Top System Resource Consumers Report
While the System Performance report reveals irregularities in system resource usage, the Top System Resource Consumers report turns the spotlight on the root-cause of these usage excesses. For instance, using the System Performance report you can proactively detect a potential contention for the CPU resources of a system. Using the Top System Resource Consumers report thereafter, you can identify which process on that system is consuming the CPU resources excessively, and is thus causing the resource contention.
To generate the Top System Resource Consumers report, first, select the Top System Resource Consumers option from the Operational Reports node of the REPORTS BY FUNCTION tree. In the page that appears next, specify the following information:
Administrators of large IT infrastructures, which are characterized by hundreds of systems, may find it difficult to pick and choose the systems for which a report is to be generated; this is because, in such environments, the Systems list in this page will be populated with a large number of systems, which would naturally make system selection tough. To enable administrators of such environments to quickly locate the systems of interest to them and swiftly generate the reports, eG Enterprise provides a Analyze By list that consists of a variety of filter options. By default, the System option is chosen from this list - this indicates that all the managed systems will be available for selection in the Systems list by default. In addition to this, the Analyze By list provides the following filter options as well:
Service: If the system for which reports are to be generated is involved in the delivery of a particular service, then pick this option from the Analyze By list. Doing so will invoke a Service list from which a service name is to be chosen. Once you pick a service, all systems which are engaged in the delivery of the chosen service, will be displayed as candidates for selection in the System list. Select the systems of your choice from this list. If the Systems list consists of too many hosts, then viewing all the hosts and selecting the ones you need for report generation could require endless scrolling. To avoid this, you can click the
button next to the Systems list. This will open the Systems pop up window using which you can view almost all the hosts in a single interface and Select the ones for which the report is to be generated.Segment: If the systems for which a report is to be generated are part of a segment, pick the Segment option from the Analyze By list. Then, select the segment of interest to you from the Segment list. Then, all systems, which are part of the chosen segment, will be displayed in the System list for selection. Select the systems of your choice from this list. If the Systems list consists of too many hosts, then viewing all the hosts and selecting the ones you need for report generation could require endless scrolling. To avoid this, you can click the
button next to the Systems list. This will open the Systems pop up window using which you can view almost all the hosts in a single interface and Select the ones for which the report is to be generated.Zone: If the systems for which a report is to be generated is part of a zone, pick the Zone option from the Analyze By list. To include sub-zones also in your search for components, set the Include SubZones flag to Yes. Then, select the zone of interest to you from the Zone list. This will populate the System list with the systems that are part of the chosen zone. Select the systems of your choice from this list. If the Systems list consists of too many hosts, then viewing all the hosts and selecting the ones you need for report generation could require endless scrolling. To avoid this, you can click the
button next to the Systems list. This will open the Systems pop up window using which you can view almost all the hosts in a single interface and Select the ones for which the report is to be generated.
The Metric option displays a pre-configured list of metrics for which the report can be generated. You can simply select a performance parameter from the list, for which you wish to view a detailed report across the systems. For example, just select the CPU Utilization metric from the Metric list, and select all the systems for which you wish to view the detailed report from the Systems list. By default, the Metric list comes with a set of pre-configured parameters. You can expand the Metric list by adding more performance parameters to it. To override the default Metric list, edit the eg_report.ini file (in the <EG_INSTALL_DIR>\manager\config directory), and add a new metric to the [REPORT_TEMPLATES] section therein, in the following format:
<DisplayName>=<InternalTestName>:<InternalMeasureName>
Next, select the type of report to be generated from the Report Type list box. The options are as follows:
Graph: Select this option for a graphical representation of this report.
Data: To view this report in a table, select this option.
Then, select the period (Timeline) for which the graph is to be generated. You can either provide a fixed time line such as 1 hour, 2 days, etc., or select the Any option from the list to provide a From and To date/time for report generation.
Note:
For every user registered with the eG Enterprise system, the administrator can indicate the maximum timeline for which that user can generate a report. Once the maximum timeline is set for a user, then, whenever that user logs into eG Reporter and attempts to generate a report, the Timeline list box in the report page will display options according to the maximum timeline setting of that user. For instance, if a user can generate a report for a maximum period of 3 days only, then 3 days will be the highest option displayed in the Timeline list - i.e., 3 days will be the last option in the fixed Timeline list. Similarly, if the user chooses the Any option from the Timeline list and proceeds to provide a start date and end date for report generation using the From and To specifications, eG Enterprise will first check if the user's Timeline specification conforms to his/her maximum timeline setting. If not, report generation will fail. For instance, for a user who is allowed to generate reports spanning over a maximum period of 3 days only, the difference between the From and To dates should never be over 3 days. If it is, then, upon clicking the Submit button a message box will appear, prompting the user to change the From and To specification.
In addition to the settings discussed above, this report comes with a set of default specifications. These settings are hidden by default. If you do not want to disturb these default settings, then you can proceed to generate the report by clicking the Run Report button soon after you pick one/more Components for report generation. However, if you want to view and then alter these settings (if required), click on the
button. The default settings will then appear in the More Options pop up window. The steps below discuss each of these settings and how they can be customized.If you select the Report Type option as Graph, then the Show by option appears. Select any one of the following options:
Max: Select this option to generate a report that plots the maximum value registered by different metrics during a specified timeline.
Avg: Select this option to generate a report that plots the average values computed for the chosen metric across all the chosen systems during a specified timeline.
Likewise if you select the Report type as Data, then the Sort by option appears instead of the Show by option. Here too, select any one of the following options from the list:
Max: Select this option to sort the processes of each chosen system by range of the maximum value registered for the chosen metric during a specified timeline.
Avg: Select this option to generate a report in a tabular format that plots the average values computed for the processes of each chosen metric for all the chosen systems during a specified timeline.
If the timeline specified for the report needs to exclude the data collected during the Weekends, then set Exclude weekends to Yes. If not, select No.
Note:
You can configure the days of the week that need to be considered as a ‘weekend’ using the Days parameter in the [EXCLUDE_WEEKEND] section in the eg_report.ini file (in the <EG_INSTALL_DIR>\manager\config directory). The Days parameter is set to Saturday,Sunday by default. To change this weekend specification, enter two other days of the week against the Days parameter.
By default, the report provides the details of only the Top-10 processes for all the chosen systems that consume high resources. You can choose a different top-n / last-n option from the Show list, if need be.
Note:
By default, the values displayed in the Show list range from TOP-10 to LAST-10. This is because, the Showtop parameter in the [INFOS] section of the eg_report.ini file (in the <EG_INSTALL_DIR>\manager\config directory) is set to 10, by default. You can, if required, configure the Show list to display a different range of options. For this, specify a different number against the Showtop parameter, and save the eg_report.ini file.
Next, specify the start time and end time for report generation against the Time period field.
By default, the Common Maximum flag is set to No. This indicates that by default, eG Enterprise does not set a common maximum value for all graphs in a view - in other words, the maximum value differs from graph to graph. This is because, the suite, by default, determines the maximum value for a graph by comparing all the values reported by its corresponding measure during the specified Timeline. If you want to set a common maximum value across all graphs in a view, set the Common Maximum flag to Yes. Once you set the Common Maximum value to Yes, the Auto Maximum field will appear. By default, the Auto Maximum flag is set to No. In this case, you can set a custom maximum value for all the graphs in the Max Value field. If you set the Auto Maximum flag to Yes, then the maximum value will be auto-generated by the eG Enterprise system.
In large environments, reports generated using months of data can take a long time to complete. Administrators now have the option of generating reports on-line or in the background. When a report is scheduled for background generation, administrators can proceed with their other monitoring, diagnosis, and reporting tasks, while the eG manager is processing the report. This saves the administrator valuable time. To schedule background processing of a report, select the Background Save - PDF option from the Report Generation list. In this case, a Report Name text box will appear, where you would have to provide the name with which the report is to be saved in the background. To process reports in the foreground, select the Foreground Generation - HTML option from this list.
Note:
The Report Generation list will appear only if the EnableBackgroundReport flag in the [BACKGROUND_PROCESS] section of the eg_report.ini file (in the {EG_INSTALL_DIR}\manager\config directory) is set to Yes.
The default selection in the Report Generation list will change according to the Timeline specified for the report. If the Timeline set is greater than or equal to the number of days specified against the MinDurationForReport parameter in the [BACKGROUND_PROCESS] section of the eg_report.ini file, then the default selection in the Report Generation list will be Background. On the other hand, if the Timeline set for the report is lesser than the value of the MinDurationForReport parameter, then the default selection in the Report Generation list will be Foreground. This is because, the MinDurationForReport setting governs when reports are to be processed in the background. By default, this parameter is set to 2 weeks - this indicates that by default, reports with a timeline of 2 weeks and above will be processed in the background.
Finally, click on the Run Report button to generate the report. If the option chosen from the Report Generation list is Foreground Generation - HTML, then, clicking on the Run Report button will invoke the Top System Resource Consumers report.