Best practices and configuration guidelines for performance and scalability

Follow the guidelines in this section when configuring BMC TrueSight Infrastructure Management components to maximize performance and attain a scalable environment.

Performance data and event processing

Do not collect unnecessary data from the PATROL Agents and configure monitoring in the following order:
- Do not configure or otherwise enable KMs that are not needed for monitoring. This applies to the KMs and the application classes in the KMs. This has the biggest impact on reducing unnecessary data.
- Do not propagate performance data that is not needed to the BMC TrueSight Infrastructure Management Server. Leverage the ability to visualize trended data from BMC PATROL in the operator console without having to store performance data in the database for parameters that meet the following criteria:
  - The parameters are not required in BMC TrueSight Reporting
  - The parameters do not require baselines and baseline related capabilities
- Leverage instance filtering in the monitoring policies so that only those instances that need to be monitored send performance data to the Infrastructure Management Server.
- Leverage parameter performance and event data filtering in the monitoring policies so that only those parameters that need to be monitored send performance data or events to the Infrastructure Management Server.
- Reduce the frequency of data collection for collectors in the PATROL KMs when possible.
Do not send performance data events to the Infrastructure Management Server for those BMC PATROL parameters to which also you are sending performance data. If the performance data for a parameter is sent to the Infrastructure Management Server, events for that parameter must be generated in the Infrastructure Management Server. This eliminates unnecessary events.
Do not propagate unnecessary events from BMC PATROL or any other sources to the remote cells or to the Infrastructure Management Server. Filter events at the source when possible.
Filter events in the lowest tier event management cells when filtering is not possible at the event sources.
As much as possible, configure basic event processing, such as filtering, enrichment, timers, auto closure, and all other event processing that can be instrumented at the lower-tier event management cells. This reduces the event processing load on the Infrastructure Management Server and improves scalability, as well as decreasing the start-up time of the Infrastructure Management Server.
Implement the event management cell that you configure for correlation as a middle-tier event-processing layer between the remote event management cells and the Infrastructure Management Server. This offloads event correlation from the Infrastructure Management Server and helps further reduce the volume of events processed by the Infrastructure Management Server.

Focus data collection on key-performance indicators (KPIs). You do not need to pull all metrics and monitors into Infrastructure Management.
Leverage abnormality-generated Detailed Diagnostics to view information with more details and on non-KPI metrics.
Poll only critical monitor instances at poll intervals that are less than five minutes.

Data retention

The default raw data retention is 3 days. This setting reduces the size of the database with no impact to baselines and their calculations. To view your current raw data retention period, run the following command from a command prompt window:
pw log period list -stats
Do not store more raw data than necessary according to business and IT process requirements. If you are changing this setting after having already collected and retained 4 or more days of raw data, there will be a one-time nominal impact to performance on the BMC TrueSight Infrastructure Management Server as the old data is pruned. If you are concerned about this, you can reduce the raw data retention in increments until you get it down to 3 days.
Store raw data in Infrastructure Management Performance Management Reporting separately for longer periods of time.
Do not reduce raw data retention in the BMC TrueSight Infrastructure Management Server to less than 3 days.
Do not extend raw data retention in the BMC TrueSight Infrastructure Management Server to more than 8 days.

Reporting in the BMC TrueSight Infrastructure Management Server

The following are the best practices for reports generated in Infrastructure Management. They are not related to BMC TrueSight Reporting.

The number of reports generated in the Infrastructure Management Server must be kept to a minimum.
The number of reports viewed by multiple concurrent users in the Infrastructure Management Server must be kept to a minimum.
Historical reports must be configured in BMC TrueSight Reporting, instead of the Infrastructure Management Server.

Configure views and graphs to update on demand, rather than at regular intervals.
Configure reports at less frequent intervals unless absolutely required.
Keep report and view durations at a minimum. Long report periods (that is, reports which span a long duration) can adversely impact performance.
Report scoping can have a large impact on report generation. Use group scoping whenever possible.
Schedule daily report generation for off-peak times (for example, at 2:00 A.M.).

Configuration and deployment

Deploy the Integration Service strategically so that the connections from PATROL Agents to the Integration Service do not span network boundaries or firewalls.
Deploy monitors and users in a phased approach, validating data in a gradual approach.

VMware vCenter memory configuration

When you install Infrastructure Management components on VMware vCenter virtual machines, ensure that you reserve memory.

On the virtual machine, go to Resources > Memory.
Under Reservation, set the memory applicable for your environment.
For more information, see Hardware requirements.

On-access virus scanners

If your environment has an on-access virus scanner enabled, the startup and access time of the Infrastructure Management Server might increase.

Exclude the Infrastructure Management Server installation directory from the on-access virus scanner. The following instructions are for McAfee On-Access Scan. If you are using a different product, consult the product's documentation for additional information.

Access the McAfee On-Access Scan properties.
On the left pane, select Low-Risk Processes.
On the Exclusions tab, select Exclusions and then Add.
Browse and select the Infrastructure Management Server installation directory. For example, C:\Program Files\BMC Software\TrueSight\pw. Select the Also exclude subfolders checkbox.
Select OK to exclude the installation directory from being scanned by McAfee On-Access Scan.