NFS Thread utilization Test

When the NFS datastore receives a request, the datastore generates an NFSD (Network File System Daemon) thread to handle the client request for the file system operation. Each NFSD thread can process one request at a time. A large pool of threads can allow the server to handle more NFS requests in parallel. Also, the daemons are self-tuning i.e., they can create or delete the threads as needed, based on the amount of NFS activity. The receipt of any NFS protocol request from the client requires the dedicated attention of the nfs daemon thread until that request is satisfied and the results of the request processing are sent back to the client. Often, adequate threads may not be available to process the requests. In such cases, the performance of the NFS datastore may be affected which in turn affects the performance of the Atlantis ILIO. Therefore, it is imperative to monitor the NFS threads which would help the administrators to identify performance bottlenecks proactively. The NFS Thread utilization test exactly does the same!

This test reports the number of threads that are currently executing on the NFS datastore and the number of times all the threads have been utilized by the NFS datastore.

Target of the test : An Atlantis ILIO server

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the Atlantis ILIO server that is to be monitored.

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

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Number of threads	Indicates the total number of NFS threads that are currently executing on this NFS datastore.	Number	This measure is a good indicator of the level of NFS activity on the NFS datastore.
Threads in use	Indicates the number of times all the NFS threads were in use.	Number	A low value is desired for this measure. A high value indicates that the I/O requests sent to the NFS datastore are blocked and are waiting for reply.