Chapter 1. The resource-optimization service for public-cloud systems

The Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux resource optimization service enables RHEL customers to assess and monitor their public RHEL cloud usage and optimization. The service shows metrics for the following:

  • CPU
  • Memory
  • Disk-usage

It analyzes those metrics and compares them to resource limits recommended by your public cloud provider. Leveraging data from the past day, the resource optimization service considers each resource parameter in several distinct ways and returns actionable data. This data enables better resource allocation and helps you to save money on your public cloud investment.

Features

The service reveals the following information:

  • Utilization and optimization data for existing systems in the Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux inventory.
  • Range of systems running in the public cloud.
  • Overview of system characteristics.
  • Highlights potential issues.
  • Formulates suggestions for issue resolution.

1.1. Resource optimization service core concepts

1.1.1. The resource optimization service performance rules

Use the resource optimization service to view performance metrics from your managed hosts that run in the supported public cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS). The service uses a framework called the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) toolkit to record performance metrics. These metrics empower you to make better business decisions.

Insights performance rules

The performance rules are sets of conditions that are applied to the data collected by PCP. They identify the following system states:

  • Undersized. The undersized state is determined by examining CPU, RAM and disk input/output (I/O) usage, and combining that with CPU idle time, over a period of 24 hours. If that results in a high score, the resource optimization service labels the system as too small for its workload. A system will be reported as undersized whenever any of the dimensions are undersized.
  • Oversized. The oversized state is determined by examining CPU, RAM and disk I/O usage, and combining that with CPU idle time, over a period of 24 hours. If that results in a low score, the resource optimization service labels the system as too big for its workload. A system will be reported as oversized only if all of the dimensions are oversized.
  • Idling. The idling state is determined by examining CPU, RAM and disk I/O usage, and combining that with CPU idle time, over a period of 24 hours. If that results in very low utilization, the resource optimization service labels the system as appropriate for its workload but underused. The idling condition can be viewed as a needs improvement scenario.
  • Optimized. The optimized state is determined by examining CPU, RAM and disk I/O usage, and combining that with CPU idle time, over a period of 24 hours. If that results in a middle point, the resource optimization service labels the system as optimized.
  • Under pressure. This state is only active when Kernel Pressure Stall Information (PSI) has been enabled. Systems are labeled as under pressure when they are optimized utilization-wise, but some pressure condition persists.

The resource optimization service measures the system’s state and the desired performance criteria that you have set, in order to assign a score to the system.

Additional resources

For more information about the PCP toolkit and registering PAYG, visit the following links:

1.1.2. Data security guarantee for the resource optimization service

The resource optimization service adheres to the data and application security practices for Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux services. For more details see Security.

1.1.3. Performance metrics for resource optimization

The resource optimization service installs the pcp package on your system and runs two services, pmcd and pmlogger. Both are part of the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) toolkit, which monitor and process specific metrics on your system. Metrics are stored in an archive, which the Insights client uploads to Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

1.1.4. Access usage metrics for the resource optimization service

The resource optimization service captures data from the previous day and provides system utilization metrics after 24 hours. By default, the archive is uploaded to Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux at 12:00am +/- 1 hour, local system time. However, the time when this data is uploaded can be configured in the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) toolkit configuration.