Monitoring Visibility

Added by Ryan Morgan, last edited by Charles Lee on Mar 16, 2006  (view change)

Monitoring Visibility

Hyperic HQ provides a convenient way to view the overall health of the resources through the analysis of the metrics collected. The main monitor visibility page of each resource is known as the Current Health page.

Navigating to Current Health

The Current Health page is the default monitor visibility page that you land on whenever you navigate to the monitoring pages from elsewhere in the product. For example, you can click on any resource name from any of the dashboard portlets, with the exception of Auto-Discovery, that displays resources. Similarly, clicking on any resource name or clicking on the icon next to the resource name in Browse Resources will take you to the Current Health page of that resource.

If you are already in the monitor visibility pages of the resource, you can click on the tab to reach the Current Health page.

Resources

There are several portlets in the column of the Current Health page. The number and types of portlets depend on the type of resource you are viewing.

Child Resources Health Portlets

A Child Resources Health Portlet displays a list of the resource's child resources (as defined by HQ's resource hierarchy) and a snapshot of their current health. There may be more than one child resources portlet displayed for given resource, depending on the type of the resource displayed. The title of the portlet will reflect how the child resources are categorized.

  • Platforms display two portlets: Platform Services and Deployed Servers.
  • Servers and Applications display two portlets: Deployed Services and Internal Services.
  • Services, Autogroups, and Groups have no child resources.

Each resource in the list is displayed with either their name or type, if there are more than one child resource of that type (this is an autogroup). If the resource is an autogroup, then the Total column will denote how many resources are included. The Avail column displays the last known availability value of the resource.

In the right most column of this list is the menu icon. Clicking on this icon or the resource/type name will take you directly to the Current Health page of that resource. Hovering over the icon will bring up the Child Resource menu. The menu displays the resource type, last known Usage metric value, and a detailed breakdown of availability (applies to autogroups only).

Host Resources Health Portlet

The Host Resources Health Portlet displays one or more host resource(s) of the resource you are currently viewing. Each resource is displayed with its current availability, as well as an icon that displays the Host Resource menu. Following list is how the hosts are determined for each resource type:

  • Servers and Platform Services display their host platforms.
  • Services display their host servers.
  • Applications display the servers that are host servers of the services included in the application.
  • Groups and Autogroups display the host resources of the group members, unless the group consisting of platforms.

The title of the portlet will specify the relationship described above. Clicking on the menu icon or the resource name will take you directly to the Current Health page of that resource. Hovering over the icon will bring up the Host Resource menu, which displays the resource type and the last known Usage metric value.

Group Member Resources Health Portlet

If you are viewing a Group or Autogroup, the Group Members Resources Health Portlet will be displayed. The portlet lists the member resources of this group, along with each resource's current availability. The data displayed in the Problem Metrics Portlet and the Indicators will only include the data from a given member resource only if its checkbox had been checked. The right most column is an icon for the resource's menu. Clicking on the menu icon or the resource name will take you directly to the Current Health page of that resource. Hovering over the icon will bring up the resource menu, which displays the resource type and the last known Usage metric value.

Problem Metrics Portlet

This portlet displays the list of problem metrics in the metric display range. By default, it displays only the problem metrics of the resource that you are viewing. However, you can view the problem metrics of other related resources by setting the checkboxes next to any of the other resources and resource types listed above the portlet and clicking the button to display the problem metrics of the checked resources as well.

Each problem metric is displayed with two counts: O.O.B. and Alerts. The icon menu button appears to the right of the count columns. To display the metric data of the problem metric as a column chart in the workspace on the right-hand side of the page, simply click the icon. Otherwise, hovering over the icon will bring up the context-sensitive problem metrics menu. The menu has the following data and function:

  • Resource Type: the resource type of the metric. This value will reflect the varying resource types when other resources have been selected above. If the resource type represents more than one resource in the hierarchy, then this item will also display the number of resources that have the same problem metric in parenthesis.
  • Problems Began the time of the first occurrence of O.O.B. metric value or alert
  • Chart Metric in Indicators: click on this option to display a chart for this metric in the Indicators workspace on the right-hand side of the page.
  • View Full Chart: click on this option to navigate to the full chart page of this metric.
  • Metric Data: click on this option to display a popup window which contains the meta data information on this metric and its data.

You can also switch the list of metrics to include all metrics, instead of only problem metrics. To view all metrics, click on the Problem Metrics drop-down and select All Metrics. All of the functionality of the problem metrics display apply to the all metrics display.

Indicators

The column on the Current Health page provides a visual workspace for you to analyze and compare metrics in-depth to gain insight into the current health of your resource(s).

Availability and Timeline

Near the top of the Indicators column is the availability history of the resource:

The availability values span across the defined metric display range. The overall average availability value appears after the Availability heading. Each availability light reflects the average availability over the time slice represented. There are four possible color values:

Availability Values Color Table

Green 100% availability
Red 0% availability
Yellow Availability between 0% to 100%
Orange Resource is paused
Gray No availability was collected in the time frame

Clicking on any of the availability lights will bring up or move a highlight bar, which conveniently lines up all of the metrics in the indicator charts with the availability light that you are analyzing. Near the bottom of the column is the timeline display. The timeline has the same ability to bring up the highlight bar as the availability history. In addition, hovering over any of the time slice will bring up a popup that specifies the time represented by the square, giving you an idea what occurred in that time frame by lining up the availability and the metric data.

Indicator Charts and Views

Below the availability history is an scrollable (if necessary) area where the metrics are charted, these are known as the indicator charts. The indicator charts are displayed as column charts, where the area of each column indicates the value range (the high and low values) of the metric. The average value of the metric is indicated by the cross in the column. By default, charts of metrics that have been selected by the plugin as designated metrics for the type of resource you are viewing are displayed. You can choose additional metrics to be charted by selecting them from the Problem Metrics Portlet. The indicator charts are stacked vertically so that their X-axis (time) values line up. This works in conjunction with the highlight bar from the availability and timeline to analyze the metric data across multiple metrics for any given time. This is especially useful when you are trying to diagnose a problem at a specific time by correlating the important metrics and their metric values.

When the number of charts displayed exceed the screen real estate, a vertical scrollbar appears. You can use the scrollbar to navigate to the metric charts that are not currently visible on the screen. The order of the charts can be easily changed by using the and buttons that appear in the upper-right hand corner of each of the charts. Furthermore, you can remove a chart from this display by clicking on the chart close button.

Once you have a set of metrics that you have arranged, you can persist the set and its order as a view. The view controls appear in the upper right-hand corner of the Indicators column. The name of the current view appears in the text box. There are several actions you can take by selecting the appropriate option from the view drop-down.

The drop down displays only options that are currently applicable, therefore, not all of the following actions appear in the drop-down list at all times.

Indicator Charts View Actions Table

Update view Update the current view as displayed.
Create New View Create a new view with the current display. You must enter a valid view name in the name text box.
Delete view Delete the current view.
Go to View Select one of the following view(s) to display a previously saved view.

To execute any of the actions, select it in the drop-down and, if necessary, click on the button.


Events and Logs Tracking

Between the Indicator Charts and the bottom Timeline is the Events and Logs Tracking display, labeled Events/Logs Tracking.

If one or more events have been recorded in a time slice, then a blue box appears along the display at the corresponding time display, allowing the occurrence to be correlated to the indicator metrics charts above using the highlight bar. Clicking on any one of the blue boxes will bring up a box below the timeline with the detail(s) of the event(s) in the time slice. The default view displays all details, however, the display can be filtered by: Error, Warn, Info, Debug, HQ Alerts, and Control Actions. To enable events/log tracking of individual resources (not all resource types support tracking), you will need to configure the resource in its inventory properties. HQ Alerts and Control Actions are automatically tracked when they are created or performed.

Next Steps

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