Monitoring XenServer
You can monitor the metrics and configuration data that are related to XenServer by using Instana. The XenServer sensor is automatically deployed and installed after you install the Instana host agent with the necessary configuration settings as documented.
The support for XenServer on Instana is disabled by default. To enable this optional feature, perform one of the following procedures:
Supported versions
Instana supports metrics and configuration data for XenServer 8.4
Configuring
To enable XenServer monitoring, add the host IP and credentials
to the agent configuration file
<agent_install_dir>/etc/instana/configuration.yaml
as shown in the following example:
com.instana.plugin.xenserver:
enabled: false # To enable the sensor, set its value to ‘true’.
host: '' # IP address of XenServer
user: '' # username to access
password: '' # password to access
poll_rate: 60 # default poll rate in seconds is 60
Metrics collection
To view the metrics, complete the following steps:
- In the Instana UI, go to the navigation menu.
- Click Platforms > XenServer. The XenServer dashboard is displayed.
Performance metrics
The XenServer sensor collects the following details and performance metrics from the XenServer host.
Host
The XenServer dashboard on the Instana UI displays the following details:
- Host name
- Number of virtual machines
- Average CPU
- Free memory
The Summary page of each host displays the following details:
- IP address
- CPU count
- Pool session count
- Pool task count
- XenAPI memory usage
- XenAPI free memory
- XenAPI live memory
- XenAPI allocation
Performance metrics
The XenServer sensor collects the following performance metrics from the XenServer host:
| Data point | Description | Granularity |
|---|---|---|
| Average CPU | Mean utilization of physical CPUs | 60 seconds |
| Free memory | Total amount of free memory | 60 seconds |
| Total memory | Total amount of memory in the host | 60 seconds |
| Network Bytes tx | Total bytes per second transmitted, aggregated across all physical network interfaces | 60 seconds |
| Network Bytes rx | Total bytes per second transmitted, received across all physical network interfaces | 60 seconds |
Storage repositories
The following table outlines the storage repository metrics in XenServer:
| Metric | Description | Granularity |
|---|---|---|
| Name | The label assigned to the storage repository (SR) for identification | 60 seconds |
| Type | The backend type of the SR (for example, LVM, NFS, iSCSI, EXT, or ISO) indicating how and where it is stored | 60 seconds |
| Virtual Allocation | The total amount of virtual disk space that is allocated to virtual machines from this SR | 60 second |
| Physical Utilisation | The actual physical disk space that is used on the storage backend | 60 seconds |
| Physical Size | The total physical capacity that is available in the SR | 60 second |
Virtual machine (VM)
The XenServer collects the following details from the XenServer VM:
Configuration data
The XenServer sensor collects the following configuration data from the XenServer VM:
- Name
- Number of VCPUs
- Domain id
- Domain type
- State
Performance metrics
The XenServer sensor collects the following performance metrics from the XenServer VM:
| Data point | Description | Granularity |
|---|---|---|
| CPU Usage | Domain CPU usage | 60 seconds |
| Free memory | Amount of Free Memory | 60 seconds |
| Total memory | Total Memory currently allocated to VM | 60 seconds |
Network interfaces
The following table outlines the network traffic and errors per virtual interface:
| Metric | Description | Granularity |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | The virtual network interface number that is used for communication | 60 seconds |
| MAC | The Media Access Control (MAC) address of the virtual network interface | 60 seconds |
| RX Bytes | The total number of bytes that is received by the virtual network interface per second | 60 second |
| RX Errors | The number of errors that are encountered while receiving data on the virtual network interface | 60 seconds |
| TX Bytes | The total number of bytes that are transmitted by the virtual network interface per second | 60 seconds |
| TX Errors | The total number of errors that are encountered while transmitting packets on the virtual network interface | 60 seconds |
Block devices
The following table outlines the virtual block device IOPS (input/output operations per second) and throughput metrics (read/write):
| Metric | Description | Granularity |
|---|---|---|
| Device name | Identifier of the virtual block device (for example, xvda or hda) | 60 seconds |
| Mode | Specifies access permissions of the device (for example, read-write or read-only) | 60 seconds |
| Type | Defines the role of the virtual block device (for example, disk, CD, or floppy) | 60 second |
| IOPS Read | Read requests per second | 60 seconds |
| IOPS Write | Write requests per second | 60 second |
| Read | Reads from device vbd in bytes per second | 60 seconds |
| Write | Writes to device in bytes per second | 60 seconds |