Sun N1 System Manager 1.1 Administration Guide

Setting Polling Intervals

The monitoring of an object consists of regular checks, or polls, of the monitored object. The frequency of these polls is controlled by setting the polling interval. The appropriate interval length between polls of the monitored object is related to the object being monitored and its environment, and the performance conditions to which the monitored object is being subjected. Default polling intervals are provided for some monitored objects, including server hardware objects such as fans. Default polling intervals apply for those servers or groups of servers for which specific interval values have not been set by using the set command.

Changing Polling Intervals With the Monitoring Configuration File

You can modify default values for polling intervals for hardware health, OS resource utilization, and network reachability by editing the monitoring.properties configuration file.

Note –

The polling of network reachability is not possible if OS monitoring is not enabled.

If the monitoring.properties configuration file is not present, create it and save it in /etc/opt/sun/n1gc/monitoring.properties. The monitoring.properties is not created by default at installation.

Factory-configured default polling intervals are provided in the N1 System Manager software. These values are stated in seconds. The factory-configured defaults are provided in Table 5–3.

Table 5–3 Factory-Configured Default Polling Intervals


Type of Monitoring	Default Polling Interval
Hardware health	120 seconds
OS resources	120 seconds
Network reachability	60 seconds

Any entries you make in the monitoring.properties configuration file overwrite these factory-configured defaults.

Note –

The minimum default polling interval that you can set is 60 seconds

The monitoring.properties configuration file exists only on the management server and not on provisionable servers. Modifying the default polling intervals stored in the monitoring.properties configuration file affects all the provisionable servers managed by the N1 System Manager.

You do not need to reboot the management server or the monitored provisionable server for changes to the monitoring.properties file to take effect.

Default polling intervals stored in the monitoring.properties configuration file apply to all servers unless specific values have been set at the command line for a specific server or group of servers. Set specific polling interval values by using the set command, as described in Setting Polling Intervals.

Tuning Polling Intervals for Your Installation

After a period of usage after installation and deployment, you can develop an awareness of how frequently you should be polling hardware health attributes and OS resource utilization attributes, and how often you need to poll your network reachability. Your configuration of the N1 System Manager depends on what your priorities are, in terms of crucial events. When setting polling intervals, or when changing default polling intervals, consider the number of servers you are managing with your N1 System Manager software. Consider also the application loads or application expected loads of your provisionable servers, and the capabilities of your network. Your expected responsiveness to events is also relevant. If you are able to react quickly to events as they occur, polling more frequently is appropriate.

For further information about tuning polling intervals for your installation, see To Increase the N1 System Manager Performance in Sun N1 System Manager 1.1 Installation and Configuration Guide.

To Retrieve Polling Interval Values for a Server

Steps

Type the show server command:
N1-ok> show server server
In this procedure, server is the name of the provisionable server for which you want to retrieve polling intervals.

Detailed monitoring polling intervals appear in the output, including polling interval information for the server's hardware health, OS resource utilization, and network reachability.

See show server in Sun N1 System Manager 1.1 Command Line Reference Manual for details.

To Modify the Default Polling Interval for a Server

Before You Begin

To enable the management agent IP and security credentials on a server named server, add the management features on the server as explained in Adding Base and OS Management Features.

Steps

Open the /etc/opt/sun/n1gc/monitoring.properties file.

If the file does not exist, create it.

Modify or add lines in the monitoring.properties file that describe default polling intervals.

pollinginterval.monitor=value

The syntax requires the pollinginterval keyword.

monitor is either hardwarehealth, osresources or network. The polling of network reachability is not possible unless OS resource monitoring has been enabled, as described in Enabling Monitoring.

The value is in seconds, and the minimum value is 60.

Save the file.

You do not need to reboot the management server or the provisionable server for the changes to take effect. The modified default polling intervals values now apply to all servers managed by the N1 System Manager.

Example 5–6 Modifying Default Values

This example shows how to set the hardware health monitoring polling interval to 180 seconds, the OS resource utilization monitoring polling interval to 175 seconds, and the network reachability monitoring polling interval to 160 seconds. The following entries are made in the monitoring.properties configuration file.

pollinginterval.hardwarehealth=180
pollinginterval.osresources=175
pollinginterval.network=160

Setting Polling Intervals

This section contains procedures that describe how to set the polling intervals for a server or a server group.

To Set Polling Intervals for a Server

This procedure shows you how to set a polling interval for a server at the command line. Any value set this way overwrites the factory-configured default value or the value in the monitoring.properties configuration file, if the file exists.

Steps

Type the set server command with the monitor attribute.
set server server monitor monitor interval value
This command is executed for a server that you have already named. In this procedure, this name appears as server. See set server in Sun N1 System Manager 1.1 Command Line Reference Manual for details.

The monitor is either hardwarehealth, osresources, or network.

The value is in seconds.

Note –
The minimum polling interval that you can set is 60 seconds.

Example 5–7 Setting the Polling Interval for Hardware Health Monitoring of a Server

This example shows how to set a polling interval of 280 seconds for hardware health monitoring of a provisionable server named serv1.

N1-ok> set server serv1 monitor hardwarehealth interval 280

To Set Polling Intervals for a Server Group

Any value set this way overwrites the factory-configured default value or the value in the monitoring.properties configuration file, if the file exists.

Steps

Type the set group command with the monitor attribute.
set group group monitor monitor interval value
This command is executed for a group of servers that you have already named. In this procedure, this name appears as group. See set group in Sun N1 System Manager 1.1 Command Line Reference Manual for details.

The monitor is either hardwarehealth, osresources, or network.

The value is in seconds.

Note –
The minimum polling interval that you can set is 60 seconds.

Example 5–8 Setting the Polling Interval for Network Reachability Monitoring of a Server Group

This example shows how to set a polling interval of 250 seconds for network reachability monitoring of a group of provisionable servers named grp5.

N1-ok> set group grp5 monitor network interval 250