Agents Administration - Tests
 

Configuration of TopSitesTest

For each web site that is configured for monitoring, this test reports the amount of data transmitted and received and the bandwidth utilized by that site. Web sites that consistently invite heavy traffic and consume excessive bandwidth can be identified in the process. If such sites are mission-critical business sites/applications, then this information will help you to determine the bandwidth required to ensure the peak performance of the sites and thus enable you to right-size your network. If such sites are inconsequential to your business, then this information will point you to where bandwidth is spent unnecessarily; this in turn will prompt you to initiate measures to control/regulate accesses to such sites.

The default parameters associated with this test are as follows:

  • 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 for which the test is to be configured has to be specified.

  • Network latencies and processing bottlenecks can sometimes cause netflow records to be transmitted slowly to the NetFlow collector. In such a situation, you can instruct the collector to either process or ignore the delayed NetFlow records. If you want the metrics reported to pertain to current NetFlow records only, then you may choose to ignore the delayed records. In this case, set the PROCESS TAINTED PACKETS flag to No. If you want old NetFlow records to also be considered when identifying top sources and reporting their traffic statistics, then set this flag to Yes. Typically, any NetFlow record that takes 10 minutes or over to reach the NetFlow collector is deemed a tainted/delayed record.

  • By default, NetFlow is designed to process all IP packets on an interface. This is why, the SAMPLING flag is set to No by default. In some environments however, e.g. on Internet backbones, processing all IP packets can be too costly, due to the extra processing required for each packet and large number of simultaneous flows. This is where sampling is useful. In such environments, set the Sampling flag to Yes.

    Once this is done, then each interface will process only 1 packet out of a configured number of packets. Specify the number of packets from which this 1 packet should be picked in the SAMPLING RATE text box. For instance, to pick 1 out of 1000 packets for sampling, set the Sampling Rate to 1000. Where Sampling is enabled, all NetFlow metrics - particularly, metrics on traffic volume - will be adjusted based on the SAMPLING RATE you specify.

  • The DD FREQUENCY refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD FREQUENCY.

  • To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, eG embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test, by default, for a particular server, choose the Onoption against DETAILED DIAGNOSIS. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

    The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

    • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability.

    • Both the bad and normal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.

  • 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.

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.