Exposing the RIB queries for existing CA Performance Manager Dashboard Views

Products

• CA Performance Management - Usage and Administration
• DX NetOps

Issue/Introduction

There are times when it may be necessary to obtain raw data from the various Data Source (DS) hosts configured within Performance Management (PM). For those DS hosts that provide reporting data in PM, this is possible using Report Information Base (RIB) queries.

When configuring RIB queries it is often useful to generate sample queries that can be used for making further edits to arrive at the desired data set for export. To do so, first configure or display a Dashboard View that contains the data you seek for export. It may not show the correct element set, or it may show more data than you wish to export, but again, this will just serve as a sample for creating the needed query.

With that data in view in a View, now we can enable a specific debug setting that will expose the RIB query the PM software has generated to provide the data in the View at hand. This is known as the "Blue Bars" debug trick.

Environment

All supported Performance Management releases

Resolution

To do so first open a new browser and launch the URL:

           http://<PM_HOST>:8181/pc/center/admin/debug/attrs

Replace PM_HOST with your PM systems host name or IP address. When the page loads, it may request a log in with a username and password. Log in using the default system admin user, or an administrative role based user.

Scroll down and find the "RIBModelInfoEnabled" option. In the Value column change the default from False to True to enable the function. At the top or bottom of the debug settings page will be an "Update" button. Select it to set the change made.

If we go back to the Portal web UI with the View displayed and refresh the page, a Blue Bar should be displayed at the top of each individual View just below the Title bar. For example, when this is enabled, in the default "Server Device Health" Dashboard, in the "Top Disk Storage" View below the Title bar is a blue bar showing:

            ID: 1000064, Type: RIBTableModel - Expand for query details

At the end of the text is a 'more' link with a downward pointing arrow. Selecting the arrow exposes the RIB query used for the View.

At the end of the blue bar is an X button. Selecting it closes the Blue Bar for that specific View. Refreshing the page or the View by selecting any column header will bring the blue bar back into view on the View.

In this example, the RIB query issued is:

<ul><li>QueryID: {16995224-b5e3-4b55-acc9-fdde15ae132d}, Query: {SELECT .PollItem.DeviceID, .PollItem.DevDisplayName, .Item.Description, .Item.Name, .Used.Avg, .Capacity.Avg FROM CA.IM.DA.MF.NormalizedPartitionsInfo.NRM_PARTITIONS WHERE .Group.GroupID = 1 AND .EndTime(300) > 1414494720 AND .EndTime(300) <= 1414498320 GROUPBY .PollItem.ID, .PollItem.DeviceID, .Item.Name, .Item.Description, .PollItem.DevDisplayName ORDERBY .Used.Avg ASC LIMIT 100}, Properties: {culture: en-USTrackingID: 16995224-b5e3-4b55-acc9-fdde15ae132dPermissionID: 1MultiDatasourceSupport: true}</li></ul>

This shows which Data Source (DS) the query targets (FROM CA.IM.DA). We can also see which Metric Family (MF) the data is derived from (MF.NormalizedPartitionsInfo.NRM_PARTITIONS).

We can see that it is querying the group with an ID of 1 (WHERE .Group.GroupID = 1). This information can now be used to develop other targeted RIB queries.

NOTE: The Blue Bars debug function will expose this information to any user logged into CAPM when it is enabled. To disable this debug setting reset its value from True back to False. Select the "Update" button at the top or bottom of the page to set the change made.

Additional Information