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Monitoring hardware resources

Ensure that each application node and database server does not run out of resources. For example, Bravura Security Fabric cannot update the database if the database server runs out of disk space. Running out of physical RAM can cause database processing to slow down dramatically as the operating system swaps RAM to disk.

Most hardware vendors provide monitoring software, and many third-party applications are available that can be useful in conjunction with various settings in Bravura Security Fabric.

Hardware monitoring includes the following areas:

Consult the relevant vendor documentation for more information on configuring monitoring.

Monitor RAM availability

Monitor the available RAM on the application nodes and database servers and set alerts if the available RAM falls below acceptable levels.

Consider automatically restarting any process or service whose memory use grows over time, during low-usage periods. For example:

  • Asynchronous Request Service (ajaxsvc).

  • Windows svchost service.

  • SearchUI process.

  • MsMpEng processes.

  • Messaging Service (msgsvc) when the Bravura Security Fabric application node is under heavy use.

Disk space

Configure disk space monitoring across all nodes and database servers, and set alerts when disk space falls below a specified threshold.

As historical data accumulates in Bravura Security Fabric, the backend database continually grows. The disk location where MSSQL stores its files must be at least 50% empty at all times. If the server is not provisioned based on requirements, database administrators must periodically increase the allocated space. See Server requirements for the requirement details.

Bravura Security Fabric has a health check feature that monitors the C: drive and sends notifications. If the backend MSSQL database is installed on the same server, but files are on a different drive, you can configure the health check to monitor that other drive.

However, if the database files are on a different server and the drive where the files reside cannot be mapped to the Bravura Security Fabric node for the health check to use, you must use other tools to alert Bravura Security Fabric administrators to an impending out-of-space situation.

Whether replication is configured or not, the application node's iddb.cfg file contains a setting that stops all database-related application processes if available disk space drops below a certain level. It is recommended not to manually modify the config file, but in some cases it may be required.

The default level of max_disk_space_percentage is 90%. When the available disk space reaches 10% of the total disk space, the application stops working.

For very large disks, that setting is too small. For example, 10% of 1 TB is 100 GB. In extreme cases, you can increase the 90% value as long as the available free space is still more than the size of the database files as mentioned above.

The iddb.cfg file records the maximum percentage at which the database service still functions, whereas the health check MIN_PERCENT_FREE setting records the minimum percentage at which the database service still functions. When you increase the setting in iddb.cfg (for example, to 95), decrease the one in health check (for that example, to 5).

If the instance is replicated, you can configure this setting in the web UI in the nodes Configuration tab under Manage the system > Maintenance > Database replication.

The transaction file itself can grow daily to exceed the size of the database.

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