This document provides a high level overview of the MMS web console and describes the basic functionality. The best way to learn about MMS’s capabilities is to browse the interface with live data. For additional documentation of the MMS console see the “MMS Console Overview” document . If you haven’t done so already, please install the MMS agent before proceeding.
The “Hosts” section is the primary location for monitoring information in the MMS console. This tabbed interface provides access to all of your monitored objects. The tabs you see depend on the types of processes in your deployment. The tab:
The remaining “Host” section tabs contain information about the monitoring process and environment. The tab:
“Host Aliases” shows the mapping between system hostnames and the names provided by the monitored process (e.g. mongod and mongos.) In most cases, hosts are automatically aliased during auto-discovery. If needed, you may modify and configure the alias mapping in the “Settings” section of the console in the “Preferred Hostnames” section.
Note
When you add or update a “Preferred Hostname” value, this action resets all previous hostname aliases.
All of these interfaces provide a search field in the upper right corner to filter the lists in real time.
Each non-arbiter processes in the “Hosts” section links to an overview of the data collected for that process. On each of these pages, MMS provides the following tabs:
“Stats,” which displays charts using data provided by the MMS agent. These charts display information about the mongod process itself.
“Hardware,” which displays information gathered about underlying system. To collect this information, you will need to install and run the munin-node software on the nodes running MongoDB.
On Debian and Ubuntu systems, use the “sudo apt-get install munin-node” command. RedHat, CentOS and Fedora users should issue the “sudo yum install munin-node” command.
See the installation documentation for more information.
“DB Stats,” which displays charts on a per-database basis. When you select the “DB Stats” tab, a drop down list appears on the tab that allows you to select a database. An “edit” button appears next in the tab that allows you to remove a database from the DB stats drop down after removing a database from MongoDB. It is impossible to delete a database from your instance using this interface.
The DB Stats tab will only appear approximately 30 minutes after you add the host to MMS. DB Stats information updates every 5 minutes, or less frequently to reduce the impact on the database. If the “DB stats” operation impacts the performance of your database, as is possible when installations have a large number of databases and collections, you may disable DB Stats collection from the settings interface.
“Last Ping,” which displays the raw JSON document sent by the agent to MMS.
“Daily Pings,” which displays the raw JSON content of the last ping for every day. This page displays pings from the last 20 days.
“Profile Data,” which displays information on performance gathered by the database profiler. See the section on database profiling for more information.
“Notes,” which provides an interface for users to add descriptive notes regarding a host for future reference.
From the Hosts page, you can display groups of hosts in one view. By following a link from the “Cluster” or “Repl Set” columns, you can see a side-by-side comparison of charts from all hosts in a given cluster or replica set.
“Host Labels” provide a method to narrow the list of hosts in the MMS display. This is particularly crucial if you monitor a large number of hosts and want to access a more limited set of hosts.
A pencil icon on the “Hosts” tab itself opens a dialogue where you may create a new host label. After adding the first label, a drop down box appears where you can narrow the view by selecting a group.
To add hosts to a label or labels, click on the “Edit Host,” button (a pencil) in the left column in the host table. In dialogue box that returns, the third tab allows you to select or remove labels from this host.
Hosts may belong to none, one, or multiple labels.
MMS can collect data from MongoDB’s profiler to provide statistics about performance and database operations.
This data can include sensitive information, including the content of database queries. Ensure that exposing this to MMS is consistent with your information security practices. Additionally, be aware that the profiler can consume resources which may adversely affect DB performance. Consider the implications before enabling profiling.
To allow MMS to collect profile data for a specific host, click the “Enable profile data transmission,” button, with a clock icon, in the far right column of the host listing. It is the middle of the three icons. This raises a dialogue box that describes the implications of DB profiling and allows you to enable the transmission of the profiling data to MMS.
When you select “Enable Profile Info Transmission,” the agent will begin sending profile data to MMS. All configuration changes made in the MMS console can take up to 2 minutes to propagate to the agent and another minute before profiling data appears in the MMS interface.
However, to begin collecting profile data you need to modify the value of setProfilingLevel on the database itself. See the database profiler documentation for instructions for using the profiler. There is a link at the bottom of the Host Statistics page that displays the profile levels.
If you have profiling data, and wish to delete it from the system, there is a button on the bottom of the “Profile Data” tab, that says “Delete Profile Data.” When you click on this button, the MMS Console raises a confirmation dialogue. When you confirm, MMS will begin removing stored profile data from this server’s record.
Note
If MMS is storing a large amount of profile data for your instance, the removal process will not be instantaneous.
The “Events” section relays information about the MMS agent’s operations. Possible event types are:
The “Alerts” section provides access to MMS’s alert system. This section has three tabs: unresolved alerts, resolved alerts, and alert settings. Following the installation of your first MMS agent, the system configures an alert to send an email when the agent is down. You can delete or modify this alert as you like.
There are three possible alert types:
MMS will add additional alert types in the near future.
You can create notifications for any of the above alert types. Click on the plus sign (e.g. +) next to the word “Alerts” at the top of these pages. This will raise a dialogue where you can create email or SMS alerts for any of these event types. You can configure:
Address specifies an address to send alert emails. For SMS alerts specify the telephone number that will receive the alert.
Warning
Telephone numbers are not validated or checked, and users must ensure that they have entered the correct number into the Alerts interface.
Type to select between text email, HTML formatted email, and SMS alerts.
Frequency to select how often to send alerts, in minutes.
Minimum Time Before Notification to determine how long MMS will wait before sending a notification. Raising this value will increase the amount of time between the identification of an issue and the alert, but it may reduce potential false positives.
You may also create multiple alerts with different minimum times before notification to implement alert escalation.
The time between re-notifications increases by the frequency amount every alert cycle (e.g. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes.)
The “Unresolved” tab displays a list of all monitored instances that have current unresolved alerts. Check this tab to make sure that there are no outstanding alerts.
The “Resolved” tab displays a record of all historical alerts. Use this tab as a record of past activity.
The “Settings” tab provides an interface for configuring alerts. Using the function buttons in the right hand column you can delete and disable existing alerts.
The MMS web console contains a great deal of functionality beyond the scope of this overview. Continue to explore the functionality addressed above in your own system, with your own data. The “”MMS Console Overview” document provides a deeper exploration of key usage patterns for the MMS console.