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Sun Management Center 3.6.1 Installation and Configuration Guide

Agent Layer Resources

Sun Management Center 3.6.1 agents should be installed on every managed node in your network to enable advanced management and monitoring functions. Sun Management Center agents are supported on any SPARC platform workstations and servers running Solaris version 7, Solaris version 8, Solaris version 9, or Solaris version 10. Sun Management Center agents are also available for Solaris operating system (x86 Platform Edition) systems running Solaris 9 and Solaris 10 and on Linux.

x86 Agent Limitations

Note –

The same limitations apply for the Linux agent.

The x86 agents do not support any hardware-specific add-ons (except X86 Config Reader). The x86 agents have modules under the Operating System, Local Applications, and Remote Systems categories of the Module Browser tab in the Host Details window. Features such as Physical View, Logical View, Hardware Diagnostic module, and the Config-Reader module are not yet available on the Solaris x86 platform.

In the Java Console window, all x86 platforms have the same x86 icon. For example, two different x86 platform machines, such as the Sun Cobalt LX50 and the Sun Fire V60x, would both have the same icon.

You can filter by platform type when you use the Discovery feature, the Manage Jobs feature, or the PRM add-on. You can filter for the x86 platform by selecting x86 as the platform option.

For the Performance Reporting Manager (PRM) add-on, no system reports and hardware configuration reports are available.

CPU Resources

Sun Management Center agents add a minimal computational load on the host system. The computational load is caused by normal management operations, including periodic data acquisition, alarm rule processing, alarm annunciation, alarm action execution, and the processing of client requests.

The amount of load introduced is proportional to the rate at which data is gathered, the amount of data gathered, the number of alarms detected, and the number of user requests. The percentage of CPU resources consumed therefore depends on the number and type of modules loaded on the system, the configuration of these modules, and the computational capacity of the host system.

Even on low-end machines with a comprehensive suite of modules loaded and high management activity, the agent should never consume more than a fraction of the CPU resources.

The following table gives estimates of the agent CPU and RAM usage by system type and includes information for the x86 agent.

Table C–1 Agent CPU and RAM Use Estimates by System Type

 

 

CPU Usage 

RAM Usage  

 

 

 

Server Type 

Heavy or Light Configuration 

Maximum 

Minimum 

Average 

Average Size 

Average Resident Size 

Sun Blade 100  

Light  

0.10% 

0.00%  

0.21%  

8.77 Mbytes 

7.02 Mbytes  

Sun Fire 280R  

Light  

0.10%  

0.00%  

0.10%  

10.47 Mbytes 

8.49 Mbytes 

Sun Blade 2000  

Light 

0.20%  

0.00%  

0.05%  

8.89 Mbytes 

7.06 Mbytes 

Sun Fire 880  

Light  

0.00%  

0.00%  

0.00%  

8.97 Mbytes 

7.31 Mbytes 

Sun Blade 100 

Heavy  

1.20%  

0.50%  

0.79%  

14.83 Mbytes 

12.99 Mbytes 

Sun Fire 280R  

Heavy  

2.60%  

0.10%  

0.81%  

16.22 Mbytes 

13.92 Mbytes 

Sun Blade 2000  

Heavy  

0.30%  

0.20%  

0.20%  

14.45 Mbytes 

12.76 Mbytes 

Sun Fire 880  

Heavy  

4.40%  

0.10%  

0.88%  

16.15 Mbytes 

14.41 Mbytes 

Light configurations are based on an agent with the following modules loaded:

The heavy configuration is based on an agent with the following modules loaded:

  • Config Reader

  • Health Monitor

  • Full Kernel Reader

  • MIB-II Instrumentation

  • Directory Size Monitoring

  • File Scanning

  • Hardware Diagnostics Suite

  • Script Launcher

  • HP JetDirect

  • Agent Statistics

  • MIB-II Proxy Monitoring

  • Various other modules, including custom modules

The heavy configuration is likely to be greater than needed. Larger machines typically have larger hardware configurations with more processors and disks. These configurations result in greater memory consumption by agents running on larger machines.

Virtual Memory Requirements

The virtual memory used by an agent depends on multiple factors. The primary considerations are the number of management modules loaded and the amount of information being monitored by these modules. Loading many modules on an agent increases its memory requirement. Similarly, agents managing hosts with large disk arrays or other highly scalable assets will probably require more virtual memory because the volume of management information passing through the agents will increase.

In general, a base agent with the default set of management modules loaded is under 10 Mbytes in size. The base agent requires only 50% to 60% of the 10 Mbytes to be resident in physical memory.

Hardware-Specific Module Availability

The majority of Sun Management Center management modules are portable across all SPARC platform systems running Sun Management Center agents. Some advanced hardware-specific Sun Management Center modules, however, are not supported on all Sun hardware. Specifically, the platform Config-Reader and Dynamic Reconfiguration modules provide advanced management of the underlying hardware platform. The functions these modules provide are not necessarily applicable to all hardware systems in the Sun product family.

The following table summarizes the availability of the Sun Management Center management modules on the various hardware platforms.

Table C–2 Hardware-Specific Module Availability

Hardware 

Config-Reader Module 

Dynamic Reconfiguration Module  

All Other Sun Management Center Modules 

SPARCStation 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 

No 

No 

Yes 

Sun Ultra 1, 450 

Yes 

No 

Yes 

Sun Enterprise 5, 10, 150, Sun Fire 280R, Sun Fire V480 

Yes 

No 

Yes 

SPARCserver 1000, 1000E 

Yes 

No 

Yes 

SPARCcenter 2000, 2000E 

Yes 

No 

Yes 

Sun StorEdge A5x00, T3 

Yes 

No 

Yes 

Netra T1120-1125, T1400-T1405 

Yes 

No 

Yes 

Sun Blade 100, 1000, 1500, 2500 

Yes 

No 

Yes 

Sun Fire 3800, 4800, 4810, 6800, V210, V240, V250, V440, V880, E25K, E20K, E6900, E4900 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Management Module Resources

The resource requirements of management modules depend on the following factors:

The following table summarizes the resource impact of the Sun Management Center management modules.

Table C–3 Sun Management Center Management Module System Impact Summary

Module 

Impact 

Agent Statistics

Incurs low footprint increase and low CPU load increase. 

Config-Reader

Uses CPU and memory relative to the complexity of the hardware configuration of the managed node. 

Data Logging Registry

Incurs low footprint and CPU load increase that is proportional to the amount of data values being logged. 

Directory Size Monitoring

Incurs a low footprint increase that is proportional to the number of directories monitored. Incurs low to moderate CPU load that depends on both the number of directories monitored and the activity within those directories. 

Dynamic Reconfiguration 

Has minimal footprint impact and utilizes CPU only when performing reconfiguration operations. 

File Monitoring

Incurs low footprint increase proportional to the number of files that are monitored. Incurs low to moderate CPU load, depending on both the number of files that are monitored and the activity within those files. 

File Scanning (System Log)

Incurs low footprint and CPU load increase. 

Health Monitoring

Has relatively low impact on resources. 

HP JetDirect

Incurs low footprint increase and low CPU load. 

IPV6 Instrumentation Module

Incurs low CPU load increase and low to medium footprint increase dependent on the number of network interfaces. 

Kernel Reader, Full

Affects CPU and memory based on the number of file systems, CPUs, and other system resources under management, as well as the rate of refresh of this information. Consumes more resources than the Simple Kernel Reader. 

Kernel Reader, Simple 

Has minimal impact on CPU and memory. 

MIB-II Instrumentation

Incurs minimal CPU load and low to moderate footprint increase depending on the number of network interfaces, and the size of the routing tables, ARP tables, and related system tables. 

MIB-II Proxy Monitoring 

Incurs moderate footprint increase proportional to the size of the MIB of the proxy-monitored SNMP agent. Incurs low to moderate CPU load proportional to the number of managed objects in the proxy-monitored SNMP agent. 

MIB-II Simple

Incurs virtually no CPU load and very little footprint increase, proportional to the size of the system interfaces, IP forwarding, and IP address table. 

NFS File System

Incurs low footprint increase that is proportional to the number of network file systems mounted on the host machine, and low CPU load. 

NFS Statistics

Incurs low footprint increase and low to moderate CPU load. 

Print Spooler

Incurs low footprint and CPU load increase. 

Solaris Process Monitoring

Incurs low footprint increase that is proportional to the number of processes monitored. Incurs low to moderate CPU load, depending both on the number of processes monitored and how often the processes are started and stopped. 

Sun StorEdge A5x00 Array, Sun StorEdge T3 Array

Incurs moderate footprint and load increase that is proportional to the size of the storage device.