Monitoring an AIX host

This section shows the total CPU usage percentage across all processors, representing the combined utilization of all CPU resources on the host. This aggregate metric helps you quickly assess overall system load and identify periods of high CPU demand.

To collect more accurate CPU usage in an AIX LPAR environment, you must set useMpstat to true as shown in the following example:

To collect more accurate CPU usage in an AIX LPAR environment, you must set `useMpstat` to true in the host section of the agent configuration file (*instanaAgentDir*/etc/instana/configuration.yaml) as shown in the following example:

com.instana.plugin.host:
  useMpstat: true
 

This section displays the overall memory utilization percentage for the AIX host, representing the total amount of physical memory currently in use. This metric provides a quick overview of memory consumption and helps identify potential memory pressure on the system.

This section monitors the maximum CPU load reached during the selected time period, indicating the highest level of CPU demand experienced by the system. Peak load measurements are essential for capacity planning, as they reveal the upper bounds of system utilization and help identify periods when CPU resources may be insufficient to handle workload spikes.

This section monitors the average run queue depth over the last hour, measuring how many processes are waiting for CPU execution time. The run queue is a key indicator of CPU contention—higher values indicate more processes competing for CPU resources, which can signal the need for performance optimization or additional CPU capacity.

Physical CPU consumed represents the actual amount of physical processor capacity used by an LPAR, measured in processor units (cores), regardless of how many virtual processors are configured.

This section monitors concurrent user login sessions on the AIX host, tracking how many users are actively logged into the system. This metric helps administrators monitor system access, identify unusual login patterns, and ensure compliance with licensing or security policies.

This section breaks down total CPU usage into specific categories, showing how processor time is allocated across user processes, system operations, I/O wait states, and idle time.

This section monitors CPU-related system events, tracking context switches and device interrupts that impact processor performance and system responsiveness.

This section tracks the average CPU load over time, measuring the number of processes competing for CPU resources. This metric helps assess system workload and identify periods of high demand or resource contention.

This section monitors physical processor utilization in AIX LPARs, tracking actual physical CPU consumption.

By default, physical processor utilization metrics are not collected. To enable collection, configure the following setting in the host section of the agent configuration file (*instanaAgentDir*/etc/instana/configuration.yaml):

com.instana.plugin.host:
  collectPhysicalProcessorUtil: true

This metric is also displayed in the Physical processor utilization time-series chart, where historical trends can be analyzed.

This section displays CPU usage breakdown for each individual processor, showing how CPU time is allocated across different execution states:

By default, individual CPU usage metrics are not collected. To enable collection, configure the following setting in the host section of the agent configuration file (*instanaAgentDir*/etc/instana/configuration.yaml):

com.instana.plugin.host:
  collectIndividualCpuMetrics: true

By default, individual CPU usage metrics are disabled to optimize performance and reduce system overhead. These metrics provide per-processor breakdowns but can impact system performance when monitoring systems with a large number of logical CPUs. Enable this collection only if needed.

This section monitors memory resources on the AIX host, providing metrics for physical and virtual memory usage, swap space allocation, and paging activity to help assess memory pressure and optimize system performance.

All memory metrics are visualized in the Instana dashboard as time-series graphs, allowing you to analyze trends and correlations across different memory components over your selected time range.

This section monitors system I/O activity, tracking both application-level operations and physical disk I/O.

By default, collection of these metrics is enabled. To disable collection, configure the following setting in the host section of the agent configuration file (*instanaAgentDir*/etc/instana/configuration.yaml):

com.instana.plugin.host:
  collectIOActivity: false

This section monitors process and thread activity, tracking process states, execution patterns, and system call activity to help assess workload distribution and identify scheduling issues.

By default, collection of these metrics is enabled. To disable collection, configure the following setting in the host section of the agent configuration file (*instanaAgentDir*/etc/instana/configuration.yaml):

com.instana.plugin.host:
  collectProcessStatistics: false

This section monitors physical disk performance metrics, including I/O operations, transfer rates, and utilization patterns.

By default, data is collected for the top 10 disks based on busy percentage (highest to lowest). To collect data for all disks, configure the following setting in the host section of the agent configuration file (*instanaAgentDir*/etc/instana/configuration.yaml):

com.instana.plugin.host:
  collectAllDisks: true # Set false to collect only top 10 disks

This section monitors physical volumes. A physical volume is a raw storage device (disk or partition) that must be initialized and added to a volume group before it can be used.

By default, data is collected for the top 10 physical volumes based on capacity utilization (highest to lowest). To collect data for all physical volumes, configure the following setting in the host section of the agent configuration file (*instanaAgentDir*/etc/instana/configuration.yaml):

com.instana.plugin.host:
  collectAllVolumeGroups: true # Set false to collect only top 10 physical volumes.

This section monitors volume groups. A volume group is a collection of physical volumes that creates a storage pool.

By default, data is collected for the top 10 volume groups based on capacity utilization (highest to lowest). To collect data for all volume groups, configure the following setting in the host section of the agent configuration file (*instanaAgentDir*/etc/instana/configuration.yaml):

com.instana.plugin.host:
  collectAllVolumeGroups: true # Set false to collect only top 10 volume groups.

This section monitors logical volumes. A logical volume is a virtual block device created within a volume group that can be used for file systems or raw storage.

By default, data is collected for the top 10 logical volumes based on capacity utilization (highest to lowest). To collect data for all logical volumes, configure the following setting in the host section of the agent configuration file (*instanaAgentDir*/etc/instana/configuration.yaml):

com.instana.plugin.host:
  collectAllLogicalVolumes: true # Set false to collect only top 10 logical volumes.

These metrics provide insights into file system performance, capacity, and usage, allowing administrators to monitor and optimize their storage systems effectively.

* The total, read, and write usage datapoint metrics display the disk I/O utilization as a percentage.

* Leaked (refers to deleted files that are in use and equates to capacity - used - free. You can find these files with lsof | grep deleted).

By default, Instana only monitors local file systems. You can list the file systems that are monitored or excluded in the configuration.yaml file (*instanaAgentDir*/etc/instana/configuration.yaml).

The name for the configuration setting is the device name, which you can obtain from the first column of the df command output.

The following example shows the list of file systems that are monitored:

com.instana.plugin.host:
  filesystems:
    - '/dev/hd11admin'
    - '/dev/livedump'
    - '/dev/hd10opt'
    - '/dev/hd2'
 

The following example shows the file systems that are included or excluded:

com.instana.plugin.host:
  filesystems:
    include:
      - '/dev/hd11admin'
      - '/dev/livedump'
    exclude:
      - '/dev/hd10opt'
      - '/dev/hd2'
 

By default, data is collected for the top 10 filesystems based on capacity utilization (highest to lowest). To collect data for all filesystems, configure the following setting in the host section of the agent configuration file (*instanaAgentDir*/etc/instana/configuration.yaml):

com.instana.plugin.host:
  collectAllAixFilesystems: true # Set false to collect only top 10 filesystems

Network File System (NFS) statistics provide detailed visibility into the way the system interacts with remote file systems over the network. These statistics are essential for understanding performance, diagnosing latency issues, and identifying bottlenecks related to storage access or network behavior.

NFS version 2, version 3, and version 4 client and server calls are supported.

The following tables describe the available NFS metrics.

NFS top level calls table shows a high-level view of NFS activity on the system. It helps you quickly understand how many NFS requests are being handled and whether any of them are failing.

NFS client table shows the activity of the system when it acts as a client, including the number of requests sent to NFS servers and any errors or rejections encountered.

NFS server table shows the NFS requests received and processed by the server. It helps monitor server performance, track errors, and identify potential bottlenecks in file-sharing operations.

By default, NFS statistics are not collected. To enable them, you must configure the setting in the host section of the agent configuration file (*instanaAgentDir*/etc/instana/configuration.yaml):

com.instana.plugin.host:
  collectNfsStatistics: true

Configure this setting only if any NFS file system is mounted. Otherwise, the collected values will be zero.

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is a core communication mechanism used to enable programs on one system to execute procedures on another system as if they were local function calls. RPC abstracts the complexity of network communication, serialization, and transport, allowing distributed components to interact seamlessly.

Both connection-oriented and connectionless RPC client and server calls are supported.

RPC client table shows the RPC requests sent from the client to servers. It helps monitor call success, timeouts, retransmissions, and authentication issues to ensure reliable remote procedure communication.

RPC server table shows the RPC requests received and processed by the server. It helps monitor rejected requests, duplicate calls, packet errors, and availability issues to ensure reliable server-side communication.

By default, RPC statistics are not collected. To enable them, you must configure the setting in the host section of the agent configuration file (*instanaAgentDir*/etc/instana/configuration.yaml):

com.instana.plugin.host:
  collectRpcStatistics: true

Configure this setting only if an NFS filesystem is mounted or the system is acting as an NFS server. Otherwise, the collected RPC statistics will be zero.

The following table outlines the network traffic and errors per an interface.

These metrics provide insights into TCP connection activity, including established connections, segment transmission rates, and error occurrences.

These metrics offer insights into running processes, including their process ID, name, CPU usage, normalized CPU usage, and memory consumption. The top process list is updated every 30 seconds and the list contains only the processes with system usage. For example, the processes with more than 10% CPU usage over the last 30 seconds or processes with more than 512 MB memory usage (RSS) are displayed in the process top list.

To create a combined list of processes from the top 10 CPU and memory usage lists, set combineTopProcesses to true. The processes are included in the combined list even if their CPU usage is less than 10% or memory usage is less than 512 MB. If the same process is listed in the top 10 CPU and top 10 memory usage lists, it is listed only once in the combined list, which can include up to 20 entries.

com.instana.plugin.host:
  combineTopProcesses: true
 

Linux top semantics are used. 100% CPU refers to full use of a single CPU core, and you can search a history of snapshots from the previous month. The normalized CPU is calculated by dividing the CPU by the number of logical processors.