Agents Administration - Tests
 

Configuration of XenToolStatusTest

This test tracks the number and size of the snapshot file for a VM.

The default parameters associated with this test are as follows:

  • The TEST PERIOD list box helps the user to decide how often this test needs to be executed.

  • In the HOST text box, the host name of the server for which the test is to be configured has to be specified.

  • Specify the PORT at which the HOST listens. By default, this is NULL.

  • To enable the eG agent to connect to the XenServer API for collecting statistics of interest, this test should login to the XenServer as a root user. Provide the name of the root user in the XEN USER text box. Root user privileges are mandatory when monitoring a XenServer 5.5 (or lesser). However, if you are monitoring XenServer 5.6 (or above) and you prefer not to expose the credentials of the root user, then, you have the option of configuring a user with pool-admin privileges as the XEN USER.

  • The password of the specified XEN USER needs to be mentioned in the XEN PASSWORD text box.

  • Confirm the password by retyping it in the CONFIRM PASSWORD text box.

  • By default, the Xen Server is not SSL-enabled. This indicates that by default, the eG agent communicates with the XenServer using HTTP. Accordingly, the SSL flag is set to No by default. If you configure the XenServer to use SSL, then make sure that the SSL flag is set to Yes, so that the eG agent communicates with the XenServer using HTTPS. Note that a default SSL certificate comes bundled with every XenServer installation. If you want the eG agent to use this default certificate for communicating with an SSL-enabled XenServer, then no additional configuration is required. However, if you do not want to use the default certificate, then you can generate a self-signed certificate for use by the XenServer. In such a case, you need to explicitly follow the broad steps given below to enable the eG agent to communicate with the XenServer via HTTPS:

    • Obtain the server-certificate for the XenServer
    • Import the server-certificate into the local certificate store of the eG agent

    For an elaborate discussion on each of the above-mentioned steps, refer to the Troubleshooting section in the Monitoring Xen Servers document.

  • By default, in most virtualized environments, the XenServer listens on port 80 (if not SSL-enabled) or on port 443 (if SSL-enabled). This implies that while monitoring an SSL-enabled XenServer, the eG agent, by default, connects to port 443 of the server to pull out metrics, and while monitoring a non-SSL-enabled XenServer, the eG agent connects to port 80. Accordingly, the WEBPORT parameter is set to 80 or 443 depending upon the status of the SSL flag. In some environments however, the default ports 80 or 443 might not apply. In such a case, against the WEBPORT parameter, you can specify the exact port at which the XenServer in your environment listens so that the eG agent communicates with that port.
  • By default, the detailed diagnosis of the Number of snapshots measure provides details of all the snapshots on a VM. Likewise, the detailed diagnosis of the Large snapshot count and Aged snapshot count measures provides the details of all large-sized snapshots and old snapshots, respectively. This is why, the SHOW TOP parameter is set to All by default. To make sure that the detailed diagnosis of the each of these measures lists, for instance, only the top-5 snapshots in terms of size/age (as the case may be), then, specify 5 against SHOW TOP. If this is done, then:

    • The detailed diagnosis of the Number of snapshots and Aged snapshot count measures will provide the details of only the top-5 snapshots in terms of age.
    • The detailed diagnosis of the Large snapshot count measure will provide the details of only the top-5 snapshots in terms of size.
    In the same way, you can specify any non-zero value against SHOW TOP to view only that many top snapshots in the detailed diagnosis.

  • Administrators of some virtualized environments may not want to monitor some of their less-critical VMs - for instance, VM templates - both from ‘outside’ and from ‘inside’. The eG agent in this case can be configured to completely exclude such VMs from its monitoring purview. To achieve this, provide a comma-separated list of VMs to be excluded from monitoring in the EXCLUDE VMS text box. Instead of VMs, VM name patterns can also be provided here in a comma-separated list. For example, your EXCLUDE VMS specification can be: *xp,*lin*,win*,vista. Here, the * (asterisk) is used to denote leading and trailing spaces (as the case may be). By default, this parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent obtains the inside and outside views of all VMs on a virtual host by default. By providing a comma-separated list of VMs/VM name patterns in the EXCLUDE VMS text box, you can make sure the eG agent stops collecting ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ view metrics for a configured set of VMs.

  • DD FREQUENCY refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. For instance, if you set to 1:1, it means that detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem.

  • To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise suite embeds an optional DETAILED DIAGNOSIS 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.

  • Once the necessary values have been provided, clicking on the Update button will register the changes made.

When changing the configuration for specific servers, a "*" beside the text box corresponding to the parameter signifies that these values have to be manually configured by the user. The parameter values that require to be configured will typically be prefixed with a "$" or contain a series of "*". A value of "none" in the parameter value indicates that the corresponding parameter value can be changed if required.