Re: [hobbit] CPU utilisation alerts

[vernon.everett (at) westernpower.com.au]

So we both want a basic CPU utilisation alert.
Cool.
Hopefully somebody on the list has done this before.
If not, it's time to do a bit of scripting.
If I have to do it myself, I will post the results, if you are interested.

Regards
     Vernon

"Kern, Thomas" <Thomas.Kern (at) hq.doe.gov> wrote on 13/09/2007 12:56:08 PM:

> On the mainframes, we are used to lots of tasks waiting for various 
> resources. Main memory, virtual memory, I/O, etc all are important 
> and can be tuned fairly well. When that tuning isn't quite right, 
> throughput can be degraded but the pain is not as bad as when the 
> CPU gets overloaded. CPU is one resource that is hard to change, I 
> have run systems that needed to be less than 50% busy and others 
> that the boss wanted at 100% and wished for 110% busy.
> 
> The CPU value can also be the first indication of a runaway user or 
> bad database query (this is our most common problem). Once we know 
> from the CPU utilization that something is wrong, we can look for 
> the cause and maybe the other problems are there too.
> 
> 
> Thomas Kern
> 301-903-2211
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: vernon.everett (at) westernpower.com.au 
<vernon.everett (at) westernpower.com.au>
> To: hobbit (at) hswn.dk <hobbit (at) hswn.dk>
> Sent: Thu Sep 13 00:23:43 2007
> Subject: Re: [hobbit] CPU utilisation alerts
> 
> 
> It might be different in mainframe world, but in Unix world, you 
> need to look at both the run queue length, IO stats and the CPU 
> utilisation to get an idea of what's happening.
> If your CPU is at 100% and your run queue is still small, it's 
> probably just a hefty process chugging along, like a compile.
> If your run queue is huge, and growing, and your CPU isn't yet at 
> 100% you need to look at your IO. Disk, memory, swap, any resource 
> that could be generating contention and IO wait.
> If there is major contention for these resources you need to look at
> adding more, or utilising them differently - spread data across 
> multiple disks or mirror the disk to increase read throughput, that 
> sort of thing.
> If your run queue is huge, and growing, and CPU is at 100%, while IO
> is low, it's probably time to move to a new server, or find the 
> developer and tell him to fix his bugs. :-)
> 
> So absolute CPU utilisation on its own, isn't particularly 
> meaniingful, but if that's what the PHBs want, let's give it to them.
> 
> Regards
>      Vernon
> 
> 
> "Kern, Thomas" <Thomas.Kern (at) hq.doe.gov> wrote on 13/09/2007 12:07:37 PM:
> 
> > I would prefer that the cpu test be the data from the vmstat command
> > instead of the load values. I am used to a mainframe system and cpu
> > utilization is more useful that queue length. All of my Linux
> > systems are guests on a mainframe system so their individual cpu
> > utilizations is not as important as the values from my first level
> > system and I am working on a client side test for that.
> >
> >
> > Thomas Kern
> > 301-903-2211
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: vernon.everett (at) westernpower.com.au <vernon.
> everett (at) westernpower.com.au>
> > To: hobbit (at) hswn.dk <hobbit (at) hswn.dk>
> > Sent: Wed Sep 12 23:56:43 2007
> > Subject: Re: [hobbit] CPU utilisation alerts
> >
> >
> > Hi Thomas
> >
> > Thanks for your quick response.
> >
> > A client side script would work, but I was thinking I cannot be the
> > first person to need this, and that somebody else has already
> > invented the wheel.
> > (I hate reinventing stuff)
> > Alternatively, I was hoping that Henrik has some magic switch or
> > config setting that will make it work.
> >
> > Regards
> >        Vernon
> >
> >
> > "Kern, Thomas" <Thomas.Kern (at) hq.doe.gov> wrote on 13/09/2007 11:46:07 
AM:
> >
> > > I don't know if you can alert off one of the values in one of the
> > > trends graphs. That might take some back-end modifications.
> > >
> > > But you could write a simple client-side script to do the same
> > > command that is parsed for the trends graphs (vmstat, I think),
> > > totaling the cpu utilization values and sending a simple status
> > > message with the appropriate g/y/r color. The hobbit can do the 
alert.
> > >
> > >
> > > Thomas Kern
> > > 301-903-2211
> > >
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: vernon.everett (at) westernpower.com.au <vernon.
> > everett (at) westernpower.com.au>
> > > To: hobbit (at) hswn.dk <hobbit (at) hswn.dk>
> > > Sent: Wed Sep 12 23:36:07 2007
> > > Subject: [hobbit] CPU utilisation alerts
> > >
> > >
> > > Hi all
> > >
> > > I'm baaaack :-)
> > > For those who might have missed me, I spent a few months contracting
> > > for a company that standardised on BMC Patrol. Wouldn't even 
> look at Hobbit.
> > > BMC is a horrible package, expensive, not very extensible, with a
> > > huge client footprint and overhead, and is very prone to crashing.
> > > Sad product.
> > >
> > > But no matter, I am now trying to satisfy my new company that Hobbit
> > > is the one monitor to rule them all, and my new colleagues have
> > > identified a "deficiency".
> > >
> > > This has probably been asked and answered before, but here is 
> whatthey want.
> > > I have been asked to generate a yellow/red status when absolute CPU
> > > utilisation reaches predetermined thresholds.
> > > Yes, I know, without looking at the run-queue this figure is not
> > > very meaningful, but this is what they want.
> > >
> > > The la1 graph in the trends column does an excellent job of graphing
> > > the CPU utilisation, but how do I configure an alert based on that 
figure?
> > >
> > > Regards
> > >        Vernon
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > 
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