Manual Chapter :
Managing a Scaling Group in a VMware Environment
Applies To:
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BIG-IQ Centralized Management
- 7.0.0
Managing a Scaling Group in a VMware Environment
How do I modify an application?
To revise the objects that define an application, you change the object definitions in the service template that builds that application. Complete these steps to make changes to an application.
- Make a clone of the service template that the application uses.
- Revise the objects in the template clone to the settings you want.
- Assign the cloned template to the application.
Modify an application service
Modifying an application service changes the configuration objects deployed to your devices or service scaling group.
- At the top of the screen, clickApplicationsthen, on the left, clickAPPLICATIONS.The screen lists the applications currently defined on this device.
- Select the name of the application that you want to modify.BIG-IQ lists the application services defined for the selected application.
- Select the name of the application service that you want to modify.
- On the lower part of the screen, select the Configuration tab and make a note of the template listed next toCreated from Template.
- ClickCancelthen click to list the templates defined on this BIG-IQ system so you can select the check box for the template identified in the last step.
- Click, then type a name for the cloned template and clickCloneagain. The system creates a clone of the service template and then opens the new template so you can make changes.
- Determine the objects that you want to revise for this application, and then specify values for those objects.
- When you have configured the objects that you want to revise for this application, clickPublish.BIG-IQ creates the new template and assigns it the read-only status of published, which makes it available to use to create an application.
- ClickApplicationsthen, on the left, clickAPPLICATIONSand select the name of the application you want to revise.BIG-IQ lists the application services defined for the selected application.
- Select the name of the application service that you want to modify.
- ClickSwitch to template; then select the name of the template clone you just created.Objects that you did not revise when you created the clone are left unchanged and the list of editable objects for the cloned template are displayed.
- Revise the settings for the editable objects, and then clickSave.The application service deploys with the changes you wanted.
Evaluating the performance of a service scaling group's
devices
When you are monitoring several service scaling groups (SSG), you can
evaluate the BIG-IP VE devices within the SSG to ensure that they are performing as
expected. Good health for your SSGs means that there is a low chance of a scale-out event,
and that the devices in your SSG are able to provide services to applications as
expected.
The health status of a SSG reflects the most severe alert status
triggered in one or more devices. A
Good
health status indicates that all devices within the SSG are within the acceptable range of
the configured SSG health alert rules. You can view the health of all your SSGs from the
SSGs screen ( click ). In addition, you can use the alert history for a single SSG to identify
whether a health or resource alert has been cleared.Verify the health of all your service scaling groups
You can verify that the devices in your service scaling groups (SSGs) are performing as expected, by evaluating the health status.
- At the top of the screen, clickApplications.
- On the left, click.
- Locate the HEALTH area at the top left of the summary bar and verify that all SSGs have a good health status.
- In the summary bar, locate the usage and throughput areas.These areas list the SSGs with the highest average values of all the SSGs.
- To sort the screen's list by the selected metric, click the AVERAGE CPU USAGE, AVERAGE MEMORY USAGE, THROUGHPUT IN, or THROUGHPUT OUT area.
- Click the name of the SSG to monitor CPU, memory usage, and throughput data of the devices within that SSG.
Verify that all alerts to a service scaling group are cleared
Verify that all active alerts that are used to
monitor the performance of the devices within your service scaling group (SSG) have been
cleared to ensure that your service scaling group is performing as expected, and there are no
issues that require further attention.
- Open an SSG properties screen,.
- In the ALERT HISTORY area clickSee All.This displays a chronological list of all alerts to the SSG, including cleared alerts. (Cleared alerts indicate that a metric threshold violation is now within the defined threshold.)
- In the Level column, verify that the most recent alerts have aClearedstatus.
Monitor resource usage in service scaling group devices
You can monitor the CPU and memory
usage data of the devices in a service scaling group (SSG) to verify that
your devices are performing as expected.
- From the ANALYTICS menu of a service scaling group properties screen, selectCPU Usage,Top Cores, orMemory( ).Charts display the average data for all BIG-IP VE devices in SSG.
- Using the tabs to the right of the chart, expand the Dimension pane and the BIG-IP Host Names dimension to display the SSG devices in the object list.You can filter charts and data in the BIG-IP CPU Cores dimension by selecting one or more devices from the object list.
- ClickCONFIGURATION, then clickDevicesfrom the menu to the left.
- Select one or more device rows, and clickView Health Statisticsto view additional resource usage data that applies only to the selected devices.
Monitor throughput in service scaling group devices
You can monitor the throughout, including HTTP
traffic data, of the devices in a service scaling group (SSG) to verify that
your devices are performing as expected.
- Open the service scaling group properties screen for the group you want to monitor ().
- To view SSG traffic data, from the ANALYTICS menu on the left:
- ClickThroughputto view the average throughput data for all SSG devices.
- ClickHTTPto view HTTP transaction data for all SSG devices.
- Using the tabs to the right of the chart, expand the Dimension pane and expand the BIG-IP Host Names dimension to display the SSG devices in the object list.You can filter chart data by selecting one or more devices from the object list.
- From the ANALYTICS menu on the left, selectDroppedorErrorsto ensure that the average rate of throughput errors and drops are as expected.
- ClickCONFIGURATION, clickDevicesfrom the menu to the left.
- Select one or more device rows, and clickView Traffic Statisticsto view additional device throughout data that applies only to the selected devices.
Detecting device health issues in a service scaling
group
With the Analytics services to your
service scaling groups, you can detect changes in
device resource usage (for example, CPU, memory)
and further identify the impact on the F5
BIG-IP ®
VE devices and their connected applications.
Each service scaling group's health status
indicates the current resource usage for all the
BIG-IP VE devices within your service scaling
group. When one, or more, devices cross a
configured resource usage threshold, the entire
service scaling group's health status is affected.
These health issues can be mitigated to prevent
performance impact on the traffic processing
services to any of your connected
applications.
When running a service
scaling group (SSG) in a VMware environment, you
are also able to monitor and detect performance
issues in the VE device that is responsible for
load balancing your BIG-IP VE devices within a
service scaling group. These performance issues
can impact BIG-IP devices, services, and
subsequent applications that are provided in the
service scaling group.
Isolate a service scaling group with health issues
You can isolate service scaling
groups (SSG) that are experiencing health issues in order to further
isolate the BIG-IP VE devices with changes in resource usage.
- At the top of the screen, clickApplications.
- On the left, click.
- Locate the HEALTH area at the top left of the screen, in the summary bar, and click a health status to filter the SSG list on the screen by that selection.The Health area displays the number of service scaling groups that are currently at each health status. Use this summary to identify which service scaling groups require additional analysis due to changes in performance thresholds. You can select a health status to filter the service scaling group list.
- At the top left of the screen, in the summary bar, click the SSGs WITH ACTIVE ALERTS area to filter the screen's list to display only service scaling groups that currently have active alerts.The SSGS WITH ACTIVE ALERTS area provides information about the SSGs with BIG-IP VE devices that have crossed one of the pre-configured SSG health thresholds. You can modify your alerts thresholds regarding the SSG devices' resource usage.
- To sort the screen's list by SSG CPU and memory usage:
- Locate the AVERAGE CPU USAGE and AVERAGE MEMORY USAGE areas at the top right of the screen, in the summary bar.
- Click one of these areas to sort the screen's list by that metric.
These areas list the SSGs with the highest average resource usage values. You can use this area to quickly evaluate the resources of your SSGs.
Isolate a service scaling group device with health issues
Once you have isolated a service scaling
group's health issues, you can isolate which of its BIG-IP device(s) are experiencing
health issues due to resource usage.
- Open the single service scaling group screen by selecting the name of the SSG from the Service Scaling Groups Screen ().
- To view the list of service scaling group devices by health, clickCONFIGURATIONat the left, below the summary bar.
- In the CONFIGURATION area, clickDevicesfrom the left.This opens a chart that lists all the devices that are providing BIG-IP system services to the service scaling group.
- Use the Health column to isolate devices with a Critical or Moderate health status. Use the Hostname and Device Address columns to isolate the affected devices.You can select one or more check boxes to the left of the device row, and clickView Health Statisticsto view the selected device's CPU, Memory, Disk Space, Disk Usage, and Interface Health statistics data. This will filter the displayed data by the selected device(s).
- You can adjust the BIG-IP device settings directly, by clicking the Device Address from theDeviceslist.This action opens the BIG-IP's environment.
- To identify the applications that are receiving the BIG-IP services, selectApplicationsfrom the menu the left.
- If all your devices have good health, but the service scaling group's health is low, check the Load Balancer device health and performance.
The health statistics
data displayed allows you to monitor the status of a device with high resource
usage.
Isolate a service scaling group load balancer device with health
issues
Before you start this task, be sure to identify
a service scaling group experiencing health issues using the service scaling groups list
(
), or active alerts ( ). The health of the load balancer BIG-IP device can
impact the service scaling group's overall health status. Check the health
of your load balancing BIG-IP devices see if its health status is
impacting the service scaling group's BIG-IP VE devices.
- Open the single service scaling group screen by selecting the name of the SSG from the Service Scaling Groups Screen ().
- To view the list of load balancing devices to your service scaling group, clickCONFIGURATIONat the left, below the summary bar.
- SelectLoad Balancerfrom the menu to the left.This opens a chart that lists all the load balancing BIG-IP devices to your service scaling group.
- Use the Health column to isolate devices with a Critical or Moderate health status. Use the Hostname and Device Address columns to isolate the affected load balancing devices.You can select one or more check boxes to the left of the device row, and clickView Health StatisticsorView Traffic Statisticsto view the selected device's resource usage and load balancing performance statistics.
- If the load balancer resource usage and/or load balancing capabilities are affecting the performance of the service scaling group, you can adjust the BIG-IP device settings device directly by clicking the Device Address from theLoad Balancerlist.
Detecting device performance issues in a service scaling
group
The F5
BIG-IP® VE devices within a service scaling
group can individually, or collectively, experience performance issues. This can occur
for a number of reasons, and impacts the performance of the application services
provided by the BIG-IP VE devices within a service scaling group (SSG). In order to
prevent or mitigate application performance issues, you can isolate specific devices by
using alerts and system data for a selected service scaling group. In addition, you can
monitor the applications that are managed by each service scaling group.
If you are running your F5
BIG-IQ® Centralized Management service scaling
groups in a VMware cloud environment, you can also monitor the health and performance of
the BIG-IP load balancer(s) that is responsible for distributing traffic across a
service scaling group. You can monitor these load balancers if multiple devices in a
service scaling group are performing poorly.
Isolate a service scaling group with performance issues
You can isolate service scaling groups (SSG)
that are experiencing performance issues in order to further isolate the BIG-IP VE devices
that may impact delivery of application services.
- At the top of the screen, clickApplications.
- On the left, click.
- Sort the screen's list by SSG throughput in and throughput out.
- Locate the THROUGHPUT IN and THROUGHPUT OUT areas at the top right of the screen, in the summary bar.
- Click one of these areas to sort the screen's list by the selected metric.
These areas list the SSGs with the highest throughput values (Bps). You can use this area to quickly evaluate the traffic processing capacity of your SSGs.
The service scaling group's screen helps you to
evaluate the traffic data for the BIG-IP VE devices. You can use this screen to further
identify trends in device traffic, and to establish whether the devices require prevention
or mitigation measures.
Identify a service scaling group performance issue
You identify the device resource usage trends
of a service scaling group (SSG) with traffic management issues in order to troubleshoot
the BIG-IP device's impact on an application's performance.
- Open the single service scaling group screen by selecting the name of the SSG from the Service Scaling Groups Screen ().
- In the ANALYTICS area at the center of the screen you can monitor the health and traffic data of all devices in the service scaling group.
- To view SSG traffic management data select from the menu to the left inn the ANALYTICS area at the center of the screen:
- ClickThroughputto view the average traffic throughput rate for all the SSG devices.
- ClickConnectionsto view the average number of open connections for all the SSG devices.
- ClickHTTPto view the average number HTTP transactions for all the SSG devices.
- ClickDroppedto view the average number of dropped packets for all the SSG devices.
- ClickErrorsto view the average number of packets with throughput errors for all the SSG devices.
Expand the chart view by collapsing the summary bar and/or application configuration map using the arrows to the right of these areas.Users with administrative access can view statistics for multiple applications by clicking. - To monitor the service scaling group's traffic over a period of time period, adjust the time setting above the chart.To analyze device data according to isolated alerts and events, ensure that theEventsbutton is set toON.Events and alerts appear in the chart as numbered icons that are color-coded according to Category.
- View the chart data to evaluate whether the triggered alert was due to a trend over time, or a sudden change in behavior.
- To filter alerts and events according to type, click the Category buttons below the chart to enable or disable displayed categories.
- To filter alerts and events according to severity, click the Log Level buttons below the chart to enable or disable by severity.
- Click the numbered icon in the chart time line to display a table with information about the events and alerts triggered at that time.
- Click the rows in the table to display details about each event or alert.
- Expand each dimension widget to view the dimension objects, and view detailed information about their metric data.
- To filter chart data by one or more BIG-IP devices in the service scaling group, select objects in the dimension BIG-IP Host Names.
- To isolate applications that might be affected by device traffic management issues, clickCONFIGURATIONat the center of the screen and clickApplicationsfrom the menu at the left.This area displays the applications that receive services from the SSG.
- If you cannot identify a single issue in your service scaling group devices, the load balancer to your service scaling group might be the causing performance issues. You can isolate the load balancer device with health issues in order to mitigate any performance impact.
Isolate a service scaling group device with performance issues
Isolate a service scaling group experiencing
health issues using the service scaling groups list (
: Analytics
). Once you have isolated a service scaling
group's traffic management performance issue, you can isolate which of its BIG-IP
device(s) are responsible for the issue, based on the device health.
In order to receive traffic performance alerts, ensure that
traffic throughput alerts are enabled for your service scaling group's alert
rules.
- Open the single service scaling group screen by selecting the name of the SSG from the Service Scaling Groups Screen ().
- In the service scaling group screen clickCONFIGURATIONat the center of the screen.
- In the CONFIGURATION area, clickDevicesfrom the left.This opens a chart that lists all the devices that are providing BIG-IP system services to the service scaling group.
- Use the Health column to isolate devices with a Critical or Moderate health status. Use the Hostname and Device Address columns to isolate the affected devices.You can select one or more check boxes to the left of the device row, and clickView Traffic Statisticsto view Device Traffic and Interface Traffic data, based on your selection.
- To identify the applications that are receiving the BIG-IP services, selectApplicationsfrom the menu to the left.
- If all your devices have good health, but the service scaling group's health is low, check the Load Balancer device health and performance.
Device resource and performance charts
The following describes the charts found in the single
service scaling group screen (
), in the Analytics area. These charts display the trends of a service scaling
group's BIG-IP VE devices. Each chart displays an aspect of the devices as a function of the
selected time period.Chart Menu Title | Chart Title | Description |
---|---|---|
CPU Usage
| CPU Usage | The average percent CPU usage for all cores
and BIG-IP devices by the activity categories. Metric Unit: Percent Legend: User: The
average percentage of CPU usage for the all the BIG-IP user space
programs over a given time period. System:
The average percentage of CPU usage for all the running BIG-IP
systems over a given time period I/O Wait:
The percentage of time (during the selected time period) that a
given CPU is idle for an I/O wait operation. This occurs when at
least one outstanding I/O disk operation is requested by a task
scheduled on system CPU. Stolen: The
percentage of time a virtual CPU waits for real CPU when the
hypervisor is servicing another virtual machine. |
Top Cores
| Top 6 CPU Cores | The six, most active CPU cores for all
monitored BIG-IP devices. This isolates the cores that are consuming the
most CPU resources, of all the device CPUs. Metric
Unit: Percent Legend: CPU core |
Memory
| Memory Usage | The percent RAM used by system processes of
the monitored BIG-IP devices. Metric Unit: Percent Legend: TMM: The average percentage RAM used by device
TMM processes. Total: The average
percentage of RAM used by all devices Other: The average percentage of used RAM from non-TMM
processes. |
Throughput
| Throughput Bytes | The average rate of traffic (in bytes)
processed by the BIG-IP device interfaces. Metric
Unit: Average/s Legend: In: The average rate of incoming
traffic to the BIG-IP devices. Out: The
average rate of outgoing traffic from the BIG-IP
devices. |
Connections
| Concurrent Connections | The average number of connections that are
open at the same time, either on the client-side and on the
server-side. Metric Unit: Count Legend: Client Side: The average number of concurrent
connections at the client side. Server
Side: The average number of concurrent connections at the server
side. |
HTTP
| HTTP Transactions | The transaction includes all HTTP request and
response messages passed between the client, BIG-IP system, and
server. Metric Unit: Average/s Legend: Transactions: Average number of HTTP transactions per second that
were processed by the BIG-IP devices. |
Dropped
| Throughput Drops | The average rate of packets per second (pps)
that were dropped by the BIG-IP device interfaces or discarded by the
TMM over the course of the transaction. Metric
Unit: Average/s Legend: In: The average rate of packets
per second that were dropped by the BIG-IP interface. Out: The average rate of packets per second that
were accepted by the BIG-IP interface, but discarded by the
TMM. |
Errors
| Throughput Errors | The average rate packets per second (pps) that
were corrupted or arrived incomplete over the course of the transaction
across the network Metric Unit: Average/s Legend: In: The average packets per second received as
throughput error. Out: The average packets
per second transmitted out at throughput error. |
Managing device monitoring settings for a service scaling
group
The health of your service scaling group (SSG) is determined by the health of
its F5
BIG-IP® VE devices.
Each BIG-IP VE device in a SSG is monitored by set of configurable device health
alert rules that include performance metrics and their corresponding thresholds. You can
adjust the alert rules for an SSG to define the health rules for its devices.
The SSG health score also includes the health of the BIG-IP
device(s) that load balances traffic to the devices in the SSG. The load balancer is
monitored by a different health alert rule set, as it does not perform the same services
as an SSG BIG-IP VE device.
The SSG health score reflects the device metric that crossed the most severe
threshold. This means that if a device metric violated a warning or critical threshold,
the SSG health status becomes moderate or critical, respectively. You receive a device
and SSG alert when a device alert rule violation is sustained for more than five
minutes.
About device health alert rules
Device health alert rules include the metrics and corresponding
thresholds that define the health status of your BIG-IP devices. You can select which
metrics are included, and adjust the warning and critical threshold values.
A metric threshold violation must be sustained for 5 minutes to trigger
an alert. A subsequent alert is triggered once another threshold is crossed (either an
increase or decrease in severity, or cleared). To ensure that conditions are improving, an
alert for declining severity (critical to warning), or an alert that has been cleared, is
triggered only when the value is sustained for five minutes at ten percent below the
threshold value. For example, if a threshold value is configured for greater than 60
percent, a declining severity must be sustained at 54 percent or less to trigger an
alert.
Modify service scaling group device resources alerts
Before you start, you must have
created a service scaling group to manage your applications, and configured the metrics
at which you want BIG-IQ Centralized Management to trigger BIG-IP VE device health alerts.
You can adjust the metrics
and corresponding thresholds that define a service scaling group's BIG-IP VE device
health status. The device health status triggers alerts that indicate changes in device
resource usage, which can affect the device's performance.
Modifications to alert rules will clear any active alerts that correspond to the
changes, and so automatically trigger an Alert Rule Change alert.
- At the top of the screen, clickApplications.
- On the left, click.
- Select the name of the service scaling group.This opens the service scaling group's screen.
- At the center of the screen, clickCONFIGURATION, or click the health icon located at the far left of the summary barYou are now in the Service Scaling Group Properties area.
- Scroll down to the Health Status Rules area.
- Use theCriticalfield to adjust the previously configured metrics and defined unit thresholds that trigger a critical health alert notification.You can choose from six different metrics with defined thresholds that trigger a critical health notification. Your service scaling group's health is critical when there are one or more critical thresholds violations.
- In theModeratefield, you can adjust the previously configured metrics and defined unit thresholds that trigger a moderate health alert notification.You can choose from six different metrics with defined thresholds that trigger a moderate health notification. Your service scaling groups health is moderate when there are one or more warning threshold violations, but no critical thresholds violations.
- To save your changes, clickSaveat the bottom of the screen.You can clickSave & Closeto return to the Service Scaling Groups screen.
The health status for service scaling group's devices
are now defined by the new alert rules you configured. Once a device metric crosses a
defined threshold, you receive a health alert for that device, and for the service
scaling group. A critical or moderate health status for one or more device impacts the
health status of the entire service scaling group.
Modify the default device alerts
When you configure a BIG-IP® device to your BIG-IQ® Central Management system, the device is monitored by a default set of
health alert rules. You can adjust these default rules, which will affect all the alerts
for devices under the default rules.
The following
alert rule set does not apply to the BIG-IP VE devices in a service scaling
group. The default rules do apply to the load balancer BIG-IP device in a
service scaling group.
- At the top of the screen, clickApplications.
- On the left, click.This displays the alert rules list.
- Click the alert rule namedefault-active-device-healthto open the alert rule's properties screen.
- To disable or modify metrics, in the Metric Conditions area, clear the check box to the right of the metric you want to change.
- Adjust the warning and critical threshold values for the metric, and re-enable it.
- Leave the check box cleared to keep the metric disabled.
By default, all the metrics are enabled. - ClickSaveat the bottom of the screen, or clickSave & Closeto save and return to the Alert Rules screen.
Service scaling group health alerts
The service scaling group (SSG) health alerts notify you of
the performance status of the SSG BIG-IP® devices. This
table describes service scaling group health alert.
Alert |
Description |
Indication |
Default Thresholds |
Action (if applicable) |
---|---|---|---|---|
SSG
Health |
There has been a change in the health status of one or
more BIG-IP devices in your SSG. |
One or more BIG-IP VE devices in your SSG has a sustained
change in health status, which is based upon performance of device resources and/or
throughput. |
For SSG Devices: Customized per service scaling group. For Load Balancer Devices: Based on the alert
rule set, default-active-device health |
A critical health status of your SSG can lead to a scale
out recommendation. You can monitor the health of affected devices using device health
alerts. |
Device health alerts
The device health alert notifies you of changes in device resource and throughput metric thresholds for your BIG-IP devices. To view your device health thresholds, go to the Alert Rules screen and select the default device rules (
.Alert | Description | Indication | Default Thresholds | Action (if applicable) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Device Health | There has been a change in one or more of the of BIG-IP device health rule metrics. | One or more of the device resources and/or throughput measurements crossed a defined threshold, which may impact your BIG-IP device's performance. | For SSG devices: Customized rules per service scaling group.
For stand-alone BIG-IP devices: The default-active-device-health rules. | For SSG devices: A critical health status of your BIG-IP device might trigger a scale-out event. Investigate the active alerts for device metrics.
For stand-alone BIG-IP devices: Investigate BIG-IP devices with critical or moderate health to adjust or add resources. |
Device alerts
The device alerts notify you of changes in a BIG-IP ® device resource and performance metrics. These alerts are found in the single service scaling group screen ( ), or in the Alert History and Active Alerts screens ( ).
The default thresholds do not apply to BIG-IP VE Devices within a service scaling group.
Alert | Description | Default Thresholds | Action (if applicable) |
---|---|---|---|
Device CPU | The average CPU utilization for a BIG-IP device. | Critical > 80%
Warning > 60% Cleared < 60% | Investigate affected BIG-IP device resources. |
Device Memory | The average memory (RAM) utilization for a BIG-IP device | Critical > 80%
Warning > 60% Cleared < 60% | Investigate affected BIG-IP device resources. |
Device Throughput In | The average throughput (Mbps) of incoming traffic to a BIG-IP device. | Critical > 8Mbps
Warning > 6 Mbps Cleared < 6 Mbps | Investigate affected BIG-IP device throughput |
Device Throughput Out | The average throughput (Mbps) of outgoing traffic from a BIG-IP device. | Critical > 8Mbps
Warning > 6 Mbps Cleared < 6 Mbps | Investigate affected BIG-IP device throughput |
ASM Memory | The average device memory (RAM) used for Web Application Security services. | Critical > 80%
Warning > 60% Cleared < 60% | Investigate affected BIG-IP device's configuration for ASM memory. |
ASM Bypass Ratio | The average rate of transactions that bypassed Web Application Security services. | Critical > 0.05%
Warning > 0.01% Cleared < 0.01% | Investigate affected BIG-IP device's system resource configuration for ASM processes. |