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Version: 10.2

File Systems Accounting

Introduction​

File Systems Accounting provides the capability to consistently track and analyze the allocation and utilization of storage space across various file systems and drives. This will produce the following aggregated data types used for historical reporting:

The following section will guide you on configuring file systems accounting.

Requirements​

File Systems Accounting and Automounting​

Open iT does not support accounting based on automounting of file systems. The whole is accounted in one go, not the individual automounted subdirectories. The top level file system should be specified in filesystems to imply local accounting. If this is not possible to account locally, the file system should be mounted over NFS (Network File System).

warning

The file systems configuration file should contain a line like this:

*:auto.*:*           exclude

This will avoid accounting on activated automounted file systems.

warning

Before proceeding with the configuration, activate the file systems collector module in the Core Server.

File Systems Accounting over NFS​

Open iT supports accounting on Network File System (NFS)—a distributed file system protocol that allows the user on a client computer to access files over the network.

If a file system mounted on /garlic on the host pepper is to be accounted via NFS, the following lines will be of help:

pepper:nfs.*:/garlic        include

The first entry, pepper, defines which host should the file system be accounted on. The second entry, nfs.*, indicates that the file system to be accounted for is of NFS type. The third entry, /garlic, is the path on which the remote file system is mounted. The include key triggers the collector to include this type of file system in the data collection.

Configuring File Systems Accounting​

The filesystems_win.conf configuration file contains a mapping list of various file systems to be included for storage accounting.

NOTE

The server distributes filesystems_win.conf configuration to the clients automatically. Any modification on the client will be lost.

The file has two sections:

NameDescription
@part1This specifies the file systems to account. It tells the storage applications where to look for possible accounting.
@part2This specifies the file systems to account. It tells the storage applications where to look for possible accounting.
Sections of the File Systems Configuration File

NOTE

All locally mounted file systems are automatically investigated and do not need to be included in @part1.

Neither part is case sensitive. 'admiral' is equal to 'ADMIRAL'.

  1. In the Core Server, open filesystems_win.conf in the Configuration directory, which is by default in C:\Program Files\OpeniT\Core\Configuration. Read through the written instructions in the file.

    filesystems_win.conf
    #
    # This file is used to specify which file-systems that are to be accounted
    # on each Open iT Storage client.
    ...
    # Part 1
    # (Do not edit the following line!)
    @part1
    #
    # Syntax:
    #
    #   host:file-system
    #
    # host        : The storage client that should investigate.
    # file-system : The file system to investigate.
    #
    # You can not use globbing in this part. (No '*' or '?'!)

    # List remote systems to account.
    # Example:
    #
    # admiral:\\golden\c\
    #
    # This means that the host 'admiral', which is the local host (the host running
    # the Open iT client with Storage), will attempt to do remote accounting on
    # 'golden', in the shared directory 'c'.
    # NOTE that if you want to do accounting on \\golden\d\ (or any other shared
    # directory on the remote host, that is not already included in another share,
    # you must explicitly specify this.


    # Part 2
    # (Do not edit the following line!)
    @part2
    #
    # Syntax:
    #
    #   host:file-system type:file system path	<include/exclude/exclude_all>
    #
    # host             : The storage client must match this host name.
    # file-system type : fixed, remote, cdrom, removable, ramdisk.
    # File system path : For FileSystems accounting, this can only be the drive.
    #                    E.G. "C:\", "F:\", etc.
    # <include/exclude>: Specify whether or not matched line should cause inclusion
    #                    or exclusion.
    # <exclude_all>    : You may also specify exclude_all (instead of include or
    #                    exclude), which means that the entire directory tree rooted
    #                    in the listed file system path is excluded.
    #
    # All fields (except <include/exclude>) are values that are matched. Globbing is
    # allowed in these fields, to match patterns.
    ...


    # Default include/exclude settings:

    *:*:*                      include         # Do accounting on all file systems
    *:remote:*                 exclude_all     # ...but not on remote file systems
    *:ramdisk:*                exclude_all     # ...or ramdisk systems
    *:cdrom:*                  exclude_all     # Do not even look at CD/DVD file systems
    *:removable:*              exclude_all     # ...or removable (floppy disk) file systems

    ...
    NOTE

    Lines starting with hash signs (#) are considered comments and ignored in the processing.

  2. Add new entries as needed. Make sure to follow all instructions and rules to avoid malfunctions.

    Entries are processed from top to bottom, and the last pattern that matches is prioritized.

  3. Save the changes.

Configuring File System Period and Offset​

  1. Go to the scheduler directory, which is by default in C:\Program Files\OpeniT\Core\Configuration\scheduler, and open collect_storage_filesystem-win.oconf.

  2. Locate and set the value of root.scheduler.jobs.collect_filesystem_win.scheduling.start-triggers.trigger#1.period. The default value is P1D.

    collect_storage_filesystem-win.oconf
    period
    {
        descripton=Run daily
        type=timespan
        value=P1D
    }

  3. Locate and set the value of root.scheduler.jobs.collect_filesystem_win.scheduling.start-triggers.trigger#1.offset. The default value is P-T1H.

    collect_storage_filesystem-win.oconf
    offset
    {
        description=Start an hour before midnight
        type=timespan
        value=P-T1H
    }
    NOTE

    Specify the period and offset values to your desired timespan based on the ISO-8601 duration format PnDTnHnMn.nS.

  4. Save the changes.

For Unix systems, you may refer to the Configuring File Systems Period in Unix page.

Sample Historical Report​

Free Disk Space on Logical Devices

Free Disk Space on Logical Devices