HP Storage Essentials: Performance - Overview & Features

Overview

HP Storage Essentials automatically charts the path that each of your applications takes through your SAN, filtering out the storage elements that aren’t relevant. You'll only see the database, host, HBA port, switch port, and storage system port counters in the application path you selected. You can simultaneously monitor counters for each resource in real time, or compare current and past performance to detect out-of-norm conditions.

HP Storage Essentials also enables you to analyze the performance of individual resources. Current, historical, and projected performance information is delivered for supported applications, servers, fabric switches, and storage systems. For each resource type, performance information is presented in the appropriate context for that resource (e.g. free physical memory, virtual memory used, and CPU utilization for a host; disk utilization percentage and disk I/Os per second for an internal direct-attached disk; bytes transmitted and received for HBA, switch, and storage system ports). Historical trends can be charted over any length of time by day, week, month, or year, or extrapolated over a user-defined period to forecast future performance requirements.

The ability to monitor application, host, switch, and storage system counters in a single, integrated view makes it fast and easy to diagnose the root causes of storage-related performance problems

Features

Monitor performance of individual resources

• Displays storage topology with performance icons affixed to each resource with performance information
• Single click drill-down from performance summary view to individual resource views to monitor performance counters
• Real-time, historical, and trend options for every monitored counter
• Monitor multiple performance counters simultaneously to determine root cause of problems
• Compare real-time performance for every counter with historical performance to detect anomalies and out-of-norm conditions

Real-time path monitoring

• Charts the path that each of your business applications takes through your SAN, filtering out the storage elements that aren’t relevant.
• Displays only the application instance, host, HBA ports, switch ports, and storage system ports in the application path you select.
• Monitors in real-time performance counters from each resource in your storage "supply chain" to determine root cause of problems
• Compare real-time performance for every counter with historical performance to detect anomalies and out-of-norm conditions

Counter analysis for every managed resource

• Hosts: Physical Memory Used, Free Physical Memory, Virtual Memory Used, Free Virtual Memory Processor Utilization
• Host Bus Adapters (HBAs): Bytes Transmitted (MB/sec), Bytes Received (MB/sec), Link Failures (Failures/sec), CRC Errors (Errors/sec)
• Fabric Switches (per port): Bytes Transmitted (MB/sec), Bytes Received (MB/sec), Link Failures (Failures/sec), CRC Errors (Errors/sec)
• Direct-Attached Storage: Disk Utilization (%), Disk Read (KB/sec), Disk Write (KB/sec)
• External Storage Systems (per port): Bytes Transmitted (MB/sec), Bytes Received (MB/sec), Link Failures (Failures/sec), CRC Errors (Errors/sec)

Configurable chart types and trend periods for each resource

• Select from bar or line charts
• Choose from canned time periods, including Real-Time, Last Seven Days, Last Month, and Last Year
• View performance trends over custom start and end periods using Start and End date fields with pop-up calendars

Trend extrapolation

• Select custom start and end dates
• Choose trend period to determine how far into the future each capacity statistic for the selected resource should be extrapolated