Top Resource Consumers Report

The Top Resource Consumers report when generated turns the spotlight on the root-cause of excessive resource usage on the physical desktops. Using this report thereafter, you can identify which process on the physical desktop is consuming the CPU resources excessively, and is thus causing the resource contention.

To generate the Top Resource Consumers report, do the following;

  1. Follow the menu sequence: REPORTS BY FUNCTION -> Domain-specific Reports -> Physical Desktops -> Resource Usage -> Top Resource Consumers. Figure 1 will then appear.

    Generating Top System Resource Consumers report

    Figure 1 : Generating the Top Resource Consumers report

  2. From Figure 1, choose a Report Type (Graph or Data). The default Report Type is Graph. To closely observe and clearly understand the behavior of a single performance parameter across physical desktops, you can plot a single measure's data alone in a Graph report.

  3. Then, select a criterion for analysis from the Analyze By list box. Using this report, you can analyze the top resource consumers on one/more components, or those that are part of a service or a segment. The options provided by the Analyze By list box are discussed hereunder:

    • Component: Select this option to choose the component(s) from across all the managed components in the environment.
    • Service: If you want to generate a report for one/more components involved in the delivery of a service, select the Service option from Analyze By, and then pick the required Service from the drop-down list that appears
    • Segment: If you want to generate a report for one/more chosen components that belong to a segment, select the Segment option from Analyze By list box, and then pick the Segment from the drop-down list that appears.
    • Zone: To generate a report for one/more components that are included in a zone, pick the Zone option. A Zone drop-down list will then appear, from which you would have to select the zone to which the components of interest to you belong. A Sub zone flag also appears. Indicate whether the components present within the sub-zones of the chosen zone are also to be to be considered for report generation, by setting the Sub zone flag to Yes.

  4. By default, Physical Desktop Group is chosen from the Component Type list.

  5. The Components list is automatically populated with all the Physical Desktop Group components managed in the target environment. Pick a component of your choice from this list.

  6. The Desktops list will now be populated with all the physical desktops that are available within the chosen Physical Desktop Group component. If the Desktops list consists of too many desktops, then viewing all the desktops and selecting the ones you need for report generation could require endless scrolling. To avoid this, you can click the Components button next to the Desktops list. A Desktops pop up window will then appear using which you can view almost all the components in a single interface and Select the ones to be included in this report.

  7. Then, select a performance parameter from the Metric option that displays a pre-configured list of metrics for which the report can be generated. You can simply select a performance parameter from the list, for which you wish to view a detailed report across the physical desktops. For example, just select the CPU Utilization metric from the Metric list, and select the All Desktops for which you wish to view the detailed report from the Desktops list. By default, the Metric list comes with a set of pre-configured parameters. You can expand the Metric list by adding more performance parameters to it. To override the default Metric list, edit the eg_report.ini file (in the <eg_install_dir>\manager\config directory), and add a new metric to the [report_templates] section therein, in the following format:

    <DisplayName>=<InternalTestName>:<InternalMeasureName>

    To determine the internal test and measure names, refer to the steps provided for the Metrics list of theTop - N Analysis Report .

  8. Then, specify the Timeline for generating this report. You can either provide a fixed time line such as 1 hour, 2 days, etc., or select the Any option from the list to provide a From and To date/time for report generation.

    Note:

    For every user registered with the eG Enterprise system, the administrator can indicate the maximum timeline for which that user can generate a report. Once the maximum timeline is set for a user, then, whenever that user logs into eG Reporter and attempts to generate a report, the Timeline list box in the report page will display options according to the maximum timeline setting of that user. For instance, if a user can generate a report for a maximum period of 3 days only, then 3 days will be the highest option displayed in the Timeline list - i.e., 3 days will be the last option in the fixed Timeline list. Similarly, if the user chooses the Any option from the Timeline list and proceeds to provide a start date and end date for report generation using the From and To specifications, eG Enterprise will first check if the user's Timeline specification conforms to his/her maximum timeline setting. If not, report generation will fail. For instance, for a user who is allowed to generate reports spanning over a maximum period of 3 days only, the difference between the From and To dates should never be over 3 days. If it is, then, upon clicking the Run Report button a message box will appear, prompting the user to change the From and To specification.

  9. In addition to the settings discussed above, this report comes with a set of default specifications. These settings are hidden by default. If you do not want to disturb these default settings, then you can proceed to generate the report by clicking the Run Report button. However, if you want to view and then alter these settings (if required), click on the View and Alter icon button. The default settings will then appear in the More Options drop down window (see Figure 2). The steps below discuss each of these settings and how they can be customized.

    Default settings for Top System Resource Consumers report

    Figure 2 : The default settings for the Top Resource Consumers report

  10. If the timeline specified for the report needs to exclude the data collected during the Weekends, then set Exclude weekends to Yes. If not, select No.

    Note:

    You can configure the days of the week that need to be considered as a ‘weekend’ using the Days parameter in the [EXCLUDE_WEEKEND] section in the eg_report.ini file (in the <eg_install_dir>\manager\config directory). The Days parameter is set to Saturday,Sunday by default. To change this weekend specification, enter two other days of the week against the Days parameter.

  11. By default, the report provides the details of only the Top-10 processes for all the chosen desktops that consume high resources. You can choose a different top-n / last-n option from the Show list, if need be.

    Note:

    By default, the values displayed in the Show list range from top-10 to Last-10. This is because, the Showtop parameter in the [infos] section of the eg_report.ini file (in the <eg_install_dir>\manager\config directory) is set to 10, by default. You can, if required, configure the Show list to display a different range of options. For this, specify a different number against the Showtop parameter, and save the eg_report.ini file.

  12. By default, Avg option is chosen from the Show by list indicating that the graph in the generated report will be plotted based on the average resource consumption of the processes running in the physical desktops over a chosen time period. If you want to generate the graph of this report based on the maximum value reported by the processes in the physical desktops over a chosen time period, then select Max from this list.

  13. By default, the Common Maximum flag is set to No. This indicates that by default, eG Enterprise does not set a common maximum value for all graphs in a report - in other words, the maximum value differs from graph to graph. This is because, eG Enterprise, by default, determines the maximum value for a graph by comparing all the values reported by the corresponding measure during the specified Timeline. If you want to set a common maximum value across all graphs in a view, set the Common Maximum flag to Yes. This will ensure that eG Enterprise by default sets the maximum value for the graphs.
  14. By default, the Aggregate based on application name flag to Yes if you wish to aggregate all the instances of an application and report as a single bar graph. If you set this flag to No, then the complete file path of the application will be listed in the generated graph.

  15. In large environments, reports generated using months of data can take a long time to complete. Administrators now have the option of generating reports on-line or in the background. When a report is scheduled for background generation, administrators can proceed with their other monitoring, diagnosis, and reporting tasks, while the eG manager is processing the report. This saves the administrator valuable time. To schedule background processing of a report, you can either select the Background Save - PDF option or the Background Save - CSV option from the Report Generation list. In this case, a Report Name text box will appear, where you would have to provide the name with which the report is to be saved in the background. To process reports in the foreground, select the Foreground Generation - HTML option from this list.

    Note:

    • The Report Generation list will appear only if the EnableBackgroundReport flag in the [BACKGROUND_PROCESS] section of the eg_report.ini file (in the {EG_INSTALL_DIR}\manager\config directory) is set to Yes.
    • The default selection in the Report Generation list will change according to the Timeline specified for the report. If the Timeline set is greater than or equal to the number of days specified against the MinDurationForReport parameter in the [BACKGROUND_PROCESS] section of the eg_report.ini file, then the default selection in the Report Generation list will be Background. On the other hand, if the Timeline set for the report is lesser than the value of the MinDurationForReport parameter, then the default selection in the Report Generation list will be Foreground. This is because, the MinDurationForReport setting governs when reports are to be processed in the background. By default, this parameter is set to 2 weeks - this indicates that by default, reports with a timeline of 2 weeks and above will be processed in the background.

  16. Click the Done button if any changes were made to the More Options drop down window.

  17. Finally, click on the Run Report button to generate the report. If the option chosen from the Report Generation list is Foreground Generation - HTML, then, clicking on the Run Report button will invoke Figure 3.

    Top System Resource Consumers report

    Figure 3 : The Top Resource Consumers report

    For each desktop chosen from the Desktops list, the top 10 applications that are consuming the resources are plotted as bar graphs. However, if you wish to view the processes that are consuming the resources in the bar graph, then set the Aggregate based on application name flag available in the More Options drop down window to Yes.

    If the Data option is chosen from the Report Type list, then the report will be generated as shown in Figure 4.

    Report when generated in Data format

    Figure 4 : The report when generated in Data format

    From the tabular view represented in Figure 4, administrators can figure out the process that is consuming the maximum resources.