This test monitors the current state, overall health, and the I/O activity-levels of each disk in the EMC VNX Unified storage system. With the help of this test, administrators can not only identify failed disks, but also those that are error-prone and may fail any time, so that they can endeavor to avert the potential disk failure. In addition, the test also points administrators to disks that are busy processing I/O requests almost all the time. This way, the test sheds light on irregularities in the distribution of I/O load across disks, and prompts administrators to fine-tune the load-balancing algorithm, so as to prevent potential delays in data access. In addition, the test also proactively alerts administrators to probable space contentions in disks and excessive bandwidth consumption by disks, thereby enabling administrators to initiate pre-emptive actions.

The default parameters associated with this test are as follow:

• 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 component for which the test is to be configured has to be specified.

• Specify the IP address of the storage controller on the block-only storage system in the CONTROLLER IP text box. By default, the IP address of the HOST will be assigned in the CONTROLLER IP text box.

• The eG agent uses the command-line utility, NaviSecCli.exe, which is part of the NaviSphere Management Suite, to communicate with and monitor the block-only storage in the EMC VNX Unified storage system. To enable the eG agent to invoke this CLI, configure the full path to the CLI in the NAVISECCLIPATH text box.

• Provide the credentials of a user possessing SysAdmin role or the credentials of a user possessing operator role to access the storage controller in the USER NAME and PASSWORD text boxes.

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

• In the TIMEOUT text box, indicate the duration (in seconds) for which this test should wait for a response from the storage device. By default, this is set to 120 seconds. Note that the TIMEOUT duration should always range between 3 and 600 only.

• To use the NaviSphere CLI, the eG agent needs to be configured with a user scope. Scope defines the access radius of the user account (USER and PASSWORD) that you have configured for this test. Set USER SCOPE to Local if the user account you have configured for this test applies to the monitored storage system only. Set USER SCOPE to Global if the user account you have configured applies to all the storage systems within a domain.

• If you do not wish to monitor the disks that are disabled in the target environment, set the IGNORE DISABLED DISKS flag to Yes. By default, this flag is set to No.

• Specify a comma-separated list of disks that you wish to exclude from the scope of monitoring in the EXCLUDE DISKS text box. By default, none is displayed here.

• By default, the ADDITIONAL CONTROLLER IP text box is set to none. This implies that by default, the storage device being monitored supports a single controller/storage processor only. Sometimes, a storage device could be configured with two controllers i.e., say for e.g., storage processor A and storage processor B, so as to provide fail-over services - in other words, if the storage processor A is down, then the storage processor B will take over to provide the critical storage services. In this case, you can provide the alternate controller IP i.e., the IP address of the storage processor B in the ADDITIONAL CONTROLLER IP text box.

• The 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. By default, the DD FREQUENCY is set to 4:1.

• If multiple components of the same component type are awaiting configuration, then an APPLY TO OTHER COMPONENTS check box will appear in this page. Clicking on this check box will allow you to apply the configuration to all/selected components of that type.

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

When changing the configuration for specific components, 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.