Battery State - OS Test

A battery keeps a system running when it is not connected to an external power supply, enabling portability and ensuring continuous productivity. A defective battery or a battery that is discharging rapidly or is left with no charge can render the system unusable, denying users access to critical data and affecting productivity. To prevent such eventualities, the health and availability of the battery used by the system should be periodically checked, and failures and potential bottlenecks promptly brought to the attention of administrators. This can be achieved using the Battery State - OS test.

This test reports the current state and availability of each battery used by the system, proactively alerts administrators to potential abnormalities related to battery performance, and enables administrators to initiate pre-emptive action to avoid total battery failure. In addition, this test reveals the rate at which each battery is being charged and discharged. These metrics enable administrators to quickly determine impermissible charging/discharing patterns of each battery and take necessary steps to prevent the problem conditions. This test helps administrators to promptly detect failures and degradation of the battery, allowing them to repair/replace defective batteries well before users experience any impact on the system.

Note:

This test is applicable only when the monitored Linux system is a laptop.

Target of the test : A Linux Systems Group

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Output of the test : One set of results will be reported for each battery on Linux system in the target group

Configurable parameters for the test:
Parameter Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed. By default, this is set to 5 mins.

Host

The nick name of the Linux Systems Group component for which this test is to be configured.

Port

The port at which the specified Host listens. By default, this is NULL.

Inside View Using

To obtain the 'inside view' of performance of the systems - i.e., to measure the internal performance of the systems - this test uses a light-weight eG VM Agent software deployed on each of the systems. Accordingly, this parameter is by default set to eG VM Agent.

Report By User

This flag is set to No by default. This implies that the Linux systems in environments will always be identified using the system name. In other words, this test will, by default, report measures for every systemname. On the other hand, if you want this test to report the measures for every user on a system, then set this flag to Yes. In such a case, this test will report the measures for every username_on_systemname.

Report Powered OS

By default, this flag is set to Yes, then the 'inside view' tests will report measures for even those Linux systems that do not have any users logged in currently. The systems will be identified by their name and not by the username_on_systemname. On the other hand, if this flag is set to No, then this test will not report measures for those systems to which no users are logged in currently.

Is Cloud VMs?

This flag is set to Yes by default. The value of this flag cannot be changed. This implies that the cloud-based Linux systems in environments will always be identified using the login name of the user. In other words, in cloud environments, this test will, by default, report measures for every username_on_systemname.

DD Frequency

Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against the DD Frequency parameter.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, 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 this battery of this system.

 

The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalent are mentioned in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Error 0
Degraded 1
Pred fail 3
Starting 4
Stopping 5
Service 6
Stressed 7
Non recover 8
No contact 9
Lost comm 10
Unknown 11
Ok 12

Note:

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

Availability

Indicates the availability of this battery in this system.

 

The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalent are mentioned in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Other 1
Unknown 2
Running full power 3
Warning 4
In Test 5
Not applicable 6
Power off 7
Off line 8
Off duty 9
Degraded 10
Not installed 11
Install error 12
Power save unknown 13
Power save low power mode 14
Power save standby 15
Power cycle 16
Power save warning 17
Paused 18
Not ready 19
Not configured 20
Quiesced 21

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating the availability of this battery. However, in the graph of this measure, states will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only - i.e., 1 to 21.

Battery status

Indicates the current charging mode of this battery.

 

The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalent are mentioned in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Battery power 1
AC power 2
Fully charged 3
Low 4
Critical 5
Charging 6
Charging and high 7
Charging and low 8
Charging and critical 9
Undefined 10
Partially charged 11

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating the mode of this battery. However, in the graph of this measure, states will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only - i.e., 1 to 11.

Design voltage

Indicates the average (nominal) voltage that this battery is rated for during normal operation.

Volts

 

Estimated charge remaining

Indicates the percentage of total charge capacity that is currently remaining in this battery relative to its full charge capacity.

Percent

The value of this measure offers users with an estimate of how long the system can continue operating before requiring a recharge.

Ideally, a high value is preferred for this measure.

Estimated runtime

Indicates the amount of time this system can continue operating before this battery is completely discharged.

Minutes

The value of this measure helps users to efficiently plan their activities before the battery drains completely and optimize device performance for extended operation by enabling power saving mode.

Charge rate

Indicates the rate at which this battery is charged.

Watts

The value of this measure is typically calculated by multiplying the voltage (volts, V) by the current (amperes, A) that the charger supplies to the battery.

The value of this measure should be in the permissible range. If the value exceeds the permissible range, it will lead to overheating, swelling, or damage.

Discharge rate

Indicates the rate at which this battery releases its charge while supplying power to this system.

Watts

The value of this measure should be in a permissible range.

Percent of battery drained per min

Indicates the percentage of this battery that had drained per minute.

Percent

This measure denotes the rate at which battery level decreases over time under certain conditions like usage patterns, applications running, screen brightness, etc. Administrators must plan to optimize battery usage and performance.