User goals and features

Version 1.0.00 of the PATROL for BMC ProactiveNet Self Monitoring product provides a Knowledge Module (KM) that helps you discover instances, collect performance metrics and thereby monitor the BMC ProactiveNet Server and the BMC ProactiveNet Integration Service along with their associated components. This product provides the following key features:

• Operating system level monitoring:
   You can monitor instances of the BMC ProactiveNet Server and Integration Service at an operating system (OS) level to check the health of OS entities such as the filesystem resources, memory resources, and the processor. The BPPM_MTM application class provides parameters that examine the following areas of the operating system:
  • Physical memory usage (memory status): Available memory is one of the key indicators of a memory bottleneck. If the available memory falls below 5% of the total memory on the system, then either there are one or more processes using excessive memory or additional memory must be added to the computer on which the on which the BMC ProactiveNet Server or the Integration Service is installed. The related PATROL Agent configuration variable for this is /PBP_P4PNetSelfMon/MemoryStatus/availableMemoryLimit. For detailed information about the PATROL Agent configuration variables available, see PATROL-Agent-configuration-variables.
  • Virtual memory usage (Memory status): Another key indicator of a memory bottleneck is the ratio of the committed virtual memory to total physical memory. This ratio should remain below 75 percent. Committed memory is the physical memory in use for which space has been reserved in the paging file in case it needs to be written to the disk.  The committed virtual memory ratio is compared to a configured maximum limit to determine if a potential issue exists. The related PATROL Agent configuration variable for this is /PBP__P4PNetSelfMon/MemoryStatus/committedVirtualMemoryLimit. For detailed information about the PATROL Agent configuration variables available, see PATROL-Agent-configuration-variables.
  • Processor utilization (processor status): A key indicator of a potential processor bottleneck is excessive utilization. Although high processor utilization alone might not be an issue, an excessive number of threads in the processor queue along with high utilization may indicate an issue. A continuous processor utilization above 80 % combined with a continuous processor queue length that is greater than 2 is reported as a potential processor bottleneck. The related PATROL Agent configuration variable for this are /PBP_P4PNetSelfMon/ProcessorStatus/processorUtilizationLimit and /PBP_P4PNetSelfMon/ProcessorStatus/processorQueueLengthLimit. For detailed information about the PATROL Agent configuration variables available, see PATROL-Agent-configuration-variables.
  • Disk space usage (filesystem status): Available space for each logical disk is one of the key indicators of a filesystem bottleneck. The total logical disk space usage for each logical drive should remain below 95%. There might be cases when specific logical drives must not be included to determine the filesystem status, in which case they can be excluded from monitoring. The related PATROL Agent configuration variables for this are /PBP_P4PNetSelfMon/FileSystemStatus/diskSpaceLimit and /PBP_P4PNetSelfMon/FileSystemStatus/logicalDiskExclusion. For detailed information about the PATROL Agent configuration variables available, see PATROL-Agent-configuration-variables.
  • Disk utilization (filesystem status): Another key indicator of a potential filesystem bottleneck is excessive physical disk utilization. Although high disk utilization of physical disks alone might not always be an issue, a high number of outstanding requests on the disk along with high utilization may indicate that the disk is unable to adequately service the system. Each physical disk is evaluated by default, however there might be cases when specific disks must not be included to determine the filesystem status, in which case they can be excluded from monitoring. The related PATROL Agent configuration variables for this are /PBP_P4PNetSelfMon/FileSystemStatus/diskTimeLimit, /PBP_P4PNetSelfMon/FileSystemStatus/diskQueueLengthLimit _and /PBP_P4PNetSelfMon/FileSystemStatus/physicalDiskExclusion. For detailed information about the PATROL Agent configuration variables available, see PATROL-Agent-configuration-variables.

• Component level monitoring:
   You can monitor critical processes which are required for the BMC ProactiveNet Server and Integration Service to function properly. The BPPM_MTM_COMPONENT application class provides parameters that monitor components (critical processes) of the BMC ProactiveNet Server and the Integration Service. These parameters examine the following areas of the components:** Memory utilization** Processor utilization 
  • Handle count 
  • Thread count 
  • Aggregate process status
• PATROL Agent status monitoring:
  In addition to monitoring at the OS level and the component level, this product helps you monitor PATROL Agent connection and collection status for all the PATROL Agents connected to the Integration Service that is being monitored. This includes metrics such as the number of PATROL Agents connected (or disconnected), the overall connection and collection status of PATROL Agents, and so on. The BPPM_MTM_CONNECTION_PROFILE application class provides parameters that monitor the PATROL Agent collection and connection status.

• Failover configuration for Integration Services:
   With minimum configuration, you can add associated failover nodes for Integration Services so that the product accounts for PATROL Agent failover to a different Integration Service. In case of a PATROL Agent failover, the Knowledge Module (KM) provided by this product only detects that the PATROL Agent has got disconnected. It does not see that after disconnecting from the first Integration Service node, the PATROL Agent has moved to some other Integration Service node. In fact, if it detects that the PATROL Agent has remained in the disconnected state for more than the maximum allowed disconnected time (10 minutes by default), then it generates an alarm. To avoid this, you must monitor failover nodes. For more information about this, see Configuring-failover-for-Integration-Services.

• Email notification configuration:
  You can configure email notification for all the parameters available in this product. This is an alternative form of notification, where the product sends out an email notifications to the designated email ID with detailed information about the alert (when a parameter goes into an alarm state). For more information about this, see Configuring email notification.
• Configuration via PATROL Configuration Manager:
  This product is fully configurable via the PATROL Configuration Manager. With the exception of the failover and email notification configuration, the default settings allow it to function properly without any additional configuration required in most cases. For more information about a list of PATROL Agent configuration variables available, see PATROL-Agent-configuration-variables.