Using Resource Manager

Using Resource Manager

After you have installed and configured Resource Manager, you can begin using it to monitor your resources farmwide. You can monitor resources in many different ways in the Management Console, depending on the type of information you are looking to gather. For example, you can select the Applications node in the left pane of the Management Console and then select the Resource Manager tab in the right pane to display a summary of the application metrics that are being monitored (see Figure 15.4). You can further limit your view by expanding the Applications node, selecting a particular application, and then clicking the Resource Manager tab in the right pane again to display the Resource Manager information for just this application.

Figure 15.4. Metrics information is accessed through the Resource Manager tab.

Another way of looking at Resource Manager data is by server. You can select the Servers node in the Management Console and then choose the Resource Manager tab in the right pane to get a summary of all the servers and their status. Alternatively, you can further limit your view by expanding the Servers node and selecting a particular server to query for data again by selecting the Resource Manager node in the right pane.

The third method by which you can monitor server and application loads is by using the Resource Manager node in the left pane of the Management Console. Selecting the Resource Manager node gives you access to the following tabs in the right pane:

  • Watcher displays a list of all MPS servers in the farm that are reporting an alert.

  • Reports allows you to run reports such as Current Process, Current User Activity, Server Snapshot (which shows the status), Process Summary, User Summary, and Server Summary. Until a Summary Database is available, the associated reports are grayed out.

  • Billing allows you to generate billing reports based on resource usage. A Summary Database must exist before billing reports can be generated.

  • Summary Database allows you to configure the Summary Database.

  • SMS allows you to configure Short Message Service (SMS) as a method by which alerts are delivered to your mobile device.

  • SNMP allows you to configure SNMP traps as a method by which alerts are delivered to you.

  • Email allows you to configure email as a method by which alerts are delivered to you.

  • Farm Metric Server allows you to assign the Primary and Backup Farm Metric servers and also see their status.

Real-time Application and Server Monitoring

Often you will be interested in knowing the current activity on a server. This is where real-time application and server monitoring comes in handy. This feature allows you to see the status of an application or server now . To get access to view real-time monitoring, expand the Servers node in the Management Console and select a server. In the right pane, choose the Resource Manager tab and double-click the object you want to view in real-time. You are presented with a graph similar to the one shown in Figure 15.5.

Figure 15.5. Real-time monitoring.

Maintaining Historical Data

Every MPS server in the farm maintains Resource Monitoring data on itself, known as summary data . This data is stored locally as files in the following temporary location: \Program Files\Citrix\Citrix Resource Manager\SummaryFiles. Every hour the server updates and adds to these files. The Database Connection server then collects the summary data on a daily basis from every MPS server and writes it to the Summary Database. Once written to the Summary Database, the files are overwritten with new information.

Maintaining historical data is important and necessary, but you should also be selective of what type of data you are storing in the Summary Database. You need to know how long it will be stored and what the purpose of the storage is. Failing to do so results in a database that is incredibly large and that will keep getting larger. For example, if you are using the billing features and you want to bill users for the amount of memory they use, it is a good idea to maintain memory logs. If you need to justify hardware upgrades to management, you can choose to monitor certain processes that can be beneficial, such as the CPU utilization.

In addition to determining the type of data to store, you need to decide how long you need to store this information. This decision also impacts the size of the dataset.

Reporting

The main reason to use Resource Manager is reporting; it is the mechanism by which you can receive reports that summarize what is going on or what went on a server at a specific time. It is also a great tool for analyzing, forecasting, and comparing server and application loads. Two types of reports can be run using Resource Manager:

  • Current All current reports use the information that Resource Manager stores on the local MPS server to generate reports. This is where you get real-time snapshots, and the server records the information every 15 seconds.

  • Summary All summary reports use information stored in the Summary Database to generate its reports. Summary reports, even though less detailed than current reports, can be generated against any time period for which data was recorded in the Summary Database; thus, they provide a source for historical data.

Both the Current and Summary reports can be generated on a per-server basis or against multiple servers.

You can generate reports from the Management Console by selecting the Resource Manager node in the left pane and then selecting the Reports tab in the right control pane. The Reports Center in the Access Suite Console gives you access to a bigger variety of reports that can be generated.

Alert

Be able to identify the supported reporting types and the associated server farm requirements needed to access a particlar reporting type. For example, Summary reporting is only available if a Summary Database exists and contains historical data.


Usage Billing

In many organizations, users are billed or charged for the resources they use. This billing is useful in cases in which your infrastructure is limited and you want to make sure users don't waste resources unnecessarily. It can also be used as a means for expanding the infrastructure by having other departments in the organization pay for the expansion as they use the system more and more. It is a way of putting a dollar amount on the resource usage.

Resource Manager allows you to do this type of billing by using information stored in the Summary Database against a fee profile that you set up. A fee profile is basically a structure whereby you say that the price of using memory or CPU time is X. You can also specify the currency that you want to use.

You can also create a cost center . This allows you to group your users and apply a fee profile to them. Usually, cost centers are created for every department in your organization, which makes user management easier. Reports can then be generated against cost centers and billed to the respective departments.

To configure fee profiles or cost centers, or to run billing reports, launch the Management Console and select Resource Manager in the left pane. Then choose the Billing tab in the right pane, as shown in Figure 15.6.

Figure 15.6. Billing usage.



Citrix CCA MetaFrame Presentation Server 3. 0 and 4. 0 Exam CramT (Exams 223 and 256)
Citrix CCA MetaFrame Presentation Server 3. 0 and 4. 0 Exam CramT (Exams 223 and 256)
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2003
Pages: 199

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