Disk Space Test

This test monitors the space usage of every disk partition on a host. While this test typically reports the space usage of every physical disk partition on a host, when monitoring hosts running Microsoft Windows hosts however, this test reports usage metrics of physical and logical partitions.

Target of the test : Any host system

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each physical/logical disk partition and/or NFS drive on the host monitored

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed.

Host

The host for which the test is to be configured.

Discover NFS

Set this flag to Yes, if you want the test to automatically discover NFS drives on your system and report their status as well. By default, this flag is set to No.

Exclude

Against this parameter, you can provide a comma-separated list of disk partitions that you want to exclude from monitoring. For example, on Unix systems, you can use this parameter to exclude temporary partitions that the Unix system itself creates from monitoring.

Domain, Domain user, and Domain password

These parameters are applicable to Windows systems only. When monitoring a Windows system, if the DISCOVER NFS flag of this test is set to Yes, then the test should be configured with the privileges of a valid domain user in order to auto-discover NFS drives and report their usage and status. In such a case therefore, specify a valid Windows domain name against DOMAIN , provide the name of a valid user in that domain against DOMAIN USER, and specify the password of that user against PASSWORD. Once the domain user credentials are provided, the test auto-discovers all those NFS drives on the target Windows system to which the configured domain user has access.

Confirm password

Retype the PASSWORD of the configured domain user here.

Timeout

Specify the maximum duration (in seconds) for which the test will wait for a response from the server. The default timeout period is 30 seconds.

Use sudo

This parameter applies only to Linux and Solaris systems. By default, the USE SUDO parameter is set to No. This indicates that, by default, this test will report metrics by executing the df -Pk –l command on the Solaris host. However, in some highly secure environments, the eG agent install user may not have the permissions to execute this command directly. In such cases, do the following:

  • Edit the sudoers file on the target host and append an entry of the following format to it:

    <eG_agent_install_user> ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:<Command>

    For instance, if the eG agent install user is eguser, then the entry in the sudoers file should be:

    eguser ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: df –Pk -l

    • Finally, save the file.

    Then, when configuring the test using the eG admin interface, set the use sudo parameter to Yes. This will enable the eG agent to execute the sudo df –Pk –l command and retrieve the desired metrics.

Sudo path

This parameter is relevant only when the use sudo parameter is set to ‘Yes’. By default, the sudo path is set to none. This implies that the sudo command is in its default location – i.e., in the  /usr/bin or /usr/sbin folder of the target Solaris host. In this case, the eG agent automatically runs the metastat command with sudo from its default location, once the use sudo flag is set to Yes. However, if the sudo command is available in a different location in your environment, you will have to explicitly specify the full path to the sudo command in the sudo path text box to enable the eG agent to run the sudo command. 

High Security

This flag is applicable only when the target Linux host is monitored in the agentless manner. In highly secure environments, eG Enterprise could not perform agentless monitoring on a Linux host using SSH. To enable monitoring of the Linux hosts in such environments, set the HIGH SECURITY flag to Yes. It indicates that eG Enterprise will connect to the target Linux host in a more secure way and collect performance metrics. By default, this flag 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

Total capacity:

Indicates the total capacity of a disk partition.

MB

 

Used space:

Indicates the amount of space used in a disk partition.

MB

 

Free space:

Indicates the current free space available for each disk partition of a system.

MB

 

Percent usage:

Indicates the percentage of space usage on each disk partition of a system.

Percent

A value close to 100% can indicate a potential problem situation where applications executing on the system may not be able to write data to the disk partition(s) with very high usage.

Drive availability:

Indicates whether/not this drive is available currently.

Percent

If the drive is available, then this measure will report the value 100. If not, then this measure will report the value 0.

This measure gains significance when monitoring NFS drives, as it enables you to identify those drives that are no longer mapped to the system. 

Clean up automation status

Indicates the current status of cleanup automation.

This measure will appear only if the Automation parameter is set to Yes.

 

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

Measure Value Numeric Value
Not required 1
Started 2
Running 3
Completed 4
Not enabled 5
Failed 6

Note:

By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the current status of cleanup automation. The graph of this measure however, represents the status of a port using the numeric equivalents only.

The detailed diagnosis of this measure reveals the following:

  • the current status of clean up process,

  • the list of files that were deleted recently

  • the list of files that were not deleted during the recent clean up process

  • the amount of disk space recovered after the clean up process, etc.