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Today's enterprise users and Internet service customers rely on the network as an integral component of their corporate infrastructure. As a result, they need to monitor service contract agreements with their service providers and verify that defined network performance levels are being fulfilled. The Cisco Service Level Manager (SLM) provides the ability to monitor such service provider performance.
The SLM application concentrates its monitoring on the edge, the boundary where the enterprise network meets service provider WAN services, as shown in Figure 1-1.
For example, you might want to monitor availability between the head office gateway router and the branch office gateway router.
Using SLM, you can define Service Level Contracts (SLCs) with service providers in a common language and style that both the service provider and the service customer can recognize.
SLCs are used to describe the connectivity and performance agreements for a WAN service from a service provider to a service customer. SLCs comprise Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that measure performance between a pair of devices defined by the end user to represent any two hardware components connected by a network. Device pairs can include routers, servers, workstations, and so forth. Using SLM, you can monitor the percentage of SLA conformance for that SLC.
The SLC can include a single SLA or multiple SLAs. After the SLC and its SLAs are defined, SLM initiates the appropriate network-based collection of data and testing to verify that the SLAs are being met. The data is stored and reports are generated from Java applets. There is almost no limit to the number of SLCs that can be created or the number of SLAs contained within an SLC; however, the SLM application is capable of monitoring 500 operations.
When an SLC is created, the SLM server contacts the Management Engine 1100 (ME 1100) Series to gather data. Data polling is performed periodically, and the results are stored in the SLM database.
In addition to monitoring current service-level performance, service customers have the ability to realize long-term service-level performance, and thus determine patterns and trends associated with network use.
This chapter contains:
For your convenience, Table 1-1 lists key terms and acronyms used in this manual.
| Acronym | Term | Definition |
|---|---|---|
- | Source device and target device used for monitoring operation type. Defined by user during SLA setup. | |
- | Interpacket delay variance (difference between interpacket arrival and departure). An important Quality of Service (QoS) metric for voice and video applications.
| |
- | Internal identification number assigned by SLM to identify an SLA. | |
- | Testing parameters used to monitor device pairs supporting ICMP echo, UDP echo, HTTP, DNS, and jitter operations. | |
Object Identifier | Object code that contains both a routine and data that is treated as a discrete entity. | |
Service Assurance Agent | Method for measuring involvement between source device and target device. SA Agent operations are sampled to determine whether packet drops occur. Formerly referred to as response time reporter (rtr). | |
Service Level Agreement | Specific set of metrics on which thresholds are set and to which the service provider has agreed. | |
Service Level Manager | Application that monitors, defines, and documents service between a service customer and service provider. | |
Service Level Contract | Contract between a service customer and service provider. Contains performance information and includes at least one SLA. | |
Virtual Private Network | Secure network connection over a public network. | |
eXtensible Markup Language | Interface for communicating. |
An SLC, when used in the SLM application, is an agreement between a service customer and a service provider that contains information about monitored services. Each SLC contains one or more SLAs. Each SLC must have a unique name on the SLM server.
An SLA consists of a pair of devices (referred to as a source device and a target device) whose network performance is monitored and verified. An SLA can include multiple device pairs; however, each SLA covers only one operation type. For example, an SLA can monitor HTTP performance for a device pair. The same device pair can be listed in multiple SLAs.
The SLA defines a specific set of metrics on which thresholds are set and to which the service provider has agreed. SLAs also define the frequency with which data is polled. The information is aggregated and forwarded to the SLM server for viewing.
Three types of services are monitored; each has its own set of metrics and thresholds.
SLM relies on the Service Assurance Agent (SA Agent), which is supported in Cisco IOS versions 12.0(5)T or later, and 12.0(8)S or later. SA Agent operations monitored are ICMP echo and UDP echo. See the chapter "Setting Up Service Level Contracts and Service Level Agreements" for more information.
SLM relies on the Service Assurance Agent (SA Agent), which is supported in Cisco IOS versions 12.0(5)T or later, and 12.0(8)S or later. SA Agent operations monitored are HTTP and DNS. See the chapter "Setting Up Service Level Contracts and Service Level Agreements" for more information.
SLM relies on the Service Assurance Agent (SA Agent), which is supported in Cisco IOS versions 12.0(5)T or later, and 12.0(8)S or later. SA Agent operation monitored is jitter. See the chapter "Setting Up Service Level Contracts and Service Level Agreements" for more information.
The Management Engine (ME) 1100 Series (Figure 1-2) is a network appliance designed with an easy-to-use data collection framework that helps reduce network traffic, allows flexible data analysis and aggregation performance, and reduces CPU use associated with SNMP polling on the application server. It tracks monitored resources and maintains a data repository, which is stored on a local disk for later retrieval by the SLM server.
For more information, see the chapter "Setting Up the Management Engine 1100 Series".
SLM is a web-based application from which all administrative tools and report viewing are accessible. The SLM application is launched from the Service Level Management drawer found on the CiscoWorks2000 Server desktop, which is shown in Figure 1-3.
The SLM administrative framework uses folders to help you organize your SLCs and SLAs. During initial startup, there is one folder listed in the SLM navigation tree named Default. If you do not define your own folders, all defined SLCs and respective SLAs are saved in this folder. The Default folder cannot be deleted.
Figure 1-4 displays the Cisco Service Level Manager window, from which all SLC administrative functions are initialized.
You access the Cisco Service Level Manager window by selecting Service Level Management>Administration>Service Level Manager>Define Service Contracts from the CiscoWorks2000 Server desktop.
For more information, see the chapter "Setting Up Service Level Contracts and Service Level Agreements".
The SLM Administration GUI uses a wizard that acts as a roadmap to help you during SLA setup. The wizard guides you through the three basic steps for setting up an SLA.
Figure 1-5 displays an example of the GUI wizard.
For more information, see the chapter "Setting Up Service Level Contracts and Service Level Agreements".
The SLM report navigator uses a navigation tree for selecting the desired report type. Report types provide SLC and SLA summary and detailed information generated in daily, monthly, and yearly formats. These reports are displayed using printable java applets. There is also an XML-based data export interface to facilitate third-party integration.
Figure 1-6 displays an example of the report navigator JSP display.
For more information, see the chapter "Generating Reports".
Before you can set up SLM to manage SLC information, you must assign source devices to an ME 1100 Series for data collection. This requires you to install the ME 1100 Series, then complete the login script at system boot up.
Table 1-2 is a quick reference to help you set up SLM.
| Step | Task | Description |
|---|---|---|
Step 1 | Install SLM application (if you have not already done so). | See Installing Service Level Manager on Windows NT and Solaris. |
Step 2 | Set up Management Engine 1100 Series (ME 1100 Series) |
For more information, see Installing and Configuring the Management Engine 1100 Series. |
Step 3 | Register ME 1100 Series with DNS | It is recommended that you register the ME 1100 Series with the DNS server. |
Step 4 | Verify DNS is working | From the ME 1100 Series command prompt, enter nslookup <ip address> <dns server>. |
Step 5 | Set/verify clock settings | It is recommended that you use NTP. If you have no NTP server, verify clock setting is correct using show clock command from the ME 1100 Series command prompt. For more information, see Installing and Configuring the Management Engine 1100 Series. |
Step 6 | Add devices to inventory | All devices must be SNMP enabled with a read-write community string. For more information, see Installing and Setting Up CD Two (on Windows NT or Solaris). |
Step 7 | Set up ME 1100 Series using SLM administrative GUI framework | Enter password for username slmuser when prompted. From the CiscoWorks2000 Server desktop, select Service Level Management>Administration>
See the chapter "Setting Up the Management Engine 1100 Series". |
Step 8 | Verify ME 1100 Series is running | Check status of ME 1100 Series configured on your network. From the CiscoWorks2000 Server desktop, select Service Level Management >Administration> See section "Viewing Management Engine Status". |
Step 9 | Update ME 1100 Series software | Download software from SLM server to ME 1100 Series. Click Check All, then click Update Software. For future software update needs, you can select Service Level Management>Administration>Management Engine>Software>Update Software from the CiscoWorks2000 Server desktop. See section "Updating Software on the ME 1100 Series". |
Step 10 | Check ME 1100 Series software status | This is an automated process. To verify software update status for future needs, you can select Service Level Management > Administration>Management Engine> Software> View Software Update Status from the CiscoWorks2000 Server desktop. See chapter "Setting Up the Management Engine 1100 Series" (Viewing Management Engine Status) in Using Service Level Manager. |
Step 11 | Define service contracts (SLCs) | Define SLCs and identify SLA device pairs for monitoring. From the CiscoWorks2000 Server desktop, select Service Level Management > Administration>Service Level Manager>Define Service Contracts. See chapter "Setting Up Service Level Contracts and Service Level Agreements" in Using Service Level Manager. |
Step 12 | Verify request is processed and assigned to ME 1100 Series. From the CiscoWorks2000 Server desktop, select Service Level Management > Administration > Service Level Manager>View Collection Status. See chapter "Setting Up Service Level Contracts and Service Level Agreements" (Viewing Collection Status) in Using Service Level Manager. |
You are not required to add the ME 1100 Series to the inventory database; however, if you add the device to inventory, you must enable SNMP with a read-write community string.
Posted: Mon Jun 5 14:34:28 PDT 2000
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