How to Monitor Dell EMC ScaleIO/PowerFlex Storage Systems with Storage Analyzer KM

How to set up a policy in BMC TrueSight/Helix to monitor Dell EMC ScaleIO/PowerFlex storage systems via ScaleIO's REST API.

Related Topics

Introduction

This article explains how to configure the Dell EMC ScaleIO (REST) adapter to monitor Dell EMC ScaleIO/PowerFlex systems using the REST API protocol.

Prerequisites

Before configuring the policy:

For optimal performance, we recommend reserving 2 CPU cores and at least 4 GB of RAM for operating the Storage Analyzer KM. The amount of memory allocated to the Java engine of the KM may be adjusted via the /SENTRY/STORAGE/collectionHubHeapSizeMax configuration variable. For more details, refer to:

Procedure

  1. Log in to TrueSight/Helix Operations Management

  2. Create a new monitoring policy:

    • Specify the general properties and agent selection criteria
    • Add a monitoring configuration
    • Select the Storage Analyzer solution
    • In the Storage Configuration section, click Add to create a new Endpoint

    Dell EMC ScaleIO/PowerFlex - Creating the TrueSight/Helix Monitoring Policy

  3. Configure the Endpoint Settings:

    Dell EMC ScaleIO/PowerFlex - Configuring the Endpoint Global Settings

  4. Configure the Endpoint Connection Settings:

    • Provide the Username and Password
    • Specify the port (443 by default).
    • Check Encryption if using the HTTPS protocol.

    Dell EMC ScaleIO/PowerFlex - Configuring the Endpoint Connection Settings

  5. Configure the Advanced Settings:

    • In large environments, we recommend increasing the values of the Discovery and Polling Intervals to maintain the workload of the PATROL Agent and monitored systems at a reasonable level.
    • Since volume monitoring is highly resource-intensive, we recommend disabling it if not needed to reduce the workload on the KM and PATROL Agent.
    • Because displaying thousands of volumes will have a huge impact on the PATROL Agent and on BMC TrueSight/Helix, volumes are discovered but NOT displayed. Uncheck the Hide Volume Instances box if required.

    Dell EMC ScaleIO/PowerFlex - Configuring the Endpoint Advanced Settings

  6. Save the policy and verify that it applies to the right PATROL Agent.

  7. Allow the KM some time to discover your storage system(s). Access the Devices page and search for their hostname, IP address, FQDN, or custom MetaFQDN/Device Name. You can also refer to the article Identifying and Locating Devices in TrueSight to learn how to run the below PSL script in the Query PATROL Agent window:

        CLASS_NAME = "SKM_SYSTEM";
        nodes = get_vars("/".CLASS_NAME, "subnodes");
        foreach node (nodes)
        {
        objectPath = "/".CLASS_NAME."/".node;
        instanceName = get(objectPath."/MetaFQDN");
        output  = [output, "Device Name:  ".instanceName ];
        }
        print(output);