Synology Volumes Test

A volume is the basic storage space on the Synology NAS storage system and is constructed on a storage pool. A volume is a logical subdivision in storage system. If a single volume in the storage system becomes unavailable/runs out of space, users may not be able to access the data stored in that volume and this may in turn rupture the user experience with the entire storage system. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor the status of the volumes round the clock! The Synology Volumes test helps you in this regard!

This test auto-discovers the volumes in the target storage system and for each volume, reports the current status. Using this test, administrators can proactively identify volumes that have crashed/degraded, initiate remedial measures before end-users start complaining.

Target of the test : Synology NAS storage system

Agent deploying the test : An external agent

Outputs of the test : One set of the results for each disk on the target Synology NAS storage system that is 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 firewall. 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.
EngineID	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.
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.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement

Description

Measurement Unit

Interpretation

Volume status

Indicates the current status of this volume.

The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are tabulated below:

Measure value	Numeric Value
Normal	1
Repairing	2
Migrating	3
Expanding	4
Deleting	5
Creating	6
Resyncing	7
Degraded	11
Crashed	12

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values listed in the table to indicate the current status of each volume. The graph of this measure however is represented using the numeric equivalents only.

Total space

Indicates the total space of this volume.

Used space

Indicates the amount of space that was already used in this volume.

A value close to the Total space measure indicates that the volume is running out of space.

Compare the value of this measure across volumes to identify the volume that is running out of space.

Free space

Indicates the amount of space available for use in this volume.

A high value is desired for this measure.

Volume usage

Indicates the percentage utilization of this volume.

Percentage

When the utilization of a volume approaches 100%, many applications could begin to experience failures. Therefore, ensure that adequate space is always available in the volume.