ITSI module for Nmon Metricator

The ITSI module for Nmon Metricator provides rich builtin Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), service templates and ITSI native views for entities health analysis.

img/itsi_module/demo5.png img/itsi_module/demo6.png

Entities import

The entities import is an automatic process linked to the following scheduled report:

  • DA-ITSI-METRICATOR-NMON-OS_Hosts_Search

By default, the entities import process runs every 4 hours and imports in ITSI any entity available using the Nmon configuration data.

After the deployment of the ITSI module, and the deployment of the Technology addons, the entities creation will be achieved automatically without the need of any manual action.

However, the entities import process can be achieved manually at any time:

  • Configure / Entities / New Entity / Import from search

  • Choose Module, and search for the ITSI Metricator Nmon module

  • Any existing entity will be updated, if any update, meaning the process can be run without affecting existing entities

  • The module relies on the field / value “itsi_role=nmon_host” to identify entities and provide the context relevant health views

Notes: when running manually the import, the time range will be restricted to the last 60 minutes which may not be enough to match the nmon configuration events, select a larger period such as last 7 days.

img/itsi_module/entities_import1.png img/itsi_module/entities_import2.png

Service creation / KPIs import

Builtin KPIs

The ITSI module provides the following builtin Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

  • CPU Utilization: % = CPU usage in percentage for all available CPU cores in the system

  • CPU Wait I/O % = CPU percentage waiting for Input / Output for all available CPU cores in the system

  • Memory Free: % = Percentage of free memory (for Linux, this excludes buffers and cached memory)

  • Swap Memory Free: % = Percentage of free swap, if any. (for Linux, this excludes swap cached)

  • Network packets = Number of network packets (sum for all interfaces but loopback interfaces)

  • Network traffic (kpbs) = Average network traffic in KBps (average traffic for all interfaces but loopback interfaces)

  • Storage_busy_time = Percentage of time the storage was busy (average busy time for all available devices)

  • Storage Free Space: % = Percentage of free space (minimal available free space percentage from all available file systems)

  • Storage Free Inodes: % = Percentage of inodes free (minimal available free inode percentage from all available file systems)

  • Storage_IOPS = Average number of IOPS for all available storage devices

  • Storage read IOPS = Average number of read IOPS for all available storage devices

  • Storage write IOPS = Average number of write IOPS for all available storage devices

  • Storage transfer per sec = Transfer per sec in KB/s, average for all available storage devices

  • Storage read transfer per sec = Read transfer per sec in KB/s, average for all available storage devices

  • Storage write transfer per sec = Write transfer per sec in KB/s, average for all available storage devices

Notes: This list of KPIs represents the essentials KPIs used to analyse the system performance health, however even more metrics are available in the nmon data, and you can create your own KPI basesearches if required.*

KPIs treshholding:

  • Network and storage performance related KPIs have no threshold configured and are provided as info metrics

  • Others KPIs have a default threshold template that can easily be modified up to your needs, for which we recommend creating a custom service template you use to import your KPIs if you need to modify them and apply your own threshold model

Adding the builtin KPIs to services

Adding the builtin KPIs to existing or new services:

  • Good ITSI practices recommend to clone the builtin KPIs into custom version (prefixed with your customer ID), and finally adding add these cloned KPIs to a custom services you will use to import the KPIs in your ITSI services

  • This is essentially recommended to allow customizing the default OOTB modules for performances purposes, such as restricting the indexes or adding more constraints

  • This practice is not required with the ITSI module as KPIs searches are already as optimised as possible

  • If you use a different indexes naming convention than the default Metricator model, ensure to modify the macro “nmon_metrics_index” which is called in every KPI basesearch

  • If you really need to customize the KPI builtin base searches, then cloning the KPIs is the right way as the ITSI module is read only

Adding the builtin KPIs can be easily achieved by selecting the KPIs from the template service called “NMON OS Performance KPIs”:

img/itsi_module/kpis_import1.png

Entities filtering is achieved against the field itsi_role=nmon_host which is automatically defined for each discovered entity:

img/itsi_module/kpis_import2.png

Host health views

The OS heath view is automatically available for entities that generating Nmon data by the Technology addons, the view can be acceded from various places such as the ITSI entity health view:

img/itsi_module/host_view1.png

Overview: main system metrics

  • CPU, memory and file-system usage in mini chart on top of the dashboard

  • CPU percentage usage with max and average

  • Uptime load average for 1 min / 5 min / 15 min

  • Memory and Swap usage in percentage

  • file-system utilization summary table

  • Inbound and Outbound network traffic in KBps

  • Read / Write IOPS for aggregated storage devices

img/itsi_module/host_view2.png

CPU & processes:

  • CPU percentage usage per category (User / System / Wait / Idle)

  • CPU percentage usage per core

  • Number of running processes on the system

  • TOP processes consuming CPU resources, in cores

img/itsi_module/host_view3.png

Memory:

  • Memory usage in MB per category

  • Swap usage in MB per category, if any

  • Number of running processes on the system

  • TOP processes consuming memory resources, in MB

img/itsi_module/host_view4.png

Storage performance:

  • Average I/O per second

  • Average Read/Write I/O per second

  • Average percentage of time the storage were busy

  • Average data block size (KB)

  • Average Read/Write data rate (KB/sec)

  • Average Read/Write service time (ms)

img/itsi_module/host_view5.png

Storage usage:

  • detailed table of file-system capacity and usage

  • detailed table of file-system inodes capacity and usage

img/itsi_module/host_view6.png

Forecast file system utilization:

  • Forecast of the system wide volume usage implementing the predict command

  • determines the probable time when volume saturation will occur

img/itsi_module/host_view7.png

Uptime:

  • Shows the current uptime

  • Shows the last system boot value

  • Charts the system uptime over time (in days)

img/itsi_module/host_view8.png

Nmon Configuration:

  • Provide access to the raw Nmon configuration data (AAA and BBB sections)

img/itsi_module/host_view9.png

Notes:

  • depending on operating system types, additional tabs and metrics might be provided

  • the description above assumes Linux hosts

Service Analyser / Deep dive

The following screenshots demonstrates the usage of the ITSI module in the Service Analyser and Deep dive views:

img/itsi_module/demo1.png img/itsi_module/demo2.png img/itsi_module/demo3.png img/itsi_module/demo4.png img/itsi_module/demo5.png img/itsi_module/demo6.png