Default Parameters for CUCMGKStatTest

A gatekeeper device, the Cisco Multimedia Conference Manager (MCM), provides call admission control for distributed call processing systems. Call admission control enables to control the audio quality of calls over a wide-area (IP WAN) link by limiting the number of calls allowed on that link at the same time. In a distributed system, each site contains its own call processing capability. In addition to call admission control, the gatekeeper can also perform E.164 address resolution to route calls between the sites. Multiple gatekeepers can be registered per Cisco Unified Communications Manager cluster, but only one primary gatekeeper device can be configured per Cisco Call Manager. Each Cisco Call Manager must register with the gatekeeper as a single VoIP gateway. Any gatekeeper registration failures or rejections can degrade the audio quality of calls and also cause call routing issues. Using this test administrator can identify the number of gatekeepers with which the Cisco Call manager is registered and unregistered. This test also reports the number of gatekeepers that rejected the registration requests from the Call manager and whose status are unknown. This way, administrators are able to detect and resolve the issues before it affects the user experience.

This page depicts the default parameters that need to be configured for the CUCMGKStatTest.

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

• Specify the port at which the monitored target exposes its SNMP MIB in SNMPPORT textbox; the default is 161.

• 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 SNMPVERSION list.

• Specify the SNMP COMMUNITY name that the test uses to communicate with the firewall. 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 be MIB. Therefore, specify the name of such a user against 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 AUTHPASS textbox. This parameter once again appears only if the SNMPversion selected is v3.

• Confirm the Authpass by retyping it in CONFIRM PASSWORD textbox.

• 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 ENCRYPTPASSWORD textbox.

• Confirm the ENCRYPTPASSWORD by retyping it in CONFIRM PASSWORD textbox.

• Specify the time (in seconds) within which the SNMP query executed by this test should time out in 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 DATA OVER TCP flag to Yes. By default, this flag is set to No.

• Once the necessary values have been provided, clicking on the UPDATE button will register the changes made.

When changing default configurations of tests, the values with “$” indicate variables that will be replaced by the eG system according to the specific server being managed - for instance, $hostName is the host/nickname of the target host, $port is the port number of the server being monitored. E.g., for a server xyz:80, $hostName will be changed automatically by the eG manager to “xyz*” and $port will be changed to “80” when configuring a test.