Guide to AIX VIOS Monitoring. by: Nigel Adams, Independent IBM Consultant

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1 Guide to AIX VIOS Monitoring by: Nigel Adams, Independent IBM Consultant

2 About the Author Nigel Adams has spent the majority of his working life at IBM, most of it involved with systems developed in Rochester from System/3 all the way through to today's Power Systems running IBM i. From the mid 1990's Nigel was the Product Manager for AS/400 and its successor products in the UK and several other countries. This involved supporting IBM employees, Business Partners, ISVs, and customers in areas such as Sales, Marketing, Technical Support, development of the product roadmap and new product releases. Nigel Adams This broad experience means that Nigel has a deep understanding of all aspects of the IBM i market, and his passion for IBM i and its many benefits is well known amongst the i community. Nigel left IBM late 2012 and is now working as an independent consultant supporting Business Partners and Software Vendors in the IBM i marketplace. Halcyon Software 2013 Page 2

3 An Introduction to VIOS What is VIOS? Until recently, every partition running IBM i required hardware such as Disk Storage and Network connections dedicated to that partition. This is inflexible and can be costly because of the hardware that is required for each partition. IBM has developed the Virtual I/O Server which addresses these issues by acting as a host partition for I/O. Diagram shows Disk Storage hosted by VIOS on AIX with 3 client partitions accessing it Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) is a Logical Partition (LPAR) which has physical I/O such as Disk Storage and Network Adapters connected to it. This I/O is then provided to clients LPARs running IBM i (or AIX or Linux) within the same server. VIOS was first supported by IBM i on POWER6 models with the announcement of Version 6.1 in early VIOS Benefits There are several benefits that come from using VIOS instead of connecting the I/O directly to an i LPAR: The number of physical I/O adapters can be reduced, saving on both cost and on the number of adapter slots which are needed. This is an important consideration with today's systems which offer limited adapter support VIOS allows you to run IBM i on a Blade - as opposed to the traditional integrated hardware systems. The cost of Blade hardware is very attractive and this also allows you to consolidate Intel Blades (running Windows or Linux) and Power Blades (running IBM i, AIX or Linux) within a single Blade Center Halcyon Software 2013 Page 3

4 If you are using Storage Area Network (SANs) such as IBM's DS3000 or DS4000 families for the benefits that these bring in consolidating storage for Intel servers, then these SANs do not attach directly to IBM i, but they do attach to a VIOS partition and can thus be used by the IBM i by that route Greater flexibility by sharing I/O resources between partitions, and by being able to create new LPARs without any new physical hardware being required, which also keeps costs down In my experience, the major concern for IBM i customers using VIOS has been that this is something different from IBM i, that requires new skills, such as knowledge of AIX. Anything that can help in the management of VIOS partitions can only help i customers with using VIOS and enable them to take advantage of the benefits listed above. A Template for VIOS Monitoring Halcyon Software offers a VIOS Monitoring template the Network Server Suite AIX Lite VIOS, which provides the capability to monitor VIOS on Power Systems. It will assist customers adopting the use of VIOS by the automation that it offers as well as by integrating the monitoring of VIOS alerts with those from IBM i. It consists of a pre-defined template that: Automates and alerts around hardware and software errors Informs you of changes to key files within the VIOS Alerts to sustained use of CPU within this environment Monitors and alerts on file system/disk space and memory usage on the VIOS partition In consultation with customers and partners, Halcyon has created a useful template which IT Managers can quickly and easily deploy for VIOS monitoring, using Halcyon s Network Server Suite (NSS). This is unique to Halcyon as a leading provider of systems management software. Obviously, not all customer environments are the same, but within most organizations there are certainly some common things you would want to set up straight away. This template will enable this to happen, quickly. This guide to VIOS Monitoring is intended for IT managers, computer operators and systems administrators who have a major responsibility for the smooth running of their mission-critical applications within their organization. At Halcyon, we are continually challenging ourselves to develop solutions and templates that will help you do your job better. I hope you find this VIOS Monitoring Guide beneficial. The VIOS monitoring template is shipped with our solution called Network Server Suite AIX Lite and we have designed it to be very quick and easy to deploy, adds Donnie MacColl, Technical Services Director, Halcyon Software. Conclusion IBM i (or OS/400 as you may well know it) has always been considered an operating system with outstanding characteristics in terms of simplicity and ease of use. However, there is always room for improvement and the flexibility offered by the Virtual I/O Server leading to the benefits that are described in this guide I have developed with Halcyon, greatly improves the way in which multiple partitions can be supported on a single system. With the availability of VIOS monitoring, through templates such as the one developed by Halcyon, users can easily take advantage of these benefits too, saving significant cost and time. Halcyon Software 2013 Page 4

5 AIX VIOS Monitoring Guide This guide is only applicable to installations of Halcyon s Network Server Suite. The AIX VIOS monitoring guide contains filters covering the AIX Error Report, File & Folder and CPU, Filesystem and Memory Monitors. The following filters are defined: AIX Error Report Monitor This monitor checks against the AIX Error Report, which contains a list of logged errors. This monitor contains the following two filters, both of which are set to check for errors at 30 minute intervals: Hardware Errors - Errpt(Class=H) This filter checks for any hardware errors that are reported within the AIX Error Report. These are identified as being of class=h. An alert is generated if any class=h errors are found within the AIX Error Report. Software Errors - Errpt(Class=S) This filter checks for any software errors that are reported within the AIX Error Report. These are identified as being of class=s. An alert is generated if any class=s errors are found within the AIX Error Report. AIX File & Folder Monitor The AIX File & Folder Monitor checks the current status of specific files within the AIX system and contains the following five filters. These checks are made every 30 minutes: File (/etc/aixmibd.conf) Has Changed - File(/etc/aixmibd.conf) Trigger(Has Changed) This filter checks the file; /etc/aixmibd.conf. This file is used to configure the thresholds for many AIX monitors. An alert is generated if a change is detected to the modified date of this file. File (/etc/inetd.conf) Has Changed - File(/etc/inetd.conf) Trigger(Has Changed) This filter checks the file; /etc/inetd.conf. This file, also known as the super server, loads a network program based upon a request from the network. An alert is generated if a change is detected to the modified date of this file. File (/etc/inittab) Has Changed - File(/etc/inittab) Trigger(Has Changed) This filter checks the file; /etc/inittab. This file is a script that controls most of the boot sequence. It dictates what programs and scripts to launch and at what run levels. An alert is generated if a change is detected to the modified date of this file. File (/etc/security/login.cfg) Has Changed - File(/etc/security/login.cfg) Trigger(Has Changed) This filter checks the file; /etc/security/login.cfg. The /etc/security/login.cfg file is an ASCII file that contains stanzas of configuration information for login and user authentication. An alert is generated if a change is detected to the modified date of the file. File (/var/spool/cron/crontabs/root) Has Changed - File(/var/spool/cron/crontabs/root) Trigger(Has Changed) The /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root file contains commands needed for basic system control. This filter checks this file and raises an alert if any changes have been made to the file since the last time the filter ran. Halcyon Software 2013 Page 5

6 CPU, Filesystem and Memory Monitor The AIX VIOS CPU, Filesystem and Memory Monitor template contains the following four filters, that measure page file and CPU usage and alerts if thresholds are breached. These checks are made every 30 minutes: Page File Used <30% (Suggests Too Much Paging Space) - Group(Memory) Type(Page File Used %) Trigger(=30%) This filter checks the page file used memory and raises an alert if the percentage figure falls under 30 percent, which would suggest that there is too much paging space assigned. Page File Used >70% (Suggests Not Enough Paging Space) - Group(Memory) Type(Page File Used %) Trigger(=70%) This filter checks that page file used memory and raises an alert if the percentage figure exceeds 70 percent, which would suggest that there is too little paging space assigned. Paging Space >70% - Group(Memory) Type(Page File Used %) Trigger(=70%) This filter checks that the paging space available for use does not exceed 70%. An alert is raised if this figure is exceeded. Sustained CPU >80% - Group(CPU) CPU(0) Type(Load) Trigger(>80%) This filter checks the sustained usage of the CPU. An alert is generated if the sustained CPU load exceeds 80% at any one time. Halcyon Software 2013 Page 6

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