Monitoring your Hosts

This section describes how to monitor hosts using workflows in the Hosts dashboard. By following these workflows, you can view the performance of all monitored hosts or drill down on a single host.

To access the Hosts dashboard, click Monitor Hosts on the Welcome page, or navigate to Infrastructure > Hosts in the left navigation pane.

Use the Hosts dashboard to monitor problems in your environment if you are responsible for the availability of a set of hosts and prefer to think in terms of systems. The Hosts dashboard provides the best high-level summary of host state and performance, including alarms, CPU, memory, disk, network utilization, if a host is being monitored,and impacted services.

Drill down from this dashboard to different dashboards and views that provide more detail about your hosts. You can also use this dashboard to determine if the state of a host has an impact on services and to view the health history of each host.

This section covers the following key areas:

• Adding a monitored host
  
• Adding multiple monitored hosts
• Selecting a set of hosts to monitor
• Identifying the types of hosts you are monitoring
• Monitoring the state of hosts
  • Investigating Alarms for a Host
• Viewing the host performance
  • Viewing dependencies for a host
• Determine if the state of a host impacts your services

Adding a monitored host

The Add Monitored Host wizard allows you to add different types of hosts to the list of components being monitored in your infrastructure environment. You can launch this wizard from several places in the Foglight browser interface:

• From the Infrastructure Environment dashboard. Click Infrastructure in the left navigation pane. The Infrastructure Environment dashboard appears. Click Single Host in the upper-right corner.
• From the Infrastructure Environment dashboard > Monitoring tab > Resource Utilizations view. If a host is not being monitored, the Resource Utilizations view displays a warning message. You can add the selected host to the list of monitored hosts by clicking Configure Host Monitoring.
• From the Hosts dashboard, by clicking Add Host, or (for a known but unmonitored host) by clicking the icon in the Monitored column.

To add a host using the Add Monitored Hosts wizard:

1. In the Add Monitored Host wizard, on the Host and Agent Manager page, specify the host that you want to monitor.

   • Remote Host: Type the host name or the IP address of the host you want to monitor. If you clicked the Monitored icon for an unmonitored host, this box already contains the host name.

     This value must resolve to a real host name or IP address in order to pass the credential validation test in Step 3.

   • Optional Settings: Expand this area and type the host name that you want to override the previously specified host. This step is optional.
   • Agent Manager: Select the agent manager that you want to use to collect the information about the remote host. The list includes only the Foglight Agent Managers to which the Foglight for Infrastructure agent package is deployed.
   • OS Type: Select the OS type of the remote host that you want to monitor: Windows, *nix (HP-UX, AIX), Linux, or Solaris.

     The wizard uses the specified OS type to determine what agent type to create, WindowsAgent or UnixAgent. This box appears disabled if the wizard is invoked by selecting a host when its OS type is known.

   • Virtual / Guest: Ensure this check box is disabled.

     Ability to monitor virtual hosts is currently implemented only in Foglight for Virtualization, Enterprise Edition.

2. Click Next. The host name is validated. If the host name does not resolve to a real host name, the message Unable to locate host using the provided host name appears in the Validation Result dialog box. Click Cancel and return to Step 1 to define a valid host name or IP address. If the host name passes the validation test, the Add Monitored Host wizard refreshes, showing the Agent Properties page. The layout of the page is different for WindowsAgents and UnixAgents.

   • WindowsAgent
   • *nix (HP-UX, AIX) Agent
   • LinuxAgent
   • Solaris Agent

     If you selected the Virtual/Guest check box in Step 1, the Collect Metrics check boxes are disabled, preventing the agent from collecting these type of metrics.

3. On the Agent Properties page, specify the properties of the monitoring agents. Click Next. The wizard checks whether the Agent Manager has any credentials configured for this host, and displays the findings on the Credential Verification page. Matching credentials are those with a resource mapping that matches the host to be monitored.

   Credentials are security data that provide the Infrastructure agent with the permission to monitor system resources, such as a host or a range of hosts.

   If the selected host name matches the host on which the Agent Manager is running, that is indicated on the Credential Verification page. If any matching credentials are found, they are displayed in table format. The result of the validation is displayed in the Test column.
   • If the test fails, click the FAILED link to open a dialog box that displays additional information about the issues encountered during the validation, and helps you troubleshoot the root of the problem.
   • If the test is successful, the SUCCESS link appears in the Test column.

     When several credentials are available for a resource, the list of credentials is ordered with the most applicable credentials at the top. The ordering is based on a relative ordering value assigned to each credential.

     If no matching credentials are found, that is indicated on the Credential Verification page.

4. On the Credentials Verification page, select one of the following options:

   • Do not configure a credential: Select this option if you want to configure the credential for this resource at a later time. Local credentials for Windows and UNIX are set up by default when Foglight for Infrastructure is installed. Click Next and continue with Step 7.
   • Add host(s) to a new credential: Select this option if you want to add the host to a new credential. This option is suitable if none of the existing credentials have the connection details needed to access the new host. Click Next and continue with Step 5.
   • Add host(s) to an existing credential: Select this option if you want to add the host to an existing credential. This option is suitable if an existing credential has the security data needed to access the new host, but you need to edit its resource mappings to include this host. Click Next and continue with Step 6.
   • If the selected host name matches the host on which the Agent Manager is running, click Next and continue with Step 7.

5. Create a new credential.
   a. On the Credential Type page that appears, select the credential type from the available options.
   

   The list of credential types varies depending on the agent type.

   
   b. Click Next. The Credential Properties page appears. The level of required information depends on the selected credential type. For example, the User Name and Password type needs a user name and a password, while the Challenge Response type needs a user name along with a question/response pair.
   c. On the Credential Properties page, type the required properties, and click Next. The Credential Name and Lockbox page appears.
   d. On the Credential Name and Lockbox page, provide a name to identify the credential, and select a lockbox in which you want to keep the credential. A lockbox can be used to group credentials for access and/or security. In smaller Foglight installations, using the default System lockbox should be sufficient.

   If a lockbox is password protected and is not released to the target Foglight Agent Manager, you can provide the lockbox password on the last page of the wizard.

   Click Next. The Resource Mapping page appears.
   e. On the Resource Mapping page, indicate which hosts you want to associate with this credential. You can either select the host that you are about to start monitoring, all monitored hosts, or hosts whose name contains a specific text string. Click Next. The Policies page appears.
   f. Optional. On the Policies page, define one or more policies for this credential. A policy defines the number of times a credential can be used, the number of allowed authentication failures, the time range during which the credential is valid, or the length of time the credential data can be cached on the client. For example, you can specify the number of times the credential can be used, or the time period during which it can be used. Click Next. The Summary page appears.
   g. Continue with Step 7.
   

6. Use an existing credential.
   a. On the Credential page that appears, select an existing credential to contain this host.
   b. Click Next. The Resource Mapping page appears.
   c. On the Resource Mapping page, indicate which hosts you want to associate with this credential. You can either select the host that you are about to start monitoring, all monitored hosts, or hosts whose name contains a specific text string. Click Next. The Summary page appears.
   d. Continue with Step 7.
   

7. On the Summary page that appears, review the information provided about the host and the monitoring agent.

8. To perform a connectivity check, select Check for Connectivity. For a successful installation, an agent has to be created and it must be able to connect to the host it will monitor. The connectivity check is an attempt to establish a connection to the host after the agent has been created. If the connectivity check fails, an error message is provided. The connectivity check adds approximately one minute to the installation. If you choose not to check connectivity, you can verify the agent status on the Agent Status dashboard.

9. Click Finish. The new host is added to the Hosts dashboard after a short delay. The monitoring agent is created.

   • If the operation is successful, the Add Monitored Host dialog box appears. Review the information and close the dialog box.
   • If you performed a connectivity check and verification fails, an error message is displayed to help you better understand and resolve the problem. Review the error message. Close the dialog box, and perform the necessary steps, as instructed. The agent instances created to monitor the new host appear on the Agent Status dashboard.

     The Agent Status dashboard does not refresh with the latest state unless an action is performed on the page, or the Refresh button on the page is clicked. Agents created using the Add Monitored Host wizard appear on the Agent Status dashboard only after clicking the Refresh button.

Adding multiple monitored hosts

The Add Monitored Host - List wizard allows you to start monitoring multiple hosts in your infrastructure environment. You can launch this wizard from the Infrastructure Environment dashboard, by clicking Multiple Hosts in the upper-right corner.

To add multiple monitored hosts:

1. On the Infrastructure Environment dashboard, in the upper-right corner, click Multiple Hosts. The Add Monitored Host - List wizard appears with the Agent Manager page open.
   • Agent Manager: Select the agent manager that you want to use to collect the information about the hosts that you want to monitor. The list shows the Foglight Agent Managers to which the Foglight for Infrastructure agent package is deployed.
   • Virtual / Guest: Ensure this check box is disabled. Click Next. The Add Monitored Host - List wizard refreshes, showing the Host List page.
2. Specify the hosts that you want to monitor. You have two options, that you can combine, depending on which hosts you want to start monitoring:
   • Start monitoring existing unmonitored hosts: Select this option if you want to start monitoring one or more hosts that already exist in your environment, but are not currently monitored. On the Host List page, click Add Known Unmonitored Hosts. The Unmonitored Hosts dialog box appears. In the Unmonitored Hosts dialog box, select one or more hosts that you want to start monitoring, and click Add.
   • Start monitoring new hosts. Select this option if you want to start monitoring new hosts, that are not currently showing as unmonitored hosts in your environment. Click Add New Hosts. The Enter host names here, one host per line dialog box appears. In the Enter host names here, one host per line dialog box, type a list of one or more host addresses, one host per line. To specify an override name for a host, type a comma immediately after the host name, followed by the override name. Click Add. The Host List page refreshes, showing the list of hosts that you selected for monitoring.
3. Optional. Specify host name overrides for one or more hosts. To specify a name override for a host, in the row containing the host, in the Host Name Override column, click Set override. In the dwell that appears, type the name and click Save.
4. Click Next. The wizard checks whether the selected Agent Manager has any credentials configured for the selected Windows hosts, and displays the findings on the Credential Verification - Windows page that appears. A matching credential has a resource mapping that resolves to a host name.

   Credentials are security data that provide the Foglight for Infrastructure agents with the permission to monitor system resources, such as a host or a range of hosts.

5. On the Credential Verification - Windows page, select one of the following options:
   • Do not configure a credential: Select this option if you want to configure the credential for these hosts at a later time. Local credentials for Windows and UNIX are set up by default when Foglight for Infrastructure is installed. Click Next. The wizard checks whether the selected Agent Manager has any credentials configured for the selected Unix hosts. Continue with Step 8.
   • Add host(s) to a new credential: Select this option if you want to add the hosts to a new credential. This option is suitable if none of the existing credentials have the connection details needed to access the new host. Click Next and continue with Step 6.
   • Add host(s) to an existing credential: Select this option if you want to add the host to an existing credential. This option is suitable if an existing credential has the security data needed to access the new host, but you need to edit its resource mappings to include this host. Click Next and continue with Step 7.
6. Create a new credential.
   a. On the Credential Type page that appears, select the credential type.
   b. Click Next. The Credential Properties page appears. The level of required information depends on the selected credential type. For example, the User Name and Password type needs a user name and a password, while the Challenge Response type needs a user name along with a question/response pair.
   c. On the Credential Properties page, type the required properties, and click Next. The Credential Name and Lockbox page appears.
   d. On the Credential Name and Lockbox page, provide a name to identify the credential, and select a lockbox in which you want to keep the credential. A lockbox can be used to group credentials for access and/or security. In smaller Foglight installations, using the default System lockbox should be sufficient. Click Next. The Resource Mapping page appears.
   e. On the Resource Mapping page, indicate which hosts you want to associate with this credential. You can either select all hosts in the list, or all monitored hosts. Click Next. The Policies page appears.
   f. Optional. On the Policies page, define one or more policies for this credential. A policy defines the number of times a credential can be used, the number of allowed authentication failures, the time range during which the credential is valid, or the length of time the credential data can be cached on the client. For example, you can specify the number of times the credential can be used, or the time period during which it can be used. Click Next. The Credential Verification - Linux / *nix page appears.
   g. Continue with Step 8.
   
7. Use an existing credential.
   a. On the Credential page that appears, select an existing credential to contain this host.
   b. Click Next. The Resource Mapping page appears.
   c. On the Resource Mapping page, indicate which hosts you want to associate with this credential. You can either select the host that you are about to start monitoring, all monitored hosts, or hosts whose name contains a specific text string. Click Next. The Credential Verification - Linux / *nix page appears.
8. On the Credential Verification - Linux / *nix page that appears, start specifying the credentials for your UNIX hosts. For instructions, refer to Step 5.
9. On the Summary page, review the information provided about the hosts you want to monitor and their credentials.
10. To perform a connectivity check, select Check for Connectivity. For a successful installation, an agent has to be created and it must be able to connect to the host it will monitor. The connectivity check is an attempt to establish a connection to the host after the agent has been created. If the connectivity check fails, an error message is provided. The connectivity check adds approximately one minute to the installation. If you choose not to check connectivity, you can verify the agent status on the Agent Status dashboard.
11. Click Finish. The new hosts are added to the Hosts dashboard after a short delay. The monitoring agents are created. If you performed a connectivity check and verification fails for one or more agents, an error message is displayed to help you better understand and resolve the problem. Review the information in the Add Monitored Host dialog box. If applicable, review the error message and perform the necessary steps, as instructed.
12. Close the Add Monitored Host dialog box. The agent instances created to monitor the new host appear on the Agent Status dashboard.

    The Agent Status dashboard does not refresh with the latest state unless an action is performed on the page, or the Refresh button on the page is clicked. Agents created using the Add Monitored Host wizard appear on the Agent Status dashboard only after clicking the Refresh button.

Selecting a set of hosts to monitor

The Hosts dashboard is beneficial for monitoring environments with a large number of hosts. You have the flexibility to choose to display only a subset of these hosts or to show all hosts.

In many cases, you need to focus on a subset of these hosts. There are different ways to do this in the Hosts dashboard:

• Use the field at the top of the table to filter the list of hosts by name. For example, to display only the hosts with “database” in their names.
• Use the menu under the Filter By Activity area to show only hosts in a specific category. For example, all Windows hosts.

  If a Host is not currently being monitored, contact your Administrator to configure the host.

To view the data for all hosts in your environment, you can:

• Work with the default settings in the Filter By Activity area and the menu underneath it (Monitored Hosts Only and All Hosts, respectively).
• Select All Hosts from the Filter By Activity area and leave the default setting All Hosts in the menu underneath this area.
  

Identifying the types of hosts you are monitoring

The icons in the Type column allow you to see at a glance what kind of hosts you are monitoring:
Physical hosts are identified by the icon , VMware images by the icon , and ESX servers by the icon .

Each icon displays the state embedded on top. For example, a physical host in a normal state has the following icon .

Monitoring the state of hosts

Now that you have chosen the group of hosts you want to monitor, refer to the icons in the first column in the table to see the state of these hosts at a glance. Each state indicator shows the aggregate alarm state of the host (excluding the state of agents on that host).

Investigating Alarms for a Host

Investigate the alarms of a host to get more details about the problems contributing to its non-normal state. In the row for the host, click the icon that represents warning, critical, or fatal alarms to display an alarm list filtered to show only the warning, critical, or fatal alarms for that host.

For more information refer to Viewing, Acknowledging, and Clearing alarms.

Viewing the host performance

The CPU, Memory, Disk, and Network columns allow you to obtain a concise performance overview of your hosts in these metric categories. The values in these columns and the popups and drilldowns available from them change with the time range of the dashboard.

These columns display recent and current values for each metric category. Recent values are displayed as a sparkline in the Utilization column.

To investigate the CPU, memory, disk, and network-related performance of a host:

1. Hover the cursor over the sparkline or current value in the CPU, Memory, Disk, and Network column for the required host. A popup appears. It contains a utilization chart for that metric.
2. To investigate further, click the sparkline or current value. A dashboard appears that contains details for that metric category.

The following table provides detail information about the column and the respective dashboard which gets displayed:

Column	Dashboard
CPU	CPU Details (example shown below): Use it to identify the top CPU consumers on the host, observe trends in the utilization of top processes, and view charts representing CPU utilization and process load.
Memory	Memory Details: Use it to investigate overall memory utilization on the host and the amount of memory consumed by the top processes. The Top Memory Consumers table lists both resident and virtual sizes for the top processes.
Disk	Disk Details: Use it to identify the top disk I/O consumers on the host, observe the utilization trends of the top CPU processes, and view charts for disk size as well as bytes read and written
Network	Network Details: Use it to investigate the aggregate network utilization of the host and view the activity of your network connections.

Viewing dependencies for a host

To view the dependencies for a selected host in the Host Monitor dashboard, click Host Dependencies within the General tab of the action panel. If you have the Cartridge for Dependency Mapping installed, this feature enables you to observe the elements in the dependency chain of the host.

Determine if the state of a host impacts your services

If one of your hosts is in a state other than Normal (), use the impacted services popup to view which of your services that host might impact. This popup helps you establish whether critical services are affected by problems with your hosts and decide if immediate action is necessary to resolve these problems.

To view the impacted services of a host, click () icon in the Impacted Services column for the host you are investigating. The impacted services popup shows a summary that lists the name of the impacted service, its aggregate state, and its aggregate state history.

Foglight also provides you with other views on your hosts.