System Performance Test

This test monitors the NetApp Cluster's support environment - which includes its hardware, the fans, the power supply units, and the battery - and promptly alerts you to current/potential issues in the health of this environment. These issues can range from abnormal hardware temperature to batteries fast-approaching their end-of-life and more!

Target of the test : A NetApp Cluster

Agent deploying the test : An external/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the NetApp Cluster 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.

SNMPPort

The port at which the monitored target exposes its SNMP MIB; the default 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 storage. 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

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 this 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
  • AES – Advanced Encryption Standard

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.

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

CPU busy

Indicates the percentage of time for which the CPU time was busy performing system-level processing during the last measurement period.

Percent

A high value indicates that the storage system is utilizing CPU resources excessively. A consistent increase in this value could indicate a potential CPU contention on the storage system.

Is over Temperature?

Indicates whether/not the hardware is currently operating outside its recommended temperature range.

 

This measure reports a value Yes if the hardware temperature is operating outside the recommended temperature range and No if otherwise.

The numeric values corresponding to the above-mentioned measure values are as follows:

Measure Value Numeric Value
No 1
Yes 2

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating whether the hardware is operating within the recommended temperature range or not. However, the graph of this measure will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents i.e., 1 or 2 only.

Failed fan count

Indicates the number of fans that failed in the NetApp Cluster.

Number

The detailed diagnosis capability, if enabled for this test, will list the fans that failed and the reason for their failure. 

Failed power supply count

Indicates the number of power supply units that failed in the NetApp Cluster.

Number

The detailed diagnosis capability, if enabled for this test, will list the power supply units that have failed and the reason for their failure.

Battery state

Indicates the current status of the NVRAM battery.

 

The values reported by this measure and their numeric equivalents are available in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Ok 1
Partially discharged 2
Fully discharged 3
Not present 4
Near end of life 5
At end of life 6
Unknown 7
Over charged 8
Fully charged 9

Note:

This measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the current battery status. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using only the Numeric Values listed in the above table.