XenServer Monitoring

Skip Prerequisites, Web and LPAR2RRD tabs in case of configuring Virtual Appliance, Docker or a Container

Follow installation procedure for your operating system platform
XenServer and Citrix Hypervisor are supported

XenServer monitoring schema

Implementation is agent less, data sources:
  • performance data: XCP RRDD over XAPI (HTTP/HTTPS)
  • configuration data: OS commands via SSH

XenServer host connectivity

    Allow access from the LPAR2RRD host to all XenServer hosts ports 443 (HTTPS) and 22 (SSH)
    You might verify it manually like this for each host: 
    $ perl /home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd/bin/conntest.pl 192.168.1.1 443
  Connection to "192.168.1.1" on port "443" is ok
$ perl /home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd/bin/conntest.pl 192.168.1.1 22
  Connection to "192.168.1.1" on port "22" is ok

Users access

Create user account (preferably lpar2rrd) on each XenServer host.
  • The user account on your XenServer host must be allowed to read data from commands such as xe …-data-source-query
    The account should be assigned at least the Pool Admin role in XenServer's Role Based Access Control (RBAC).
    • If your setup has RBAC configured, create user account lpar2rrd and assign it the Pool Admin role.
    • If you are using XenServer Free edition or do not have RBAC configured, only root user has necessary privileges.

  • Exchange ssh-keys to all XenServer hosts.
    Run this on LPAR2RRD server for each host: 
    # su - lpar2rrd
$ ssh-copy-id xen-host1
  lpar2rrd@xen-host1's password: 

  Number of key(s) added: 1
  Now try logging into the machine, with:   "ssh 'xen-host1'"

$ ssh xen-host1
 xen-host1 $

Attach XenServer hosts

  • All is configured from the UI.
    XEN configuration

    XEN configuration1

  • Assure you have a cron jobs for XenServer in place (upgrade script might do it automatically)
    Skip it on the Virtual Appliance, it is already there. 
    $ crontab -l | grep "load_xenserver.sh"
$
    Add it if it does not exist like above 
    $ crontab -e

# XenServer support
0,20,40 * * * *  /home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd/load_xenserver.sh > /home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd/load_xenserver.out 2>&1
  • Wait 30 minutes and then go to the web UI: http://<your web server>/lpar2rrd/
    Use Ctrl-F5 to refresh the web browser cache.


Install LPAR2RRD server

  • Download the latest LPAR2RRD server
    Upgrade your already running LPAR2RRD instance.

  • Install it: 
    # su - lpar2rrd
$ tar xvf lpar2rrd-7.XX.tar
$ cd lpar2rrd-7.XX
$ ./install.sh
$ cd /home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd
  • Make sure all Perl modules are in place
    cd /home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd
. etc/lpar2rrd.cfg; $PERL bin/perl_modules_check.pl
    If there is missing "LWP::Protocol::https" then check this docu to fix it

  • Enable Apache authorisation 
    su - lpar2rrd
umask 022
cd /home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd
cp html/.htaccess www
cp html/.htaccess lpar2rrd-cgi
  • Schedule to run it from lpar2rrd crontab (it might already exist there)
    $ crontab -l | grep load.sh
$
    Add if it does not exist as above 
    $ crontab -e

# LPAR2RRD UI
0,30 * * * * /home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd/load.sh > /home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd/load.out 2>&1
    Assure there is just one such entry in crontab.

  • You might need to add lpar2rrd user into /var/adm/cron/cron.allow (/etc/cron.allow on CentOS 8) if crontab command fails
    Allow it for lpar2rrd user as root user. 
    # echo "lpar2rrd" >> /var/adm/cron/cron.allow
  • Assure you have a cron jobs for XenServer in place (upgrade script might do it automatically) Skip it on the Virtual Appliance, it is already there. 
    $ crontab -l | grep "load_xenserver.sh"
$
    Add it if it does not exist like above 
    $ crontab -e

# XenServer support
0,20,40 * * * *  /home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd/load_xenserver.sh > /home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd/load_xenserver.out 2>&1
  • Initial start from cmd line: 
    $ cd /home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd
$ ./load.sh
  • Go to the web UI: http://<your web server>/lpar2rrd/
    Use Ctrl-F5 to refresh the web browser cache.

Troubleshooting

  • If you have any problems with the UI then check:
    (note that the path to Apache logs might be different, search apache logs in /var) 
    tail /var/log/httpd/error_log             # Apache error log
tail /var/log/httpd/access_log            # Apache access log
tail /var/tmp/lpar2rrd-realt-error.log    # STOR2RRD CGI-BIN log
tail /var/tmp/systemd-private*/tmp/lpar2rrd-realt-error.log # STOR2RRD CGI-BIN log when Linux has enabled private temp
  • Test of CGI-BIN setup 
    umask 022
cd /home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd/
cp bin/test-healthcheck-cgi.sh lpar2rrd-cgi/
    go to the web browser: http://<your web server>/lpar2rrd/test.html
    You should see your Apache, LPAR2RRD, and Operating System variables, if not, then check Apache logs for connected errors