Configuring the Capacity Agent to collect data at a greater granularity

You can configure a Capacity Agent to collect data at a greater granularity to perform detailed investigation of the capacity and performance issues in your systems. The maximum granularity that you can configure for data collection is one second.

If you configure data collection at one second granularity, the size of the collected data tends to grow rapidly, especially, when the data retention period is high or there are thousands of processes running in your systems. Therefore, before enabling such data collection, ensure that you have sufficient disk space available for saving the collected data. For information about estimating the disk space that is required for collecting data at a greater granularity, see Estimating-the-disk-space-on-the-Agent-system-for-historical-data.

You can configure one second data collection for specific metric groups. See the following topics:

• Configuring for large UDR files size (greater than 2 GB)
• Enabling one second data collection
• Enabling one second data collection on multiple systems

Configuring for large UDR files size (greater than 2 GB)

With data collection at a greater granularity, the size of the UDR files increases. To enable this size to grow beyond 2 GB, you must configure the UDR parameter as follows:

1. Stop the Capacity Agent.

   • (Windows)

     Navigate to the following directory, and double-click bgsagent_stop.exe.
     C:\Program Files\BMC Software\Patrol3\BEST1\<agent_version>\bgs\bin

   • (UNIX and Linux)
     Run this command: $BEST1_HOME/bgs/scripts/best1agent_stop -b /usr/adm/best1_<agent_version>

2. On the computer where the Agent is installed, navigate to the following directory:

   • UNIX: $BEST1_HOME/bgs/mgroup/
   • Windows: %BEST1_COLLECT_HOME%\bgs\mgroup

3. Open the Repository.cfg file in a text editor, configure the UDR64 parameter as specified, and save the file:

   Sample syntax

   UDR_CONFIG
   # History UDR format (original or new 64 byte format (greater than 2 GB))
   # New format greater than 2 GB UDR64 = 1
   # Default and recommended UDR64 = 0 (original format)
     UDR64 = 1
   #
   #
   END_UDR_CONFIG

4. Delete the files in the history directory if the Agent was running with the historical data collection enabled. The history directory cleanup is also required whenever the Agent configuration is changed. 

   • Run the following command to cleanup the history directory:
     remoteHistoryConfig -D
   • Run the command remotely as follows:
     remoteHistoryConfig [-n node -q |-e |-d |-D]
     where
     -q: Query existing Agent configuration
     -e: Enable historical data collection
     -d: Disable historical data collection
     -D: Disable historical data collection and delete existing history files

   To enable the history again, run this command: remoteHistoryConfig -e

5. Run the following command to start the agent.

   • Windows:
     best1collect.exe -q
   • Linux:
     /usr/adm/best1_default/bgs/bin/best1collect.exe -q

Enabling one second data collection

You can enable one second data collection on a system for specific metric groups. The following example shows how to enable one second data collection for one day for the "Process Statistics" metric group. Similarly, you can enable one second data collection for other metric groups.

1. Stop the Capacity Agent.
   • (Windows)Navigate to the following directory, and double-click bgsagent_stop.exe.
     C:\Program Files\BMC Software\Patrol3\BEST1\<agent_version>\bgs\bin
   • (UNIX and Linux)
     Run this command: $BEST1_HOME/bgs/scripts/best1agent_stop -b /usr/adm/best1_<agent_version>
2. On the computer where the Agent is installed, navigate to the following directory:
   • UNIX: $BEST1_HOME/bgs/mgroup/
   • Windows: %BEST1_COLLECT_HOME%\bgs\mgroup

3. Open the Repository.cfg file in a text editor, configure the following parameters, and save the file:

   Sample syntax

    UDR_CONFIG
   # History UDR format (original or new 64 byte format (greater than 2 GB))
   # New format greater than 2 GB UDR64 = 1
   # Default and recommended UDR64 = 0 (original format)
     UDR64 = 1
   #  1 second sampling interval
   #    1 day of 1 second raw data
   #
       HISTORY
         SAMPLING_INTERVAL = 1
        LENGTH = 1440
       END_HISTORY
   #
   # system metric groups
   #
       METRIC_GROUPS
         ENABLE = true
        GROUP
           NAME = "Process Statistics"
         END_GROUP
       END_METRIC_GROUPS
     END_UDR_CONFIG

   where SAMPLING_INTERVAL indicates the data collection interval in seconds, and LENGTH indicates the duration in minutes up to which you want to collect data at one second interval.

4. Delete the files in the history directory if the Agent was running with the historical data collection enabled. The history directory cleanup is also required whenever the Agent configuration is changed.
   • Run the following command to cleanup the history directory:
     remoteHistoryConfig -D
   • Run the command remotely as follows:
     remoteHistoryConfig [-n node -q |-e |-d |-D]
     where
     -q: Query existing Agent configuration
     -e: Enable historical data collection
     -d: Disable historical data collection
     -D: Disable historical data collection and delete existing history files
   To enable the history again, run this command: remoteHistoryConfig -e
5. Run the following command to start the agent.
   • Windows:
     best1collect.exe -q
   • Linux:
     /usr/adm/best1_default/bgs/bin/best1collect.exe -q

Enabling one second data collection on multiple systems

You can configure all the Agents that are installed on different systems for collecting data at one second granularity. 

To configure multiple Agents for one second data collection:

1. On one of the systems where the Agent is installed, update the Repository.cfg file to enable one second data collection.
2. Configure the UDR64 parameter if the metric data is likely to exceed 2 GB.
3. Copy the updated Repository.cfg file to the appropriate Agent directory paths on the other systems.