Agents Administration - Tests
 

Configuration of AWSRegionEC2Test

This test periodically monitors the user login and profile loading process and accurately identify where the process is bottlenecked. This test helps administrators to capture anomalies in the user login and profile loading process and report where the process is bottlenecked - in the authentication process? during profile loading? during GPO processing and if so, which GPO?

The default parameters associated with this test are:

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

  • Specify the host for which the test is to be configured in the HOST text box.

  • To monitor an AWS EC2, the eG agent has to be configured with the "access key" of a user with a valid AWS account. To obtain the access key, follow the steps given below:

    • Sign up for a new AWS account from the http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/ page.

    • Provide the details of the user for whom you wish to create the AWS account.

    • Based on the AWS EC2 Regions, you will be requested to choose the pricing for an instance to be deployed in the AWS EC2.

    • Once the payment is made, the user will be automatically signed in to the AWS account.

    • From the newly created AWS account, you can request for an "access key". You will be provided with an "access key" and a corresponding “secret key”.

    • Provide the access key in the AWS ACCESS KEY text box; this will enable the eG agent to communicate with the AWS API and collect the required metrics.

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

  • Provide the secret key corresponding to the access key that you had obtained through your AWS account in the AWS SECRET KEY text box.

  • In the EXCLUDE REGION box, you can provide a comma-separated list of region names or patterns of region names that you do not want to monitor. For instance, to exclude regions with names that contain ‘east’ and ‘west’ from monitoring, your specification should be: *east*,*west*

  • In some environments, all communication with the AWS EC2 cloud and its regions could be routed through a proxy server. In such environments, you should make sure that the eG agent connects to the cloud via the proxy server and collects metrics. To enable metrics collection via a proxy, specify the IP address of the proxy server and the port at which the server listens against the PROXY HOST and PROXY PORT parameters. By default, these parameters are set to none, indicating that the eG agent is not configured to communicate via a proxy, by default.

  • If the proxy server requires authentication, then, specify a valid proxy user name and password in the PROXY USER NAME and PROXY PASSWORD parameters, respectively. By default, these parameters are set to none, indicating that the proxy sever does not require authentication by default.

  • If a Windows NTLM proxy is to be configured for use, then additionally, you will have to configure the Windows domain name and the Windows workstation name required for the same against the PROXY DOMAIN and PROXY WORKSTATION parameters. If the environment does not support a Windows NTLM proxy, set these parameters to none.

  • By default, this test reports metrics for each instance in the AWS infrastructure. This is why, the EC2 FILTER NAME flag is set to Instance ID by default. Alternatively, you can configure this test to aggregate metrics across a chosen collection of instances, and report one set of metrics per collection. For this, you just need to pick an instance collection from the EC2 FILTER NAME drop-down. The options available are as follows:

    • AutoScalingGroupName: Your EC2 instances can be organized into Auto Scaling Groups so that they can be treated as a logical unit for the purposes of scaling and management. When you create a group, you can specify its minimum, maximum, and, desired number of EC2 instances.

      If you select the AutoScalingGroupName option from the EC2 FILTER NAME drop-down, then this test will collect metrics for each instance, aggregate the metrics on the basis of the Auto Scaling Groups to which the instances belong, and report metrics for each group.

    • InstanceType: Amazon EC2 provides a wide selection of instance types optimized to fit different use cases. Instance types comprise varying combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity and give you the flexibility to choose the appropriate mix of resources for your applications.

      If the InstanceType option is chosen from the EC2 FILTER NAME drop-down, then this test will collect metrics for each instance, aggregate the metrics on the basis of the instance type, and report metrics for each type.

    • ImageId: Instances are created from Amazon Machine Images (AMI). The machine images are like templates that are configured with an operating system and other software, which determine the user's operating environment.

      If the ImageId option is chosen from the EC2 FILTER NAME drop-down, then this test will collect metrics for each instance, aggregate the metrics on the basis of the AMI using which the instances were created, and report metrics for each image ID.

  • The EXCLUDE INSTANCE parameter is applicable only if InstanceId is chosen from the EC2 FILTER NAME drop-down.

    In this case, against EXCLUDE INSTANCE, you can provide a comma-separated list of instance IDs you do not want the test to monitor.

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

  • 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 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.