HP Storage Essentials Storage Resource Management Software end-to-end SAN Performance monitoring and analysis Table of contents HP Storage Essentials SRM software SAN performance monitoring and analysis... 2 New Storage Essentials Storage Resource Management... 3 Performance Pack software for HP EVA... 3 Business applications... 3 Oracle database... 3 Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise... 3 Microsoft SQL Server... 4 Microsoft Exchange 2000, 2003 and 2007... 4 Application Server... 4 Storage Groups... 4 Message Stores and Public Folders... 4 InterSystems Caché database... 4 Host servers and HP NAS... 5 Host bus adapters (HBAs)... 5 Fabric switches...5 Storage systems... 5 Direct-attached storage... 5 SAN-attached storage... 6 NetApp Network-attached storage... 6 IP ports... 6 File system... 6 CPU... U 6 HP Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA)... 7 Storage system, Storage Pool (Diskgroup), and Volumes (Vdisks) counters... 7 Host FC Port...7 Controller... 8 Physical Disk...8 Conclusion... 9 For more information... 9
HP Storage Essentials Storage Resource Management (SRM) software monitors the performance of the complete storage path from business applications to the disk drive. This white paper summarizes the performance counters collected, reported, and trended by Storage Essentials SRM Enterprise Edition with its Performance Manager module and the new Storage Essentials SRM Performance Pack software to monitor HP Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) performance. HP Storage Essentials SRM software SAN performance monitoring and analysis HP Storage Essentials SRM Enterprise Edition with Performance Manager monitors the performance of the storage infrastructure that supports key business applications so you can more quickly diagnose the root causes of application performance issues. The software monitors the complete path of business applications through underlying storage area networks (SAN) components, including: Business application Host server Host bus adapter (HBA) Fabric switch Storage system (DAS, NAS) Arrays (HP EVA) In addition to monitoring performance statistics for each of these resource classes, Storage Essentials SRM software offers three ways to analyze the performance data: Real-time: Performance Explorer enables you to display tiled graphs that simultaneously chart the performance statistics of each resource counter you have selected, all in real-time, so you can instantly see where in the application-storage path performance is being impacted. Historical trends: Historical performance charts with customizable start and end dates and hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly snapshots enable you to trend performance over time to see quickly what has changed. Trend extrapolation: Trend extrapolation features enable you to leverage the trend period you have selected to forecast what performance will look like in the future if the trends continue. To further accelerate root-cause analysis, the product filters out the elements in the storage path that are not relevant to the application you are monitoring, so you see only the host, HBA, HBA port, switch, switch port, storage system, storage system port and array (HP EVA) metrics that matter. The remainder of this white paper summarizes the performance counters monitored, reported, and trended by Storage Essentials SRM software for each storage resource class. 2
New Storage Essentials Storage Resource Management Performance Pack software for HP EVA To keep your business moving forward, you need the ability to visualize and analyze the end-to-end performance of your HP Enterprise Virtual Arrays (EVAs) and your storage area network (SAN). This view is one of the keys to identify emerging or potential problems and to enable proactive work to avoid performance bottlenecks. HP Storage Essentials Storage Resource Management (SRM) Performance Pack Software gives you this view. This newest plug-in software addition to the award winning Storage Essentials SRM Software Suite provides a unified and powerful interface that helps your IT staff quickly visualize the big performance picture of your HP EVA or multiple EVAs and SAN infrastructure for faster EVA performance troubleshooting, when performance bottlenecks occur. The SRM Performance Pack software is available as a plug-in software module for Storage Essentials SRM Enterprise Edition software for enterprise environments or for mid-market environments; the Standard Edition SRM software solution license to use (LTU) will monitor performance for up to three HP EVAs. Business applications Optional plug-in application modules include the Storage Essentials SRM Database Viewer (Oracle, Sybase, SQL Server and InterSystems Cache database support), Microsoft SRM Exchange Viewer and SRM File System Viewer extend performance monitoring features inside key business applications. The following sections detail the application-specific performance counters that are monitored. Oracle database Buffer Hit Ratio (%) Parse CPU to Total CPU Ratio (%) Dictionary Hit Ratio (%) In Memory sort Ratio (%) File Read Percent (%) File Write Percent (%) File Total I/O Percent (%) Library Cache Hit Ratio (%) Redo Buffer Allocation Retries Ratio (%) Redo Logspace Request Ratio (%) System Event Time Waited (ms) Tablespace Read Percent (%) Tablespace Write Percent (%) Tablespace Total I/O Percent (%) Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise CPU Usage Percentage Memory Usage Percentage Physical I/O Percentage 3
Microsoft SQL Server CPU Usage Percentage Memory Usage Percentage Physical I/O Percentage Microsoft Exchange 2000, 2003 and 2007 Application Server Read Bandwidth (Bytes/Sec) Write Bandwidth (Bytes/Sec) SMTP Local Delivery Queue Size 1 Messages Awaiting Directory Lookup Queue Size 1 Messages to be Routed Queue Size 1 Final Destination Currently Unreachable Queue Size 1 Pre-submission Queue Size 1 SMTP Server Queues Summary 1 Exchange Services 1 Not supported with MS 2007 Storage Groups Storage Group Size (MB) Message Stores and Public Folders Active Client Logons Average Delivery Time (Messages/sec) Receive Queue Size Send Queue Size 1 Store size (MB) 1 Not supported with MS 2007 InterSystems Caché database Routine loads/saves Global references Global Sets Global Kills Database Logical block reads Database physical block reads Database physical block writes Database journal entries Lock commands issued Successful lock commands Failed lock commands 4
Host servers and HP NAS HP Storage Essentials SRM software monitors the performance characteristics of a wide range of server operating environments, including Microsoft Windows, HP-UX, IBM AIX, SGI IRIX, Sun Solaris, and Linux. The following system counters are monitored. Physical Memory Used Free Physical Memory Virtual Memory Used Free Virtual Memory Processor Utilization Host bus adapters (HBAs) HP Storage Essentials SRM software monitors port performance of the HBAs that connect your host servers to your fabric switches. The following counters are monitored for each port: Bytes Transmitted (MB/sec) Bytes Received (MB/sec) Link Failures (Failures/sec) CRC Errors (Errors/sec) Note: These metrics are collected from the fabric switch and not the HBA or host. Fabric switches HP Storage Essentials SRM software monitors port performance of the fabric switches that connect your host servers to your storage systems. The following counters are monitored for each port: Bytes Transmitted (MB/sec) Bytes Received (MB/sec) Link Failures (Failures/sec) CRC Errors (Errors/sec) Storage systems HP Storage Essentials SRM software monitors the performance characteristics of the direct-attached storage (DAS), SAN-attached storage, and network attached storage (NAS) systems that protect your business-critical data. Direct-attached storage For all DAS resources (embedded disks within host servers, JBOD, and SCSI-attached RAID systems), the following performance counters are monitored through the SE CIM extensions. Disk Utilization (%) Disk Read (KB/sec) Disk Write (KB/sec) 5
SAN-attached storage For all Fibre Channel SAN-attached storage systems supported by Storage Essentials SRM software, the following port-level performance counters are monitored: Bytes Transmitted (MB/sec) Bytes Received (MB/sec) Link Failures (Failures/sec) CRC Errors (Errors/sec) Note: These metrics are collected from the fabric switch attached to the SAN storage. NetApp Network-attached storage For all supported NetApp NAS devices, the following performance counters are monitored by Storage Essentials SRM NAS Manager: IP ports Packets Received (Rate/Sec) Packets Sent (Rate/Sec) Bytes Received (Bytes/Sec) Bytes Sent (Bytes/Sec) File system Total Inodes Reserved Inodes Used Inodes CPU CPU Utilization Cache Hit Ratio Name cache hits/misses Inode cache hits/misses Buffer cache hits/misses Total Busy Time Total Busy and Idle Time Note: NetApp does not expose memory utilization statistics since all memory that is not used for initialization is allocated to the file system for caching. In other words, all memory is utilized all of the time. How it is allocated is what really matters. CPU Utilization and Cache Hit Ratio are better indicators of how utilized a filer really is. If the Cache Hit Ratio is low and CPU Utilization is high, the filer is likely reaching maximum utilization. 6
HP Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) For any EVA storage systems in which HP Storage Essentials SRM software supports performance data collection, the following listed performance counters are monitored: Storage system, Storage Pool (Diskgroup), and Volumes (Vdisks) counters Total I/O Rate Total Data Rate Read Rate Read Data Rate Read Hit Rate Write Rate Write Data Rate % Read % Write Average Read Size Average Write Size Read Hit Data Rate Average Read Hit Latency Read Miss Rate Read Miss Data Rate Average Read Miss Latency Average Write Latency Flush Rate Flush Data Rate Mirror Data Rate Prefetch Data Rate Host FC Port Total I/O Rate Total Data Rate Read Rate Read Data Rate Write Rate Write Data Rate % Read % Write Average Read Size Average Write Size Average Read Latency Average Write Latency Average Queue Depth Loss of Signal Bad Rx Char Loss of Synch Link Fail RxEOFa Discard Frames Bad CRC Proto Err 7
Controller Total I/O Rate Total Data Rate Read Rate Read Data Rate Write Rate Write Data Rate % Read % Write Average Read Size Average Write Size Average Read Latency Average Write Latency CPU Percent Data Tx Percent Physical Disk Total I/O Rate Total Data Rate Read Rate Read Data Rate Write Rate Write Data Rate % Read % Write Average Read Size Average Write Size Average Read Latency Average Write Latency Average Queue Depth Average Drive Latency 8
Conclusion HP Storage Essentials SRM software speeds performance bottleneck identification, simplifies troubleshooting, and reduces the need for multiple point-tools with powerful end-to-end SAN performance monitoring for faster problem resolution, helping you meet or exceed quality of service (QoS) agreements. Now with the new Storage Essentials SRM Performance Pack software, you can improve the over all performance of single or multiple EVA SAN(s). Storage Essentials SRM software and SAN management solutions enable data storage to be quickly and efficiently delivered as a strategic, on-demand computing resource to improve business outcomes. HP Storage Essentials SRM software enables IT organizations to discover, visualize, monitor, report on, provide chargeback services, and provision multi-vendor storage infrastructures from a single, Web-based enterprise platform with unprecedented simplicity and speed. Quick to deploy, easy to use, and offering complete investment protection, HP Storage Essentials SRM software is clearly differentiated from all competitive offerings by its common, modular platform, seamless integration, broad range of heterogeneous device support, unequalled scalability, support for industry standards, and business application-to-storage system correlation capabilities. For more information www.hp.com/go/storageessentials Technology for better business outcomes Copyright 2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. Microsoft and Windows are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. 4AA0-1881ENW Rev. 1, October 2008 9