Grafana. Example of VMs load monitoring

This article contains an example of creating a dashboard to monitor the load of virtual machines (VMs). The monitoring data will allow you to identify VMs that create the highest load on the cluster node.

Creating and configuring a dashboard

To create a dashboard:

1. In the right menu of VMmanager, click the icon → Grafana. The Grafana interface will open.
2. Create a dashboard. To do this, in the left menu of Grafana, click the  icon → Create → Dashboard. This will open a template for creating a dashboard.
   
3. Save the dashboard under a unique name. To do this, click the   icon in the upper right menu → enter a name in the Dashboard name field → Save button.
4. Click the  icon in the top right menu to add a panel to the dashboard.
5. Add a graph to the panel with information about the VMs with the most loaded CPUs:
   1. Click the Add query button. A template for creating a graph will open.
      
   2. In the Query list, select the graphite_src as a data source. 
      
   3. In the Series line, select sequentially:
      
      1. 1 — statistics database.
      2. host — statistics by VMs.
      3. * — all VMs.
      4. cpu — CPU load.
      5. user — user CPU time.
         
   4. To determine the 10 most loaded VMs, add the aggregation function highestAverage(10). To do this, in the Functions line, click the icon → Filter Series → highestAverage → enter the number of VMs — 10. The graph will be displayed on the dashboard panel.
      
      
   5. To make the caption contain only the VM name, add the aliasByNode(2) function. To do this, in the Functions line, click the  icon → Alias → aliasByNode. The graph captions will change.
      By default, the graph caption format is as follows: 1.host.VM_name.cpu.user.
      
      
      
6. Add a table view of the metrics showing the minimum, average, and maximum values:
   1. Click the  icon . The Visualization section opens.
   2. In the Legend section, enable the options:
      1. Show.
      2. As Table.
      3. To the right.
      4. Min.
      5. Avg.
      6. Max.
         
7. Add a title for the graph:
   1. Click the  icon . The General section opens.
   2. In the Title field, enter the name of the graph. For example, Top VM by CPU.
      
8. To save the changes, click the icon → Save icon in the upper right menu.
9. To add panels with graphs of VM utilization by RAM and network to the dashboard, repeat steps 4-8 with the following settings:
   1.  When adding a graph of VM utilization by RAM:
      1. In the Series line, select sequentially: 
         1. 1 — statistics database.
         2. host — statistics by VMs.
         3. * — all VMs.
         4. mem — RAM.
         5. rss — RSS usage.
      2. In the Functions line specify the functions highestAverage(10) and aliasByNode(2).
   2. When adding a graph of VM utilization by network:
      1. Set parameters for incoming traffic:
         1. In the Series line, select sequentially:
            
            1. 1 — statistics database.
            2. host — statistics by VMs.
            3. * — all VMs.
            4. net — statistics by network.
            5. * — all network interfaces.
            6. rx — incoming traffic.
            7. bytes — bytes.
            8. sum — sum value.
         2. In the Functions line specify the functions highestAverage(10) and aliasByNode(2,5).
      2. Click the Add query button.
      3. Set parameters for outgoing traffic:
         1. In the Series line, select sequentially:
            
            1. 1 — statistics database.
            2. host — statistics by VMs.
            3. * — all VMs.
            4. net — statistics by network.
            5. * — all network interfaces.
            6. rx — outgoing traffic.
            7. bytes — bytes.
            8. sum — sum value.
         2. In the Functions line specify the functions highestAverage(10) and aliasByNode(2,5).
         3. The aliasByNode(2,5) function displays only the VM name and traffic type — incoming (rx) or outgoing (tx) — in the graph caption.
      4. To make the graph of incoming traffic (rx) mirror the graph of outgoing traffic (tx):
         
         1. Click the  icon . The Visualization section opens.
         2. Click theAdd series override button.
         3. In the alias or regex field enter: /rx/
         4. To the right of the alias or regex field, click the icon → Transform → negative-Y.
            

You can move the graphics to the desired locations on the dashboard and set their size with the mouse.

Dashboard example

Viewing statistics

To view statistics for a specific period:

1. Click on the date in the upper right menu.
2. Select the desired period in the Relative time ranges column or enter the period boundaries in the From and To fields.
3. Click theApply time range button.