APTARE StorageConsole Data Collector Sizing Guide
Use the following guidelines to determine Data Collector Server requirements.
Supported Operating Systems
APTARE highly recommends installing the Data Collector on a virtual machine (VM). The following systems are supported for 64-bit platforms and require JDK 1.7:
Operating System | Version | New Install | Upgrade |
Windows Server (Recommended) | 2012 | Yes | Yes, requires .NET Framework 3.5* |
Windows Server | 2008 | Yes | Yes |
CentOS | 5 | No | Yes, but installer not provided. |
CentOS | 6 | Yes | Yes, starting with version 9.0.1. Prior versions are not supported. |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux | 5 | No | Yes, but installer not provided. |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux | 6 | Yes | Yes, starting with version 9.0.1. Prior versions are not supported. |
Solaris | 10 and 11 (SPARC only) | For Symantec NetBackup collection only. Versions of Solaris below Solaris 10 Update 5 require a Centralized NetBackup Data Collector. |
SUSE Linux Enterprise | 11 | Yes | Yes |
* .NET Framework 4 is installed by default with Windows Server 2012. You must explicitly install .NET Framework 3.5 to support the WMI Proxy Service installation. You do not need to uninstall .NET Framework 4.
Data Collector Memory and CPU Guidelines
Use the following guidelines for Data Collector Servers.
• Installation on a VM is recommended
• 2 - 4 vCPUs (physical processors assigned to a VM)
• 16 - 32 GB of memory
Customize the Linux File Handle Setting for Large Collections
In Linux, a portion of memory is designated for file handles, which is the mechanism used to determine the number of files that can be open at one time. The default value is 1024. For large data collection policy environments, this number may need to be increased to 8192. A large environment is characterized as any collector that is collecting from 20 or more subsystems, such as 20+ TSM instances or 20+ unique arrays.
To change the number of file handles, take the following steps.
1. On the Linux Data Collector server, edit /etc/security/limits.conf and at the end of the file, add these lines.
root soft nofile 8192
root hard nofile 8192
2. Log out and log back in as root to execute the following commands to validate all values have been set to 8192.
ulimit –n
ulimit –Hn
ulimit –Sn
3. Restart the Data Collector.
Factors Impacting Data Collector Performance and Memory Requirements
Because every environment has a unique set of resources, configured and tuned specifically for that environment,
there is no one size fits all formula. Several factors can impact performance and memory requirements:
• Number of active Data Collector Policies
• Number of hosts and active probes per host
• Number and types of storage arrays
• Number of LUNs
• Polling frequency and number of devices polled
• Amount of data transmitted
• Performance of array device managers