Cohesity Cluster Space Test

Cohesity DataPlatform is the only hyper-converged platform designed to manage all your secondary data. Inspired by web scale architectures, Cohesity provides a scale out, globally deduped, highly available platform to consolidate all your secondary data, including backups, files and test/dev copies. Cohesity DataProtect provides a complete backup and recovery solution, fully converged with Cohesity DataPlatform. It simplifies backup infrastructure and eliminates the need to run separate backup software, proxies, media servers, and replication. Cohesity backs up data whether it is stored on-premises, at the edge, or in the public cloud on a single multicloud data platform. Thus ensures business continuity, minimizes data loss, and reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO).

Cohesity DataPlatform is deployed on Cohesity Hyperconverged Nodes - hyperconverged x86 servers that provide compute and storage. Cohesity OASIS is the operating environment that provides the foundation for data protection. Customers can start with as low as a three-node cluster and scale out one-node-at-a-time, to accommodate future capacity and performance requirements. A Cohesity node is a physical CPU with disk storage that includes the Cohesity Data Protection software. With the ability to add or remove individual nodes at any time, the Cohesity cluster automatically scales up or down by re-balancing the data and its associated metadata to ensure redundancy.

If the cluster lacks space, the data cannot be stored in the target storage system which may lead to critical data loss. To avoid this and to ensure peak performance of the cluster, it is mandatory to monitor the space utilization of the cluster periodically. The Cohesity Cluster Space test helps administrators in this regard!

This test monitors all the clusters in the target storage system, and reports the amount of space available for use in each cluster. By closely monitoring the space utilization of the cluster, administrators may be alerted to potential space crunch at the earliest before the users complain.

Target of the test : Cohesity Backup

Agent deploying the test : An external agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each cluster in the target Cohesity Backup appliance being monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test period

How often should the test be executed.

Host

The IP address of the target switch that is being monitored.

SNMPPort

The port at which the monitored target exposes its SNMP MIB; the default is 161.

SNMPVersion

By default, the eG agent supports SNMP version 1. Accordingly, the default selection in the SNMPversion list is v1. However, if a different SNMP framework is in use in your environment, say SNMP v2 or v3, then select the corresponding option from this list.

SNMPCommunity

The SNMP community name that the test uses to communicate with the switch. This parameter is specific to SNMP v1 and v2 only. Therefore, if the SNMPVersion chosen is v3, then this parameter will not appear.

Context

The CONTEXT parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVERSION. An SNMP context is a collection of management information accessible by an SNMP entity. An item of management information may exist in more than one context and an SNMP entity potentially has access to many contexts. A context is identified by the SNMPEngineID value of the entity hosting the management information (also called a contextEngineID) and a context name that identifies the specific context (also called a contextName). If the Username provided is associated with a context name, then the eG agent will be able to poll the MIB and collect metrics only if it is configured with the context name as well. In such cases therefore, specify the context name of the Username in the CONTEXT text box. By default, this parameter is set to none.

Username

This parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVersion. SNMP version 3 (SNMPv3) is an extensible SNMP Framework which supplements the SNMPv2 Framework, by additionally supporting message security, access control, and remote SNMP configuration capabilities. To extract performance statistics from the MIB using the highly secure SNMP v3 protocol, the eG agent has to be configured with the required access privileges – in other words, the eG agent should connect to the MIB using the credentials of a user with access permissions to be MIB. Therefore, specify the name of such a user against this parameter.

AuthPass

Specify the password that corresponds to the above-mentioned Username. This parameter once again appears only if the SNMPversion selected is v3.

Confirm Password

Confirm the AuthPass by retyping it here.

AuthType

This parameter too appears only if v3 is selected as the SNMPversion. From the AuthType list box, choose the authentication algorithm using which SNMP v3 converts the specified username and password into a 32-bit format to ensure security of SNMP transactions. You can choose between the following options:

  • MD5 - Message Digest Algorithm
  • SHA - Secure Hash Algorithm
  • SHA224 - Secure Hash Algorithm 224 bit
  • SHA256 - Secure Hash Algorithm 256 bit
  • SHA384 - Secure Hash Algorithm 384 bit
  • SHA512 - Secure Hash Algorithm 512 bit

EncryptFlag

This flag appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVersion. By default, the eG agent does not encrypt SNMP requests. Accordingly, the this flag is set to No by default. To ensure that SNMP requests sent by the eG agent are encrypted, select the Yes option.

EncryptType

If the EncryptFlag is set to Yes, then you will have to mention the encryption type by selecting an option from the EncryptType list. SNMP v3 supports the following encryption types:

  • DES - Data Encryption Standard
  • 3DES - Triple Data Encryption Standard
  • AES - Advanced Encryption Standard
  • AES128 - Advanced Encryption Standard 128 bit
  • AES192 - Advanced Encryption Standard 192 bit
  • AES256 - Advanced Encryption Standard 256 bit

EncryptPassword

Specify the encryption password here.

Confirm Password

Confirm the encryption password by retyping it here.

Timeout

Specify the duration (in seconds) within which the SNMP query executed by this test should time out in this text box. The default is 10 seconds.

Data Over TCP

By default, in an IT environment, all data transmission occurs over UDP. Some environments however, may be specifically configured to offload a fraction of the data traffic – for instance, certain types of data traffic or traffic pertaining to specific components – to other protocols like TCP, so as to prevent UDP overloads. In such environments, you can instruct the eG agent to conduct the SNMP data traffic related to the monitored target over TCP (and not UDP). For this, set this flag to Yes. By default, this flag is set to No.

EngineID

This parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVersion. Sometimes, the test may not report metrics when AES192 or AES256 is chosen as the Encryption type. To ensure that the test report metrics consistently, administrators need to set this flag to Yes. By default, this parameter is set to No.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Total space

Indicates the total amount of space in this cluster.

GB

 

Used space

Indicates the amount of space utilized on this cluster.

GB

Ideally, the value of this measure should be low. A high value of this measure indicates that the cluster is running out of space.

Free space

Indicates the amount of space that is available for use in this cluster.

GB

Ideally, the value of this measure should be high.

Space usage

Indicates the percentage of space utilized on this cluster.

Percent

 

Space free

Indicates the percentage of space that is available for use in this cluster.

Percent