BMC Software - BPPM Tech Note PATROL Agent Remote Monitoring Configuration

09/22/2012 H. Meeks Overview Out of the box the PATROL agent is configured for automatic self tuning. The primary reason for this is to ensure that the PATROL agent is not creating resource contention for business applications that are running on the managed node. For remote monitoring situations, the out of the box PATROL agent automatic self tuning must be disabled. This Tech-Note describes why and how to disable the automated PATROL agent self tuning for remote monitoring.

Details The PATROL agent self tuning ensures that the agent does not consume excessive resources. This self tuning is facilitated by a recovery action associated with the PATROL agent parameter that monitors the PATROL agent work rate based on executions per minute. The parameter name is PAWorkRateExecsPerMin, which is an abbreviation for PATROL Agent Work Rate Executions per Minute. Out of the box the PATROL agent is configured so that when the PAWorkRateExecsPerMin parameter reaches a value of 25 a built in recovery action updates the agent configuration setting for the agents Run Queue Schedule Policy. This update to the agents Run Queue Schedule Policy configuration results in a reduction of the agents resource utilization, the agent work rate and the associated executions per minute. The PATROL Windows and UNIX Operating System KMs, and the vCenter KM, provide remote monitoring capabilities so that PATROL agents running these KMs are not installed locally on the managed nodes that they are monitoring. (NOTE: The vCenter KM is always installed remotely.) When these remote monitoring KM capabilities are leveraged they significantly increase the work rate executions per minutes associated with the PATROL agent(s) that they are loaded on. This is expected and normal behavior for these use cases. The out of the box recovery action that automatically adjusts the agents Run Queue Schedule Policy configuration will result in data collection gaps for agents doing remote monitoring. If the remote monitoring load is significant enough, for example when a single agent is remotely monitoring hundreds of managed nodes, the out of the box configuration can result in a complete halt of data collection for some parameters. Consequently the out of the box recovery action on the PAWorkRateExecsPerMin parameter must be disabled. Additionally the PATROL agents Run Queue Schedule Policy must be set to an appropriate value that supports the expect agent load and resource requirements related to remote monitoring. PATROL agents for these use cases should be installed on dedicated nodes so that the PATROL agents and KMs are the only applications running on the node.

BMC Software - BPPM Tech Note PATROL Agent Remote Monitoring Configuration
09/22/2012 H. Meeks Remote Monitoring High-Level Architecture The architecture diagrams below illustrate the remote monitoring use cases applicable to this tech note. The PATROL agent is installed on a dedicated node in both use cases.
Remote Operating System Monitoring

PATROL Agent Remote Monitoring

PATROL Admin Console

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Remote Managed Nodes

VCenter Monitoring

PATROL Agent Virtual Monitoring

PATROL Admin Console

vCenter Node

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Virtual Machine Guests Managed Nodes

BMC Software - BPPM Tech Note PATROL Agent Remote Monitoring Configuration
09/22/2012 H. Meeks

Configuration Steps Complete the following configuration steps in the order listed. 1) Disable the recovery action on the PAWorkRateExecsPerMin PATROL agent parameter. This can be accomplished by applying the PATROL agent configuration rule shown below through PATROL Configuration Manager. The recovery action can also be disabled in the PATROL Console GUI. Please view the How-To video referenced below if you are not sure how to implement this method. 2) Set the runqSchedPolicy agent configuration variable to a value of 2. This must be done through PATROL Configuration Manager (PCM) by applying the proper configuration rule to the agent(s). The runqSchedPolicy configuration setting is one of the PATROL agent default settings. It will not appear in a rule set obtained from a configuration Get operation in PATROL Configuration Manager (PCM). To get the rule in PCM from an agent you will need to execute a configuration Get with defaults operation. 3) Restart the agent(s).

IMPORTANT: If you do not first disable the recovery action there is a potential it will be triggered causing your setting for the runqSchedPolicy configuration to be overwritten. Therefore you must execute the configuration steps in the order listed.

PATROL Agent Configuration Rules Disable PATROL Agent Work Rate Executions per Minute recovery action.

PATROL_CONFIG "/AgentSetup/AgentTuning/runqSchedPolicy" = { REPLACE = "2" }

PATROL Agent Run Queue Schedule Policy setting.

PATROL_CONFIG "/RecoveryActions/PATROL_NT/PATROL_NT/PAWorkRateExecsMin/Mode" = { REPLACE = "3" }

Additional Resources If you are not already very familiar with PATROL concepts, consoles and navigation please view the HowTo video entitled PATROL Agent Tuning for Remote Collection - How-To Video Series found on BMC communities at the following URL. https://communities.bmc.com/communities/docs/DOC-21253