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Active IQ Unified Manager 9.14

Cluster components and why they can be in contention

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You can identify cluster performance issues when a cluster component goes into contention. The performance of workloads that use the component slow down and their response time (latency) for client requests increases, which triggers an event in Unified Manager.

A component that is in contention cannot perform at an optimal level. Its performance has declined, and the performance of other cluster components and workloads, called victims, might have increased latency. To bring a component out of contention, you must reduce its workload or increase its ability to handle more work, so that the performance can return to normal levels. Because Unified Manager collects and analyzes workload performance in five-minute intervals, it detects only when a cluster component is consistently overused. Transient spikes of overusage that last for only a short duration within the five-minute interval are not detected.

For example, a storage aggregate might be under contention because one or more workloads on it are competing for their I/O requests to be fulfilled. Other workloads on the aggregate can be impacted, causing their performance to decrease. To reduce the amount of activity on the aggregate, there are different steps you can take, such as moving one or more workloads to a less busy aggregate or node, to lessen the overall workload demand on the current aggregate. For a QoS policy group, you can adjust the throughput limit, or move workloads to a different policy group, so that the workloads are no longer being throttled.

Unified Manager monitors the following cluster components to alert you when they are in contention:

  • Network

    Represents the wait time of I/O requests by the external networking protocols on the cluster. The wait time is time spent waiting for “transfer ready” transactions to finish before the cluster can respond to an I/O request. If the network component is in contention, it means high wait time at the protocol layer is impacting the latency of one or more workloads.

  • Network Processing

    Represents the software component in the cluster involved with I/O processing between the protocol layer and the cluster. The node handling network processing might have changed since the event was detected. If the network processing component is in contention, it means high utilization at the network processing node is impacting the latency of one or more workloads.

    When using an All SAN Array cluster in an active-active configuration, the network processing latency value is displayed for both nodes so you can verify the nodes are sharing the load equally.

  • QoS Limit Max

    Represents the throughput maximum (peak) setting of the storage Quality of Service (QoS) policy group assigned to the workload. If the policy group component is in contention, it means all workloads in the policy group are being throttled by the set throughput limit, which is impacting the latency of one or more of those workloads.

  • QoS Limit Min

    Represents the latency to a workload that is being caused by QoS throughput minimum (expected) setting assigned to other workloads. If the QoS minimum set on certain workloads use the majority of the bandwidth to guarantee the promised throughput, other workloads will be throttled and see more latency.

  • Cluster Interconnect

    Represents the cables and adapters with which clustered nodes are physically connected. If the cluster interconnect component is in contention, it means high wait time for I/O requests at the cluster interconnect is impacting the latency of one or more workloads.

  • Data Processing

    Represents the software component in the cluster involved with I/O processing between the cluster and the storage aggregate that contains the workload. The node handling data processing might have changed since the event was detected. If the data processing component is in contention, it means high utilization at the data processing node is impacting the latency of one or more workloads.

  • Volume Activation

    Represents the process that tracks the usage of all active volumes. In large environments where more than 1000 volumes are active, this process tracks how many critical volumes need to access resources through the node at the same time. When the number of concurrent active volumes exceeds the recommended maximum threshold, some of the non-critical volumes will experience latency as identified here.

  • MetroCluster Resources

    Represents the MetroCluster resources, including NVRAM and interswitch links (ISLs), used to mirror data between clusters in a MetroCluster configuration. If the MetroCluster component is in contention, it means high write throughput from workloads on the local cluster or a link health issue is impacting the latency of one or more workloads on the local cluster. If the cluster is not in a MetroCluster configuration, this icon is not displayed.

  • Aggregate or SSD Aggregate Ops

    Represents the storage aggregate on which the workloads are running. If the aggregate component is in contention, it means high utilization on the aggregate is impacting the latency of one or more workloads. An aggregate consists of all HDDs, or a mix of HDDs and SSDs (a Flash Pool aggregate), or a mix of HDDs and a cloud tier (a FabricPool aggregate). An “SSD Aggregate” consists of all SSDs (an all-flash aggregate), or a mix of SSDs and a cloud tier (a FabricPool aggregate).

  • Cloud Latency

    Represents the software component in the cluster involved with I/O processing between the cluster and the cloud tier on which user data is stored. If the cloud latency component is in contention, it means that a large amount of reads from volumes that are hosted on the cloud tier are impacting the latency of one or more workloads.

  • Sync SnapMirror

    Represents the software component in the cluster involved with replicating user data from the primary volume to the secondary volume in a SnapMirror Synchronous relationship. If the sync SnapMirror component is in contention, it means that the activity from SnapMirror Synchronous operations are impacting the latency of one or more workloads.