For details, refer to the APTARE StorageConsole Certified Configurations Guide and the APTARE StorageConsole Data Collector Installation Guide for Capacity Manager.
Host Resources Data Collection gathers information by probing hosts for details such as host-to-LUN mappings, storage seen by the hosts, and DAS/SAN and NAS volume usage.
• Host Probes: Capacity (HBA, iSCSI, Volume Manager, Multi-pathing)
• Host Probes: Memory, Network, Process, Processor, System
• Application Probes: Exchange, SQL Server, Oracle, Oracle ASM
• File Analytics Probes
Host Data Collector - Planning the Data Collector Deployment
1. Identify a server where the Data Collector software will be installed. Server requirements include:
• 64-bit OS. See the APTARE StorageConsole Certified Configurations Guide for supported operating systems.
• Support Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.7.
• Reside in the same time zone as the subsystem from which data will be collected.
• If the backup servers belong to a cluster, StorageConsole communicates with the cluster for data collection.
• For performance reasons, APTARE recommends that you do not install Data Collectors on the same server as the StorageConsole Portal. However, if you must have both on the same server, verify that the Portal and Data Collector software do not reside in the same directory.
• Install only one Data Collector on a server (or OS instance).
• 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.
2. On the Data Collector server, install/update the Data Collector software, using the instructions in the APTARE StorageConsole Data Collector Installation Guide for Capacity Manager.
3. Prior to configuring StorageConsole to discover your host inventory, you must identify the hosts for which you will be collecting data and the following relevant configuration requirements.
• WMI Proxy Requirements for Windows Host Data Collection
Host Access Privileges and Port Requirements
To gather data from hosts, the following privileges are required.
Sudo Commands: If you are using sudo for root privileges, update your sudoer file using the lists of the sudo commands (per OS) that are located on the Portal server in: <Home>/opt/aptare/updates
Table 1.1 Host Resources Prerequisites by Operating System
Host OS | Host Access Requirements | Port Requirements | Notes |
Linux RH Linux SUSE CentOS AIX HP-UX Solaris | ssh or telnet must be enabled Some commands may require an account with super-user root privileges. sudo, sesudo, and pbrun are supported; ensure the user ID has required sudo, sesudo, or pbrun privileges. | ssh: 22 telnet: 23 | Data collection uses ssh/telnet to execute commands. OS and application commands require root privileges for HBA API access. |
Windows | A WMI Proxy is required to collect from Windows hosts. All Windows hosts require a user ID with Administrator privileges for WMI. When the Data Collector Policy is configured to include file-level data, the Data Collector and associated WMI need to use a Windows Domain Administrator ID. | RPC: TCP Port 135 for WMI DCOM: TCP/UDP 1024-65535 TCP/IP 1248, if WMI Proxy server is not the same as the Data Collector server | |
WMI Proxy Requirements for Windows Host Data Collection
A WMI Proxy server is required for collecting data from Windows hosts.
• WMI uses DCOM for networking. DCOM dynamically allocates port numbers for clients. DCOM’s service runs on port 135 (a static port) and any client communicating with a host connects on this port. The DCOM service allocates the specific port for the WMI service. To set up a fixed port for WMI, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb219447%28VS.85%29.aspx.
• When installing the WMI proxy, if the installer detects that Microsoft .NET is not already installed, it notes this dependency and then installs .NET for you. Microsoft .NET contains several necessary libraries.
• .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.
Table 1.2 Host Resources Prerequisites by Operating System
Data Collector Server OS | WMI Proxy Requirements | Notes |
Windows | WMI proxy will be installed on Data Collector server by default | |
Red Hat Linux SUSE CentOS | Identify a Windows machine on which to install the WMI Proxy | Note the IP address of the server on which the WMI proxy resides, as you will use it during the Portal configuration process. |
Host Access Requirements
• Create a list of the name or IP address for each host for which you want to collect data.
• User ID & Password Credentials: Root-level, read-only access is required for host data collection.
• Access Control: For security reasons, most enterprise environments mandate access control where a new non-root account is created, with temporarily elevated access to the required commands provided via an access control command, such as sudo. Otherwise, the root user is required for host access. For Linux Hosts in access control environments, if a command such as sudo is used and the
absolute path is not in the interactive ssh, identify the absolute path of the access control command. See
Command Path Verification.
• Path: StorageConsole must have knowledge of the correct paths to access commands. An overview of the requirements is listed here, with the details provided in
Command Path Verification. For Windows hosts, a path is required for fcinfo, hbacmd, and scli commands. For Linux hosts, if the Data Collector is installed on a Windows server, use plink.exe to determine the path; if the Data Collector is installed on a Linux server, determine the path by executing ssh.
• HBA Prerequisites: StorageConsole uses an internal probing mechanism to gather Host Bus Adapter (HBA) data from Windows hosts. It is critical for the Data Collector to probe the HBA in order to establish a host’s relationship with storage. Without the HBA information, all storage for a host will be listed as local storage.
Windows: One of the following mechanisms is required to collect Windows HBA information. The Data Collector actually uses all of the mechanisms that are available and then merges the data collected from all. A collection error is reported only if all of the following methods fail.
• hbaverify is provided by default with the Data Collector WMI Proxy installation.
• scli - SANsurfer Command Line Interface (SCLI) for Windows from QLogic (SCLI is a separate install from the base install of SANsurfer and often is not installed with the SANsurfer utility; it may need to be installed on clients).
• hbacmd (HBAnyware from Emulex) is required for both LUN Mapping and HBA data collection. This is typically provided by default as part of the driver software, although it may need to be installed on clients.
• fcinfo - Fibre Channel Information Tool from Microsoft is not typically used, as the other methods are preferred.
Linux: scli or hbacmd (required only for HBA information)
Solaris: scli or hbacmd (required only for HBA information)
HP-UX: fcmsutil (used only for HBA information; should already be installed by default)
Host Application Data Collection Requirements
Table 1.3 Host Applications: SQL Server, Exchange Server, Oracle, Oracle ASM
Application | Port | Prerequisites |
SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 | 1433 | Name of the database within SQL Server. System ID of the SQL server database instance; MSSQLSERVER is the default. User ID and password for the database instance. User account with permissions to execute the procedures: sp_helpdb and sp_spaceused. |
Exchange Server 2003, 2007, 2010 | 389 | The user name must have privileges to search under the DN within the Active Directory. Typically, this is an Administrator. Microsoft Exchange 2003: WMI used for data collection. Microsoft Exchange 2007 and 2010: Data collection requires PowerShell remoting to be enabled on the Exchange server. The Data Collector connects to PowerShell via the WMI Proxy to execute PowerShell commands. For details on remoting, see the Microsoft Administrator’s Guide to Windows PowerShell Remoting. |
Oracle 11g | 1521 | SID: Oracle Service Identifier Oracle user with SELECT_CATALOG_ROLE role granted |
Oracle ASM v10gR1, 10gR2, 11gR1, & 11gR2 | 1521 | User with SYSASM (Oracle-supported only for 11g) or SYSDBA privileges |
Command Path Verification
Verify the absolute command paths that will be used by the Data Collector.
Both Linux & Windows:
• If Veritas Volume Manager is installed on any hosts, note the path to the vxprint command.
• If any multi-pathing software is installed on hosts, note the path to the command.
Linux: Verify the non-interactive SSH path for Linux users for several sample hosts:
ssh <user>@<hostname> env
where <user> is the credential the collector will use to access the host.
To determine the Linux path from a Windows server, you can use a command-line interface to telnet/ssh client software. The following example shows Plink, which is a command-line interface to PuTTY (a telnet/ssh client):
plink <user>@<hostname> env
Example of a PATH for commands:
/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin
Windows: Make a note of the absolute paths for the executables identified for HBA data collection. Note that in Windows, multiple paths are separated by a semi-colon ( ; ). For example:
C:\Program Files\Emulex\Util\HBAnyware;C:\Program Files\QLogic\SANSurfer