CPU utilization and kernel memory utilization

What specifically are you looking to infer from the CPU and kernel memory utilization? The mem pool total and used metrics relate to the amount of memory the core processing subsystem allocates and uses from the system. To a point you can infer red-lining from these metrics as they directly relate to the amount of configuration and connection information the processing components have free. When the used metric reaches the total then that would imply the box is reaching capacity.

 

 

In 4.2, as far as my memory serves me, these are the only 2 memory metrics available.

 

 

-Joe

I'm mostly interested in this data for capacity planning purposes. When

 

should I start thinking about adding memory, should I perhaps move

 

some load balancing service from one set to another, those types of

 

things.

 

 

The issue that brought this to my attention was that I noticed one of

 

our F5 boxes rebooted spontaneously the other day. Turns out it was

 

because the kernel memory consumption reached 95%. However the

 

data from the statistics I got through iControl showed only about 75%

 

utilization (which is what 'bigpipe ms' showed me as well).

 

 

Looking through your various tech articles (e.g. SOL192), it is not clear

 

to me, how the output from 'bigpipe ms' (and in extension the data

 

gathered from iControl), relates to the kernel message we were seeing,

 

i.e. there seems to be a significant discrepency.

 

 

Also, it would be nice to have a more extensive description of all of the

 

statistics that are available.

 

 

Also, what about CPU utilization? Is that available though iControl? My

 

boxes don't appear even slightly stressed, but I'd like to track it to make

 

sure.

 

 

Thanks, Michel

I like to refer to this issue as "red-lining". For the next generation of products we are working on building more of these types of features into the product. I don't have the information when these features will be available but suffice it to say it will be fairly soon as this is not a uncommon reuqest. On the 4.x platforms there were platform architectural limitations stopping us from accurately determining red-line situations.

 

 

As for CPU metrics, this is something we are also adding in future versions but is not available on 4.2.

 

 

I try to answer as many product related questions as possible here but when it goes too far beyond the development of iControl applications you will get better support and more reliable answers by contacting F5 technical support directly. Their specialty is with questions like this.

 

 

F5 Technical Support

 

Email: support@f5.com

 

Phone: 206-272-6888

 

Web: http://www.f5.com/support/

 

AskF5: http://tech.f5.com/