Overview of IPM

This chapter provides an overview of Cisco Internetwork Performance Monitor (IPM) application. It contains the following sections:

IPM is a network management application that allows you to monitor the performance of multi-protocol networks. IPM measures the latency and availability of IP networks on a hop-by-hop (router-to-router) basis. It also measures latency between routers and the mainframe in Systems Network Architecture (SNA) networks.

Use IPM to perform the following tasks:

Troubleshoot problems by checking the network performance between devices
Send Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) traps and SNA alerts when a user-configured threshold is exceeded, a connection is lost and reestablished, or a timeout occurs
Analyze potential problems before they occur by accumulating statistics, which are used to model and predict future network topologies
Monitor latency, availability, and errors between two network end points
Monitor jitter, availability, and errors between two network end points

The IPM/SAA monitoring solution is composed of three parts, the IPM server, the IPM client application, and the service assurance agent (SAA) feature of the Cisco IOS software. The focus of this document is the IPM network management application which includes the server and the client. In some cases, however, it is not possible to fully describe IPM without including information about the Cisco IOS SAA feature. Therefore, we have included some information about the Cisco IOS feature. Information about the SAA feature provided in the latest Cisco IOS software documentation take precedence over the information about the SAA feature contained in this document.

Key Terms and Concepts

An understanding of the following terms and concepts is helpful for using the IPM application:

Source---Originating router from which IPM makes the latency measurements. The source router must be running an version Cisco IOS software that supports the SAA feature. For detailed information on the supported versions of the Cisco IOS software, see the "Cisco IOS Software Requirements" section in the Cisco Internetwork Performance Monitor Installation Guide.
Target---Destination of the latency measurement. The target can be any IP-addressable device, a IBM Multiple Virtual Storage (MVS) mainframe that can be reached by the source router, or an SAA-enabled Cisco router. For jitter measurements, the target must be an SAA-enabled Cisco router.
Operation---Set of parameters used in measuring latency, availability, and jitter. The parameters specify the type of measurement to be performed.
Collector---Entity defined to measure latency, availability, and jitter from a specific router (source) to a specific device (target). The collector definition includes information about the target, the protocol used to measure latency, availability, and jitter, how often the measurement is to be taken, and the length of time (duration) of the measurements.
Interval---How often, in seconds, the collector at the source router executes the measurement to and from the target. The default value is every 60 seconds. The valid range is 10 to 3600 seconds (1 hour). The source router automatically aggregates all samples for a single hour into a single set of metrics for that hour. IPM retrieves these metrics from the source router every hour.
Duration---How long, in days, hours, and minutes, that the collector runs and gathers information from the source router. The default value is forever. The valid range is 1 hour to forever.
SAA Responder---Component embedded in a target Cisco router that is running a version of the Cisco IOS software that supports the SAA feature. Its function is to respond to SAA request packets from a source router running the SAA software.

How Does IPM Work?

IPM measures latency, availability, and jitter between a source router and a target device. The target can be either an IP-addressable device, an IBM MVS mainframe, or an SAA-enabled Cisco router. If the target is an IP-addressable device, it is either a network device, server, or workstation. If the target is an IBM MVS mainframe, it must be running an IPM virtual telecommunications access method (VTAM) application called NSPECHO for measuring SNA latency. If the target is an SAA-enabled router, the router must be running a version of the Cisco IOS software that supports the SAA feature.

The IPM application is used to configure the SAA agent in each source router and then extract and display the latency, availability, and jitter information. The SAA agent in the router measures the actual performance metrics between the source router and target device. The IPM application extracts the metrics every hour from each source router and stores the data in the IPM database. However, each collector can take measurements between the source router and the target device more often. When you use the IPM configuration process, you specify the interval at which each measurement operation is performed by a collector. Then IPM gathers the data from the source routers once per hour and stores it in the IPM database.

IPM also provides a real-time feature that allows you to immediately display the data without waiting for the one-hour data collection interval. However, the data displayed in the Real Time window is not stored in the IPM database.

IPM also provides an extensive set of reports and graphs for viewing and analyzing the collected performance metrics.

Client/Server Architecture

IPM provides central services and database functions on an IPM server, which communicates through a messaging interface to multiple IPM workstation clients (Figure 1-1 ). The IPM software consists of server software and client software components that can be installed on the same workstation or on different workstations.

For this release of IPM, the IPM server software runs on only a Solaris workstation, but the IPM client software is available for Solaris, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT platforms.

The client/server architecture is cross-platform compatible, which allows you to run the client and server software in mixed operating system environments. So, for example, you can run the IPM server on a Solaris workstation and access it from an IPM client running on a Windows 95 workstation.

Figure 1-1: IPM Client/Server Architecture

The IPM server software consists of a group of functional services that manage the data between the network, client workstations, and the centralized database. The IPM server functions include an SNMP server, database server, message log server, data view server, configuration server, data collection server, and a process manager. The IPM server manages the exchange of data between the IPM database and the network devices, such as the source routers and target routers. The IPM process manager launches and manages all of the IPM servers.

The IPM client software communicates with the IPM server. The IPM client software is installed on the same workstation as the IPM server software, or on a different workstation on the same network as the IPM server.

From a web browser running on any workstation on the network, you can also access the source, target, operation, and collector definitions in read-only mode. You can also view web-based reports of the performance metrics, export IPM data, view seed files, and access IPM data from the CiscoWorks2000 desktop.

Table of Contents

Overview of IPM

Overview of IPM

What is IPM?

Key Terms and Concepts

How Does IPM Work?

Client/Server Architecture