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Manual Chapter : Configuring Statistics Collection

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BIG-IQ Centralized Management

  • 6.0.1
Manual Chapter

Configuring Statistics Collection

BIG-IP device configuration requirements for viewing statistics in BIG-IQ

Before you can enable statistics collection for centralized management, you must ensure that the BIG-IP device has the proper configuration. The proper configuration varies depending on the version of the BIG-IP device. The minimum supported BIG-IP device is version 12.1.0. BIG-IQ has limited visibility for BIG-IP devices prior to 13.1.0.5.
To enable all BIG-IQ visibility features, the BIG-IP devices require the following:
  • BIG-IP version 13.1.0.5 or later.
  • AVR provisioning.
  • To display HTTP statistics, each virtual server must be attached to an HTTP analytics profile.
  • Ensure that your network and firewall settings allow for bidirectional communication between your BIG-IP and BIG-IQ data collection devices.

How do I start viewing BIG-IP device statistics from BIG-IQ?

To start viewing statistics for a BIG-IP device, you must enable statistics collection for that device. You can do that either during or after adding the device to the BIG-IP Devices inventory list on the BIG-IQ system. You also need to install, configure, and add a data collection device before you can view device statistics.

Enabling statistics collection during device discovery

Before you can enable statistics for BIG-IP devices:
  • There must be a BIG-IQ data collection device (DCD) configured for the BIG-IQ device.
  • The BIG-IP device must be located in your network and running a compatible software version. Refer to K34133507#cm6.0.1 for more information.
    • For BIG-IP devices running version 13.1.0.5 or later, you must have AVR provisioned.
  • For BIG-IP devices running versions prior to 13.1.0.5, configure Ports 22 and 443 must be open to traffic from the BIG-IQ DCD to the managed BIG-IP devices.
  • For BIG-IP devices running version 13.1.0.5 or later, BIG-IQ needs to provide access on Port 443 so that the BIG-IP AVR module can send statistics to the BIG-IQ DCD.
One way to enable statistics collection for BIG-IP devices is to do it when you add those devices to the BIG-IQ system inventory. Adding devices to the inventory is referred to as
device discovery
. If the devices you want to enable have already been discovered, refer to
Enabling collection after device discovery
.
The ADC component is automatically included (first) any time you discover or import services for a device.
You do not need to discover and import a device’s configuration to collect and view statistics for it. You just need to establish trust between your BIG-IQ and the device. If you do not discover and import the device configuration, the virtual servers, pool, pool members, and iRules will be visible in the statistics dimension panes, but these objects will not appear in the configuration page for those objects. Also, you will not be able to manage these objects in BIG-IQ. If you decide you want to manage these objects, you can discover and import the BIG-IP device’s configuration later without interrupting statistics collection.
  1. At the top of the screen, click
    Devices
    .
  2. Click the
    Add Device
     button.
  3. In the
    IP Address
     field, type the IPv4 or IPv6 address of the device.
  4. In the
    User Name
     and
    Password
     fields, type the user name and password for the device.
  5. If this device is part of a DSC pair, for the
    Cluster Display Name
     setting, specify how to handle it:
    • For an existing DSC pair, select
      Use Existing
       from the list, and then select the name of your DSC group from the next list.
    • To create a new DSC pair, select
      Create New
       from the list, and type a name in the field.
    For BIG-IQ to properly associate the two devices in the same DSC group, the
    Cluster Display Name
     must be the same for both members in a group.
    There can be only two members in a DSC group.
  6. If this device is configured in a DSC pair, for the
    Deployment Settings
    , specify how to handle it:
    • Initiate BIG-IP DSC sync when deploying configuration changes (Recommended)
      : Select this option if this device is part of a DSC pair and you want this device to automatically synchronize configuration changes with the other member in the DSC group.
    • Ignore BIG-IP DSC sync when deploying configuration changes
      : Select this option if you want to manually synchronize configurations changes between the two members in the DSC group.
  7. Click the
    Add
     button at the bottom of the screen.
    The BIG-IQ system opens communication to the BIG-IP device, and checks the BIG-IP device framework.
    The BIG-IQ system can properly manage a BIG-IP device only if the BIG-IP device is running a compatible version of the REST framework.
  8. If a framework upgrade is required, in the popup window, in the
    Root User Name
     and
    Root Password
     fields, type the root user name and password for the BIG-IP device, and click
    Continue
    .
  9. If in addition to basic management tasks (like software upgrades, license management, and UCS backups) you also want to centrally manage this device's configurations for licensed services, select the check box next to each service you want to discover.
    You can also select these service configuration after you add the BIG-IP device to the inventory.
  10. To enable statistics collection for this BIG-IP device, under Statistics monitoring, select the check box next to each service you want to collect statistics for, and then click
    Continue
    .
    If you want to enable statistics collection without managing any services, just clear the check boxes for all services.
  11. Click the
    Add
     button at the bottom of the screen.

Enable statistics collection for devices

Before you can enable statistics collection for a BIG-IP device using this method:
  • The device must already be in the BIG-IQ system inventory.
  • There must be a BIG-IQ data collection device configured for the BIG-IQ device.
Generally, if you want to collect statistics for a BIG-IP device, you enable statistics collection when you discover it. But you can enable or disable statistics collection for a device any time it is convenient for you.
  1. At the top of the screen, click
    Devices
    .
  2. Click the name of the device you want to enable statistics collection for.
  3. On the left, click
    Statistics Collection
    .
  4. To begin statistics collection, for
    Collect Statistics Data
    , select
    Enabled
    .
  5. For
    Modules/Services
    , click the check box for the types of statistics you want to collect.
  6. For
    Frequency
    , next to
    Collect every
    , select the interval at which you want to collect statistics from this device.
After you enable statistics collection for a device, data for that device begins aggregating along with any other devices for which you are collecting data. Two buttons (
View Health Statistics
, and
View Traffic Statistics
) are added to the properties page for enabled devices. Clicking either of these takes you directly to the overview page for the statistics type you clicked.

Manage the retention policy for your statistics data

Before you can set the statistics retention policy, you must have added a data collection device.
You can manage the settings that determine how your statistics data is retained. The highest quality data is the raw data, (data that has not been averaged), but that consumes a lot of disk space, so you need to consider your needs in choosing your data retention settings. When you choose how much raw data to retain, you need to consider how much disk space you have available. The controls on this screen are simple to set up, but understanding how they work takes a bit of explanation.
The fields on the Statistics Retention Policy screen all work in similar fashion. One way to understand how these fields work is to think of your data storage space as a set of containers. The values you specify on this screen determine how much storage space each container consumes. Because data is saved for the time periods you specify, the longer the time period that you specify, the more space you consume. The disk storage that is consumed depends on several factors.
  • The number of BIG-IP devices you manage
  • The number of objects on the BIG-IP devices you manage (for example, virtual servers, pools, pool members, and iRules)
  • The frequency of statistics collection
  • The data retention policy
  • The data replication policy
There are three key concepts to understand about how the retention policy works.
  1. At the top of the screen, click
    System
    , then, on the left, click
    BIG-IQ DATA COLLECTION
     and then select
    BIG-IQ Data Collection Cluster
    .
    The BIG-IQ Data Collection Cluster screen opens. On this screen, you can either view summary status for the data collection device cluster or access the screens that you can use to configure the DCD cluster.
    • Under Summary, you can view information detailing how much data is stored, as well as how the data is stored.
    • Under Configuration, you can access the screens that control DCD cluster performance.
  2. Under the screen name, click
    Configuration
    Statistics Data Collection
    .
    The Statistics Collection Status screen opens.
  3. On the left, click
    Statistics Data Collection
    .
    The Statistics Collection Status screen displays the percentage of available disk space currently consumed by statistics data for each container.
  4. To change the retention settings for your statistics data, click
    Configure
    .
    The Statistics Retention Policy screen opens.
  5. In the
    Keep real-time (raw) data up to
     field, type the number of hours of raw data to retain.
    You must specify a minimum of 1 hour, so that there is sufficient data to average and create a data point for the
    Keep hourly data up to
     container.
  6. In the
    Keep hourly data up to
     field, type the number of hourly data points to retain.
    You must specify a minimum of 24 hours, so that there is sufficient data to average and create a data point for the
    Keep daily data up to
     container.
  7. In the
    Keep daily data up to
     field, type the number of daily data points to retain.
    You must specify a minimum of 31 days, so that there is sufficient data to average and create a data point for the
    Keep monthly data up to
     container.
  8. In the
    Keep monthly data up to
     field, type the number of monthly data points to retain.
    Once the specified number of months passes, the oldest monthly data set is deleted.
  9. In the
    Limit max storage to
     field, type the percentage of disk space that you want collected data to consume before the oldest monthly data set is deleted.
  10. Expand Advanced Settings, and then select the
    Enable Replicas
     check box.
    Replicas
     are copies of a data set that are available to the DCD cluster when one or more devices within that cluster become unavailable. By default, data replication for statistics is not enabled. Disabling replication reduces the amount of disk space required for data retention. However, this provides no protection from data corruption that can occur when you remove a data collection device. You should enable replicas to provide this protection.
  11. When you are satisfied with the values specified for data retention, click
    Save & Close
    .

The aggregation policy for your statistics data

There is a default statistics aggregation policy for the data added to your data collection device. The aggregation policy impacts the quality of the entity data, per dimension, over time. This optimizes the disk usage, and allows for high quality data for short-term analysis and troubleshooting for raw, hour, or even day time layers of data. Long term data storage provides insights into global statistics over time, but are not recommended for troubleshooting.
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