graphical monitoring of usage and other misc

[rightbrain]

I'm looking to showcase our new HPUX configuration and need something that has a nice look for management. What's the best built-in or open-source tool to graphically showcase our monitoring (or anything) on HPUX?

[OldSchool]

"showcase our monitoring (or anything)"....

..or anything????? could you possibly ask a broader or more meaningless question????

what are you monitoring? how are you monitoring it?? sar / glance / other?

do you already have the output and want to "pretty it up" a bit

[rightbrain]

You are correct. That is a broad question. What tools have the nicest graphics is what I was asking. Sometimes 'pop' sells and I need something that pops. When management should be concerned with function over 'pop', they often don't understand function. With something like HPUX, I need to show them some 'pop' in order for them to be impressed. It doesn't matter what it is.

[Olivier Masse]

Here are suggestions:

I'd say the best "pop" you can get is from Nagvis. But this will require a helluva time and trouble to implement at your site.

But ufortunately there isn't much built-in with HP-UX. The SMH-based tools are functional but not much in terms of eyecandy. One exception I can think of is pdweb (peripheral devices) which can be useful if you want to show how you can replace I/O cards online.

You can run GlancePlus, initiate load, and show the usage by processor graph (example attached). Openview Performance Manager also can generate nice graphics but it's an add-on product. I haven't tried Capacity Advisor yet.

Look at iozone, with the vizualizer script. Screenshot here:
http://omasse.blogspot.com/2008/11/visualizing-iozone-with-gnuplot.html

The standalone ServiceGuard manager was REALLY nice, my managers appreciated seeing it (especially considering they invested a lot in this) but unfortunately it has been discontinued. HP even featured it in some HA video, a year after it was canned!! It's terrific and it will work if you have an older ServiceGuard version (<= 11.17).

If you've got blades, show them the GUI for the Onboard Administrator. Really nice too.

The iLO GUI can be interesting. Showing remote console, and especially remote power-on / power-off.

Good luck

[Heironimus]

kSar is kind of pretty, but I think it's better suited to be an analysis or trending tool than an on-the-fly live server monitoring tool so I'm not sure if it will have the kind of management appeal you're looking for.

http://ksar.atomique.net/

[rightbrain]

thanks for those suggestions guys... t his is great stuff. should be more than enough for a great presentation.

[TTr]

If you have glanceplusPAK (includes measureware) consider adding performance manager (aka perfview).

[Emil Velez]

gpm &

make sure you have xwindows

or you can use glance in a terminal window.

[Wade Satterfield_2]

HP-SIM is a free. It will monitor which systems are up, and what OS you have, and other general inventory information.

While it is not built in or free, there are the VSE tools. This includes screens to visualize your complex, and they monitor the utilization of CPU, memory, disk, network, and power. It comes with a 90 day free trial.

www.hp.com/go/vse