What are Cisco IOS IP SLA measures?
Entuity Cisco IOS IP SLA module
Command line and automated IP SLA management
To set the SNMP write community string
To view and monitor IP SLA information
Monitoring IP SLA through incidents and events
Introduction:
Cisco IOS IP SLAs is part of of the Cisco IOS software. It allows users to analyze IP service levels for IP applications and services using active traffic monitoring:
- measure end-to-end metrics, e.g. client-server latency and availability.
- measure jitter, for streaming audio/video/VoIP.
- identification of slow or unreliable hops along a path.
What are Cisco IOS IP SLA measures?
Cisco IOS IP SLAs is an intelligent active agent available on Cisco devices with routing capabilities. Cisco IOS IP SLAs takes advantage of facilities already deployed (the Cisco IOS) and does not require any further hardware deployment (these are software operations). With Entuity Cisco IOS IP SLAs you are leveraging your current investment in Cisco devices and IOS.
Cisco IOS IP SLAs provides monitoring for layer three and above. Its applications include web site monitoring and infrastructure troubleshooting. Metrics include response time, availability, jitter, connect time, packet loss and application performance.
Cisco IOS IP SLAs per-class traffic monitoring, enabled through TOS/DSCP, allows easy application of metrics to key Service Level Agreements (SLA). For example, UDP jitter operation measures one-way latency, round-trip latency, jitter and packet loss all useful when monitoring infrastructure circuit quality and behavior.
Entuity Cisco IOS IP SLA module:
This is a licensable module available with Entuity. Activation does not require additional software installation, but you must acquire an appropriate license and then run Entuity configure to include the module.
Entuity delivers full support for 10 IP SLA operation types:
Please see this section for information on the IP SLA operation configuration attributes and how they match with Entuity's attribute names.
The system IP SLAs dashboard displays a list of the Cisco IOS IP SLAs that are configured on the selected device, via the IP SLAs dashlet.
Entuity can discover and monitor operation types that it does not fully support. It does this by utilizing its root IP SLA definition. This root definition holds all attributes for the operations it formally supports. When Entuity discovers an operation outside of this set, Entuity still applies this root definition. Entuity can only display those attributes for the unsupported operation that correspond to an attribute for a supported operation. Data from unsupported operations is monitored using the same processes as supported operations.
IP SLA data management:
IP SLA operations are defined through the UI and are instantiated as part of the Entuity discovery cycle. The length of this cycle is usually within 24 hours, but is dependent upon the characteristics fo the network under management.
By default, all IP SLA metrics are polled once every 300 seconds. A historical record of the information is kept, and you can report on the polled values for 28 days.
Command line and automated IP SLA management:
You can manage IP SLA operations from:
- UI.
- this requires the appropriate permissions within Entuity.
- RESTful API.
- this requires access to and appropriate permissions on the Entuity server.
- GET function - view details of existing IP SLA operations on a device.
- PUT function - create IP SLA operations and amend the parameters of existing IP SLA operations.
- DELETE function - delete IP SLA operations on a device for the given IP SLA creator name and type.
- a combination of the UI and RESTful API.
To set the SNMP write community string:
Control over writing to network devices has serious security implications. To allow successful configuration of IP SLA operations, you must enable Entuity to write to those devices. SNMP write is enabled through an attribute on the device.
If Entuity attempts to create an operation on a device without the correct SNMP write authentication, then (upon the first time the create operation fails) an IP SLA Creation Failure event will be raised.
To set the SNMP write community string, ensure you are logged in as a user with Administrator's permissions:
- Click Main Menu and then Administration. This will open the Administration page.
- Click Device Inventory. This will open the Device Inventory page.
- Find and select the device you wish to modify. Click Modify to open the Modify Devices window.
- In the Write Community field, enter the write community string.
- Click OK to save, otherwise click Cancel.
To view and monitor IP SLA information:
Navigate to the IP SLAs dashboard to see a list of the Cisco IOS IP SLAs that are configured on the selected device, as well as information about them. You can monitor IP SLAs via the IP SLAs dashlet, and from there drill down into each IP SLA operation via their Summary, Incidents, Events, Thresholds, Attributes and Associations dashboards.
You can also report on IP SLA data via the following reports:
- IP SLA Echo report.
- IP SLA Details report.
- Branch Office Perspective report.
- Network Delivery Summary report.
Monitoring IP SLA through incidents and events:
IP SLA events and incidents are managed by the Entuity event management system (EMS). All events are generated by polling.
Entuity IP SLA incidents are configured through the event project and managed through the event system. You can add annotations, assign incidents to users, close incidents, and investigate incident details.
Incidents and events:
- IP SLA Creation Failure Incident
- IP SLA Low MOS Incident
- IP SLA Problem Incident
- IP SLA Test Failed Incident
- IP SLA Test High Latency Incident
RESTful API:
Please see the following for help and information on managing IP SLA via Entuity RESTful API:
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