Cluster Status Test

A single Isilon cluster consists of multiple nodes, which are rack-mountable enterprise appliances containing: memory, CPU, networking, Ethernet or low-latency InfiniBand interconnects, disk controllers and storage media. Whenever administrators encounter difficulties in accessing the cluster or nodes in the cluster, administrators can use this test to verify the availability and node capacity of the cluster.

This test enables administrators to determine the current status of the cluster and the number of nodes in the cluster. The detailed diagnosis of this test reveals the details on the offline and online nodes in the cluster. This helps administrators to instantly find out the offline nodes, and start investigating the reason behind offline status before it adversely affects overall performance of the storage system.

Target of the test : An EMC Isilon Storage System

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the target storage system 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 host listens. By default, this will be NULL.

Timeout

Specify the time duration (in seconds) beyond which this test should time out in the Timeout text box. The default is 10 seconds.

Use SUDO

By default, this parameter is set to No. This indicates that, by default, the eG agent will not require any special permissions to execute the commands. However, in some highly secure environments, this command cannot be executed directly as the eG agent install user is different from the root user who has the privileges to run all commands on the target storage system. In such cases, create a sudo user using the steps discussed in the Pre-requisites for Monitoring the EMC Isilon Storage System. Credentials of such a user should be specified in the Username and Password text boxes in the COMPONENTS page.

Set the Use Sudo parameter to Yes. This will enable the eG agent install user to execute the commands.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Status

Indicates the current status of the cluster.

 

The table below summarizes the State values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric equivalents:

State Value
Ok 0
Attention 1
Down 2
Invalid 3

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned States while indicating the current status of the cluster. However, in the graph of this measure, states will be represented using their corresponding numeric equivalents only.

Number of nodes

Indicates the number of nodes in the cluster.

Number

The detailed diagnosis of this measure provides the name of the storage cluster, the number of nodes that are online and the number of nodes in the offline mode.