Unix Monitor

Applies to ReadyAPI 3.51, last modified on March 04, 2024

You use Unix monitors to check metrics of your Unix-based servers.

Requirements

Net-SNMP must be installed and configured on the server. See Preparing Servers for Monitoring.

Monitor Settings

The monitor has the following settings:

  • Port – The port used to communicate with the server. Defaults to 161.

  • SNMP – The SNMP version to use. ReadyAPI supports versions 1, 2c and 3.

The other settings depend on the SNMP protocol version you use to communicate with the server.

  • SNMP version 1 and 2c

    • Community string – SNMP Community String. Must match the SMNP string specified in the SNMP config file on the server.

  • SNMP version 3

    • Login and Auth password – The user account and password for the SNMP 3 connection.

    • Encryption type – The data encryption algorithm to be used.

    • Encryption password – The password that will encrypt the traffic between the monitor and ReadyAPI. This password must match the SNMP 3 password you specify on the server side.

Frequently Used Metrics

Unix server monitors return information about hardware usage of your server. This helps you find out how close to the hardware limit your test has come. When you create these monitors, ReadyAPI displays the following statistics in charts by default:

  • Misc – Number of processes – Measures the number of processes on the computer. Some services create multiple processes to handle user requests. This metric helps you see how well these processes are cleaned out of the computer memory after they are no longer needed.

  • CPU – Usage – Measures the usage of your server CPU. 80% or more of CPU usage sustained during soak or peak tests may be the reason to upgrade the server.

Here are some other frequently used metrics:

  • Disk – Total Size and Disk – Used – Measure how much disk space is used during the test run. If you are using over 80-90% of the disk space in your tests, you may need to add additional storage.

  • RAM – Total Size and RAM – Used – Measure how much RAM is used during a test run. If there is not enough RAM on your server, Unix machines swap the least used memory blocks to the virtual memory on the hard drive. This may cause performance bottlenecks, since hard drive access is slower than RAM access. This behavior is acceptable for spike tests, but your soak and peak tests should rely on RAM.

Other Metrics

The available metrics are a subset of ucdavis (including the diskio module) and mib-2 SNMP MIBs statistics. Depending on the server configuration, you may be able to access different metrics. The following list shows the metrics you can access on a standard Ubuntu server:

Category Description Metrics

CPU

Provides information about processor usage.

Usage (%)

Disk

Provides information about hard drive usage. One set of metrics per device.

Total Size

Used

Misc

Provides miscellaneous information about the server.

Number Of Processes

RAM

Provides information about RAM usage.

Total Size

Used

Swap

Provides information about swap space usage. Swap space is used when your server runs out of RAM.

Total Size

  • Swap space

  • Virtual memory

Used

  • Swap space

  • Virtual memory

See Also

Preparing Servers for Monitoring
Server Inspector
Load Testing Templates

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