Understanding the Host Data Collection Process
Capacity Manager can collect data and then report on storage that is allocated to and consumed by hosts in your enterprise. Host capacity and utilization reports enable you to optimize existing storage resources and more accurately forecast usage.
Host Resource Data Collection gathers information by probing hosts:
• Host Probes: Capacity (HBA, iSCSI, Volume Manager, Multi-pathing)
• Host Probes: Memory, Network, Process, Performance, System
• Application Probes: Exchange, SQL Server, Oracle, Oracle ASM
• File Analytics Probes
IMPORTANT: Host Resources data collection does not require a dedicated Data Collector for each resource. If you have a Storage Array Data Collector, the Host Resources collector is inherently part of that Data Collector. However, if for some reason you do not have a Storage Array Data Collector, you can explicitly create just a Host Resources Data Collector.
Several key steps comprise the Host Data Collection Process. These steps are summarized here, with details provided in the descriptions of specific tasks.
• Add Hosts to the Host Inventory - This initial setup phase requires some pre-planning to ascertain which hosts and credentials will be needed for successful host authentication. Then, you’ll take this information and create several configuration settings—credentials, WMI proxies, paths, and access control commands—required to discover hosts in your environment. The Host Discovery process attempts to find hosts using these configuration settings and then populates the host inventory.
• Configure & Validate Hosts - Once hosts have been added to the inventory, specific probe settings can be configured to tailor the type of data to be collected from a host. The Validate step provides feedback to troubleshoot host connectivity and data collection issues. In addition, you can hide/remove hosts that do not belong in your inventory—for example, IP addresses of non-host devices such as tape drives. This is an iterative process to verify the collection settings for each host in your host inventory. Note that for the File Analytics probe, by design, the Validate option only runs a connectivity check; it does not collect File Analytics data.
• Enable & Manage On-going Collection - Once a host has been validated, enable on-going data collection. Subsequent changes to the host in your enterprise may impact data collection. As changes and collection issues arise, updates to host data collection configurations will be required.