The Equalizer typically manages traffic to a group of servers in a server farm. While the servers in a farm can still be individually accessed, all traffic to the servers will be directed to a separate IP address, called a Virtual Cluster. The Virtual Cluster will accept traffic and distribute it to the available servers. An Equalizer can be configured to manage multiple server farms/clusters. To be able to accurately assess the workload of the equalizer, you need to have a fair idea of the connection and data load on each of the clusters it manages. The CpsClstrStatusTest enables you to ascertain the same.

For each cluster, this test reports the current load on the cluster and indicates how busy the servers in the cluster are.

This page appears by clicking the Configure / Component button corresponding to the CpsClstrStatusTest in the AGENTS - TESTS CONFIGURATION page. Here, the discovered switches that need to be configured for this test are available in the COMPONENTS WITH DEFAULT CONFIGURATION section. Select the required switch from this box and click the Configure button at the bottom to configure the parameters pertaining to this test. The default parameters associated with this will be displayed at the bottom of this page.

• The TEST PERIOD list box helps the user to decide how often this test needs to be executed.

• In the HOST text box, the host name of the server for which the test is to be configured has to be specified.

• By default NULL will be displayed in the PORT text box.

• The port number through which the router exposes its SNMP MIB has to be specified in the SNMPPORT text box.

• By default, the eG agent supports SNMP version 1. Accordingly, the default selection in the SNMPVERSION list is v1. However, if a different SNMP framework is in use in your environment, say SNMP v2 or v3, then select the corresponding option from this list.

• The community string of the Cisco router has to be provided in the SNMPCOMMUNITY text box. This parameter is specific to SNMP v1 and v2 only. Therefore, if the SNMPVERSION chosen is v3, then this parameter will not appear.

• The USERNAME parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVERSION. SNMP version 3 (SNMPv3) is an extensible SNMP Framework which supplements the SNMPv2 Framework, by additionally supporting message security, access control, and remote SNMP configuration capabilities. To extract performance statistics from the MIB using the highly secure SNMP v3 protocol, the eG agent has to be configured with the required access privileges - in other words, the eG agent should connect to the MIB using the credentials of a user with access permissions to the MIB. Therefore, specify the name of such a user against the USERNAME parameter.

• The CONTEXT parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVERSION. An SNMP context is a collection of management information accessible by an SNMP entity. An item of management information may exist in more than one context and an SNMP entity potentially has access to many contexts. A context is identified by the SNMPEngineID value of the entity hosting the management information (also called a contextEngineID) and a context name that identifies the specific context (also called a contextName). If the USERNAME provided is associated with a context name, then the eG agent will be able to poll the MIB and collect metrics only if it is configured with the context name as well. In such cases therefore, specify the context name of the USERNAME in the CONTEXT text box. By default, this parameter is set to none.

• Specify the password that corresponds to the above-mentioned USERNAME in the AUTHPASS text box. This parameter once again appears only if the SNMPVERSION selected is v3.

• Confirm the AUTHPASS by retyping it in the CONFIRM PASSWORD text box.

• The AUTHTYPE parameter too appears only if v3 is selected as the SNMPVERSION. From the AUTHTYPE list box, choose the authentication algorithm using which SNMP v3 converts the specified USERNAME and PASSWORD into a 32-bit format to ensure security of SNMP transactions. You can choose between the following options:

• MD5 - Message Digest Algorithm
• SHA - Secure Hash Algorithm

• The ENCRYPTFLAG appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVERSION. By default, the eG agent does not encrypt SNMP requests. Accordingly, the ENCRYPTFLAG is set to NO by default. To ensure that SNMP requests sent by the eG agent are encrypted, select the YES option.

• If the ENCRYPTFLAG is set to YES, then you will have to mention the encryption type by selecting an option from the ENCRYPTTYPE list. SNMP v3 supports the following encryption types:

• DES - Data Encryption Standard
• AES - Advanced Encryption Standard

• Specify the encryption password in the ENCRYPTPASSWORD text box.

• Confirm the encryption password by retyping it in the CONFIRM PASSWORD text box.

• Specify the duration (in seconds) within which the SNMP query executed by this test should time out in the TIMEOUT text box. The default is 10 seconds.

• By default, in an IT environment, all data transmission occurs over UDP. Some environments however, may be specifically configured to offload a fraction of the data traffic - for instance, certain types of data traffic or traffic pertaining to specific components - to other protocols like TCP, so as to prevent UDP overloads. In such environments, you can instruct the eG agent to conduct the SNMP data traffic related to the monitored target over TCP (and not UDP). For this, set the DATA OVER TCP flag to Yes. By default, this flag is set to No.

• If multiple components of the same component type are awaiting configuration, then an APPLY TO OTHER COMPONENTS check box will appear in this page. Clicking on this check box will allow you to apply the configuration to all/selected components of that type.

• Once the necessary values have been provided, clicking on the Update button will register the changes made and the selected server will move over to the CONFIGURED COMPONENTS panel.

• The test parameters for an already configured server can be reconfigured using the Reconfigure button. The parameter configuration page reappears and the required changes can be made to the existing values of the parameters.

• If the test under consideration is not to be executed for any of the configured servers, they can be removed from the list using the Exclude button doing which will move the server to the EXCLUDED COMPONENTS panel.

• Clicking on the Include button in this panel will add the excluded server to the list of servers to be configured.

When changing the configuration for specific servers, a ?*? beside the text box corresponding to the parameter signifies that these values have to be manually configured by the user. The parameter values that require to be configured will typically be prefixed with a ?$? or contain a series of ?*?. A value of "none" in the parameter value indicates that the corresponding parameter value can be changed if required.

The Back button enables the user to go back to the previous screen.