NetApp Environment Test

This test monitors the NetApp storage system's support environment - which includes its hardware, the fans, the power supply units, the battery, and the buffer cache - 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 to power rail failures and more!

Target of the test : A NetApp Unified Storage

Agent deploying the test : An external/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the NetApp storage system 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.

Port

The port at which the specified host listens. By default, this will be NULL.

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
  • 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 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.

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 DD frequency.

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

Temperature status

Indicates whether/not the hardware temperature is normal.

 

This measure reports the value Normal if the hardware is operating at a normal temperature and the value High if the hardware is operating at a temperature higher than the normal.

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

Measure Value Numeric Value
Normal 1
High 2

Note:

This measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the current hardware temperature. However, in the graph of this measure, the temperature is indicated using only the Numeric Values listed in the above table.

Failed fans

Indicates the number of main unit backplane fans that failed during the last measurement period.

Number

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

Failed power supplies

Indicates the number of power supplies and the power rails that failed during the last measurement period.

Number

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

Battery status

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 EndOfLife 5
At EndOfLife 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.

Cache age

Indicates the age of the oldest read only block in the buffer cache.

Hours

The value of this measure indicates how fast the read operations are cycling through the system memory. When the appliance is reading very large files (i.e., the files that are larger than the machine's memory size), buffer cache age will be very low.