Agents Administration - Tests
 

Configuration of XenMemMemoryTest

The XenMemMemoryTest reports the memory usage of the control domain and hypervisor of the XenServer, and enables administrators to judge whether/not adequate free memory is available on the XenServer host for use by the virtual machines.

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.

  • 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 valid user. Provide the name of such a user in the XEN POOL USER text box. By default, the root user is authorized to execute the test. If for some reason you prefer not to use the root user's credentials, you can create a new user on the XenServer host for this purpose.

    The steps for creating a new user on the XenServer host are detailed below:

    1. Login to the host on which the XenServer is installed, as the root user.
    2. From the /usr/sbin directory, execute the following commands to create a new user and assign a password to him/her:
    3. useradd {UserName}

      passwd {Password}

    4. The following messages then appear:

      Changing password for user

      New UNIX password:

      BAD PASSWORD: it is based on a dictionary word

    5. You will then be prompted to retype the password:

      Retype new UNIX password::{password}

    6. Confirm the password by retyping it in the space provided.
  • The password of the specified XEN POOL USER needs to be mentioned in the XEN POOL PASSWORD text box.

  • Confirm the XEN POOL 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:

    1. Obtain the server-certificate for the XenServer
    2. 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 XenServers document.

  • 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.
  • 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.