Monitoring the Database with the HP OpenView MySQL Gallery SPI

HP OpenView Operations Architecture

HP enhances the Open Source Middleware Stacks (OSMS) using HP OpenView Operations Smart Plug-Ins (OVO SPIs).

HP OpenView Operations (OVO) is a distributed, client/server software solution designed to provide service-driven event and performance management of business-critical enterprise systems, applications, and services.

The SPI for MySQL is a value-add software component for HP OVO. This software is provided free to all customers of HP OVO for use under the terms and conditions documented on the download web page. This SPI provides powerful, centralized tools to monitor and manage the operation of multiple installations of MySQL servers on SLES.

SPI components include:

Policies that are designed to monitor log files and key health parameters of the MySQL server
Policies that allow you to monitor the overall availability of the MySQL server
Tools that allow you to run commands on the managed MySQL installation
NOTE: The HP OVO Management Server runs on either HP-UX or Windows. The examples in this blueprint use HP OpenView Operations for Windows (OVOW).

Figure 6 illustrates the SPI architecture and OVOW components.

Figure 6 HP OVOW Architecture

Software Prerequisites and Reference Guides

Before attempting to install the MySQL SPI, ensure that you have a functional HP OVOW installation, including the OVOW Management Console and the Linux OVOW SPI agents for the MySQL server. An HP-UX OVO installation can be used instead. However, this example uses the Windows version. In addition, you must install the following patches listed in Table 4:

Table 4 Required OVOW Patches

Patch Name	Version	Patch	Dependencies
`Msg/Act Agt`	A.07.31	`OVOW_00187`	None
`SvcDisc Linux`	A.07.31	`OVOW_00198`	`OVOW_00187`
`Mgmt Srv`	A.07.32	`OVOW_00213`	`OVOW_00068OVOW_00166`
`Agent Linux`	A.07.33	`OVOW_00234`	None

The SPI installation and configuration documents can be found on the HP OpenView website at:

http://managementsoftware.hp.com/products/spi/

For information about installing the HP OVOW agent, see the HP OpenView Operations for Windows Installation Guide at:

http://ovweb.external.hp.com/ovnsmdps/pdf/ovow75_install.pdf

Using the SPIs

The OVOW SPIs support two methodologies to manage the MySQL server:

User-driven methods
Event-driven methods

User-Driven Methods

The user-driven functions are accessed from the Tools menu. You can start, stop, and monitor MySQL from the OVOW console. The following table provides an overview of the tools in the group Database SPI (DBSPI) MySQL:

Table 5 Application Labels and Descriptions

Application Label	Description
Configure MySQL Instrumentation	Extracts and deploys MySQL Instrumentation.
Restart MySQL Server	Restarts the MySQL server.
Start MySQL Server	Starts the MySQL server on the managed node.
Stop MySQL Server	Stops the MySQL server on the managed node.
Start MySQL Log File Monitoring	Starts the log file monitoring of the MySQL server. The tool monitors errors, deployment exceptions and MySQL resource exceptions from the default MySQL log file (located in `/var/lib/mysql/hostname.err`). The OVOW management console shows all the logs in the active message window.
Stop MySQL Log File Monitoring	Stops the log file monitoring of the MySQL server.

Event-Driven Methods

The event-driven methods are used to manage events that are triggered when certain conditions are met, for example, if the MySQL server process utilizes a greater percentage of CPU than the threshold defined in the policy. When a threshold is exceeded, certain warning messages appear in the management console. Table 6 lists the MySQL SPI policy details:

Table 6 MySQL Policies in the DBSPI MySQL Policy Group

Policy Name	Policy Type	Description	Default Polling Interval	Default Threshold
MySQL CPU-Usage Monitor	Measurement Threshold	Monitors the CPU usage of the MySQL server. By default, if the CPU utilization percentage of any MySQL process exceeds 90%, a critical message is displayed in an active message browser of the OVOW console.	30 seconds	90%
MySQL Memory Usage Monitor	Measurement Threshold	Monitors the operating system's memory usage of the MySQL server. By default, if the memory utilization percentage of any MySQL process exceeds 90%, a critical message is displayed in active message browser of the OVOW console.	30 seconds	90%
Process Monitor – MySQL SPI	Scheduled Task	Monitors a MySQL process. If a MySQL process is killed, then a message is displayed in an active message browser of the OVOW console.	1 minute	N/A
Status Message - MySQL SPI	Open Message Interface	Provides an interface for displaying MySQL server error messages. The Open Message Interface policies are used by other policies and are not used directly for monitoring.	5 minutes	N/A
Internal Message - MySQL SPI	Open Message Interface	Provides an interface for displaying internal error messages from the SPI. The Open Message Interface policies are used by other policies and are not used directly for monitoring.	N/A	N/A
MySQL Service Discovery - MySQL SPI	Service Auto Discovery	Discovers the MySQL server. The MySQL server is registered as an OVOW service and this policy is used to “discover” MySQL availability once an hour, by default.	N/A	N/A
Log Message – MySQL SPI	Open Message Interface	Provides an interface for displaying MySQL server log messages. The Open Message Interface policies are used by other policies and are not used directly for monitoring.	N/A	N/A