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ISS Resource Type - Field Help

Edit any of the following settings on the ISS Resource Type panel and click Update Configuration.

Policy

Indicates whether a metric function is to be minimized or maximized.

The default value is Min.

For example, a metric based on the number of active users would regard the smallest value as the best and would have the following entry:

  Minimum

A metric function based on CPU idle time, on the other hand, would regard the maximum value as best and, therefore, the policy would be specified as:

  Maximum

Metric type

Specifies the type of measurement ISS uses.

Where:

Internal identifies a given measurement method as being provided by the system. The following metrics are internally specified:

CPULoad
This measures the percentage of the CPU that is being utilized. The Policy keyword is automatically set to Min.

FreeMem
This returns the amount of free physical memory as a percentage.
Note:All internal metrics may not be available on all operating systems. CPULoad and FreeMem are on AIX and Windows NT; only CPULoad is on Solaris.

External is a user-defined metric.

Metric value

Specifies the metric to use.

If Internal, the name is one of the system-provided measurement methods. If External, a command to execute to take a load measurement. That command must return a number as its only output. If multiple operating systems are being used, you must ensure that the command returns appropriate results on each platform.

Metric weight

A floating-point number, used when one metric is a more important factor than another metric in judging load. Once the normalized metric values have been determined, each value is multiplied by its MetricWeight. Thus, metric weights greater than 1 increase the importance of the associated metric. The default value for this parameter is 1.0.

Lower normalization limit

Sets reasonable lower limit for the metric to which it applies. The units indicated are specific to the object of the metric. This number, which must be an integer greater than or equal to 0, should be lower than or equal to the Upper Normalization Limit. For example, in measuring CPU load, which is stated in percentage points, a reasonable limit on the lower end would be 0.

Upper normalization limit

Sets reasonable upper limit for the metric to which it applies. The units indicated are specific to the object of the metric. This number, which must be an integer greater than or equal to 0, should be greater than or equal to the Lower Normalization Limit. For example, in measuring CPU load, which is stated in percentage points, a reasonable limit on the upper end would be 100.

Recover limit

Sets the point at which a resource should be returned to active participation in the Cell. Usually significantly lower than the Fail Limit, to avoid the phenomenon of resources returned to service too soon, only to quickly rise again to the fail limit. The configuration file keyword used is MetricLimits.

Fail limit

Sets the point at which a resource should be removed from active participation in the Cell, because the load has reached a critical stage. The configuration file keyword used is MetricLimits.



The following information is also displayed on the ISS Resource Type panel:

ResourceType name

The name of the ResourceType, or a category of resources. A resource type carries with it all the attributes that define a metric.