Hardware-Drive Test

This test monitors the overall health of logical and physical drives of a disk array.

Target of the test : A server with IBM Director, Dell OpenManage or HP/Compaq Insight agent

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of records for every logical/physical drive on the monitored system.

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. Ensure that the host is SNMP-enabled.

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.

Engine ID

This parameter ENGINE ID 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

Condition

Represents the condition of a logical or physical drive.

Number

For a logical drive, this value represents the overall condition of the logical drive and any associated physical drives. For a physical drive, this value represents its overall condition. A value of 1 indicates normalcy. A value of 2 indicates a degraded condition, while a value of 3 indicates a critical condition.

Status

This value indicates the status of a physical or logical drive.

 

The following values are valid for the physical drive status:

Value

Description

Explanation

1 Other

Indicates that the instrument agent does not recognize the drive. You may need to upgrade your instrument agent and/or driver software.

2 ok

Indicates the drive is functioning properly.

3 failed

Indicates that the drive is no longer operating and should be replaced

4 predictiveFailure

Indicates that the drive has a predictive failure error and should be replaced.

For a logical drive, the following values are valid:

Value Description Explanation
2 OK

Indicates that the logical drive is in normal operation mode.

3 Failed

Indicates that more physical drives have failed than the fault tolerance mode of the logical drive can handle without data loss.

4 Unconfigured

Indicates that the logical drive is not configured.

5 Recovering

Indicates that the logical drive is using Interim Recovery Mode. In Interim Recovery Mode, at least one physical drive has failed, but the logical drive's fault tolerance mode lets the drive continue to operate with no data loss.

6 Ready Rebuild

Indicates that the logical drive is ready for Automatic Data Recovery. The physical drive that failed has been replaced, but the logical drive is still operating in Interim Recovery Mode.

7 Rebuilding

Indicates that the logical drive is currently doing Automatic Data Recovery. During Automatic Data Recovery, fault tolerance algorithms restore data to the replacement drive.

8 Wrong Drive

Indicates that the wrong physical drive was replaced after a physical drive failure.

9 Bad Connect

Indicates that a physical drive is not responding.

10 Overheating

Indicates that the drive array enclosure that contains the logical drive is overheating. The drive array is still functioning, but should be shutdown.

11 Shutdown

Indicates that the drive array enclosure that contains the logical drive has overheated. The logical drive is no longer functioning.

12 Expanding

Indicates that the logical drive is currently doing Automatic Data Expansion. During Automatic Data Expansion, fault tolerance algorithms redistribute logical drive data to the newly added physical drive.

13 Not Available

Indicates that the logical drive is currently unavailable. If a logical drive is expanding and the new configuration frees additional disk space, this free space can be configured into another logical volume. If this is done, the new volume will be set to not available.

14 Queued For Expansion

Indicates that the logical drive is ready for Automatic Data Expansion. The logical drive is in the queue for expansion.