v7000 CPU Usage Test

A Node canister is a hardware unit that includes the node hardware, fabric and service interfaces, and serial-attached SCSI (SAS) expansion ports. Each control enclosure of the IBM Storwize v7000 system consists of two node canisters. In a clustered system therefore, where a collection of control enclosures are managed as a single system, multiple node canisters are bound to exist. At the heart of each node canister is an Intel Jasper Forrest (Sandy Bridge) based quad core CPU. Optimal usage of this CPU is key to reducing latencies in I/O processing. In other words, if a node canister utilizes its processing power excessively, it could cause I/O processing delays, which in turn can scar the user experience with the storage system. This is why, administrators should keep an eye on the CPU usage of each canister, so that abnormal usage patterns can be detected proactively and treated, before end-users complain. This is where the v7000 CPU Usage test helps. This test monitors the CPU usage of each node canister of the IBM Storwize v7000 storage system and reports how long every node canister used its CPU. In the process, the test points to those canisters that are over-utilizing their processing power.

Target of the test : An IBM Storwize v7000 storage system

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every node canister 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.
Port	The port number at which the specified host listens to. By default, this is NULL.
Timeout	Specify the duration (in seconds) beyond which the test will timeout in the Timeout text box. The default value is 60 seconds.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
CPU busy	Indicates the time for which the CPU of this node canister was busy.	Millisec	A high value for this measure indicates that the CPU is busy for a longer time and the processor is working overtime to complete the job.
CPU busy Percentage	Indicates the percentage of time the CPU of this node canister was busy.	Percent	A value close to 100 indicates a processing bottleneck.