ECS instances.
Removed instances	Indicates the total number of instances that were newly terminated by the configured Alibaba user account during the last measurement period.	Number	Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to identify the recently terminated / removed ECS instances.