Managing the system attributes

Managing the system attributes

After you synchronize the KSYS cluster by using the ksysmgr sync ksyscluster command, the KSYS subsystem sets up the default system-wide persistent attributes. The KSYS subsystem uses these system-wide persistent attributes for activities such as automatic rediscovery of the resources, notification of critical events, removal of duplicate notification.

By default, the KSYS subsystem sets up the following system attributes:

deep_discovery
You can enable or disable the deep_discovery attribute at the system level through this tunable. The deep discovery process is similar to the discovery operation, except that the deep discovery process run automatically every 24 hours by default. During the deep discovery process, the KSYS subsystem collects all information that is collected during the quick discovery process and information about the storage systems. You can update the deep discovery process period by using the auto_discovery_time attribute.
ksysmgr modify system deep_discovery=<enable|disable> 
By default, the deep_discovery attribute is enabled. If you change it to disable, KSYS subsystem does not discover the environment automatically for any new or modified resources.
auto_discovery_time

Specifies the time for daily discovery at which the KSYS subsystem rediscovers the environment automatically for any new or modified resources. By default, the value of the auto_discovery_timeattribute is 00:00, which means the KSYS subsystem discovers the resources and updates its database about the virtual machines every 24 hours at 00:00 hour.

The HMC and VIOS are also involved in the rediscovery process to update information about the virtual machines. Therefore, if your environment is large (for example, hundreds of logical partitions in the data center), you might want to set this to a time with minimal load on the HMC, VIOS, and the underlying I/O subsystems. Any configuration changes to the hosts, virtual machines, disks, and any other entities (for example, addition of new disks to a virtual machine) are captured when the rediscovery occurs. This attribute also specifies the time during which any changes in the configuration setting can be lost if a disaster occurs before the rediscovery.

quick_discovery
You can enable or disable the quick discovery property. The quick discover operation checks the states of existing VMs and does not consider configuration changes. By default, the quick_discovery attribute is enabled.
quick_discovery_interval
You can set time interval in minutes for quick discovery operation. By default, the quick_discovery_interval is 60 minutes.
custom_script_timeout
Specifies the timeout duration for a custom script. If the custom script is unable to complete the execution within the configured timeout duration, the KSYS subsystem terminates the execution of the custom script and proceeds with the next execution. By default, the custom_script_timeout attribute is 0, which is considered as no timeout is set, and the system waits indefinitely for the script to run. For more information, see Configuring the timeout duration for custom scripts.
trace_file_size
Specifies the size in MB of the trace files the IBM.VMR daemon uses. By default, the trace_file_size attribute is not set and the size of the trace files is dynamically determined by RSCT.
ksys_spooling
Enables or disables trace spooling for the IBM.VMR daemon. By default, the ksys_spooling attribute is disabled. For more information on trace spooling, see Configuring trace spooling.
spool_dest_dir
Specifies the destination directory for trace spooling files for the IBM.VMR daemon when the ksys_spooling attribute is enabled. If you enable the ksys_spooling attribute and the spool_dest_dir attribute is not specified, then the spool_dest_dir attribute will get a default value as /tmp/ksys/rm.
spool_dir_max_size
Specifies the size in MB of the trace spooling area for the IBM.VMR daemon when the ksys_spooling attribute is enabled. By default, the spool_dir_max_size attribute is not set.
notification_level
Enables or disables the notification for different types of events. The notification_level attribute supports the following values:
low (default)
Only critical error events are notified.
medium
Critical and warning error events are notified.
high
All events, which include informational events, are notified.
disable
None of the events are notified.
dup_event_processing
Reduces duplicate event notifications. The email and script notifications that are related to the duplicate events are also disabled. The dup_event_processing attribute can have the following values:
yes (default)
Notifies about only those events that are not repeated in the last 24 hours
no
Notifies all the messages. .
ha_monitor
Enables or disables HA monitoring at the system level. By default, the ha_monitor attribute is enabled. For more information, see HA monitoring.
proactiveha
Enables or disables the ProactiveHA monitoring feature at the system level. By default, the proactiveha attribute is disabled. For more information, see ProactiveHA monitoring.
host_failure_detection_time
Specifies in seconds the time that the KSYS waits on a non-responsive host before the KSYS declares the host to be in an inactive state. By default, the host_failure_detection_time is 90. For more information, see Host failure detection time.
vm_failure_detection_speed
Specifies the time that KSYS waits before KSYS declares the failure of a VM. By default, the vm_failure_detection_speed attribute is set to normal. For more information, see VM failure detection speed.
vm_auto_discovery
Enables or disables whether newly created VMs and undiscovered VMs will be managed automatically. By default, the vm_auto_discovery attribute is enabled.
ping
You can enable or disable the ping attribute at the system level through this tunable. The KSYS subsystem performs scheduled health checkups on the HMC and storage systems. The KSYS subsystem informs you about the health state of the HMC and storage systems through the ping attribute. If the ping attribute is disabled, the KSYS subsystem does not provide the health state notification about the HMC and storage systems. Also, when the ping attribute is disabled, the HMC_UNREACHABLE event and the STG_UNREACHABLE event are not triggered. To set the ping tunable at the system level, run the following command:
ksysmgr modify system ping=<enable|disable> 
By default, the ping attribute is enabled.
lpm_support
Enables or disables the Live Partition Mobility (LPM) feature at the system level. By default, the lpm_support attribute is enabled. For more information, see Disabling LPM operations.
port_validation
Enables or disables port-level validation at the system level. By default, the port_validation attribute is disabled. If the port_validation attribute is enabled, the KSYS subsystem performs port-level validation instead of Logical Unit Number (LUN) level validation. To set the port-level validation, run the following command:
ksysmgr modify system port_validation=<enable|disable> 
Port-level validation
You can set port-level validation at the system level through a tunable. If the port-level validation is enabled, the KSYS subsystem performs port-level validation instead of Logical Unit Number (LUN) level validation. To set the port-level validation, run the following command:
ksysmgr modify system PortValidation=<enable|disable>
hmc_ping_timer
Specifies in seconds the period between scheduled health checkups of the HMC when the ping attribute is enabled. By default, the hmc_ping_timer attribute is 0, which indicates a default period of 10 seconds.
cleanup_files_interval
Specifies in days the maximum period since last modification time of temporary VMR log files before they are removed.
memory_capacity
Specifies memory capacity percentage for flexible capacity policy at system level. For more information, see Configuring the flexible capacity policies.
cpu_capacity
Specifies CPU capacity percentage for flexible capacity policy at system level. For more information, see Configuring the flexible capacity policies.
network_isolation
Specifies the IP addresses for network isolation detection. For more information, see Configuring network isolation events.
ksys_lang
Specifies language setting for ksysmgr and VMRM. By default, the ksys_lang attribute is set to en_US. For more information, see Enabling locale setting.
connection_timeout
Specifies in seconds the connection timeout for KSYS REST API calls. By default, the connection_timeout attribute is 75.
hmc_port_number
Specifies the inbound application port for the HMCs. By default, the hmc_port_number attribute is 443. You can modify the HMC port value to 12443.
vpmem_override
Enables or disables Virtual Persistent Memory (vPMEM). By default, the vpmem_override attribute is disabled. For more information, see vPMEM override.
Examples for querying system properties and status
  • To query the information or status related to system-wide attributes, use the following command:
ksysmgr query system [properties | status [monitor=<no|yes>]] 
  • To query the existing values of the system attributes, run the following command:
ksysmgr query system properties 
  • An output that is similar to the following example is displayed:

System-Wide Persistent Attributes
auto_discovery_time:                             00:00 hours
lose_vios_redundancy:                            no
notification_level:                              low
dup_event_processing:                            yes
replication_type:                                Asynchronous
network_mapping:                                 Enabled
vlanmap:                                         Not currently set
vswitchmap:                                      Not currently set
drvlanmap:                                       Not currently set
drvswitchmap:                                    Not currently set
quick_discovery_interval:                        60 minutes
quick_discovery:                                 enable
deep_discovery:                                  enable
vm_auto_discovery:                               enable
custom_script_timeout:                           none
trace_file_size:                                 not set
ksys_spooling:                                   not set
spool_dest_dir:                                  not set
spool_dir_max_size:                              not set
memory_capacity:                                 Priority Based settings
                                                 low:100
                                                 medium:100
                                                 high:100
cpu_capacity:                                    Priority Based settings
                                                 low:100
                                                 medium:100
                                                 high:100
ping:                                            enable
min_redundancy_paths:                            disable
cleanup_files_interval:                          7 days
ksys_lang:
optimise_put_storage:                            disable
connection_timeout:                              75 seconds (default)
storage_group_update:                            no
hmc_port_number:                                 443
vpmem_override:                                  disable
host_lun_validation:                             disable
cgoperation_timeout:                             2.00 hours
hmc_ping_timer:                                  10 seconds
sa_ping_timer:                                   10 seconds
User Scripts for Site:                           None
User Scripts for Host Group:                     None
User Scripts for VM:                             None
  • To query the system status, run the following command:
ksysmgr query system status 
The output might look similar to the following sample: 
Discovery is in progress for Site Site1. 
Discovery is in progress for Site Site2. 
Please use "ksysmgr query system status monitor=yes " to track the progress of the operation.
If you specify the monitor=yes parameter, the KSYS monitors and displays all the current actions on the KSYS node. The actions include discovery, verification, movement, and recovery operations, which continue to progress even when the command is killed or when you close the command window. The monitor parameter also displays the encountered errors that are logged by the virtual machines, hosts, disk pairs, and disk groups. For example:
ksysmgr query system status monitor=yes 
Discovery is in progress for Site Site1. 
Discovery is in progress for Site Site2. 
Monitoring status... 
Running discovery on entire site, this may take few minutes...
  • To query the system status and monitor all entities of the system, run the following command:
ksysmgr q system status monitor=yes 
This system-wide command monitors all entities of the KSYS subsystem. This command displays all operations that are being run on each entity, and it also displays all operations that were previously run on each entity.
  • To modify the system-wide attributes, use the following command:
ksysmgr modify system <attribute>=<new_value> 
Examples for modifying the system-wide attributes
  • To enable the KSYS subsystem to automatically rediscover the resources at 04:00 every day, run the following command:
    ksysmgr modify system auto_discovery_time=04:00 
  • To change the notification level of your system to receive notification for all critical errors and warnings for all events, run the following command:
    ksysmgr modify system notification_level=medium 
  • To change the duplicate event processing option to receive notification for all events, even if the events are duplicated, run the following command:
    ksysmgr modify system dup_event_processing=no 
  • To set the minimum redundancy paths, run the following command:
    ksysmgr modify system min_redundancy_paths=<no. of paths>