1.8.6 Monitoring the network resources

This subsection explains how to monitor the network resources of a Podman environment.

Organization of this subsection

(1) Overview
(2) Monitoring examples

(1) Overview

In a Podman environment, multiple containers share the NIC of the physical server. The NIC allocated to each container is called a virtual NIC. The container recognizes a virtual NIC as a normal NIC.

In a Podman environment, the containers use the physical NIC at the same time, and as a result, the network bandwidth that can be used by each container becomes narrow. Consequently, each container's network data send/receive speed may decrease.

By monitoring the network's performance data, you can detect containers with high traffic volume, and thus you can take appropriate corrective action.

The following two records are used to monitor the network resource. For details about the records, see 5. Records.

PI_HNI record

This record is used to monitor the performance data of physical NICs.
PI_VNI record

This record is used to monitor the performance data of virtual NICs.

The following figure shows the range of performance data collected in each record.

Figure 1‒88: Correspondence between records and data collection ranges

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(2) Monitoring examples

Using resource monitoring of virtual NICs 1 and 2 and physical NICs 1 and 2 as an example, this subsection explains problems that may occur with network resources, and how to solve them. The following figure shows the items monitored here and the flow of actions to take.

Figure 1‒89: Monitored items and flow of actions

(a) Example of monitoring the data send/receive speed of a physical NIC

The load placed on a physical NIC can be evaluated from the data send/receive speed of the physical NIC. You can check the data send/receive speed of the physical NIC in the Rate field of the PI_HNI record.

The figure below shows an example of monitoring the data send/receive speed of a physical NIC.

Figure 1‒90: Example of monitoring the data send/receive speed of a physical NIC

Monitoring template report to be checked: Host Network Data

In this example, the data send/receive speed of physical NIC2 is high, indicating a high load level. If there is a physical NIC with a high load, consider adding another physical NIC.

(b) Example of monitoring the data send/receive speed of a virtual NIC

The load placed on a virtual NIC can be evaluated from the data send/receive speed of the virtual NIC. You can check the data send/receive speed of the virtual NIC in the Rate field of the PI_VNI record.

The figure below shows an example of monitoring the data send/receive speed of a virtual NIC.

Figure 1‒91: Example of monitoring the data send/receive speed of a virtual NIC

Monitoring template report to be checked: VM Network Data

In this example, the data send/receive speed of virtual NIC2 is high, indicating a high load level. If there is a problem with a container, stop the container. If there is no problem with the container and there is a virtual NIC with a high load, take any of the following actions depending on the communication status of the container:

If the container communicates with an external network

Add physical NICs to distribute the load on virtual NICs. Alternatively, move the container to a different physical server.
If the container communicates with only other containers in the same virtual environment

Configure the container that communicates to work only in the same pod and change the configuration so that it uses the local network in the pod.

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