eG Monitoring
 

Measures reported by UnityCIFSTest

EMC VNX uses Common Internet File System (CIFS) protocol as an open standard for network file service. CIFS is a file access protocol designed for the Internet and is based on the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol that the Microsoft Windows operating system uses for distributed file sharing. The CIFS protocol lets remote users access file systems over the network. You can configure the CIFS protocol on a storage processor to enable that data mover to allow remote users to access the file systems that it contains via CIFS. By continuously monitoring the CIFS operations on every storage processor, you can easily identify that data mover on which CIFS is most ineffective/problematic. This is where, the UnityCIFSTest test helps. This test monitors the CIFS reads and writes performed on each storage processor in the target storage system and reports the following:

  • How well the I/O operations were performed using the CIFS protocol, and whether any delays were noticed;

  • The bandwidth consumption when CIFS reads and writes are performed on the storage processor

These statistics will not only enable administrators to promptly detect current or probable latencies in I/O operations when using CIFS, but will also help them figure out which I/O activity was most latent - i.e., whether reading or writing - and on which storage processor.

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each Storage Processor of the target storage system being monitored.

The measures made by this test are as follows:

Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation
readBandwidth Indicates the maximum amount of data read through CIFS protocol from this storage processor per second. MB/sec The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the time, name of the storage processor and the read bandwidth corresponding to that time.
avgReadBandwidth Indicates the average amount of data read through CIFS protocol from this storage processor per second. MB/sec Compare the value of this measure across the storage processors to figure out the storage processor on which maximum bandwidth is consumed for reading the data.
writeBandwidth Indicates the maximum amount of data written using CIFS protocol to this storage processor per second. MB/sec The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the time, name of the storage processor and the write bandwidth corresponding to that time.
avgWriteBandwidth Indicates the average amount of data written using CIFS protocol to this storage processor per second. MB/sec Compare the value of this measure across the storage processors to figure out the storage processor on which maximum bandwidth is consumed for writing the data.
readIOPS Indicates the maximum number of read operations performed using CIFS protocol on this storage processor per second. IOPS The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the time, the name of the storage processor and the read IOPS corresponding to that time.
avgReadIOPS Indicates the average number of read operations performed using CIFS protocol on this storage processor per second. IOPS Compare the value of this measure across the storage processors to figure out the storage processor that is performing the maximum read operations.
writeIOPS Indicates the maximum number of write operations performed using CIFS protocol on this storage processor per second. IOPS The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the time, name of the storage processor and the write IOPS corresponding to that time.
avgWriteIOPS Indicates the average number of write operations performed using CIFS protocol on this storage processor per second. IOPS Compare the value of this measure across the storage processors to figure out the storage processor that is performing the maximum write operations.
totalIOPS Indicates the total number of I/O operations performed using CIFS protocol on this storage processor per second. IOPS The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the time, name of the storage processor and the total IOPS corresponding to that time.
avgTotalIOPS Indicates the average number of I/O operations performed using CIFS protocol on this storage processor per second. IOPS Compare the value of this measure across the storage processors to figure out the storage processor that is performing the maximum I/O operations.