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Performance Monitoring

Dell OpenManage™ IT Assistant Version 8.0 User's Guide

Performance Monitoring helps you monitor the performance of a group of devices with supported Microsoft® Windows® or Linux operating systems over a specified period of time. Performance is monitored with the help of a set of performance counters available for each component. You can select and monitor these performance counters. You can configure thresholds for each performance counter and also configure alerts to be sent when the thresholds are crossed.

Using the Performance Monitoring feature, you can view the performance of individual devices rolled up on the Device tree. The overall performance of a device is calculated as the worst case status of the individual performance counter attributes monitored for the device. For example, if the status for the CPU Utilization counter is critical and the status of the memory paging counter is warning, the overall performance status of the devices is displayed as critical. From the Device tree, you can drill down to the performance counters and take appropriate actions.

To view details of how each performance counter is performing on a Dell™ PowerEdge™ system, do the following:

1. From the Device tree, expand the Server category
   
   
2. Select the PowerEdge system you want information on.
   
   
3. On the right hand side pane, select the Performance tab.
   
   

This tab displays the performance counter information for the selected system.

From this view, you can create multiple tasks to monitor multiple devices and manage these tasks, view results, and logs of these tasks.

NOTE: Performance monitoring enables you to monitor the usage of your systems as against monitoring the health of the systems.

Performance Monitoring in Tom's Enterprise-Size Business

Tom wants to use this feature to monitor how the PowerEdge x9xx systems on his network are being used.

His main considerations for using this feature are:

• Are the systems on my network under- or over-utilized?
  
  
• Do I need to move my hardware (for example, CPU) or applications to another system?
  
  
• How are my systems performing during peak and non-peak hours?
  
  
• Would I need to balance the load among my systems?
  
  

To be able to answer these questions, Tom would need to perform the following:

• Create a performance monitoring task
  
  
• Monitor the systems over a period of time
  
  
• View the data on the IT Assistant console
  
  
• Export the data into comma-separated values and save it for later use
  
  

Creating a Performance Monitoring Task

To create a performance monitoring task, Tom performs the following steps:

1. Tom selects Manage→ Performance Monitoring from the menu bar.
   
   
2. Tom right-clicks Performance Monitoring Task and selects New Task....
   
   

The New Task Wizard appears.

3. Tom enters a descriptive name for the task. For example, All x9xx systems.
   
   

Tom clicks Next.

4. Under Select Schedule, Tom selects a start date and an optional end date to measure the performance attribute. He selects a 24-hour schedule to monitor his systems during peak and non-peak hours.
   
   

Tom also adjusts the sampling interval based on how often he wants to sample his systems.

NOTE: Tom should take the network capacity into consideration. A bigger sampling interval would not give an accurate picture and a smaller interval may load the network and the monitored systems.

5. Under Select Attributes, Tom selects the CPU and Memory attributes and sets their warning and critical threshold values. For example, he sets the warning threshold for:
   
   
   • %Kernel Utilization Time as > 70% for 10 samples
     
     
   • %Processor Utilization Time as > 70% for 10 samples
     
     

And the critical threshold for:

• %Kernel Utilization Time as > 90% for 15 samples
  
  
• %Processor Utilization Time as > 90% for 15 samples
  
  

Tom can select Send Warning Alert or Send Critical Alert to receive warning or critical alerts.

NOTE: If Tom sets a smaller sampling interval but selects a large number of counters, and devices, he may see a warning message indicating excess resource utilization. Tom should set a higher sampling interval or decrease the number of counters and devices to avoid this situation.

6. Under Device Selection, Tom selects the groups having his x9xx systems from the tree or provides a query.
   
   
7. Under Enter Credentials, Tom enters the operating system User ID and Password, which is valid for all selected devices.
   
   
8. Tom reviews his selection in the Summary screen and clicks Finish.
   
   

The All x9xx systems task appears on the tree under the Performance Monitoring Tasks parent node.

Monitoring the Usage of the Systems on the Network

To monitor the usage of all PowerEdge x9xx systems on the network, Tom performs the following steps:

1. Tom clicks the All x9xx systems task under the Performance Monitoring Tasks parent node.
   
   
2. The summary of the task is displayed under the Summary tab on the right hand side of the screen.
   
   
3. To view the monitoring in greater detail, Tom selects the Execution Results tab.
   
   

This tab displays the counters Tom chose in step 5 of the "Creating a Performance Monitoring Task."

The counters keep a count of how a system is utilized.

Tom can sort on the counters to view how a particular component, for example, the %Kernel Utilization Time for each system is being utilized.

If the counters have been appropriately set, the counter colors would fairly indicate how well that systems are being utilized. Hover the mouse over the counter to get an indication of how the system component is performing.

For example,

If the counter is green for most of the time, it could indicate that the counter is well within the specified limits and could indicate that the system component is under- or partially-utilized

If the counter is red for a small amount of time, it could indicate that the system component is partially-utilized

If the counter is red for most samples, it could indicate that the system component is over-utilized.

See Table 7-1 for a sample of how systems on Tom's network may be utilized.

Table 7-1. Sample of Tom's network utilization

If %CPU Utilization Time is red for most of the samples collected (highly used), it could mean that some application is over-utilizing the CPU. Tom could consider moving this application to a system for which the %CPU Utilization Time is green for most samples. In this case, from System 1 to System 2. Tom could also move a memory module from System 1 to System 2 to balance the load, or he could consider upgrading the hardware or purchasing new memory modules.

If Tom monitors his systems over the weekend, and finds out the network and CPU utilization counters are green (within the specified range) for 70% of the samples, yellow (non-critical) for 20% of the samples, and red (critical) for 10% of the samples collected, it could mean that the network and CPU utilization counters could be red for most samples during the weekdays. The systems will be overloaded, and Tom could decide to add more systems to his network or decide on some other form of load-balancing.

Figure 7-1. Sample Performance Monitoring Screen

4. In the Execution Results tab, Tom can right-click a counter and do one of the following:
   
   
   • Select Export. This will export the details into a comma-separated values (CSV) file. Tom can then use other tools like Microsoft® Excel to generate better reports.
     
     
   • Click View Chart to view the graphical representation of the performance information of the device. Tom can give a time range and view the system usage graphically.
     
     

NOTE: Tom can also view the charts and export them from the Summary tab, in the lower pane.

• Click Delete Execution Results.
  
  
• Right-click a column header and select Customize View. This view customizes the view for the devices.
  
  
• In the Execution Log tab, Tom can view the execution summary information for each run of the task. He can also use the time selection fields to select the From time he wants to view the logs.
  
  

NOTE: The execution log entries will be purged if the execution log entries are older than 14 days.

6. In the Performance tab on the Device tree, Tom can view the performance counter information for the selected device.
   
   

Suggested Threshold Configuration for Performance Monitoring

Table 7-2 shows the sample threshold settings for each performance counter.

Table 7-2. Sample Threshold Settings for Performance Counters

Resource Usage by SQL Server and IT Assistant

Table 7-3 shows the recommended hardware configuration required for performance monitoring.

Table 7-3. Recommended Hardware Configuration for IT Assistant for Performance Monitoring 

NOTE: The hardware configuration listed in this table refer to the minimum supported configuration. For the most recent update on these requirements, see the IT Assistant readme on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com.

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