Storage, Virtual, and Server Profiler Training

Storage Profiler and Virtual & Server Profiler
Session 1

SolarWinds Subject Matter Experts
Dan Wendeln- Education and Certification Manager
Brian Radovich – Product Manager, Storage
Today’s Topic:
Customer Training – Profiler Storage, Virtual and Server
Introduction

Housekeeping
Can you hear me now?
If not, use the GoToWebinar chat or Q&A panel to let us know.
How do you win the free stuff?
How do you ask questions and when?
Will this be recorded?
Ask a lot of questions – We have staff standing by to answer your chat questions!

Agenda
Goals for Today’s Training Session
Profiler Post-installation Procedures
System Deployment and Configuration Options
System Optimization
Troubleshooting
Where to Learn More and Q&A

Goals for today’s training session
By the end of this session you should understand:
Profiler Architecture & System Recommendations
File Analysis Features
Alert Configuration and Best Practices
Troubleshooting Agent Reporting Issues
Load Balancing and Resource Management in Profiler

Profiler and the SolarWinds Portfolio
SolarWinds manages
Network Devices
Routers, Switches, Firewalls
Servers
Physical and Virtual
Software Applications
Exchange, SQL
Storage Devices
SAN array, NAS, DAS
SolarWinds products
Periodically check device performance
Alert network administrators of problems
Report on overall performance
Identify and diagnose issues
Resolve network issues
Network
Storage
Apps

Objective #1 - Profiler Architecture

Architecture Overview
Simple design is robust and scalable
Server
Data Repository
GUI & Reporting
Configuration Manager
Poller/Agents
Collect Data
Monitor & Alert
Execute Actions
Communication
Server & Agent: HTTP, HTTPS & SNMP
Server & Users: HTTP or HTTPS

Sample Deployment
Single Profiler server collecting data from multiple sites via the WAN. One or more agents deployed to each site depending on the number and type of devices to be monitored.
.

System Recommendations
Server
Small: Up to 500 Disks & 500 VM/Servers
Windows 32 or 64bit
Dual Processor, 4 GB RAM
Min 2 VM Pollers
Poller/agent: Single Processor, 1 GB of RAM
Medium: Up to 3000 Disks & 1500 VM/Servers
Windows 64bit
Quad Processor, 8-16 GB RAM
Min 7 VM Pollers
Poller/agent: Single/Dual Processor, 2GB of RAM
Large: Up to 30,000 disks, 5000+ VM
Windows 64bit
8-16 Processors, 16-64GB RAM
1 Poller per ~200VM
Poller/agent: Single/Dual Processor, 4GB of RAM

Objective #2 – Understanding File Analysis
What is it?
Analyzes how you are using your file storage
Works on any formatted storage:Server, VM or NAS device
What does it report?
Summary Information
By Owner, Age and Type
Find specific files via File Rules
File Information - Size, owner, access, creation, modification, etc

Turning File Analysis On
How do I turn it on?
Physical server (with agent)
Turn on FA via wrench or policy
NAS/VM
Get a list of Shares
Assign shares to an poller/agent
Make sure the FA is turned on for that poller/agent

Administration
 Rules
 File Analysis Rules
 New Rule
Example: “Big Old Files”
Older than 365 days
Bigger than 5 MB
Example: “Potential Garbage”
Any size or age
By file extension (.dmp, .tmp, .core, etc.)
File Analysis – Using Rules
A file rule defines files that you would like to find.
To create a file rule:
Create the rule.
Assign it to a policy.
Push the policy out.
All file analysis runs will also output the files that meet the criteria of the rule.

File Analysis – Validation
When and Where will I see data?
File analysis runs on a schedule, you won’t see data until it runs.
Reports
Reports Quick Reports  File Analysis Stats
Reports  Quick Reports  File Age Categories
Device Consoles
Server Files Tab
VM  Shares Tab
NAS (NetApp, Celerra, Etc.) SharesTab

File Analysis
File Analysis Demo

Poll #1
The first 5 responses get a free SolarWinds t-shirt
Question: How many drives do you currently manage with Profiler?
A. < 100
B. 100 - 250
C. 250 - 500
D. 500 – 1000
E. > 1000

Poll #1
Question: How many drives do you currently manage with Profiler?
A. < 100
B. 100 - 250
C. 250 - 500
D. 500 – 1000
E. > 1000
Poll Closed

Objective #3 – Understanding Alerts
Create rules to send alerts
Types of Rules?
Threshold: Storage, Performance, File Analysis
Change: Asset
Actions
Send an SNMP Trap
Execute a script
Where do the traps go?
Profiler Event Monitor
Email – setup up Notifications for your account
Orion

Objective #3 – Understanding Alerts
Alert Configuration and Testing Demo

Objective #4 – Agent Reporting Issues
Where’s my data?
Where do I look when I stop seeing data?
Check the 5 Ps - IP, port, paths, permissions and SMI-S Provider
Check profiler services status and recent time stamp
MySQL, ProfilerCollector, ProfilerEventReceiver, ProfilerMaintenance, ProfilerPoller, ProfilerWebServer
Check the device status
Hover over status icon by device name
Stoplight icon

Agents Installation Troubleshooting
Agent does not start (default port 4319).
Check to see if the port is being used by another application
Windows – check firewall, DEP, & anti-virus settings
Unix/Linux – check for library issues (very rare)
Agent does not self register.
Check host firewall to see if it is blocking traps
Are there any firewalls between the agent & server that would block traps?
On the Profiler server, check if there is another application listening for traps (port 162). Event receiver dies in this case
Are you out of licenses?

Agent Troubleshooting
Almost all agents are yellow on the Server Monitor.
Some data is not being collected
If all the agents are yellow & the times are greater than 2 or 3 minutes, check the event receiver
If all the agents are yellow & the times are less than 2 or 3 minutes, check the collector
One or more agents are yellow on the Server Monitor.
Press the stoplight to validate communicate & review which modules are online and offline
If not receiving real time, review the logs to see if some data is not available
If you can’t communicate with the agent, go to that agent & review the core.xml and kernel.log. If you see fatal.log, it is usually a configuration issue

More Troubleshooting Tips
Event Receiver Issues:
Check to see if the service is running.
Another application could be using port 162 (port is configurable).
Collector Issues:
In large environment you can run the collector out of memory. This implies you should spread the load to more poller agents.
If the collector loses the connection to the database, it may stop collecting. If the database is up, restart the collector. If the database is down, start the database & then start the collector.

Objective #4 – Agent Reporting Issues
Troubleshooting Demo

Poll #2
Question: Which types of problems are you responsible for solving?
(select all that apply)
A. Server Performance Issues
B. SAN/Storage Issues
C. Network Issues
D. Application Issues
E. datacenter Issues

Poll #2
Question: Which types of problems are you responsible for solving?
(select all that apply)
A. Server Performance Issues
B. SAN/Storage Issues
C. Network Issues
D. Application Issues
E. datacenter Issues
Poll Closed

Objective #5 – Profiler Performance
Load Balancing and Resource Management
How do I know I need to Distribute Agents?
Server web slowness, missing arrays, no data, high memory or CPU utilization
~200 VM per Poller/Agent
Where to place agents
Physical servers that are File Servers or have HBA
VM that you create specifically for Profiler
Understanding agent and server loads
Proper workload distribution

Where to learn more…
Documentation
SolarWinds technical documentation:
http://www.solarwinds.com/support/documentation.aspx
SolarWinds Knowledge Base (KB):
http://knowledgebase.solarwinds.com
Videos, blog posts, and webcasts
http://www.solarwinds.com/geek
Community
http://www.thwack.com
Product Blog – in product and @thwack.com
Technical Support
http://www.solarwinds.com/support/
SolarWinds Certified Professional (SCP) program and training content
http://www.solarwinds.com/certification/network_certification.aspx

Storage, Virtual, and Server Profiler Training

by SolarWinds on Nov 10, 2010

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Storage, Virtual, and Server Profiler Training Presentation Transcript