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Foglight for Storage Management Shared 6.3.0 - User Guide

Getting Started Configuring Agents to Monitor Storage Devices
Brocade SAN Switches Cisco SAN Switches Dell Compellent Arrays Dell EqualLogic PS Series Array Groups EMC CLARiiON CX Series Arrays (CLI) EMC CLARiiON, VNX, or VMAX Storage Arrays (SMI-S) EMC Isilon EMC VPLEX Hitachi Data Systems AMS, USP, and VSP HP EVA Storage Arrays HP 3PAR Arrays NetApp Filers Configuration Procedures
Managing Agents Using Foglight for Storage Management Monitoring Storage Performance Investigating Storage Devices Investigating Storage Components Investigating VPLEX Storage Troubleshooting Storage Performance Managing Data Collection, Rules, and Alarms Understanding Metrics Appendix: Supported Storage Devices Table Online-Only Topics

Monitoring Storage Arrays

When monitoring storage arrays, or when diagnosing alarms on storage arrays, you may need more detail on the array or its member nodes, controllers, ports, pools, LUNs, or disks. You may also want to determine if any of the child components have alarms that did not affect the array status. This walkthrough introduces the quick view for storage arrays.

To monitor storage arrays:
1
On the Storage Environment dashboard, ensure the Monitoring tab is selected.
2
Click the Storage Arrays tile to open the Storage Arrays quick view.
 
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TIP: You can also open this quick view from the navigation panel. For more information, see Introducing the Storage Explorer.
3
To identify the most problematic arrays in your environment, in the Storage Arrays list, click Summary.
The Storage Array Summary summarizes the capacity and performance health of the arrays in the environment.
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Capacity
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The table is organized by arrays whose pools have the most significant, near-term capacity issues.
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The categories take into account the estimated time when pool capacity will be full, as well as the current available capacity and the over-provisioning state of the pool.
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To investigate, click on the array name. See Monitoring Storage Capacity.
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Performance
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The table is organized by arrays with the most LUNs having latency issues.
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To investigate, click on the array name in the table to drill down to the Array Explorer. Click on the LUNs tab. See Investigating a LUN.
4
To monitor a storage array, in the Storage Array list, click a storage array name.
The content of the quick view varies depending on the selected storage array. For most storage arrays (excluding Dell EqualLogic and EMC Isilon), the quick view contains the following embedded views:
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Related Inventory. Contains alarm summaries for the selected storage array and its controllers, FC ports, IP ports, pools, LUNs, and disks.
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Storage Capacity Summary. Displays current values for Total Advertised LUNs Size and Capacity Provisioned to LUNs.
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Controller Performance. Plots % Busy values by controller over the time period and displays threshold lines (defined in registry variable StSAN.Controller.PctBusyThreshold).
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Pools with Severe or High Pressure on Available Usable Capacity (or Raw Capacity)
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Displays the pools that have the most significant, near-term capacity issues.
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Shows the available usable capacity or available raw capacity in the table, depending on the data provided from the device vendor, and the % available.
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Shows the estimated time when the pool capacity will be full
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Over commitment is not shown when raw capacity numbers are displayed.
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The cylinders are colored to show the % of available capacity in the pool.
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LUNs/Disks States. Plots the percentage of disks and LUNs in the storage array in problem states. Problem states are reported by the vendor. Resolving these issues may improve LUN performance.
For more storage array quick views, see the Summary tab description under Dell EqualLogic Storage Array and EMC VPLEX Storage Array.
5
To continue investigating the selected storage array:
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To explore details about the storage array and its child components, click View in Explorer. See Exploring a Storage Array.
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To investigate a child component, in the Related Inventory view click a component type or a status icon, and then select a component. A component dashboard opens. For help with the dashboard, see one of the following topics:
- Investigating a Controller
- Investigating an EqualLogic Member
- Investigating an Isilon Node
- Investigating an Array/Filer Port
- Investigating a Pool
- Investigating a LUN
- Investigating a Physical Disk
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To return to this quick view, in the breadcrumbs, click Storage Environment.

Monitoring Filers

When monitoring filers, or when diagnosing alarms on filers, you may need more detail on a filer and its controllers, ports, NASVolumes, LUNs, aggregates, or disks. You may also want to determine if any child components display alarms. This walkthrough introduces the quick views for filers.

To monitor filers:
1
On the Storage Environment dashboard, ensure the Monitoring tab is selected.
2
Click the Filers tile to open the Filers quick view.
 
* 
TIP: You can also open this quick view from the navigation panel. For more information, see Introducing the Storage Explorer.
3
To identify the busiest filers in your environment, in the Filers list, click Summary.
The Filer Summary view identifies the top three filers in two categories:
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Filers with Lowest % of Free Disk/Spares Capacity (raw). Displays cylinders showing the amount of used Free Disk/Spares Capacity (Raw). Below each cylinder, you can see total and free capacity.
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Filers with Lowest % of Available Aggr Capacity (usable). Displays cylinders showing the amount of used Aggr Capacity (Usable) Free. Below each cylinder, you can see total and free capacity.
If you find that cylinder colors do not reflect the acceptable thresholds in your environment, you can ask your Foglight for Storage Management Administrator to edit the threshold values in the following registry variables:
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Disk capacity: StSAN.FilerDisks.PctUnallocatedCapacityThreshold.[Fatal|Critical|Warning]
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Aggregate capacity: StSAN.FilerAggregates.PctUnallocatedCapacityThreshold.[Fatal|Critical|Warning]
 
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NOTE: Registry variables are global variables that are often referenced by rules. Before editing a registry variable, ensure that the edit will not cause unintended changes to how the affected rules trigger alarms. For more information, search for “Registry Variable” in the online help.
4
In the Filer list, click a filer name.
The Related Inventory view contains alarm summaries for the selected filer as well as its controllers, ports, NASVolumes, LUNs, aggregates, or disks. The Resource Utilization charts show capacity and performance metrics for the filer:
•
Storage Capacity Summary. The cylinders show the amount of capacity consumed in the filer, expressed using current values for the following pairs of metrics:
- Disk Capacity (Raw) and Free Disk/Spares Capacity (Raw)
- Aggr Capacity (Raw) Total and Aggr Capacity (Raw) Free
- Aggr Capacity (Usable) Total and Aggr Capacity (Usable) Free
The bar chart displays current values for Advertised LUN Size, Advertised NASVolumes Size, Aggr Capacity (Usable) Total, and Aggr Capacity (Usable) Free.
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NASVolume Performance. Plots the percentage of NASVolumes in the filer in problem states. Problem states are reported by the vendor. Resolving issues may improve volume performance.
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LUN Performance. Plots the percentage of LUNs in the filer in problem states. Problem states are reported by the vendor. Resolving issues may improve LUN performance.
5
To continue investigating the selected filer:
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To explore details about the filer and its child components, click View in Explorer. See Exploring a Filer.
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To investigate a child component, in the Related Inventory view click a component type or an alarm icon, and then select a component. A component dashboard opens. For help with the dashboard, see one of the following topics:
- Investigating a Controller
- Investigating an Array/Filer Port
- Investigating a NASVolume
- Investigating a LUN
- Investigating an Aggregate
- Investigating a Physical Disk
•
To return to this quick view, in the breadcrumbs, click Storage Environment.

Asking Questions About the Monitored Storage Environment

Another way to find out information about your storage environment is to ask questions. The Insights tab contains the Analytics view to show frequently-asked questions about storage environments. Answers are displayed in the form of tables and graphs. You can select questions that apply to all storage resources or to a specific type of storage resource.

To use the Insights > Analytics view:
1
On the Storage Environment dashboard, click the Insights tab, and then click Analytics.
2
In the Categories pane, click a category to display the questions for that category in the Questions pane.
 
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TIP: If the list of questions is long and you want to narrow it down, search for a particular text string using the Search Questions box.
3
In the Questions pane, click a question to display the answer in the Answer pane.
4
In the Answer pane, you can change the number of results displayed by changing the value of the Show Top box.
5
To investigate a component or its parent device, click a name in the Name or Parent column.

Assessing Connectivity and I/O Performance

You can also identify connectivity and port performance problems that occur during I/O requests by assessing storage from the perspective of the virtualization environment. The VMware and Hyper-V Explorers offer an end-to-end look at all the entities that make up your virtual infrastructure, including clusters, hosts, virtualization storage, and virtual machines.

 
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NOTE: This workflow assumes that the following requirement is satisfied:
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VMware or Hyper-V Performance agents are defined for the target environment, and the agents are configured to collect storage data. For more information, see Step 2 in Collecting Storage Data for Virtualized Devices and Servers.

This section covers the following topics:

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Introducing the Virtualization Dashboards
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Summary of Icons Used in Topology Diagrams
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Exploring Connectivity with SAN Topology Diagrams
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Exploring I/O Performance with SAN Data Paths
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