Users Guide

measure the cumulative utilization of each of these system resources that is read from the iDRAC using existing inter-communication
mechanisms to provide these vital data through out-of-band management interfaces.
Since Intel sensor representation of performance parameters and index values are for complete physical system, performance data
representation on the interfaces is for the complete physical system, even if the system is virtualized and hosting multiple virtual hosts.
To display the performance parameters, the supported sensors must be present in the server.
The four system utilization parameters are:
• CPU Utilization - There are individual Resource Monitoring counters (RMCs) for each CPU core which are aggregated to provide
cumulative utilization of all the cores in the system. This utilization is based on time spent in active state and time spent in inactive
state. Each sample of RMC is taken every six seconds.
• Memory Utilization - There are individual counters (RMCs) to measure memory traffic occurring at each memory channel or
memory controller instance. These counters are aggregated to measure the cumulative memory traffic across all the memory channels
on the system. This is a measure of memory bandwidth consumption and not amount of memory utilization. iDRAC aggregates it for
one minute of period, so it may or may not match the memory utilization shown by other OS tools such as TOP in Linux. Memory
bandwidth utilization shown by iDRAC is indication of whether workload is memory intensive or not.
• I/O Utilization - There are individual Resource Monitoring Counters (RMCs), one per root port in the PCI Express Root Complex to
measure PCI Express traffic emanating from or directed to that root port and the lower segment. These counters are then aggregated
to measure PCI express traffic for all PCI Express segments emanating from the package. This is measure of IO bandwidth utilization
for the system.
• System Level CUPS Index - The CUPS index is calculated by aggregating CPU, Memory, and I/O index considering a pre-defined
load factor of each system resource. The load factor depends on the nature of the workload run on the system. Thus at any given
time, CUPS Index represents the measurement of the compute headroom available on the server. Hence, if the system has a large
CUPS Index, then there is limited headroom to place additional workload on that system. As the resource consumption decreases, the
system’s CUPS Index decreases. A low CUPS Index indicates that there is a large amount of compute headroom and the server is a
main target for receiving new workloads or having the workload migrated, and the server being placed into a lower power state in
order to reduce power consumption. Such workload monitoring can then be applied throughout the data center to provide a high-level
and holistic view of the datacenter’s workload, providing a dynamic datacenter solution.
NOTE:
The CPU, memory, and I/O utilization indexes are aggregated over one minute. Therefore, if there are any
instantaneous spikes in these indexes, they may be suppressed. They are indication of workload patterns not the
amount of resource utilization.
The IPMI, SEL, and SNMP traps are generated if the thresholds of the utilization indexes are reached and the sensor events are enabled.
The sensor event flags are disabled by default. It can be enabled using the standard IPMI interface.
The required privileges are:
• Login privilege is required to monitor performance data.
• Configure privilege is required for setting warning thresholds and reset historical peaks.
• Login privilege and Enterprise license is required for reading historical statics data.
Monitoring Performance Index for of CPU, Memory, and
I/O Modules Using Web Interface
To monitor the performance index of CPU, memory, and I/O modules, in the iDRAC Web interface, go to Overview > Hardware. The
Hardware Overview page displays the following:
• Hardware section – Click the required link to view the health of the component.
• System Performance section - Displays the current reading and the warning reading for CPU, Memory and I/O utilization index, and
system level CUPS index in a graphical view.
• System Performance Historical Data section:
• Provides the statistics for CPU, memory, IO utilization, and the system level CUPS index. If the host system is powered off, then
the graph displays the power off line below 0 percent.
• You can reset the peak utilization for a particular sensor. Click Reset Historical Peak. You must have Configure privilege to reset
the peak value.
• Performance Metrics section:
• View status and present reading
• View or specify the warning threshold utilization limit. You must have server configure privilege to set the threshold values.
For information about the displayed properties, see the iDRAC Online Help.
Viewing iDRAC and Managed System Information
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