Disk Queue Length Monitoring

Monitor the average disk queue length counter on Linux servers and analyze disk usage to stay on top of issues with our ready-to-install plugin integration.

The average disk queue length is the average number of both read and write operations that were queued for the selected disk during a specific time interval. It is important to monitor them as these values provide an accurate representation of your storage system.

Higher values indicate that the volume cannot keep up with the requests from the application, resulting in higher response times. Install this plugin to be instantly notified on disk performance issues.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure the 'iostat' command is installed in the server to fetch the performance metrics.
  • Our Linux server monitoring agent should be installed in the server where the disk counters need to be monitored.
  • While adding a plugin, the plugin name and its folder name inside the Site24x7 agent should be identical.

Plugin Installation

  • Download and install the latest version of the Site24x7 Linux agent in the server where you plan to run the plugin. If it is installed successfully, you will see a Linux server monitor in the Site24x7 Control Panel. This confirms that the agent is able to communicate with our data center.
  • Download the disk_queue_length.py file from our GitHub repository.
    wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/site24x7/plugins/master/disk_queue_length/disk_queue_length.py
  • By default, the plugin will capture the queue length of all disks. If any specific disk queue length needs to be monitored, provide the disk name in the 'DISKS' field present in the 'disk_queue_length.py' file.
    For example, if 'nvme0n1' needs to be monitored, configure as:
    DISKS=['nvme0n1']
  • Create a folder with the name 'disk_queue_length', under the Site24x7 Linux agent plugin directory '/opt/site24x7/monagent/plugins/' and place the 'disk_queue_length.py' file under '/opt/site24x7/monagent/plugins/disk_queue_length/'.
The agent will automatically execute the plugin within five minutes and send performance data to the Site24x7 data center.

View Data in the Site24x7 Web Client

  1. Log in to Site24x7 and go to Server > Plugins > click on the name of the plugin monitor.
  2. You will be able to view the performance metrics for the various disk queue length counters.

Plugin Contribution

Feel free to contribute to our existing plugin and come up with suggestions or feedback on our Community.

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