EMC ECS NIC Workload Test

Each node has a Network Interf ace Controller (NIC) which controls the traffic in and out of the node. Any data reads and writes happening to the disk have to go through NIC. It makes NIC a very important component of the whole system and its perfect health is vital to optimal node operation.

Given that all traffic goes through NIC, its health is vital to the operation of the node. That’s the reason NIC has to be monitored in real-time and any aberration from normal should be investigated to identify potential issues.

Target of the test : A Dell EMC Elastic Cloud Storage System

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each node.

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. Since the storage device is managed using the IP address of its storage controller, the same will be displayed as host.
Port	The port number at which the specified host listens. By default, this is NULL.
ECS REST API Port	This is the port at which REST API connectivity is provided. By default, port 4443 is used.
Username and Password	To collect performance metrics from the target storage device, the eG agent should be configured with the credentials of a user who is vested with "read-only" privileges to access REST API of the target storage device. Specify the credentials of such a user in the Username and Password text boxes.
Confirm Password	Confirm the password by retyping it here.
Timeout Seconds	Specify the time duration for which this test should wait for a response from the storage system in the Timeout text box. By default, this is 60 seconds.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Data transmitted through NIC	Indicates the rate at which data transmitted is through NIC.	MB/Sec	These measures are good indicators of health of NIC and the rate of these measures should be in optimal range as defined by manufacturer.
Data received through NIC	Indicates the rate at which data is being received through NIC	MB/Sec
Total data transferred	Indicates the rate at which data is being transferred through NIC including both inbound and outbound data.	MB/Sec
Data transmitted utilization	Indicates percentage NIC bandwidth utilized out of total available bandwidth for data transmission.	Percentage	This measure is good indicator of load on NIC, while low values are fine, persistent high values may point to overloaded NIC, which may eventually case NIC failure.
Data received utilization	Indicates percentage NIC bandwidth utilized out of total available bandwidth for data reception.	Percentage
Data utilization	Indicates percentage NIC bandwidth utilized out of total available bandwidth for data transmitting and reception.	Percentage