Setup the IBM Spectrum Scale Performance Monitoring Bridge for classic IBM Spectrum Scale devices

Step 1. Ensure that IBM Storage Scale meets prerequisite conditions

The IBM Storage Scale system must run 5.1.5.1 or above. For older releases please check the SUPPORT_ MATRIX containing an overview about all grafana-bridge versions and related backend code levels.

The bridge works in permanent communication with the pmcollector. Therefore it is recommended to install and run this tool directly on a pmcollector node.

In a multi-collector environment, there is no need to run the bridge on each pmcollector node separately, provided that they are configured in federated mode. Federation basically allows collectors to connect and collaborate with their peer collectors. If the peers have been specified, any query for measurement data must be directed to any of the collectors listed in the peer definition. The chosen collector will collect and assemble a response based on all relevant data from all collectors. For more information, please read Performance Monitoring tool overview.

On the collector node the CherryPy Python package needs to be installed. For getting CherryPy packages on your machine follow this instructions.

Step 2. Set up the IBM Storage Scale Performance Monitoring Bridge

Download the latest version in your favourite directory on the collector node.

Alternatively you can clone the source code including not published changes (This is not recommended way for environments in Production):

# git clone https://github.com/IBM/ibm-spectrum-scale-bridge-for-grafana.git grafana-bridge

Depending on whether you want to display the IBM Storage Scale metrics directly in the Grafana dashboard or export them to the Prometheus database, you must enable the corresponding communication port in the config.ini file. You can also monitor the performance data simultaneously with Grafana and write it to the Prometheus database.

Open the config.ini in write mode

# vi ./grafana-bridge/source/config.ini

Uncomment the port in the "OpenTSDB API Connection Defaults" section if you want to analyse the metrics with Grafana. To activate the Prometheus Exporter, change the settings in the "Prometheus Exporter API Connection Defaults" section. Please note that the Prometheus communication connection only works over HTTPS with SSL. You will need to generate an SSL key and certificate and specify their location in the "API SSL OAuth" section.

Step 3. Start the IBM Storage Scale Performance Monitoring Bridge

Start the bridge application by issuing:

# cd ./grafana-bridge/source/

# python3 zimonGrafanaIntf.py --apiKeyValue

You will be prompted by a command line interface to provide the 'password'. Enter the scale_grafana API key value(32 hexadecimal digits sequence). You can also pass the key value directly (not recommended) by the zimonGrafanaIntf.py script invocation following the '--apiKeyValue' input parameter name. Alternatively, store the key value in the config.ini file. For more options configuring and invoking the API key for an IBM Storage Scale Performance Monitoring Bridge please read the WiKi article.

If the bridge did establish the connection to the specified pmcollector and the initialization of the metadata was performed successfully, you should get the message "server started" at the end of line. Otherwise check the zserver.log stored in the zimonGrafanaIntf directory. Additionally, check the pmcollector service running properly by issuing:

# systemctl status pmcollector