VCD Task Execution Jobs Test

vCloud Director tasks represent long-running operations on a vCloud Director cell. Such tasks should be monitored continuously and their status tracked, so that administrators are promptly informed of task failures and are enabled to investigate and fix the reasons for the same. The VCD Task Execution Jobs test helps administrators in this exercise. This test periodically checks the vcloud Director cell for long running tasks, and for each task it auto-discovers, it promptly reports the count of failed instances of that task. This way, the test helps administrators identify tasks that fail frequently. In addition, the test also reveals the total time for which task has been running, thereby pinpointing the tasks that have been running for the longest time.

Target of the test : A vCloud Director Cell

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each long-running task on the vCloud Director Cell being 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 being configured.
Port	Specify the port at which the specified host listens in the Port text box. By default, this is NULL.
JMX Remote Port	Here, specify the port at which the JMX listens for requests from remote hosts. Ensure that you specify the same port that you configured in the vmware-vcd-cell file in the /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/binfolder of the vCloud Director.
JNDIName	The JNDIName is a lookup name for connecting to the JMX connector. By default, this is jmxrmi. If you have registered the JMX connector in the RMI registry using a different lookup name, then you can change this default value to reflect the same.
User, Password, and Confirm Password	By default, JMX requires no authentication or security (SSL). This is why, by default, the User and Password parameters are set to none. If JMX requires authentication only (but no security), then ensure that the User and Password parameters are configured with the credentials of a user with read-write access to JMX. To know how to create this user, refer to Pre-requisites for Monitoring vCloud Director. Confirm the password by retyping it in the Confirm Password text box.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Total invocations	Indicates the total number of times this task was invoked.	Number	Compare the value of this measure to identify the tasks that are run frequently.
Current invocations	Indicates the number of instances of this task that are currently active.	Number
Failed executions	Indicates the number of times this task failed.	Number	A low value is desired for this measure.
Execution time	Indicates the total time for which this task executed.	Number	Compare the value of this measure across tasks to know which task has been executing for the longest time. A long-running task could also indicate that the task is experiencing some bottlenecks in execution, causing it to operate for long time periods. A high value for this measure for any task would warrant an investigation.