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This chapter describes the monitoring content available through the following HX Storage Cluster interfaces:
Cisco HX Connect
Cisco HX Data Platform Plug-in
Storage Controller VM command line
The Cisco HX Connect user interface provides a view of the Cisco HX storage cluster status, components, and features, such as encryption and replication.
Key monitoring pages include information about the local Cisco HX storage cluster:
Dashboard―Overall Cisco HX storage cluster status.
Alarms, Events, Activity―See the Cisco HyperFlex Systems Troubleshooting Guide for details.
Performance―Charts for IOPS, throughput, latency, and replication network bandwidth.
System Information―System overview, plus status and tasks for nodes and disks.
See the Cisco HyperFlex Systems Troubleshooting Guide for generating support bundles, Storage Cluster Maintenance Operations Overview for entering and exiting maintenance mode, and Setting a Beacon to set a node or disk beacon.
Datastores―Status and tasks related to datastores.
Virtual Machines―Status and tasks related to protecting virtual machines.
Additional Cisco HX Connect pages provide management access:
Encryption―For data at rest disk and node encryption tasks.
Replication―For disaster recovery VM protection tasks.
The Upgrade page provides access to HX Data Platform and Cisco UCS Manager firmware upgrade tasks.
 Important |
If you are a read-only user, you may not see all of the options available in the Help. To perform most actions in HyperFlex (HX) Connect, you must have administrative privileges. |
Displays a status summary of your HX storage cluster. This is the first page that you see when you log in to Cisco HyperFlex Connect.
| UI Element | Essential Information |
|---|---|
|
Operational Status section |
Provides the functional status of the HX storage cluster and application performance. Click Information ( |
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Cluster License Status section |
Displays the following link when you log into the HX storage cluster for the first time or till the HX storage cluster license is registered: Cluster License not registered link—Appears when the HX storage cluster is not registered. To register a cluster license, click this link and provide product instance registration token in the Smart Software Licensing Product Registration screen. For more information on how to get a product instance registration token, refer the Registering a Cluster with Smart Licensing section in the Cisco HyperFlex Systems Installation Guide for Mircrosoft Hyper-V. |
|
Resiliency Health section |
Provides the data health status and ability of the HX storage cluster to tolerate failures. Click Information ( |
|
Capacity section |
Displays a breakdown of the total storage versus how much storage is used or free. Also displays the storage optimization, compression-savings, and deduplication percentages based on the data stored in the cluster. |
|
Nodes section |
Displays the number of nodes in the HX storage cluster, and the division of converged versus compute nodes. Hovering over a node icon displays that node's name, IP address, node type, and an interactive display of disks with access to capacity, usage, serial number, and disk type data. |
|
Performance section |
Displays an HX storage cluster performance snapshot for a configurable amount of time, showing IOPS, throughput, and latency data. For full details, see Performance Page. |
|
Cluster Time field |
System date and time for the cluster. |
Several tables in HX Connect provide one or more of the following three fields that affect the content displayed in the table.
| UI Element | Essential Information |
|---|---|
|
Refresh field and icon |
The table automatically refreshes for dynamic updates to the HX Cluster. The timestamp indicates the last time the table was refreshed. Click the circular icon to refresh the content now. |
|
Filter field |
Display in the table only list items that match the entered filter text. The items listed in the current page of the table below are automatically filtered. Nested tables are not filtered. Type in the selection text in the Filter field. To empty the Filter field, click the x. To export content from other pages in the table, scroll to the bottom, click through the page numbers, and apply the filter. |
|
Export menu |
Save out a copy of the current page of table data. The table content is downloaded to the local machine in the selected file type. If the listed items are filtered, the filtered subset list is exported. Click the down arrow to select an export file type. The file type options are: To export content from other pages in the table, scroll to the bottom, click through the page numbers, and apply the export. |
Displays a list of recent activity on the HX storage cluster allowing you to monitor the progress of VM operations, Cluster upgrade/expansion, enter/exit maintenance mode, and recovery jobs.
| UI Element | Essential Information |
|---|---|
|
Activity list |
Displays a list of recent tasks including the following details:
An expanded list shows the task's step name and status. Click the circular icon to refresh the content and fetch recent activity. The page refreshes automatically every 2 minutes. |
|
Recovery list |
Displays progress of all recovery-related jobs (for example, migration, recovery, test recovery, re-protect) including the following details:
An expanded list shows the task's step name and status. Click the circular icon to refresh the content and fetch recent activity. The page refreshes automatically every 2 minutes. |
|
Expand All / Collapse All button |
Toggles the view of the job list to display top-level task information or task details. You can also expand and collapse individual tasks. |
Displays HX storage cluster system-related information, including node and disk data, and provides access to HX maintenance mode.
Displays the basic configuration information for this HX storage cluster.
| UI Element | Essential Information | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
HX storage cluster field |
Name of this storage cluster. |
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Cluster License Status section |
Displays the Register Now link when you log into the HX storage cluster for the first time or till the HX storage cluster license is registered: Register Now link—To register a cluster license, click this link and provide product instance registration token in the Smart Software Licensing Product Registration screen. For more information on how to get a product instance registration token, refer the Registering a Cluster with Smart Licensing section in the Cisco HyperFlex Systems Installation Guide for VMware ESXi.
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License section |
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HX storage cluster status field |
Provides functional status of the HX storage cluster.
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vCenter link |
Secure URL to the VMware vSphere associated with this HX storage cluster. Click the link to remotely access the vSphere Web Client. |
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Hypervisor field |
Hypervisor version installed on this HX storage cluster. |
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HXDP Version field |
Installer package version installed on this HX storage cluster. |
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Data Replication Factor field |
Number of the redundant data replicas stored on this HX storage cluster. |
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Uptime field |
Length of time this HX storage cluster has been online. |
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Total Capacity field |
Overall storage size of this cluster. |
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Available Capacity field |
Amount of free storage in this cluster. |
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DNS Server(s) |
IP address for the DNS server(s) for this HX storage cluster. |
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NTP Server(s) |
IP address for the NTP server(s) for this HX storage cluster. |
You can access the controller VM using SSH as an administrator. To enable access, click Actions at the top of the page to enable SSH access.
Displays data about individual nodes in this HX storage cluster. To see this information in tabular format, go to the Nodes page.
| UI Element | Essential Information |
|---|---|
|
Node |
Name of a node on this cluster. |
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Model |
Physical hardware model number of this node. |
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Disks |
Number of caching versus persistent disks in this node. |
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Node status |
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HXDP Version |
Installer package version installed on this node. |
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Type |
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Hypervisor Status |
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Hypervisor Address |
IP address for the management network to this HX storage cluster. |
For nodes with disks, you can place your cursor over a disk to view an interactive display of information including the following.
| UI Element | Essential Information |
|---|---|
|
Slot Number |
Location of the drive, for example Slot Number 2. |
|
Type of Disk |
System, Cache or Persistent |
|
Disk State |
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Locator LED |
Activates a physical light on the host to help locate a disk; options are On and Off. |
|
Capacity |
Total disk size. |
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Used / Total Capacity (Persistent Disks only) |
Amount of the disk used versus the total disk size. |
|
Serial Number |
Physical serial number of this disk. |
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Storage Usage (Persistent Disks only) |
Percentage of disk storage used. |
|
Version |
Version of the disk drive. |
|
Disk Drive Interface |
The disk drive interface type, for example SAS or SATA. |
Displays data about all of the nodes in this HX storage cluster in an 8-column table. Each column can be used to sort the data.
| UI Element | Essential Information |
|---|---|
|
Enter HX Maintenance Mode button |
Select a node to access this button. Opens the Confirm HX Maintenance Mode dialog box. |
|
Exit HX Maintenance Mode button |
Select a node to access this button. After you complete any maintenance tasks, you must manually exit HX maintenance mode. |
|
Node column |
Name of a node in this HX storage cluster. |
|
Hypervisor Address column |
IP address for the management network of the Node referred in the Node column. |
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Hypervisor Status column |
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Controller Address column |
IP address for the HX storage controller VM of the Node referred in the Node column. |
|
Controller Status column |
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Model column |
Physical hardware model number of this node. |
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Version column |
HyperFlex Data Platform installer package version installed on this node. |
|
Disks column |
Number of disks in the node. Click the number to open the Disks page filtered by the selected node name. |
Displays data about all of the disks in this HX storage cluster in a 7-column table. Each column can be used to sort the data.
| UI Element | Essential Information | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Node column |
Name of the node where the disk resides. |
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Slot column |
Location of the SED drive. This identifies the drive for maintenance procedures. |
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Capacity column |
Total disk size. |
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Status column |
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The following states can be ignored:
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Encrypted column |
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Type column |
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Usage column |
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Turn On Locator LED and Turn Off Locator LED radio buttons |
Select a disk to access the radio buttons. Activates or deactivates a physical light, or beacon, on the host to help locate the disk. |
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(Optional) Secure erase button |
This button in visible only if your HX storage cluster is encrypted using local-key encryption. Select a disk to access the button. Enter the encryption key in use on the cluster, click Secure erase, and then click Yes, erase this disk to securely erase the local encryption key. |
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There are several Cisco HX Data Platform plug-in features that apply across the interface. These are described in the following topics.
The Cisco HX Data Platform plug-in is tightly integrated with the VMware vSphere vCenter interface to provide a seamless data management experience. You can use either the vSphere Web Client or the vSphere Client vSphere vCenter interface. Most of the task examples in this guide refer to the vSphere Web Client interface.
You access the Cisco HX Data Platform plug-in through the vSphere vCenter Inventory Lists. Select storage clusters to manage from the Cisco HX Data Platform plug-in. The Cisco HX Data Platform plug-in monitors and manages storage cluster specific objects such as datastores. vSphere monitors and manages objects in the storage cluster, such as ESX servers. Tasks overlap between the Cisco HX Data Platform plug-in and vSphere.
Important |
The Cisco HX Data Platform Plug-in is not compatible with the VMware vSphere vCenter HTML5 interface. You cannot perform HX-related tasks such as HX Maintenance mode using the VMware vSphere vCenter HTML5 interface. Use the vSphere Web Client flash interface instead. |
In the vSphere Web Client, both the Cisco HX Data Platform plug-in and vCenter provide information on component and cluster status. Selected tabs and panels provide direct links between Cisco HX Data Platform plug-in and vCenter information and actions.
Note that following a link from either the Cisco HX Data Platform plug-in or vCenter does not mean there is a single-click link to return to your starting location.
The Cisco HX Data Platform plug-in monitoring information and managing functions are distributed among three tabs. The following is a list of all the Cisco HX Data Platform plug-in tabs and panels that display Cisco HX Data Platform storage cluster status and provide options for storage cluster administrative tasks.
Summary tab contains a Summary area and a Portlets area. The Summary tab portlets are: Capacity, Performance, and Status.
Monitor tab has two sub tabs:
Performance tab - Displays Latency, Throughput, and IOPs performance charts for Storage Clusters, Hosts, and Datacenters.
Events tab - Displays a list Cisco HX Data Platform events and a detail panel for a selected event.
Manage tab has two sub tabs:
Cluster tab - Describes storage clusters, hosts, disks, PSUs, and NICs. This includes: List of clusters and hosts, detail panels for any selected cluster or host, and additional sub tabs: Hosts, Disks, PSUs, and NICs.
Datastores tab - Describes information about hosts from the datastore point of view. This includes: List of datastores and additional sub tabs for any selected datastore. The datastore sub tabs include: a Summary tab that includes portlets: Details, Trends, and Top VMs by Disk Usage, and a Hosts tab.
The Monitor Performance tab displays the read and write performance of the storage cluster, hosts, and datastores.
Performance charts display a pictorial representation of the storage cluster, host, and datastore performance.
The system updates the performance charts every 20 seconds.
Hover your mouse over individual data points to view peak performance information and time-stamp.
Light blue indicates write operations and dark blue indicates read operations.
Gaps in the performance charts indicate time periods when data was not available. Gaps do not necessarily indicate a drop in performance.
| Step 1 |
From the vSphere Web Client Navigator, select . On the left there are three options you can choose to monitor: Storage Cluster, Hosts, and Datastores. |
| Step 2 |
Click Storage Cluster to view the storage cluster performance tab. |
| Step 3 |
Click Hour, Day, Week, Month, Max, or Custom option, to specify the time period in which you want to view storage cluster performance. |
| Step 4 |
Click IOPS, Throughput, Latency, and Show check boxes to display selected performance and objects. |
| Step 1 |
From the vSphere Web Client Navigator, select . On the left there are three options you can choose to monitor: Storage Cluster, Hosts, and/or Datastores. |
| Step 2 |
Click Hosts to view the hosts performance tab. |
| Step 3 |
Click Hour, Day, Week, Month, Max, or Custom option, to specify the time period in which you want to view the host performance. |
| Step 4 |
Click IOPS, Throughput, Latency, and Show check boxes to display selected performance and objects. |
| Step 5 |
Click host to exclude or view individual hosts. Compute nodes do not have storage cluster performance values. |
| Step 1 |
From the vSphere Web Client Navigator, select On the left there are three options you can chose to Monitor: Storage Cluster, Hosts, and Datastores. |
| Step 2 |
Click Datastores to view the datastores performance tab. |
| Step 3 |
Click Hour, Day, Week, Month, Max, or Custom option, to specify the time period in which you want to view the datastore performance. |
| Step 4 |
Click IOPS, Throughput, Latency, and Show check boxes to display selected performance and objects. |
The Performance portlet provides details about the HX Data Platform storage cluster performance. It displays the past one hour of performance data plotted in 20 second intervals. The Performance portlet charts show data for the entire storage cluster.
For details on storage cluster, datastore, and host-level performance reports, select the Monitor tab.
| Step 1 |
From the vSphere Web Client Navigator, select . |
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| Step 2 |
Scroll to the Performance portlet.
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The Datastore Trends portlet is a chart of the IO performance of the selected datastore.
| Step 1 |
From the vSphere Web Client Navigator, select . |
| Step 2 |
Select a datastore from the table list. The Summary tab updates to display the information for the selected datastore. |
| Step 3 |
Scrolls to view the Trends portlet. The tab displays IOPS plotted every 20 minutes. Hover your mouse over the peak values to obtain color-coded read IOPS and write IOPS. |
| Command or Action | Purpose | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Modify the performance charts to display all or some of the listed options. |
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| Step 1 |
From the vSphere Web Client Navigator, select |
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| Step 2 |
Click one of the following tabs to specify the time period in which you want to view performance of the storage cluster, host, or datastore.
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| Step 1 |
From the vSphere Web Client Navigator, select |
| Step 2 |
Click the Custom tab to display the Custom Range dialog box. |
| Step 3 |
Choose a method, for the Custom Range dialog box:
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| Step 4 |
Click Apply and then click OK to apply your configuration. |
You can select the performance charts to display for storage clusters, hosts, and datastores.
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Select or deselect the check box corresponding to IOPS, Throughput, and Latency at the bottom of the tab to view specific information. For example, to view only storage cluster IOPS performance:
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Audit logging implies storing all audit logs to a remote syslog server. Currently, each controller VM stores audit logs, but these logs are not stored indefinitely. The logs are overwritten based on the retention policy set for the controller VM. By configuring a remote syslog server to store audit logs, you can ensure that the logs are retained for a longer period of time.
Following are the audit logs that you can export to the remote syslog server:
REST-related logs
/var/log/springpath/audit-rest.log
/var/log/springpath/hxmanager.log
/var/log/springpath/hx_device_connector.log
/var/log/shell.log
/var/log/springpath/stSSOMgr.log
/var/log/springpath/stcli.log
/var/log/springpath/hxcli.log
/var/log/nginx/ssl-access.log
After you enable audit logging, these logs are exported to the remote syslog server. If the logs from the controller VM are not pushed to the remote sylog server, or if the remote syslog server is not reachable, an alarm is generated in the HX-Connect user interface. However, HX Connect does not monitor the disk space available on the remote syslog server. The HX Connect user interface will not display an alarm if the disk on the remote syslog server is full.
Attention |
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After you enable audit logging, you can choose to either temporarily disable audit logging, or you can choose to delete the audit logging server configuration details. See Disabling Audit Logging and Deleting Audit Logging Server Configuration.
Configure the remote syslog server. You must have the server details such as the server IP, the port number and certificate files to enable audit logging in HX-Connect.
To configure an encrypted connection between the controller VM and the remote syslog server, you must generate a self-signed certificate or a CA-signed certificate and a private key for the syslog client in the controller VM.
Configure the remote syslog server to categorize different types of logs into respective files. See Configuring the Remote Syslog Server
| Step 1 |
Choose . |
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| Step 2 |
Check the Enable audit log export to an external syslog server check box. |
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| Step 3 |
Complete the following details:
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| Step 4 |
Click OK. |
Prior to enabling audit logging, you must create a configuration file on the remote syslog server to categorize different log files into separate files. You could create a file titled hx-audit.conf in the /etc/syslog-ng/conf.d directory.
Following is a sample of the configuration file to establish an encrypted connection with the syslog server:
) to access the HX storage cluster name and status data.
## Audit Logging Configuration ###
source demo_tls_src {
tcp(ip(0.0.0.0) port(6515)
tls(
key-file("/etc/syslog-ng/CA/serverkey.pem")
cert-file("/etc/syslog-ng/CA/servercert.pem")
peer-verify(optional-untrusted)
)
); };
filter f_audit_rest { match("hx-audit-rest" value("MSGHDR")); };
filter f_device_conn { match("hx-device-connector" value("MSGHDR")); };
filter f_stssomgr { match("hx-stSSOMgr" value("MSGHDR")); };
filter f_ssl_access { match("hx-ssl-access" value("MSGHDR")); };
filter f_hxmanager { match("hx-manager" value("MSGHDR")); };
filter f_hx_shell { match("hx-shell" value("MSGHDR")); };
filter f_stcli { match("hx-stcli" value("MSGHDR")); };
filter f_hxcli { match("hx-cli" value("MSGHDR")); };
destination d_audit_rest { file("/var/log/syslog-ng/audit_rest.log"); };
destination d_device_conn { file("/var/log/syslog-ng/hx_device_connector.log"); };
destination d_stssomgr { file("/var/log/syslog-ng/stSSOMgr.log"); };
destination d_ssl_access { file("/var/log/syslog-ng/ssl_access.log"); };
destination d_hxmanager { file("/var/log/syslog-ng/hxmanager.log"); };
destination d_hx_shell { file("/var/log/syslog-ng/shell.log"); };
destination d_stcli { file("/var/log/syslog-ng/stcli.log"); };
destination d_hxcli { file("/var/log/syslog-ng/hxcli.log"); };
log { source(demo_tls_src); filter(f_audit_rest); destination(d_audit_rest); flags(final); };
log { source(demo_tls_src); filter(f_device_conn); destination(d_device_conn); flags(final); };
log { source(demo_tls_src); filter(f_stssomgr); destination(d_stssomgr); flags(final); };
log { source(demo_tls_src); filter(f_ssl_access); destination(d_ssl_access); flags(final); };
log { source(demo_tls_src); filter(f_hxmanager); destination(d_hxmanager); flags(final); };
log { source(demo_tls_src); filter(f_hx_shell); destination(d_hx_shell); flags(final); };
log { source(demo_tls_src); filter(f_stcli); destination(d_stcli); flags(final); };
log { source(demo_tls_src); filter(f_hxcli); destination(d_hxcli); flags(final); };
########################
Following is a sample of the configuration file to establish a TCP connection with the remote syslog server:
#######################
## Audit Logging Configuration ###
source demo_tls_src {
tcp(ip(0.0.0.0) port(6515)
); };
filter f_audit_rest { match("hx-audit-rest" value("MSGHDR")); };
filter f_device_conn { match("hx-device-connector" value("MSGHDR")); };
filter f_stssomgr { match("hx-stSSOMgr" value("MSGHDR")); };
filter f_ssl_access { match("hx-ssl-access" value("MSGHDR")); };
filter f_hxmanager { match("hx-manager" value("MSGHDR")); };
filter f_hx_shell { match("hx-shell" value("MSGHDR")); };
filter f_stcli { match("hx-stcli" value("MSGHDR")); };
filter f_hxcli { match("hx-cli" value("MSGHDR")); };
destination d_audit_rest { file("/var/log/syslog-ng/audit_rest.log"); };
destination d_device_conn { file("/var/log/syslog-ng/hx_device_connector.log"); };
destination d_stssomgr { file("/var/log/syslog-ng/stSSOMgr.log"); };
destination d_ssl_access { file("/var/log/syslog-ng/ssl_access.log"); };
destination d_hxmanager { file("/var/log/syslog-ng/hxmanager.log"); };
destination d_hx_shell { file("/var/log/syslog-ng/shell.log"); };
destination d_stcli { file("/var/log/syslog-ng/stcli.log"); };
destination d_hxcli { file("/var/log/syslog-ng/hxcli.log"); };
log { source(demo_tls_src); filter(f_audit_rest); destination(d_audit_rest); flags(final); };
log { source(demo_tls_src); filter(f_device_conn); destination(d_device_conn); flags(final); };
log { source(demo_tls_src); filter(f_stssomgr); destination(d_stssomgr); flags(final); };
log { source(demo_tls_src); filter(f_ssl_access); destination(d_ssl_access); flags(final); };
log { source(demo_tls_src); filter(f_hxmanager); destination(d_hxmanager); flags(final); };
log { source(demo_tls_src); filter(f_hx_shell); destination(d_hx_shell); flags(final); };
log { source(demo_tls_src); filter(f_stcli); destination(d_stcli); flags(final); };
log { source(demo_tls_src); filter(f_hxcli); destination(d_hxcli); flags(final); };
########################You can choose to temporarily disable audit logging. By doing so, the remote syslog server details such as the server IP and the port, that you previously configured are retained in the system. You need not enter the server details again when you re-enable audit logging at a later time. You will only need to upload the certificate and private key files to enable audit logging. See Enabling Audit Logging.
| Step 1 |
Choose . |
| Step 2 |
Clear the Enable audit log export to an external syslog server check box. |
| Step 3 |
Click OK. Audit logging is disabled. |
As an administrator, you can delete the remote syslog server configuration details from the system. When you do so, the system does not push server logs to the remote syslog server. To enable audit logging, you will have to provide the server details again. See Enabling Audit Logging.
| Step 1 |
Choose . |
| Step 2 |
Click Delete. |
| Step 3 |
In the Confirm Delete dialog box, click Delete. The remote syslog server details are deleted from the system. |
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