Troubleshooting data collectors

Find answers to questions and solutions to problems that you might encounter when you're installing, upgrading, and using data collectors to collect metadata about your storage.

Table 1. General troubleshooting tips for data collectors
Problems and questions Answers
I don't know which operating systems are supported by data collectors.
You can install the data collector on the following operating systems:
  • Windows Server 2016 and later.
  • POWER6® or later systems that use AIX® 7.x or later. The AIX data collector can run on a physical AIX installation or a logical partition (LPAR).
  • The Linux® data collector runs on 64-bit Linux operating systems on x86-64 and PPC64LE systems only. The supported Linux operating systems for x86-64 are Red Hat® Enterprise Linux 7 or later and CentOS 7 or later.
  • The supported Linux operating system for PPC64LE is Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x on POWER8® and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x. on POWER9™® and POWER10®. The data collector on Linux PPC64LE has the additional limitation that you cannot monitor IBM FlashSystem A9000, XIV®, IBM Storage Accelerate, and non-IBM® devices.
    Restriction: The data collector is not supported for Linux operating systems on IBM Power® systems (PPC64, Big Endian).
I don't know the requirements for data collectors.
  • Deploy data collectors on any server or virtual machine that has access to both the internal SAN-attached infrastructure and access to the internet to communicate with IBM Cloud®.
  • Deploy data collectors on a server or virtual machine that is located in the VLAN used for SAN switch and storage management within your environment. You can also deploy a data collector in a VLAN where routing is configured to allow it access across VLANs.
  • On the server or virtual machine, you must provide at least 1 GB of RAM and 3 GB of disk space.
  • Ensure that the operating system where you install the data collector has general or extended support for maintenance and security fixes.

Important: It's recommended that you do not install a data collector on a laptop or personal workstation. Shutting down a laptop or personal workstation or putting it into sleep mode will interrupt data collection. The server or virtual machine where you install a data collector must be available 24X7.

Can I install more than one data collector?

You can install multiple data collectors to fail over to another data collector when a metadata collection fails or to optimize the metadata collection from data centers in different locations.

See Metadata collection with multiple data collectors.
How do I download the data collector? In the IBM Storage Insights GUI, go to Configuration > Data Collectors, and click your operating system to download the data collector compressed file.
  • I can't install the data collector on my target server.
  • My antivirus software is preventing me from installing the data collector.
  • You must provide at least 1 GB of RAM and 3 GB of disk space on each server or virtual machine, in addition to the disk space that is required to install the data collector.
  • Configure your antivirus software product on the server or virtual machine where you install the data collector to allow new executable files to be created in its installation directory. If your antivirus software is set on the maximum mode, it might prevent some of your changes from being accepted.
  • My data centers are behind a firewall and I'm having trouble configuring data collectors to communicate with IBM Storage Insights.
  • Information about my monitored devices isn't showing up in the dashboards.
  • IBM Storage Insights can't communicate with my data collectors.
  • Ensure that your firewall is configured to allow outbound communication on the default HTTPS port 443 using the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is not supported.
  • Ensure that the network endpoint for IBM Storage Insights can be reached by your data collectors. Update your firewall rules to allow outbound communication to https://insights.ibm.com
  • If a firewall exists between the data collector and the storage systems that it monitors, configure the firewall to allow SNMP traffic.
  • Check your email and notifications in the GUI to determine if there is a known outage or service interruption that might be causing the problem.

Metadata is not being collected for my devices. My data centers are behind an HTTPS Squid proxy, which might be causing communication problems between my data collectors and IBM Storage Insights. 

 Configure /etc/squid/squid.conf on the Squid proxy server to use the same port number for internal HTTP connect calls that is being used for HTTPS. For more information, see Connecting a data collector through an HTTPS Squid proxy. 
  • I can't add storage systems for monitoring.
  • What TCP/IP ports are used by IBM Storage Insights?
  • What are the ports used by the data collector to connect with storage systems?
  • Are there any specific IP ports that must be open to give the data collector access to storage?
  • To collect metadata, the data collector connects to specific ports on your storage systems. To find out which ports must be open in your internal network, see Ports for collecting metadata from devices.
  • You must deploy data collectors on a server or virtual machine that is located in a VLAN that can access any other VLANs where your storage is located.
The metadata collection for a device failed and one of the following statuses was displayed:
  • Degraded
  • Device is not providing valid performance data
  • Device is not providing valid probe data
  • Device unreachable
  • Failed
  • Firmware level not supported
  • Insufficient role to collect data
  • Invalid credentials
  • No data collector available
  • Not Monitored
  • Stopped
  • Task expired
  • Unknown
  • Zimon is not running
 When metadata collection runs, its real-time status is displayed in the Data Collection, Probe Status, and Performance Monitor Status columns on the following pages:
  • Block Storage: Resources > Block Storage Systems
  • File Storage: Resources > File Storage Systems
  • Object Storage: Resources > Object Storage Systems
  • Switches: Resources > Switches
  • Hosts: Resources > Hosts

If Symantec Endpoint Protection is enabled on the server where an IBM Storage Insights data collector is installed, it prevents the data collector from running properly. To avoid this issue, remove or disable Symantec Endpoint Protection on the server where the data collector is installed.

If Trellix endpoint security is enabled on the server where an IBM Storage Insights data collector is installed, it may prevent the data collector from running properly. To avoid this issue, remove or disable Trellix endpoint security on the server where the data collector is installed.

If Forcepoint One Endpoint is enabled on the server where an IBM Storage Insights data collector is installed, it may prevent the data collector from running properly. To avoid this issue, remove or disable Forcepoint One Endpoint on the server where the data collector is installed.

For information about what you can do when an error status is displayed, see Monitoring the status of data collection.
Internal scan detected files with excess permissions in /tmp/.com_ibm_tools_attach Follow the steps below to remove the folder and the sub-folders with excessive write permissions:
  1. Stop the data collector using ./dataCollector.sh stop.
  2. Delete the /tmp/.com_ibm_tools_attach directory.
  3. Go to the installation directory of data collector and then add the 2 lines mentioned below in conf/setup.properties:
    dcJvmArgs=-Dcom.ibm.tools.attach.enable=no
    epJvmArgs=-Dcom.ibm.tools.attach.enable=no
  4. Start the data collector using command ./dataCollector.sh start.
Note: When the data collector starts, the folder is still created, but that is not considered to be an issue.

An alert message 'Daemon is not managed by RPM' is displayed by security scanners for IBM Storage Insights data collector.

The following running daemon is not managed by RPM:

< DC_INSTALL_DIR >/jre/bin/java

IBM Storage Insights data collector is used to gain insights in the capacity and performance of the monitored storage resources. During deployment, it installs its own Java as it does not depend on the Java installed on the system.

Java is installed using the IBM Storage Insights data collector installation mechanism and it does not use any package manager (for example, RPM). Security scanning tools might generate an alert on this Java installation with a message, for example:

The following running daemon is not managed by RPM:

< DC_INSTALL_DIR >/jre/bin/java

The root cause behind is that the installation of the IBM Storage Insights data Collector Java is by design. So, this alert can be ignored.

Troubleshooting a Windows installation

If you install data collectors on servers or virtual machines that run Windows Server 2016 and later, keep in mind the following information.

Table 2. Troubleshooting a Windows installation
Problems and questions Answers
Are there any special directory requirements for the data collector?
  • The directory must be on a local system disk that is available at system startup time and is not associated with a Windows user profile, home directory, or network share.
  • Directory names must not include these special characters: 
    % & ! ( ) { } [ ] ; , ' ` ^ = $ # ~ + @ \ / : * ? " < > |
  • The number of characters, which includes the number of characters in the path and in the file name, must not exceed 256 characters.
I don't know what script to run to install the data collector.
After you extract data collector .zip file, here are some key files for you to use:
  • The readme file with instructions for installing the data collector.
  • The batch file for installing the data collector: installDataCollectorService.bat.
  • I'm trying to run the installation script but it keeps failing.
  • Do I need any special authority to install the data collector?
To install the data collector, you must run installDataCollectorService.bat as an administrator. To run the batch file as an administrator, you can use the following methods:
  • Windows explorer: Locate the file with Windows Explorer, right-click it, and click Run as administrator.
  • Command prompt: Press Windows key+R to open the Run window, type cmd, and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to run the command prompt as an administrator.
To view all the steps for installing a data collector on Windows, see Installing data collectors on Windows.
The data collector won't start or stop.

If McAfee Adaptive Threat Protection is enabled on the server where an IBM Storage Insights data collector is installed, it might prevent the data collector from starting or stopping. To avoid this issue, open McAfee Adaptive Threat Protection and go to settings. In the Real Protect Scanning (Windows only) section, verify whether Enable client-based scanning is selected. If so, select Low from the Sensitivity level list.

For more information about McAfee Adaptive Threat Protection, see the following links:

Troubleshooting an AIX or Linux installation

If you install data collectors on servers or virtual machines that run AIX or Linux, keep in mind the following information.

Table 3. Troubleshooting an AIX or Linux installation
Problems and questions Answers
Are there any special directory requirements for the data collector?
  • Directory names must not include special characters such as these: 
    % & ! ( ) { } [ ] ; , ' ` ^ = $ # ~ + @ \ / : * ? " < > |
  • The number of characters, which includes the number of characters in the path and in the file name, must not exceed 256 characters.
I don't know what script to run to install the data collector.
After you extract data collector .gz file, here are the key files for you to use:
  • The readme file with instructions for installing the data collector.
  • The script file for installing the data collector: installDataCollectorService.sh.
  • I'm trying to run the installation script but it keeps failing.
  • Do I need any special authority to install the data collector?

To install the data collector, you must have root authority on the server or virtual machine where you run installDataCollectorService.sh.

To view all the steps for installing a data collector on AIX or Linux, see Installing data collectors on AIX or Linux.
Data collector service fails to start after it is installed or upgraded, with the following error: Dependent module libc++.a(shr_64.o) could not be loaded. Ensure that the IBM® XL C/C++ Runtime for AIX 16.1.0.1 or later is installed on the operating system. Refer to the instructions provided in the Fix list for XL C/C++ Runtime for AIX to install it on your AIX operating system. Then follow the steps that are mentioned in the Resolving upgrading issues to reinstall the data collector.

Troubleshooting a data collector upgrade

Table 4. Troubleshooting a data collector upgrade
Problems and questions Answers
The data collector upgrade failed and IBM Storage Insights can't communicate with the data collector.
The data collector is offline. It's likely that a problem on the server or virtual machine where the data collector is installed caused the upgrade to fail. Complete the following steps to resolve the issue:
  1. Fix the problem on the server or virtual machine.

    For example, if your antivirus software is set on the maximum mode, it might prevent some of your changes from being accepted. Configure the antivirus software on the target server or virtual machine to allow new executable files to be created in the installation directory of the data collector.

  2. Follow the steps in Resolving upgrading issues to uninstall the current version of the data collector and deploy the latest version.
The data collector upgrade failed to download to the server or virtual machine.

Ensure that there is enough space on the server where the data collector is deployed. You must provide at least 3 GB of disk space on the server, in addition to the disk space that is required to install the data collector. Then, retry the upgrade the data collector manually on the Data Collectors page.

For more information about how to manually upgrade a data collector, see Upgrading data collectors manually.
The data collector is not being upgraded even though automatic upgrade is enabled.

This problem occurs if a data collector failed to automatically upgrade in the past and it was not manually upgraded after that failure. The automatic upgrade option is not used again for a data collector that fails to upgrade until you manually upgrade it.

To restore automatic upgrades and clear the error message on the Data Collectors page, you must manually upgrade your data collectors. To manually upgrade all your data collectors with one click, click Upgrade All. To manually upgrade each data collector individually, use the Upgrade action until all the data collectors are upgraded.

If the manual upgrade is successful, the automatic upgrade option is used the next time the data collector requires an upgrade. For more information about how to manually upgrade a data collector, see Upgrading data collectors manually.
Data collector service fails to start after it is installed or upgraded, with the following error: Dependent module libc++.a(shr_64.o) could not be loaded. Ensure that the IBM® XL C/C++ Runtime for AIX 16.1.0.1 or later is installed on the AIX operating system. Refer to the instructions provided in the Fix list for XL C/C++ Runtime for AIX to install it on your AIX operating system. Then follow the steps that are mentioned in the Resolving upgrading issues to reinstall the data collector.

Need more help?

If you're still encountering problems, IBM is here to help. Check out these resources:

For a complete directory of help options, see Getting support.