Xen XAPI Memory Test

XAPI – short for Xen API - is at the heart of the Citrix Hypervisor. It manages everything - all the resources in your Hypervisor environment. It reads in configs, initializes networking paths, checks licensing, maintains a database with all this info (the XAPI database), manages Storage Repositories, manages VMs, tracks VM states, manages networking, High Availability and other XenServer hosts in the pool and more. In short, every XenServer request or action is done via XAPI.

For performing all these operations, the XAPI daemon uses the memory allocated. If users to the Citrix hypervisor or its VMs complain of slowdowns, it would be wise to check the memory usage of the XAPI daemon as well, amongst other things, as significant memory usage by the XAPI can also cause the host and VMs to choke. To enable administrators to track the memory usage of the XAPI daemon, the eG agent periodically runs the Xen XAPI Memory test. This test checks the memory usage of the XAPI daemon at configured intervals, captures abnormal usage patterns (if any), and proactively alerts administrators to them, so that potential slowdowns in the performance of the Citrix hypervisor can be averted.

Target of the test : A Citrix Hypervisor host

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each local SR on the monitored hypervisor host

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter	Description
Test period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured.
Xen User, Xen Password and Confirm Password	To enable the eG agent to connect to the XenServer API for collecting statistics of interest, this test should login to the target hypervisor as a root user. Provide the name of the root user in the Xen User text box. Root user privileges are mandatory when monitoring a XenServer 5.5 (or below). However, if you are monitoring XenServer 5.6 (or above) and you prefer not to expose the credentials of the root user, then, you have the option of configuring a user with pool-admin privileges as the Xen User. If you do not want to expose the credentials of a root/pool-admin user, then you can configure the tests with the credentials of a Xen User with Read-only privileges to the XenServer. However, if this is done, then the Xen Uptime test will not run, and the Xen CPU and Xen Memory tests will not be able to report metrics for the control domain descriptor. To avoid such an outcome, do the following before attempting to configure the eG tests with a Xen User who has Read-only privileges to the Citrix Hypervisor: Modify the target hypervisor's configuration in the eG Enterprise. For this, follow the Infrastructure -> Components -> Add/Modify menu sequence, pick Citrix Hypervisor as the Component type, and click the Modify button corresponding to the target hypervisor. In the MODIFY COMPONENT DETAILS page that then appears, make sure that the os is set to Xen and the Mode is set to SSH. Then, in the same page, proceed to provide the User and Password of a user who has the right to connect to the XenServer console via SSH. Then, click the Update button to save the changes. Once this is done, you can configure the eG tests with the credentials of a Xen User with Read-only privileges. The password of the specified Xen User needs to be mentioned in the Xen Password text box. Then, confirm the Xen Password by retyping it in the Confirm Password text box.
SSL	By default, the Citrix Hypervisor is not SSL-enabled. This indicates that by default, the eG agent communicates with the target hypervisor using HTTP. Accordingly, the SSL flag is set to No by default. If you configure the target hypervisor to use SSL, then make sure that the SSL flag is set to Yes, so that the eG agent communicates with the target hypervisor using HTTPS. Note that a default SSL certificate comes bundled with every Citrix Hypervisor installation. If you want the eG agent to use this default certificate for communicating with an SSL-enabled Citrix Hypervisor, then no additional configuration is required. However, if you do not want to use the default certificate, then you can generate a self-signed certificate for use by the target hypervisor. In such a case, you need to explicitly follow the broad steps given below to enable the eG agent to communicate with the target hypervisor via HTTPS: Obtain the server-certificate for the Citrix Hypervisor Import the server-certificate into the local certificate store of the eG agent For a detailed discussion on each of these steps, refer to the Troubleshooting section of this document.
Webport	By default, in most virtualized environments, the target hypervisor listens on port 80 (if not SSL-enabled) or on port 443 (if SSL-enabled). This implies that while monitoring an SSL-enabled Citrix hypervisor, the eG agent, by default, connects to port 443 of the server to pull out metrics, and while monitoring a non-SSL-enabled Citrix hypervisor, the eG agent connects to port 80. Accordingly, the webport parameter is set to 80 or 443 depending upon the status of the ssl flag. In some environments however, the default ports 80 or 443 might not apply. In such a case, against the webport parameter, you can specify the exact port at which the target hypervisor in your environment listens so that the eG agent communicates with that port.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Memory usage:	Indicates the amount of allocated memory that is used by the XAPI daemon.	MB	A low value is desired for this measure.
Free memory:	Indicates the amount of allocated memory that is still unused by the XAPI daemon.	MB	Ideally, the value of this measure should be high. A consistent decrease in this value could indicate excessive memory usage by the XAPI.
Live memory:	Indicates the amount of live memory that is used by the XAPI.	MB
Memory allocation:	Indicates the amount of memory allocated by the XAPI daemon.	MB