Install a Netprobe on a shared drive
Overview Copied
The data collected by the Netprobe depends on the plug-ins you choose to run. For most cases, the Netprobe needs to be installed onto the machine or server to be monitored.
It is possible to install a Netprobe on a shared drive, then have it run on multiple nodes. However, there are a few considerations if a Netprobe installation on a shared drive is going to be used by multiple nodes simultaneously.
Log files Copied
If the Netprobes record their log output to the shared drive, then you must check that each one is writing to a unique file.
The Netprobes may crash if more than one Netprobe attempts to write to the same file. This can happen if, for example, a shared script is being used to set up the environment and launch the Netprobe on a set of Linux machines, and this script sets the LOG_FILENAME to the same file on the shared drive.
In this example, you can address the logging by updating the script. For example:
setenv LOG_FILENAME netprobe.out.`hostname`
This generates a log file which includes the hostname as a suffix to the log file name, thus giving the Netprobe running on each machine a separate log file.
Message Tracker plug-in Copied
The Message Tracker plug-in writes a file in the Netprobe directory which ensures that no data is lost if the probe stops. This file follows the name format <managedEntity>.<samplerName>.cache, by default. The file name can be changed using the configuration option called persistenceFile in Message Tracker plugin.
Multiple Netprobe instances that share the same installation directory and use the Message Tracker plug-ins can overwrite each other’s data. Therefore, check that each Message Tracker sampler has a unique persistenceFile setting.
Next steps Copied
Once you have determined to install a Netprobe on a shared drive, you may proceed to do so: