Keeping the NS, SS, and Database running smoothly

[Dale Anderson]

I have been asked to provide measurements to indicate how well the NS, SS, and Database are doing in reference to the Altiris SMP environment.  We have measurements for the servers disks, memory, network, but what queues or tasks or other measurements in Altiris are good indicators of how well it is performing.

If some queues get large it slows down the server.  

This is for you guys who know the ins and outs of the Altiris SMP environments.

One of the white papers talks about then NSEs.  But how would you measure it?

Open to suggestions.

Thanks ahead of time.

Dale

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Growmark| Inc
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[Igor Perevozchikov]

Hi MrAnderson!

1. When you say about NS, SS and Database - does it mean that NS, Task Server, even Package Server (which is not recommended to have locally on NS itself, since when there is no other remote PS available, no need to install PS agent on NS machine, NS will distribute packages without local PS installed anyway) so everything is on 1 machine which calls NS+TaskServer+Database?
2. You can measure how much time takes to process appropriate NSE data from your managed client computer, this can be just a small event NS file or large 2-3mb NSE file with lot of inventoried (hardware/software) data from managed client PC.
There was a custom report to see how much time takes to process exact type of NSE on NS
https://community.broadcom.com/symantecenterprise/viewdocument/common-symantec-cmdb-database-and?CommunityKey=63b01f30-d5eb-43c7-9232-72362b508207&tab=librarydocuments

For NSE processing/ Event Queue, you can check these sql tables in 8.5.x NS

Regards,
IP.

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Software QA Engineer
Broadcom Inc.
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[Dale Anderson]

We have 3 separate Altiris environments

 

DB on all are on a separate SQL server(s)

 

Two environments have

NS – on server by itself vmware

SS – on server by itself vmware

Task and Package server is on SS

 

One environment does have everything on the one server (except for the DB is separate.)

 

I have taken a look the report IP sent and I thank you for that. 

 

I also have come across  Daily ITMS 8.5.x environment Checks

That IP has also provided. 

 

I will dive into that next

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Dale

 

[Dale Anderson]

IP,

 

The "Current EventQueue Processing State" report does not seem to work any longer.

 

I was reading an article that goes back to 7.1 SP2 days that they did away with the eventqueues  except for the EvtInBox.

 

Q: Are bad and process folders no longer used?

A: There is no evidence of the process or bad folder for NSE; instead, mapping is used inside the BadNSEFolders.config (located in main NS Core configuration folder). This will create specific folders for multiple types of exceptions that might have occurred if it were unable to route the NSE in three retries. This works only when the NSE backup is set (EventFailureBackupFolder in core settings) and the subfolders will be created under the folder as specified in this setting.

 

Q: Are EvtQFast, EvtQLarge, EvtQPriority, and EvtQSlow no longer used?

A: Correct, they are not used internally. However, if someone put some NSEs into the folder manually they will be put into main queue in DB and moved to EvtQueue. This is done for backwardcompatibility with some older solutions. Some older solutions don't use the newest NS API.

So I am supposing that there really is no Que back log anymore.  The NSE is tried 3 times and I am assuming it is discarded or an error and discarded.

 

I am just wanting to clarify that this information is correct.

 

And, if you have other Powershell Scripts or VBscripts that might help determine the health of the NS / SS / TS / PS.

 

 

[Igor Perevozchikov]

Hi MrAnderson,

1. Yeap, I see that custom report "Current EventQueue Processing State" doesn't work in 8.5.x because table has changes in columns.

For 8.5.x (At least I've created queries using 8.5 RU4) you can use these queries to get required information from existing EventQueue sql tables:

• SELECT Id,TotalSize/(1024) AS 'TotalSize(Kb)', TotalCount, ChangeTime FROM EventQueue
• SELECT eqe.Id,QueueId,eqe.Priority,vc.Name AS 'ResourceName' FROM EventQueueEntry eqe JOIN vComputer vc ON vc.Guid=eqe.Source
• SELECT Id,Size/(1024) AS 'Size(Kb)', QueueId, DataInLine, [File], CreatedDate, MetaDataType, MetaData FROM EventQueueEntryMetaData
• SELECT eqp.Id,eqp.QueueId, eqp.Priority, vc.Name as 'ResourceName' FROM EventQueueProcess eqp JOIN vComputer vc ON vc.Guid=eqp.Source
• SELECT HostName, QueueName, CreateDate, EventCount, EventSize/(1024) AS 'EventSize(Kb)', EventQFull,InvalidEventCount, InvalidEventSize/(1024) AS 'InvalidEventCount(Kb)' FROM EventQueueStatus

2. About different Queues.
In case if you have .nse file, for example which is created after AD Import rule execution to import lot of Sites and subnets so nse can be 4-5MB size, then this nse will go to EvtQSlow or EvtQLarge folder for processing. 

Other things:

- In case if EventQueue is fulfilled on NS Side and agents are trying to send own nse, these nse files aren't accepted by NS and agents will try to resend it later
- In case if there are nse files arrived to NS from denied computers which aren't allowed to communicate with NS, NS will attemtp 3 times to process such nse and then will drop it and throw error message with description that this device is not trusted who sent this nse 

3. About environment performance

By default, NS has "NS.SQL defragmentation schedule" task which runs every Saturday @12:00 PM. This task will check/defragment indexes of all existing tables in Symantec_CMDB database.

NS has performance counters, so you can check them from SMP Console (by default performance counters are disabled by "DisableCounters" core setting to avoid unnecessary resources usage on NS. You can enable 'DisableCounters' core setting directly from SMP Console on CoreSettings page)
SMP Console -> Settings -> Notification Server -> Core Counters

​Also you can check performance counters from Microsoft performance counter on NS machine. There you will Altiris.x counters

Thanks,
IP.

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Software QA Engineer
Broadcom Inc.
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[Dale Anderson]

IP,  You have help me tremendously with the other information.  I noticed this PerformanceSensor data and would like to know if there is any SQL for this information?  If it is in the database, I would like to be able to grab the information and average it over a week, a month, a year. 



[SYSTEM]
[app cpu: 2%, ram: 403.88 MB / 2%, uptime: 1.01:00:20.7976268]
[ns cpu: 5%, ram: 3.66 GB / 22%, uptime: 44.23:53:08.3906250]
[sql cpu: 1%, ram: 10.86 GB / 90.5% (Available physical memory is high), cpu history %: 1 / 1 / 1 / 9 / 8 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 11]
[ns machine: GMCMAN003 (V), ram: 16.00 GB, cpu: 4x2397Mhz, versions: 8.5.5713.0, assembly: 8.5.5713.0]
[sql machine: srv189\GMKSQL12D (V), ram: 12.00 GB, cpu: 4x2, affinity: 2 (AUTO), version: 11.0.7493.4 / Enterprise Edition: Core-based Licensing (64-bit) / SP4, trip: 670]
[pc physical: 5, virtual: 3, managed: 6, policied in 24h: 5, hierarchy: 0, ps: 0, ts: 1]
[persistent: 55, auth: 5, accepts: 3 / 6, disconnects: 1 / 3, actions in: 273 / 308, actions out: 344 / 413, bytes in: 422.90 KB (5.3 Bps) / 502.65 KB, bytes out: 188.20 KB (2.5 Bps) / 176.03 KB, r-actions out: 325]
[.NET 4.0.30319.42000]

the next one is
[EventQueueDispatcher] [running, enabled]
[0 / 0 B] => [0 / 0 / 43 @ 46(0) t, 0.1 i/s, 1.00:00:20]
[Queues]
[0: 0 / 0 B] => [0: 0 / 0 / 9 @ 16(0) t, 0.0 i/s, 12:31:02] [priority .. 19.07 MB]
[1: 0 / 0 B] => [1: 0 / 0 / 32 @ 16(0) t, 0.0 i/s, 00:13:22] [fast .. 244.14 KB]
[2: 0 / 0 B] => [2: 0 / 0 / 2 @ 8(0) t, 0.0 i/s, 22:53:25] [default .. 4.77 MB]
[3: 0 / 0 B] => [3: 0 / 0 / 0 @ 4(0) t, 0.0 i/s, 1.00:00:20] [slow .. 19.07 MB]
[4: 0 / 0 B] => [4: 0 / 0 / 0 @ 2(0) t, 0.0 i/s, 1.00:00:20] [large, 19.07 MB +]
[Lifetime]
[t=0, a=0, q=0, peak=0, done=43, speed=0.00, bps=0]

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Growmark| Inc
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