|
|
An important component of efficient network management is the ability to receive performance information on a large network of many devices to provide an overall view of the your user domain. You can then pro-actively manage your network elements by analyzing the performance data.
The Cisco EMF Performance Manager provides the capability to monitor the performance statistics gathered from network elements managed by the Cisco EMF system. You can set up the Performance Manager to monitor particular attributes or parameters according to their network requirements.
The Performance Manager is a powerful, flexible tool able to view general and performance specific attributes in one application and in a variety of formats (for example, graphs and tables). You define the attributes or parameters, choose the objects you want to view, select the date and time of the view, and set the summary interval.
The Performance Manager is opened from the Network Maps, Event Browser, or Object Manager applications by selecting Performance Manager from the pop up menu available on a selected object. A window similar to Figure 8-1 is displayed.
A selected object or group of objects has a number of different attributes. You can choose to monitor an area of the network, for example, the performance statistics of a particular attribute. This information could then be used to evaluate the performance of the vendor's equipment and assess the requirements for upgrades or software downloads.
Performance statistics also provide a summary view of the performance of network elements. These statistics help you determine the degree to which the network is meeting assigned service levels. You are able to drive down to the chassis level from the network level in a simple manner if you want to view individual chassis statistics.
Cisco EMF Performance Manager can present data in two ways:
Performance data has the potential to overwhelm. For example, you may wish to view the Errored Packets for a device over a six month interval. If the data was displayed in a table or graph at the rate at which it was sampled, this could be tens of thousands of values. In these circumstances, it is preferable to view summaries of the data. For example, if data was originally received at intervals of 5 minutes, the ability to view it summarized in hourly, daily, or weekly intervals would be an excellent way of managing the network. History storage criteria can be used to specify these summary intervals and the rules which are used to generate the summaries for the history storage criteria's objects and attributes.
Hourly summaries are generated on the hour, daily summaries are generated at midnight, and weekly summaries are generated at midnight on Sundays (that is, the end of Sundays). For example, if polling starts at 9:30 and hourly summaries are to be generated, the first full hour's worth of data will be between 10:00 and 11:00. So at 11:00, the first hourly summary is generated, and given a timestamp of 10:00. The same pattern is followed for all summaries (daily, weekly, or user-defined). This pattern standardizes summary intervals so all attributes' summaries have the same timestamps.
In some cases, an object may fail to be polled; for example, if communication to the object is lost. This is referred to as a missed poll, and all missed polls are indicated on Performance Manager graphs and charts.
A Performance Manager can be opened for each network element you wish to monitor. To view up-to-date information on the Performance Manager, select Refresh and the selected data is displayed.
The Performance Manager also allows you to specify how the data is saved or printed, either to file or printer.
The Performance Manager can be accessed from pop up menus on selected objects in the following applications:
Step 1 Open the appropriate window to display a relevant object.
Step 2 Place the cursor over the object.
Step 3 Press and hold the right mouse button.
A pop up menu is displayed.
Step 4 Move the cursor until the Performance Manager option is highlighted.
Step 5 Release the right mouse button.
The Performance Manager window is displayed.
From the Performance Manager window you can:
To view performance statistics, you need to select:
Step 1 Open the Performance Manager. The window shows the name of the selected object.
Step 2 From the Monitored Attributes list, select the attribute to be monitored.
Step 3 In the Start Date data entry boxes, enter the date the view of the performance statistics has to start from. The format is <mm>/<dd>/<yyyy>.
Step 4 You set a start time and an end time using 24 hour notation. The times are inclusive. In the Start Time data entry boxes, enter the time the view of the performance statistics has to start on the Start Date.
Step 5 To set the End Date you have two options:
In the End Date data entry boxes, enter the date the view of the performance statistics has to stop at. The format must be <mm>/<dd>/<yyyy> or select the Now check box to view the data from the selected start date to the current time. By selecting this option, you do not have to update the End Date and End Time fields.
Step 6 To set the End Time you have two options:
In the End Time data entry boxes, enter the time the view of the performance statistics has to stop on the End Date or select the Now check box to view the data from the selected start date to the current time. By selecting this option, you do not have to update the End Date and End Time fields.
Step 7 From the drop down list, select the Summary Interval rule to be used. This varies according to the attribute selected. The summary interval is the period of time over which the rule is applied. This drop down menu always contains the option to select raw. This displays the data in raw format, which is performance data in its most detailed format (not summarized).
Step 8 From the drop down list, select the Summary Rule to be used. This gives you the option to summarize data to a lower granularity as follows:
Step 9 Click the Refresh button.
By default, a line chart of the performance information, to date, is displayed. You can view performance information in the following formats:
The performance information displayed corresponds to the attributes' raw values. If a summary period is selected, the information is displayed according to the summary rule. No summary period is associated with raw data.
Cisco EMF provides the option to view raw data as it is received without any summarization. History storage criteria define which attributes are to be monitored on specified objects. When these objects are polled, the retrieved data is stored by Cisco EMF and can be viewed using the Performance Manager. This data is raw data. History storage criteria may also optionally specify summary intervals and rules to be applied to the raw data. The resultant data is summarized data.
Step 1 Launch the Performance Manager.
Step 2 Choose the desired attributes and set the dates and times as described in the "Viewing Performance Statistics" section.
Step 3 From the Summary Interval drop down list, select raw.
Step 4 Click the Refresh button. The new performance information displayed corresponds to the attributes value returned during the raw period.
You can zoom in, zoom out, and move around the displayed charts by using the following keys and mouse buttons. Note, you must select a chart before invoking the following actions.
| Press | Action |
|---|---|
Shift and left mouse button | To select multiple attributes in a list. |
Up arrow key | Scrolls up the Table display. |
Down arrow key | Scrolls down the Table display. |
Left mouse button | Clicking and dragging with the left mouse button over an area zooms in on that section of the chart. You cannot zoom in on a chart that has a scroll bar. |
Middle mouse button | Takes the view back one "zoom" after zooming in using the left mouse button. |
You can choose to annotate a line chart with color coded points which represent the polling status. You can also show the values associated with each point.
Step 1 From the View menu, select Points. This annotates the line chart with points, which visually indicate the points which are presented in tabular form in the Table Display. A point is colored coded to show polling status as follows:
Step 2 From the View menu, select Values. This option shows the values associated with each point, which are presented in tabular form in the Table Display.
The values are shown on each chart until the item is deselected in the View menu.
You can print performance statistics from the Performance Manager, either as a chart or as a table. A chart prints out the information which can be seen in the window. A Table prints out all of the performance statistics in a plain text format.
The output is printed by the default printer set up on your network.
Step 1 Open the Performance Manager and select the desired performance statistics.
Step 2 From the File menu, select Print. Choose either As Chart or As Table.
No performance data is saved automatically. If you want to save data, you must select Export to File to save the current data to a file.
Step 1 Open the Performance Manager and view the performance statistics you want to save.
Step 2 From the File menu, select Export to File or
click the Save As icon 
from the Toolbar.
Step 3 The File Chooser window is displayed. The left hand panel displays the directories and the right hand panel displays the files. Use the scroll bars to locate the desired file. Click Filter to expand the list of options.
Step 4 Select the file. The full path name of the selected file is displayed in the File Filter box, as well as the Choice box.
Step 5 Click Apply to save the file or Cancel to return to the Performance Manager window.
Posted: Fri Jan 7 15:26:37 PST 2000
Copyright 2000©Cisco Systems Inc.
