Monitoring the UKCloud platform
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Monitoring the UKCloud platform
Overview
This article helps you understand what UKCloud monitors, and how we manage alerts created by the monitoring system.
Areas of monitoring responsibility
The diagram below shows a typical application stack and identifies the areas that can be monitored. The services below the red line on the diagram are monitored by us for both availability and performance (at a platform level).
Incoming data is scanned and assessed, and any results outside of a defined threshold generates an alert inside our monitoring platform.
Additional monitoring above the red line is the responsibility of the customer organisation.
How does UKCloud monitor platform availability?
We use a mixture of availability checks and synthetic transactions to monitor the availability of our platform. The platform level monitoring is provided at an aggregate level and does not check the availability of individual customer solutions.
Technologies used
We use single pane views of multiple technologies to monitor our platform. These include best of breed monitoring applications to:
Monitor our cloud estate, including all core services and underlying hosts (in summary, all non-network devices).
Monitor the underlying internal UKCloud infrastructure and core network devices.
Monitor for potential Security Incidents 24 hours a day (Protective Monitoring, or ProMon), enabling us to benefit from industry leading detection and protection against security related incidents. This service is fully GPG13 (Good Practice Guide 13) compliant and is UK Government recommended.
Details of systems and services monitored
We monitor each individual component of the platform and then roll this data up into a single concise dashboard. This provides us with both RED and GREEN alerting systems at the component level and enables us to understand the overall health of a system.
The list below provides a quick overview of how some of the key components of the UKCloud platform are monitored, which takes place across all services and both security domains (Assured and Elevated).
UKCloud Portal
UKCloud Portal (including transaction and performance tests)
Synthetic login tests through the GUI and the Portal API.
In depth monitoring of the web application layer, including page render and database access times.
Multi-cloud services
Cloud estate (including all core services and underlying hosts)
Host CPU/memory stats
Host connectivity status
Host bandwidth throughput
Host storage connectivity and throughput
Core service status
Underlying storage (including storage pools and storage performance)
LUN capacity
LUN status
Data store connectivity
Data store throughput
Cloud management platform (including transaction and performance tests)
Creation/deletion/modification of instances or groups of instances
Multi-cloud enabling services
Cloud Storage
Infrastructure (including transaction and performance tests)
What UKCloud monitors in your environment
We do not monitor any individual component inside your environment.
The table below outlines what we monitor inside and outside your environment, and what you can and should monitor:
External connectivity (internet, PSN, HSCN, etc.)
Network gateway
Instance
Storage
Customer monitors
Application performance
Gateway stateGateway rules and activityVPN
Instance managementInstance performanceInstance state
Storage profiles
UKCloud monitors
Connection availabilityBandwidth throughput
Customer gateway availability and responsivenessNetwork availabilityPlatform bandwidth
Host availabilityPlatform availabilityPlatform performanceManagement plane availabilitySome management plane performance
Platform availabilityPlatform responsiveness and performance
What can UKCloud provide, and what can you gain yourself?
Our platform can also provide you with several real-time and retrospective reporting tools so that you can manage and monitor your estate. These are listed below:
Multi-cloud services
Feature
Instance attributes
Self-service tools
On request via My Calls
What you can monitor
UKCloud Portal
Cloud management UI
API
Billing metrics
Y
Y
Y
Licence usage
Y
Instance details
CPU
Y
Y
Y
Memory
Y
Y
Y
Storage usage
Y
Y
y
OS
Y
Y
Y
Instance utilisation stats
Real time
Y
Y
Historical