HP P2000 Disks Test

Processing bottlenecks in disks can significantly delay reading from and/or writing to the disks, affecting user experience with the storage system as a whole. If this is to be prevented, administrators need to keep a close watch on the I/O activity on each disk of the storage system, detect a slowdown well before users notice it, and take pre-emptive action. The HP P2000 Disks test can help administrators achieve this. This test monitors the level of I/O activity on each physical disk mounted on a HP P2000 SAN storage system, helps isolate overload conditions or processing latencies in the disks.

Target of the test : A HP P2000 SAN storage system

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each physical disk of the HP P2000 SAN storage system being monitored.

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. In case of a dual-controller configuration, the IP address of the primary controller will be displayed here.
Port	The port number at which the specified host listens. By default, this is NULL.
Additional Controller IP	By default, this test always connects to the Host to collect metrics. If the Host is unavailable, then the test will not be able to execute. This is because, the Additional Controller IP is set to none by default. If the monitored storage device has two controllers, then you can configure the test to connect to an alternate controller, if the host is unreachable. For this purpose, specify the IP address of the alternate controller in the Additional Controller IP text box.
User and Password	In order to monitor a HP P2000 SAN storage system, the eG agent has to be configured with the credentials of a user who has been assigned the Monitor role. Specify the login credentials of such a user in the User and Password text boxes. To know how to create such a user, refer to Pre-requisites for monitoring the HP P2000 SAN storage system.
Confirm Password	Confirm the password by retyping it here.
ServicePort	The Management Controller of the HP P2000 storage system provides access for monitoring and management via the HTTP and HTTPS protocols for XML API request/response semantics. To enable the eG agent to access the management controller, invoke the XML API commands, and collect the required metrics, you need to specify the service port on the controller that listens for HTTP/HTTPS requests for XML API semantics. By default, this is port 80.
Timeout	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.
SSL	By default, HP P2000 SAN system is not SSL-enabled. This is why, this flag is set to False by default. If it is SSL-enabled, then change this flag to True.
Authentication Type	By default, MD5 is chosen from this list indicating that the eG agent uses MD5 authentication algorithm to monitor the target HP P2000 SAN Storage system. However, if you wish to monitor HP MSA 2060 FC Storage system using the HP P2000 SAN monitoring model offered by eG Enterprise, then, choose SHA256 from this list. This indicates that the eG agent uses SHA256 authentication algorithm to collect metrics from the HP MSA 2060 FC Storage system.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Data transmitted	Indicates the rate at which data is transmitted through this disk during the last measurement period.	MB/Sec	This is a good indicator of the load on the disk. You can compare the value of this measure across disks to figure out whether the load has been distributed uniformly across all disks or a few disks are overloaded. In case of the latter, you may have to fine-tune the load-balancing algorithm used.
IOPS	Indicates the rate at which the I/O operations were performed through this disk during the last measurement period.	IOPS	This measure serves as a good indicator of the I/O processing ability of the disk. A consistent drop in this value is hence a cause for concern, as it indicates a processing slowdown.
Reads	Indicates the rate at which the read operations were performed on this disk during the last measurement period.	Reads/Sec	Ideally, the value of this measure should be high. A steady dip in this measure value could indicate a potential reading bottleneck. By comparing the value of this measure across disks, you can quickly identify that disk which is the slowest in processing read requests.
Writes	Indicates the rate at which the write operations were performed on this disk during the last measurement period.	Writes/Sec	Ideally, the value of this measure should be high. A steady dip in this measure value could indicate a potential writing bottleneck. By comparing the value of this measure across disks, you can quickly identify that disk which is the slowest in processing write requests.
Data reads	Indicates the rate at which the data was read from this disk during the last measurement period.	MB/Sec	Comparing the value of these measures across the disks will clearly indicate which disk is the busiest in terms of data transmission - it could also shed light on irregularities in load balancing across the disks.
Data writes	Indicates the rate at which the data was written from this disk during the last measurement period.	MB/Sec
Queue depth	Indicates the number of pending I/O operations that are currently being serviced on this disk.	Number	A consistent rise in the value of this measure indicates a processing bottleneck at the disk that is causing I/O requests to queue up.