Best Practices Guide

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Best Practices Guide

Some best practices recommended for optimum functioning of MSP Center Plus is given below.

Configuring MSP Center Plus for Performance

Based on the working environment configuring certain parameters will result in optimum performance of MSP Center Plus. Some parameters can be configured via the user interface, some by editing the configuration file and database tables manually. Module-wise configurations and recommended values are given below.

Discovery Configuration

Configuring Discovery Parameters
MSP Probe pings the devices for discovery and further for determining availability, and 4 ping packets are sent by default. If there is network latency, it is possible that some devices are not discovered, or post discovery, they are not polled for status. This can be addressed by configuring few ping parameters.
  1. From <probe-home>\conf folder open the ping.properties file.
  2. Uncomment (remove the # symbol) against the timeout parameter and specify the ping timeout depending on the latency.
  3. Similarly, you can increase the number of ping retries by configuring the value for retries parameter. Make sure you uncomment this parameter too for the configuration to be effected.
  4. Save the file.
  5. Restart the Probe to implement the above the changes.
Note: The above configuration has to be done only in the probe side and has to be repeated for every probe installed.

Monitoring and Data Collection Configuration

Addressing Timeout Issue
The default SNMP query timeout to variables in a device is 5 seconds. If there is a delay in the agent response for some devices, you can globally increase the SNMP timeout as given below.
  1. Change as From <probe-home>/conf folder open the file NmsProcessesBE.conf.
  2. Look for the following default entry in this file:

    PROCESS com.adventnet.nms.poll.Collector

    ARGS POLL_OBJECTS_IN_MEMORY 25 POLL_JDBC true MAX_OIDS_IN_ONE_POLL 15 AUTHORIZATION true DATA_COLLECTION_QUERY_INTERVAL 120000 PASS_THRO_ALL_POLLING_OBJECTS true CLEAN_DATA_INTERVAL 999999
  3. Include the additional parameter DATA_COLLECTION_SNMP_TIMEOUT 15. Now the changed entry will be as shown below:

    PROCESS com.adventnet.nms.poll.Collector

    ARGS POLL_OBJECTS_IN_MEMORY 25 POLL_JDBC true MAX_OIDS_IN_ONE_POLL 15 AUTHORIZATION true DATA_COLLECTION_QUERY_INTERVAL 120000 PASS_THRO_ALL_POLLING_OBJECTS true CLEAN_DATA_INTERVAL 999999 DATA_COLLECTION_SNMP_TIMEOUT 15
  4. Save the changes and restart the Probe.
Data Collection Threads
By default, MSP Probe uses 12 threads for SNMP polling and 12 threads for WMI polling.

SNMP Data Collection
The assumption is that each monitored device has a minuimum of 10 polled data (monitored resources such as cpu, memory, incoming traffic, out-going traffic, errors etc).  Each Interface object has 11 polleddata which include RxTraffic, TxTraffic, Bandwidth Utilization, Errors, Discards etc. Depending on the number of polleddata, you can increase the number of datapoll threads. Consider the following steps to increase the number of datapoll threads.
  1. Open the file threads.conf [<probe-home>\conf folder].
  2. Increase the value of datapoll threads from 12 to the required number of threads for SNMP polling.
  3. Save changes and restart the Probe.
Following is a reference table to increase the number of threads.
Number of devices/interfaces
Hardware
Number of datapoll threads
Number of SNMP PolledData
Monitoring Interval
Upto 500 server/ 5000 interfaces
2*3.4GHz, 4GB
12 (default)
Upto 50000
15 mins
Beyond the above numbers
4*3.4GHz. 4 to 8GB
13-20
More than 50000: Additional 1 thread for every 5000 polleddata
15 mins

WMI Data Collection
Assumption is around 50 Polled data per monitored Windows device. (Includes Resource monitors, Windows Service Monitors, AD monitors, MSSQL monitors, Exchange monitors). To increase the number of datapoll threads from 12 consider the following steps.
  1. Open the file threads.conf [<probe-home>\conf folder].
  2. Increase the value of WMI_EXEC threads from 12 to the required number of threads for WMI polling.
  3. Save changes and restart the Probe.
Following is a reference table to increase the number of threads.
Number of devices/interfaces
Number of threads
Number of WMI PolleData
Monitoring Interval
100
12 (default)
Upto 5000
15 mins
More than 100
13-18
Above 5000
15 mins

Note: Data collection parameter configurations has to be done only in the probe side and has to be repeated for every probe installed.

View PolledData
You can view the polleddata by quering the database. Here are the steps:
  1. From the command prompt, change directory to /Probe/mysql/bin
  2. Connect to MySQL as follows:

    mysql -u root -P 33306 dmsdb
  3. Now execute the following query to see the number of PolledData for the monitored devices with the protocol information (SNMP, WMI, CLI etc):

    select count(*) from PolledData where PROTOCOL='SNMP';

    In the PolledData table, following are a few columns you have to understand:

    • NAME- the name of the polleddata (the monitored resource)
    • AGENT- the device in which the resource is monitored
    • ID - a unique ID for each polleddata
    • PROTOCOL- the monitoring protocol which could be SNMP for SNMP polling, WMI for WMI polling, CLI for Telnet/ SSH polling, SPOLL - for pings to devices to determine availability
Disabling Unnecessary Polling
With MSP Center Plus it is possible to disable polling for a device. To disable polling for a device consider the following steps.
  1. Go to the Device snapshot page.
  2. Mouse-over Actions tab and click on Monitoring.
  3. Deselect the option Enable Polling for this device.
  4. Click on OK.
[or]
  1. Go to the Device snapshot page.
  2. Mouse-over Actions tab and click on Unmanage.
Also disabling polling for the devices in a category is possible. Consider the following steps.
  1. Go to Quick Configuration Wizard [Network Monitoring-> Admin].
  2. Click on Manage/Unmanage devices.
  3. Click on Next.
  4. Select the device category.
  5. Select the devices that you want to unmanage (disable polling) from Managed devices box and move to Unmanaged devices box.
  6. Click on Finish.
Configuring Device Dependencies
False alerts are triggered when a set of monitored devices are behind another device (a firewall, router etc). The requests sent to the devices are routed through the firewall or router, and in the event of these dependent devices being down, all devices behind this dependent devices are deemed as down. To configure device dependencies follow the below steps.
  1. Go to Quick Configuration Wizard [Network Monitoring-> Admin].
  2. Click on the radio button corresponding to Configure Device Dependencies.
  3. Click on Next.
  4. Select the category and the device. [This the device on which the other devices are dependent.]
  5. Click on Next.
  6. Select any one of the following options.
    • Assign to all devices in the category:
      1. Select the desired category. [The devices in this device category are the dependent devices.]
      2. Click on Next.
    • Assign to all devices in the business view:
      1. Select the desired business view. [The devices in this business view are the dependent devices.]
      2. Click on Next.
    • Manually Group Devices:
      1. Click on Next.
      2. Select the desired device(s) from the Devices for which dependency is not configured box to Dependent devices box. [The selected devices are the dependent devices.]
      3. Click on Finish.
[or]

To configure device dependency for a single device follow the below steps.
  1. Go to the Device snapshot page of the dependent device.
  2. Under Device Details tab click on value that is given corresponding to Dependency field and select the dependency device. 
Monitoring Intervals
MSP Center Plus allows you to fix the monitoring intervals for devices (routers, switches etc.) and resources (CPU, Memory etc.).

Configuring Monitoring Intervals for Devices
Configure smaller monitoring interval values for critical devices like Router, Servers, Printers etc. To change the monitoring intervals for the devices
  1. Go to Device snapshot page.
  2. Mouse-over Actions tab and click on Monitoring.
  3. Enter the desired value in the Monitoring Interval box.
  4. Click on OK.
[or]
  1. Go to Device snapshot page.
  2. Under Device Details tab, under Monitoring field, click on the value that is mentioned.
  3. Enter the desired value and press Enter key.
Configuring Monitoring Intervals for Resources
The resources critical to a device's availability can be polled more frequently, with the minimum configurable interval being 1 minute, while the other resources can be polled less frequently. To change the monitoring intervals for the resources
  1. Go to the Device snapshot page.
  2. Under Monitors tab, click on any of the Monitors (Resource monitors, Traffic monitors etc.). [For example click on Resource Monitors.]
  3. Click on the edit icon  that is corresponding to the monitor whose interval has to be changed. [Click on the edit button corresponding to the CPU utilization.]
  4. Enter the desired value in the Polling Interval (mins) box.
  5. Click on OK.

Database Tuning

Configuring MYSQL Parameters
MSP Center Plus comes bundled with MySQL as the default database. Depending on the RAM of the server in which Probe is installed, you can set the values of the MySQL parameters to perform to its capacity.

You can configure these MySQL parameters with the required values in <probe-home>\bin\startMYSQL.bat script. Here is how you pass these parameters:

Open the startMYSQL.bat in a notepad. The startMYSQL.bat file consists of three different configurations in it.

The user can uncomment the appropriate configuration, based on the system's configuration. For enabling a particular configuration:
  1. Remove the rem before @start for the configuration of your choice.
  2. Add the word rem before @start of the other configurations.
  3. Save the file and restart the Probe.
rem Settings for 32 bit machine, 1GB RAM
@start /B mysqld-nt --defaults-file=..\data\my.cnf --basedir=..\ --port=%DB_PORT% --datadir=..\data --tmpdir=..\tmp --set-variable=query-cache-type=1  --read_buffer_size=2M --read_rnd_buffer_size=2M --sort_buffer_size=2M --join_buffer_size=2M --myisam_sort_buffer_size=10M  --myisam_max_sort_file_size=30M --key_buffer_size=200M --bulk_insert_buffer_size=20M --innodb_buffer_pool_size=100M --query_cache_size=100M  --max_heap_table_size=20M --tmp_table_size=20M --innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit=2 --language=..\share\english\ --skip-bdb --skip-ndbcluster --skip-external-locking --log-warnings

rem Settings for 32 bit machine, 2GB RAM
@start /B mysqld-nt --defaults-file=..\data\my.cnf --basedir=..\ --port=%DB_PORT% --datadir=..\data --tmpdir=..\tmp --set-variable=query-cache-type=1 --read_buffer_size=5M --read_rnd_buffer_size=5M --sort_buffer_size=5M --join_buffer_size=5M --myisam_sort_buffer_size=50M  --myisam_max_sort_file_size=50M  --key_buffer_size=250M --bulk_insert_buffer_size=50M  --innodb_buffer_pool_size=150M  --query_cache_size=130M --max_heap_table_size=50M --tmp_table_size=50M  --innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit=2  --language=..\share\english\ --log-warnings --skip-bdb --skip-ndbcluster --skip-external-locking

rem Settings for 32 bit machine, 4GB RAM
@start /B mysqld-nt --defaults-file=..\data\my.cnf --basedir=..\ --port=%DB_PORT% --datadir=..\data --tmpdir=..\tmp --set-variable=query-cache-type=1 --read_buffer_size=10M --read_rnd_buffer_size=10M --sort_buffer_size=10M --join_buffer_size=10M --myisam_sort_buffer_size=50M  --myisam_max_sort_file_size=50M  --key_buffer_size=400M --bulk_insert_buffer_size=50M  --innodb_buffer_pool_size=200M  --query_cache_size=200M --max_heap_table_size=100M --tmp_table_size=100M  --innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit=2  --language=..\share\english\ --log-warnings --skip-bdb --skip-ndbcluster --skip-external-locking


Disturbing database for scalability
If the monitored devices are over 500 (or over 5000 interfaces), with more than 50000 polleddata, you can consider porting the database onto another dedicated server.

Increasing Java Heap Size

OpManager Java Heap Size can be increased based on optimization requirements by editing the value of -Xms/-Xmx  parameter in StartOpManagerServer.bat/sh [<probe-home>\bin folder] script or by editing the file wrapper.conf (Initial/Maximum Java Heap Size) [<probe-home>\conf folder]. The recommended JVM Heap Size is:
Hardware
Inital Heap Size (-Xms)
Maximum Heap Size (-Xmx)
1GB RAM
100
200
1GB RAM200
512
4GB RAM512
1024

Wish you a successful deployment. Do keep in touch with our support team for technical assistance.

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