PowerEdge Physical Disks Test

VRTX allows physical disks to be grouped into virtual/logical disks and presented for consumption by single or multiple blade servers. If one/more of these disks fail or run out of space, it is bound to impact the virtual storage resources available to the blade servers, causing multiple blade servers to contend for limited storage space. The lack of adequate storage space will eventually degrade blade server performance.

To make sure that blade servers perform at peak capacity at all times, administrators must proactively and accurately identify the physical disks that are about to fail or run out of space, determine the cause for the failure/space crunch, and swiftly address it, so that the disk failure can be prevented.

This is where the PowerEdge Physical Disks test helps. For each physical disk in the VRTX, this test reports the current state of that physical disk and tracks how space in that disk has been utilized. This way, the test points administrators to those disks that are behaving abnormally and those that have been utilized excessively.

Target of the test : A Dell PowerEdge VRTX

Agent deploying the test : An external agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each physical disk of the VRTX being 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 device listens. By default, this will be NULL.

SNMPPort

The port at which the monitored target exposes its SNMP MIB; The default value 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 firewall. This parameter is specific to SNMP v1 and v2 only. Therefore, if the SNMPVersion chosen is v3, then this parameter will not appear.

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. 

Context

This 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.

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

Health status

Indicates how healthy this physical disk currently is.

 

The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are discussed below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Other 1
Unknown 2
Normal 3
NonCritical 4
Critical 5
NonRecoverable 6

Note:

By default, this measure reports one of the Measure Values listed above to indicate the current health of a physical disk. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the numeric equivalents only.

Operation status

Indicates the current operational status of this physical disk.

 

The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are discussed below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Failed 0
Unknown 1
Ready 2
Online 3
Foreign 4
Offline 6
Blocked 5
Non Raid 8
Removed 9

Note:

By default, this measure reports one of the Measure Values listed above to indicate the current health of the physical disk. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the numeric equivalents only.

Disk spare status

Indicates whether/not this physical disk.

 

The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are discussed below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Not a spare 1
Dedicated hot spare 2
Global hot spare 3

Note:

By default, this measure reports one of the Measure Values listed above to indicate whether/not the physical disk is a spare disk or not. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the numeric equivalents only.

Total space

Indicates the total space in this physical disk.

GB

 

Used space

Indicates the amount of disk space used in this physical disk.

GB

Compare the value of this measure across disks to know from which disk maximum space has been consumed.

Free space

Indicates the amount of space in this disk that is currently unused.

GB

A high value is desired for this measure. Compare the value of this measure across physical disks to know which disk has maximum free space.

Space utilization

Indicates the percentage of space in this disk that is in use.

Percent

A value close to 100% for this measure is indicative of excessive space usage. Compare the value of this measure across physical disks to identify that disk that could be running out of space.