Originally posted by: John Walsh (ID)

So, you've checked out my Performance monitoring hints and tips blog, but you're still having problems with your IBM FlashSystem 840 or 900 devices. Let's learn how to quickly fix a performance monitoring gotcha for those devices.

Problem

Your performance charts are not showing up-to-date metrics, and you see in IBM Spectrum Control that there is a problem with the performance monitor.

Before you can monitor the performance of your FlashSystem 840 and 900, you must enable the SNMP agent on the devices. IBM Spectrum Control communicates with the SNMP agent on port 161 (UDP) to collect performance metadata.

Let's dig a little deeper to check whether this problem relates to the SNMP agent.

On the Block Storage Systems page, right-click the storage system row and click Open Performance Monitor Logs.

If the SNMP agent is not enabled, you'll see a message like this:

Solution

To enable the SNMP agent:

1. On the Block Storage Systems page, right-click the storage system and select Launch Storage System GUI.
2. In the management GUI of the FlashSystem 840 or 900, go to Settings > Notifications > SNMP, click Agent, and enter a community name.

If performance monitoring does not resume automatically for the device in IBM Spectrum Control, you might need to start or schedule performance monitoring.

In IBM Spectrum Control, go to the Storage > Block Storage Systems page. Right-click your storage system and click Data Collection > Start Performance Monitor or Data Collection > Schedule.

Pro tip: You can also enable the SNMP agent by using CLI commands. For more information, see the following IBM Knowledge Centers:
- IBM FlashSystem 840
- IBM FlashSystem 900
 

You might see the same problem when you add your IBM FlashSystem 840 or 900 device for monitoring in IBM Spectrum Control.

When you configure performance monitoring, you might see the following message if SNMP is not enabled on the device.

Solution

The solution is the same. Simply ensure that the SNMP agent is enabled on the storage system before you configure performance monitoring.

1. To enable the SNMP agent, open the management GUI of the storage system, go to Settings > Notifications > SNMP, click Agent, and enter a community name.

2. In IBM Spectrum Control, go to the Storage > Block Storage Systems page. Right-click your storage system and click Data Collection > Schedule. Enable the performance monitor and set the interval.

Useful links

Watch this video and learn how to use IBM Spectrum Control to troubleshoot the performance of your applications.

Joining the conversation

Be social! Join the conversation at #IBMStorage,  #ibmsystems, and #softwaredefinedstorage. You can also communicate with product experts and other users in our technical community.

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For news about the documentation for IBM Spectrum Control and it's cloud services counterpart, IBM Storage Insights, follow me on Twitter @johnfmwalsh.