eG Monitoring
 

Measures reported by CiscoBufferTest

This test monitors the memory allocations within a Cisco router. Various forms of buffer memory allocation failures are tracked and reported. The measures made by this test are as follows:

Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation
No_mem_errors Counts the number of buffer creation
failures due to lack of free memory in the router
Number

Lack of free memory can result in poor performance by a router - packet drops, packet processing slowdown, etc. can happen. By monitoring when memory errors happen, an administrator can proactively detect performance bottlenecks caused by a router. If memory errors occur often, consider upgrading the memory on the router.

Small_buffer_misses Counts the number of allocations that failed because there were no small buffers available Number

Ideally, the small buffer miss count should be 0. Repeated buffer misses indicates a memory bottleneck in the router. Alternatively, the maximum number of small buffers set when configuring the router may be too low for the traffic being handled.

Medium_buffer_misses Counts the number of allocations that failed because there were no medium buffers available Number

Ideally, the medium buffer miss count should be 0. Repeated buffer misses indicates a memory bottleneck in the router. Alternatively, the maximum number of medium buffers set when configuring the router may be too low for the traffic being handled.

Big_buffer_misses Counts the number of allocations that failed because there were no big buffers available Number

Ideally, the big buffer miss count should be 0. Repeated buffer misses indicates a memory bottleneck in the router. Alternatively, the maximum number of big buffers set when configuring the router may be too low for the traffic being handled.

Large_buffer_misses Counts the number of allocations that failed because there were no large buffers available Number

Ideally, the large buffer miss count should be 0. Repeated buffer misses indicates a memory bottleneck in the router. Alternatively, the maximum number of large buffers set when configuring the router may be too low for the traffic being handled.

Huge_buffer_misses Counts the number of allocations that failed because there were no huge buffers available Number

Ideally, the large buffer miss count should be 0. Repeated buffer misses indicates a memory bottleneck in the router. Alternatively, the maximum number of huge buffers set when configuring the router may be too low for the traffic being handled.

Buffer_hits The total number of buffer hits Number

Ideally, the value of this measure should be high. A very low value could indicate that many allocations have failed owing to the lack of adequate buffers. If the measure repeatedly reports low values, it could be indicative of a memory bottleneck on the router.