DX NetOps

  • 1.  PM Information

    Posted Jun 08, 2018 12:30 PM

    Hi Guys

     

    We are currently running eH and would futuristic want to move to PM but at this stage Infrastructure is kind of a problem.

    We have close to 7 eH Servers excluding the console reporting server and they are monitoring a mixture of network devices, servers and AIM servers for VMware.

     

    We have an instance of Performance Centre version 2.3.4.266 running in our organization. This is running on a RHEL 6.5 OS with 8CPUs, 8GB RAM and about 280GB storage.

     

    We want to test out PM for now which would ultimately be used to replace eH in this regard. What I would like to know is the following:

     

    1. What are the minimum requirements in terms of hardware spec for all these 4 components on the architecture looking a small scale deployment where the DA & DC run on the same system?
    2. With the hardware spec listed above for PC, is that enough to run on a test environment with minimal devices?
    3. What version of PC should be running on PM 3.5?
    4. Should we upgrade the current PC or do a clean install on a supported OS latest version?
    5. *Can a DC/DA co-exist in the same server with a UIM Hub?

     

    Regards

    David Tsatsi



  • 2.  Re: PM Information

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Jun 08, 2018 03:22 PM

    David,

     

    See my answers below in red:

     

    What are the minimum requirements in terms of hardware spec for all these 4 components on the architecture looking a small scale deployment where the DA & DC run on the same system?

    Take a look at the sizing wizard at this link for the recommended hardware specs: https://support.ca.com/phpdocs/7/8568/sizer/index.html

     

    With the hardware spec listed above for PC, is that enough to run on a test environment with minimal devices?

    The default minimum for PC is 16GB RAM and 4 CPU.  In my local test environment I do get away with 8GB of RAM but if you have plans on pushing it into production at any point you are going to want to meet minimums.

     

    What version of PC should be running on PM 3.5?

    Each component must be on the same version, you cannot mix and match.  So DA, DR, DC and PC all must be running the same version of 3.5 for example.

     

    Should we upgrade the current PC or do a clean install on a supported OS latest version?

    Given that your old system is 2.3.4.x, I think it would be better to install a fresh environment.  This will also allow you to use RHEL 7.3 or 7.4 (the two supported versions of RHEL 7.x) to make it more difficult to get behind the curve with an unsupported OS.

     

    *Can a DC/DA co-exist in the same server with a UIM Hub?

    Performance Management is a large scale software and as such it is not advised to put other pieces of software on the Performance Management systems.  Not only could to see resource problems but you could also run into unforeseen conflicts between the software packages.

     

    Please let me know if these answers help you enough to move forward or if they prompt further questions.

     

    Troy



  • 3.  Re: PM Information
    Best Answer

    Posted Jun 11, 2018 03:37 AM

    I'd like to add something to Troy's response.

     

    1. What are the minimum requirements in terms of hardware spec for all these 4 components on the architecture looking a small scale deployment where the DA & DC run on the same system?

    I've been doing POC installations with just 2 systems: 1 PC+DC, 2 DR+DA. You cannot collocate DA and DC on the same machine, they both use Apache Karaf. If you try to install the DC after you install the DA, it will break the DA installation. You can only use it for capabilities testing and not for to many devices.

    2. With the hardware spec listed above for PC, is that enough to run on a test environment with minimal devices?

    The minimum that I use is 4 CPUs and 12GB of RAM, for each of the 2 machines. The PC 100GB of disk space and the DR 200.

    3. What version of PC should be running on PM 3.5?

    As Troy was saying, all components should be on the same version. You should also consider the versions of other DataSources that you'll need synchronized with PC. The latest 3.5 might not work with all your other installed Data Sources.

    4. Should we upgrade the current PC or do a clean install on a supported OS latest version?

    It would depend on your environment. Direct upgrade from 2.3.4 to 3.5 is not possible. You'd have to perform two  additional upgrades: to 2.6, to 3.1 and then move to 3.5. You should also consider an OS upgrade during this procedure, so it can get very complicated. All of this should be tested in advance and then reproduced to production system. If you don't have things many configured dashboards and customization in PC, it would make more sense to install everything from scratch with the latest version available. This describes the process. 

    5. *Can a DC/DA co-exist in the same server with a UIM Hub?

    In theory, the DC yes as long as yo have sufficient resources assigned. In practice don't. You'd have to be very careful about ports usage. Each component requires a different port and you might end-up with extensive reconfiguration that would have to be performed. Upgrades can be tricky afterwards. Restarts would impact both components. There more cons than pros to a scenario like this. The DC in the latest installation does not require that much resources either, with a minimum of 4CPU and 8GB of RAM and up, considering the monitored environment. 



  • 4.  Re: PM Information

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Jun 13, 2018 08:53 AM

    David,

     

    Were the answers from Catalin and I able to answer all of your inquiry?  Do you have any follow-up or further questions?  If not, can we mark one one of the posts as correct so others can see the answer quickly if they also come by with the same inquires?

     

    Troy



  • 5.  Re: PM Information

    Posted Jun 18, 2018 03:00 AM

    Hi Troy

     

    The initial questions have been answered. However I have a couple more.

     

    1. In an event we go with one DB node. How complex will it be should we want to add more nodes to form a cluster in the near future? WIll it require reinstalling of the DB or can we just add other nodes?
    2. On the sizing tool, it looks like 1 collector can handle a minimum of 100 000 devices. Are those devices the actual devices & its elements that will be polled or just the devices excluding all other elements?

     

    Regards

    David



  • 6.  Re: PM Information

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Jun 20, 2018 09:54 AM

    David,

     

    1. Here is the process for adding a node to the DR cluster:

    Add a Node to the Data Repository Cluster - CA Performance Management - 3.5 - CA Technologies Documentation 

     

    2. You can have up to 500,000 polled items on a collector safely.  The 500k count is polled items and not polled devices.  So every interface is a separate polled item for example.  Polled Items = eHealth Elements in this case if you are coming from an eHealth perspective.

     

    Troy