Understanding Controllers

Controller Objects in the VPSA represent the clustered virtual controller pair of a VPSA.

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Failover

Failover halts the active controller and activates the standby controller with minimal I/O interruption.

Viewing Controller Properties

Properties

Each Controller displays the following Properties:

Property

Description

ID

Controller name (which is automatically assigned)

Target

The iSCSI qualified name (IQN)

WWPN1

Worldwide name of the FC virtual HBA

WWPN2

Worldwide name of the FC virtual HBA

IPSec Key

IPsec Key for secured iSCSI connectivity over IPSec

Encryption Set

VPSA CHAP User

iSCSI CHAP authentication user name. For use when setting global CHAP on servers

VPSA CHAP Secret

iSCSI CHAP authentication password. For use when setting global CHAP on servers

Cache Size

Size of Flash Cache of this VPSA

Heartbeat1

Heartbeat status between 2 virtual controllers

Heartbeat2

Heartbeat status between 2 virtual controllers

Software Version

Virtual Controller SW build version

Paths

This tab lists all the paths between this virtual controller and the attached servers. If multipathing is set each server will show all paths, along with the number of active sessions.

For iSCSI connections the initiator and target IQNs are listed.

For Fibre Channel connections the initiator and target WWPN are listed.

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Warning

Fibre Channel - VPSA implements the implicit ALUA format. In case all ports of the underlying Storage Node’s HBA (of the active VC) will be disconnected, the VPSA will not initiate a failover.

Virtual Networks

If the VPSA was assigned muliple Virtual Networks (See: Managing Virtual Networks ) they are list in the Controller’s south panel.

Each network is displayed with its IP address and the associated VLAN ID.

imageControllerVN

System Usage

The System Usage Charts provide live metering of the consumption of compute resources on the selected Controller.

The charts display the usage data as it was captured in the past 20 “intervals”. An interval length can be set to one of the following: 1 Second, 10 Seconds, 1 Minute, 10 Minutes, or 1 Hour. The Auto button lets you see continuously-updating live metering info (refreshed every 3 seconds).

System Usage includes the following charts, detailed in the table below:

Chart

Description

CPU Usage (%)

Average usage of all CPU cores

Memory Usage (%)

Used memory out of available controller memory

Bandwidth (KB\s)

Total networking traffic (in KB) of read and write SCSI commands issued to the Controller, per second.

SSD Cache Usage (%)

Amount of Flash Cache used

Note

Bandwidth graph in the system usage tab shows cumulative virtual network metering stats across all virtual networks. Traffic per virtual network can be seen in VPSA performance dashboard.

Cache Metering

The Metering Charts provide live metering of the IO workload associated with Flash Cache of the selected Controller.

The charts display the usage data as it was captured in the past 20 “intervals”. An interval length can be set to one of the following: 1 Second, 10 Seconds, 1 Minute, 10 Minutes, or 1 Hour. The Auto button lets you see continuously-updating live metering info (refreshed every 3 seconds).

Controller metering includes the following charts:

Chart

Description

IOPs

The number of read and write SCSI commands issued to the Flash Cache of the Controller, per second.

Bandwidth (MB\s)

Total throughput (in MB) of read and write SCSI commands issued to the Flash Cache of the Controller, per second.

IO Time (ms)

Average response time of all read and write SCSI commands issued to the Flash Cache of the Controller, per selected interval.

Hit Rate (%)

Read and write cache hit-rate during the selected interval.

Logs

Displays all event logs associated with the selected Controller.

Performance Alerts

The Alerts tab lists the configurable alerts of the selected Controller:

  • Average CPU Usage in the last minute is above the given threshold

  • Average memory consumption in the last minute is above the given threshold