Monitoring an IBM i host
You can monitor your IBM i host with Instana. Instana provides comprehensive insights into the IBM i host's performance, health, and resource utilization, enabling efficient troubleshooting, performance optimization, and proactive issue detection.
Configuring custom polling rate
You can configure how often Instana polls the host to collect data and metrics by using the poll_rate parameter in the agent configuration file <agent_install_dir>/etc/instana/configuration.yaml as shown in the following example:
#Host Sensor Configuration
com.instana.plugin.host:
poll_rate: 1 # values are in seconds. Default value is 1 second. Valid range: 1 to 600 seconds.System information
Instana retrieves various system details from an IBM i host. You can view the following details of an IBM i host on the Instana GUI in the System pane:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| OS | The details of the operating system, the kernel version, and the architecture. |
| CPU | The details of the CPU and the count. |
| Memory | Total system memory in GiB (gibibytes). |
| Hostname | The hostname of the IBM i machine. |
| FQDN | The fully qualified domain name. It is the complete domain name of the host, including the subdomain and top-level domain. |
| System ID* | The custom identifier used by Instana to uniquely represent and manage the monitored host within its monitoring. System ID is used for correlation with asset management systems. |
| Host ID | The MAC address of the host's network interface, which is a unique identifier for the network adapter. |
| Started At | The time at which the IBM i machine started. |
*For IBM i, you need to enable System ID by using the agent configuration YAML file as shown in the following example:
"com.instana.plugin.host":
"collectSystemId": true
Reporting status
The historical availability of an IBM i host is shown in the Reporting Status chart on the IBM i host dashboard. You can see three color indicators that identify the status of a host reporting to Instana.
| Status | Description | Color indicator |
|---|---|---|
| Reporting | The host reported to Instana without any interruptions. | Green |
| Reporting - monitoring issues | The host reported to Instana with some interruption (such as, network interruptions or agent monitoring issues) and was not fully available. | Orange |
| Not Reporting | The host was not reporting to Instana at all during this time. | Red |
The metric that is used to show this data on the host dashboard is based on the aggregation of messages received from the agent monitoring the host. A host is classified as Reporting if Instana receives at least 98% of the expected messages in a given timeframe.
For example, if the metric aggregation time window is 5 minutes and the poll rate of the host is once per second, Instana expects to receive 300 messages from the host during that timeframe.
- If at least 294 messages are received (98% of 300), the host status is shown as Reporting.
- If less than 294 but greater than 0 messages are received, the host status is shown as Reporting – Monitoring Issues.
- If no messages are received, the host status is shown as Not Reporting.
Performance metrics
The following performance metrics are displayed for the IBM i host.
CPU usage - total percentage
The CPU usage values, when combined, provide a detailed view of how the CPU resources are being utilized on an IBM i host.
| Metric | Description | Granularity |
|---|---|---|
| CPU Usage | The total CPU usage in percentage for the time range that you set. | 1 second |
CPU usage - overall
| Metric | Description | Granularity |
|---|---|---|
| User | The amount of CPU time spent running user-space processes (applications and services). | 1 second |
CPU load - average
The CPU load metric displays the value on a graph for a selected time period.
Datapoint: Filesystem
| Metric | Description | Granularity |
|---|---|---|
| CPU Load | The average number of processes that are run for the time range that you set. | 1 second |
CPU load - peak
| Metric | Description | Granularity |
|---|---|---|
| Load | The peak CPU load. The highest number of processes that are run for the time range that you set. | 1 second |