Ungrouped Disks Test

This test monitors the disks such as spare disks that do not belong to any RAID group in the NetApp Unified Storage system and reports the following:

  • The number of disks that are currently zeroing
  • The number of disks that are offline and the number of broken disks
  • How well media scrubbing has been completed in those disks?

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
Parameters Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed.

Host

The host for which the test is to be configured.

Port

Specify the port at which the specified host listens in the Port text box. By default, this is NULL.

User

Here, specify the name of the user who possesses the following privileges:

login-http-admin,api-aggr-check-spare-low,api-aggr-list-info,api-aggr-mediascrub-list-info,api-aggr-scrub-list-info,api-cifs-status,api-clone-list-status,api-disk-list-info,api-fcp-adapter-list-info,api-fcp-adapter-stats-list-info,api-fcp-service-status,api-file-get-file-info,api-file-read-file,api-iscsi-connection-list-info,api-iscsi-initiator-list-info,api-iscsi-service-status,api-iscsi-session-list-info,api-iscsi-stats-list-info,api-lun-config-check-alua-conflicts-info,api-lun-config-check-cfmode-info,api-lun-config-check-info,api-lun-config-check-single-image-info,api-lun-list-info,api-nfs-status,api-perf-object-get-instances-iter*,api-perf-object-instance-list-info,api-quota-report-iter*,api-snapshot-list-info,api-vfiler-list-info,api-volume-list-info-iter*.

If such a user does not pre-exist, then, you can create a special user for this purpose using the steps detailed in Creating a New User with the Privileges Required for Monitoring the NetApp Unified Storage.

Password

Specify the password that corresponds to the above-mentioned User.

Confirm Password

Confirm the Password by retyping it here.

Authentication Mechanism

In order to collect metrics from the NetApp Unified Storage system, the eG agent connects to the ONTAP management APIs over HTTP or HTTPS. By default, this connection is authenticated using the LOGIN_PASSWORD authentication mechanism. This is why, LOGIN_PASSWORD is displayed as the default authentication mechanism.

Use SSL

Set the Use SSL flag to Yes, if SSL (Secured Socket Layer) is to be used to connect to the NetApp Unified Storage System, and No if it is not.

API Port

By default, in most environments, NetApp Unified Storage system listens on port 80 (if not SSL-enabled) or on port 443 (if SSL-enabled) only. This implies that while monitoring the NetApp Unified Storage system, the eG agent, by default, connects to port 80 or 443, depending upon the SSL-enabled status of the NetApp Unified Storage system - i.e., if the NetApp Unified Storage system is not SSL-enabled (i.e., if the Use SSL flag above is set to No), then the eG agent connects to the NetApp Unified Storage system using port 80 by default, and if the NetApp Unified Storage system is SSL-enabled (i.e., if the Use SSL flag is set to Yes), then the agent-NetApp Unified Storage system communication occurs via port 443 by default. Accordingly, the API Port parameter is set to default by default.

In some environments however, the default ports 80 or 443 might not apply. In such a case, against the API Port parameter, you can specify the exact port at which the NetApp Unified Storage system in your environment listens, so that the eG agent communicates with that port for collecting metrics from the NetApp Unified Storage system.

Timeout

Specify the duration (in seconds) beyond which the test will timeout if no response is received from the device. The default is 120 seconds.

vFilerName

A vFiler is a virtual storage system you create using MultiStore, which enables you to partition the storage and network resources of a single storage system so that it appears as multiple storage systems on the network. If the NetApp Unified Storage system is partitioned to accommodate a set of vFilers, specify the name of the vFiler that you wish to monitor in the vFilerName text box. In some environments, the NetApp Unified Storage system may not be partitioned at all. In such a case, the NetApp Unified Storage system is monitored as a single vFiler and hence the default value of none is displayed in this text box.

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

Zeroing disks

Indicates the number of disks that are currently zeroing in this storage system.

Number

Disk zeroing is usually a time consuming background operation that is used to initialize the spare disks before they can be used.

Disk zeroing is the process of formatting the disk by filling zeroes i.e., overwriting the files with zeroes before being used.

Offline disks

Indicates the number of disks that are currently offline in this storage system.

Number

Unresponsive or semi-responsive disks are taken offline by the operating system and its data is reconstructed from the associated parity disks. This puts a strain on the performance of the associated RAID group. Irrecoverable offline disks will be failed.

Broken disks

Indicates the number of disks whose RAID status is Broken in this storage system.

Number

The disks may be broken due to disk failure, labeling issues or intentional setting to physical removal. Broken disks affect constituent raid group performance and put the system at risk of losing data if spares are unavailable.

Average media scrub percentage

Indicates the average percentage of media scrubbing that is currently completed across all spare disks in this storage system.

Percent

Media scrubbing is a continuous background process. The purpose of the continuous media scrub is to detect and correct media errors in order to minimize the chance of storage system disruption due to a media error while a storage system is in degraded or reconstruction mode.

By default, Data ONTAP runs continuous background media scrubbing for media errors on all storage system disks. If a media error is found, Data ONTAP uses RAID to reconstruct the data and repairs the error.

Due to media scrubbing process, the disk LEDs may blink on an apparently idle storage system and some CPU activity may occur even when no user workload is present.