Metrics that are exposed through SMI-S provider (Discovery & Monitoring)

Hi,

I was looking at unisphere ui of celerra simulator and I can see that in the statistics area, we can see all the above statistics monitored. As for example IOPS on NFS here. Is it possible to get these via API ? preferably same SMI-S Provider API. Thanks very much for help.

Hi,

in terms of SMI-S - what you see documented in the programmers guide is what you can get.

In terms of NAS protocols most other data you can get via the XML API.

Some more details are available through the CLI (server_stats for example).

For the block side (ISCSI, FC,...) the simplest way is navicli

UniSphere itself doesnt use SMI-S

P.S.: as an ISV you might want to take a look at the EMC Technology Partner program (ETP)

see  https://community.emc.com/community/partner/etp 

Thanks for very useful info Rainer.

One more question related to XML API. It seems to have many things that I am looking for. I see relevant BLOCK entities (raid groups, luns etc.) and their statistics.

Just like celerra simulator, does XML API come preinstalled in 'Solutions Enabler' also? We just have to enable it as per below instructions?

This from XML API doc :-

--------------

By default the XML API is disabled. To start the XML API server, do the following:

As root, use a text editor to uncomment the following entry in /nas/sys/nas_mcd.cfg:

daemon "XML API Server"
     executable "/nas/sbin/start_xml_api_server"
     optional yes
     canexit yes
     autorestart yes
     ioaccess no

Restart nas services with the following command:

# service nas start

The XML API is now started and is controlled by the master control daemon.

--------------

Please let me know.

thanks for ur help.

Hi,

the XML API is a file (NAS) API - so it doesnt have much details about the block objects.

For the NAS side the block storage normally ends at the dvol level - which is a LUN for the block side.

yes the XMl API server is installed on every VNX file or Unified system on the control station.

Of course it isnt available on a block only VNX since that doesnt have a control station or data mover.

The instructions on how to enable it are from an older version - on all the current systems I've checked these lines are already uncommented and it is running by default.

I dont understand what you mean with " come pre-installed with Solutions Enabler".

For the block side SMI-S or other purposes there is a Solutions Enabler package that is (optionally) installed on a Windows or Unix Systems so that other programs can use its API's to talk to EMC storage.

Solutions Enabler is a piece of software that covers both VNX (Clariion) and Symmetrix API's.

On a VNX file/unified system there is a version of Solutions Enabler built into the control station and data mover software.

Thanks for the reply and sorry for ignorance.

Yes I went back into the documentation of XML API and realized that it is installed on the control station in real VNX (hardware) deployments and comes with simulator as simulator has control station and data movers as a software in place of real hardware. I was thinking it will also be installed on solutions enabler since it was in simulator which was completely wrong.

This is fine but in XML API doc I saw a topic called clariion management, which caught my eye.

[The schema file Clariion.xsd defines data structures and operations related to VNX for block storage system configuration and statistics information.] Not sure if this is the right one but I thought of using this and running in test lab (ran it in test lab of a friend who had VNX BLOCK) to see if it will work.

Apart from this information I am also trying to create a single program that can access data from SMIS whether FILE or BLOCK. Specifically for SMIS API, can you copy a link to the right programmer's guide? The problem is, I got one and using UML diagrams I created a test program but I see that it has namespace root/emc/celerra which does not work for block SMIS.

So basically I am looking at XML api and SMIS together and see which one works best for me in terms of results for file and block.

Thanks very much.

Hi Rainer,

Going through some documentation about VNX offerings I figured out that control station is available in VNX Unified Storage. Which means only those ones (>VNX 5300) has that and that too if customer wants to make it unified? Is it true that they can have block VNX 5300 without control station and DMs?

Considering that unified storage is present (with control station), XML API is in control station. is this correct? Can XML API access File related data (volumes exposed, nfs exports, pools) and also block level data (volumes, raid groups, pools) that are exposed through storage processor? Mainly I am trying to see if XML api is enough to get NFS/ISCSI/FC volumes,pools etc. exposed from VNX Unified Storage if I assume "CONTROL STATION" is always present?

In the above reply u mentioned "For the NAS side the block storage normally ends at the dvol level - which is a LUN for the block side." I did not quite understand this. Can you please elaborate if it is relevant to my question ?

Thanks and sorry for asking same things :-) I am still learning as I go along and it is very confusing to me.

Hi,

I would suggest to talk to your local EMC technical contact as well as looking at the VNX family architecture white paper.

There are 3 potential VNX configurations from both a license and hardware point for each model.

customers that only need block (SAN - FC, FcOE or ISCSI) would buy a VNX block only system - that has only two storage processors and not control station or data movers.

customers that want both file (NAS - NFS, CIFS) and block would buy a VNX unified system that has storage processors and at least one control station and data mover

customers that only want file they get the same hardware as a VNX file only - that is the same hardware as unified but without the licences and SAN ports.

Each VNX model is available in one of these three configs - expect for the 5100 which is block only

On block only systems there is no control station so there is no VNX file XML API

Thanks Rainer.

I was looking to understand exactly this. I went looking into XML API only because SMIS test program did not work when I tried in BLOCK ONLY lab. There was a solutions enabler VM which I tried to access via "root/emc/celerra" namespace so I get entities of SMIS. But since the setup is FC or ISCSI only it came back with "namespace not correct".

As per the programmer's guide UML diagrams, I could not spot a difference in namespace or object names. May be I missed something there. Any idea about that?

I can use Navicli to get more data for block only ofcourse but wanted to see if I get any data from SMIS also.

Thanks.

Sorry – no idea – I have never used the block SMI-S provider

Hi Rainer,

Can you point me to some dev network or email list in emc who might have the above information of how to use SMIS programming guide to get data for customers who are block only or who have unified config but have exposed iscsi / fc only. Will be really helpful as I cannot find anything relevant.

Sorry – I don’t know whether such lists exist

I suggest you work through your EMC partner or ETP contact to get help