TECHNICAL BRIEF
EYE Cisco IOS IP SLAs Module
Overview
Eye of the Storm® (EYE)
allows you to leverage your
investment in Cisco IOS®,
using Cisco IOS IP SLAs to
collect real-time network
performance information, for
example response time,
one-way latency, jitter,
packet loss and web site
download time. Cisco IOS IP
SLAs also provides the
mechanism to monitor per-
class traffic over the same
link.
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What are Cisco IOS IP SLAs Performance Metrics?
Cisco IOS IP SLAs is an intelligent active software agent available on Cisco
routers and the later generation of Cisco switches. Cisco IOS IP SLAs takes
advantage of facilities already deployed (the Cisco IOS) and does not
require any further hardware deployment. With EYE Cisco IOS IP SLAs you
are leveraging your current investment in Cisco devices and IOS.
Cisco IOS IP SLAs provides layer three and above monitoring. Its
applications include web site monitoring and infrastructure troubleshooting.
Metrics include response time, availability, jitter, connect time, packet loss
and application performance.
Cisco IOS IP SLAs per-class traffic monitoring, enabled through
TOS/DSCP, allows easy application of metrics to key Service Level
Agreements (SLA). For example UDP jitter operation measures one-way
latency, round-trip latency, jitter and packet loss all useful when monitoring
infrastructure circuit quality and behavior.
EYE Cisco IOS IP SLAs module includes:
„ support for various Cisco IOS IP SLAs operation types
„ discovery of supported operations on IOS enabled devices
„ VoIP support through added predictions of ICPIF and MOS for Jitter
operations (for IOS 12.0(5)T or later). Added emulation modes for three
common voice codecs
„ MPLS support for those IP SLA operation types that support MPLS
„ control of operation specification and their automatic creation
„ automatic discovery of IP Paired Links
„ creation of End-to-End Paths (EEP) useful for aggregation of per-hop
statistics for complete end-to-end monitoring
„ number of operations per IP, and per EEP, is effectively unlimited
„ extensive support for Cisco IOS IP SLAs events.
EYE analyzes and presents data as meaningful
information, for example:
„ measurement of jitter, for streaming
audio/video/VoIP
„ measurement of end-to-end metrics e.g. client-
server latency and availability
„ identification of slow/unreliable ‘hops’ along a
path.
Cisco IOS IP SLAs measurements take into
account operation processing time, returning
values that accurately reflect network performance.

Creating Cisco IOS IP SLAs

Operations
EYE creates operations with a limited life span (450
seconds). Each operation executes, has its results The EYE Attribute Grapher shows real-time RTT of an
polled and then expires. To remove operations EEP and its operations
from your network, delete their definition in EYE to
prevent operation creation and then wait for Note: EYE's implementation of UDP Jitter includes
existing operations to time-out. voice call emulation, using various CODECS. EYE
collects MOS and ICPIF data suitable for use in
EYE currently supports these Cisco IOS IP SLAs VoIP pre-deployment and implementation.
operations:
DHCP HTTP Raw TCP Connect
EYE Cisco IOS IP SLAs
DNS ICMP Echo UDP Echo Implementation
HTTP Get ICMP Echo UDP Jitter
For Frame Relay, Leased Line and ATM devices
Path
EYE automatically identifies links between IP
addresses, minimizing the administrative effort to
configure the corresponding operations.
Configured operations can be grouped to form
EEPs, against which further statistics are collected.
So, if latency on an EEP is unacceptable by
examining the constituent operations you can
discover the cause.
Events are generated on operation creation
failures, operation end-point availability problems,
excessive Round Trip Time (RTT) and poor VoIP
ICPIF and MOS measurements using configurable
performance thresholds.
For example, the HTTP High RTT event is triggered
by a high round trip time to a HTTP server. It
indicates an overworked server or network. Further
investigation could be through Attribute Grapher on
the RTT attribute, or through other attributes e.g.
DNS look-up, TCP connect, HTTP service time.
Performance Reporting is available using EYE’s
Flex Reports, which can be rapidly built through a
series of guided forms. Reports are available in
CSV, XML, HTML and PDF formats.

Infrastructure Availability and

Behavior
Multi-hop route monitoring is achieved through
Flex Reports detailing voice quality and
performance of end-to-end probes combining operations into EEPs. The same

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combination of IP links can have more than one
associated EEP.
Each EEP usually consists of operations of the
same type, however EEPs may also contain
operations of different types. For example, EYE can
selectively apply both ping and non-ping testing
(using Cisco IOS IP SLAs responders) in a multi-
hop (EEP) scenario.
Consider how EYE Cisco IOS IP SLAs can be
implemented to monitor the availability of the
infrastructure outlined in the opposite diagram.
EYE is installed in Seattle, but the performance of
the links from Seattle to London and Paris does not
impact the measurements taken between London
and Paris.
To implement the London to Paris example:
1. Create links between the infrastructure devices,
using IP addresses. EYE Cisco IOS IP SLAs IP Pairings and EEPs created within EYE simplify monitoring and
automatically creates these IP pairings, but you maintenance of Cisco IOS IP SLA enabled routers and switches
can also manually create links. consideration should be given to port and SNMP
2. For each IP Pair link you can define operations. command permissions.
EYE identifies the Cisco IOS IP SLAs capability Operation generation requires SNMP write access
of each device, e.g. HTTP. You can then define to each Cisco IOS IP SLAs instrumented device.
as many legitimate operations as you require The write community string is only applicable to the
and the device can handle. RTR MIB, it is hidden in the EYE client and is not
3. EYE creates operation instances on the available to Flex Reports.
devices, all with a limited life span. New
instances are created every poll cycle. In this Summary
way Cisco IOS IP SLAs operations may be The EYE Cisco IOS IP SLA Module is an
quickly suspended. additionally licensed module for Eye of the Storm.
EYE is available on the Microsoft® Windows
4. Specify the Infrastructure Monitoring EEP by
Server® 2003, Sun™ Solaris™, Red Hat® Enterprise
dragging and dropping to it the three
Linux®, and VMware® ESX Server.
operations that link the Paris switch to the
London switch. EYE Cisco IOS IP SLA Module:
5. Create the Client-Server Monitoring EEP with „ simplifies and centralizes the setup and
the five IP Pairs that link the Paris server to the configuration of Cisco® IOS IP SLA
London client. This EEP measures service „ delivers full and automatic support for an
delivery and performance. extensive set of IP SLA operations
EEPs may be created at anytime and from that time „ allows monitoring of, and reporting on, real-
a history is maintained. time network performance information
including latency, jitter, packet loss, and web
Once polling starts, Cisco IOS IP SLAs:
site download time.
„ Data is viewable through Component Viewer,
where time-series data can be graphed using
the Attribute Grapher.
„ Events are displayed in Bulletin Board.
„ Performance and availability data is stored in
EYE’s management database and can be
reported on using Flex Reports.

EYE and Cisco IOS IP SLAs Security

Network security is a priority. The EYE Cisco IOS IP
SLAs module works with firewalls, where

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Eye of the Storm Summary
The Entuity™ Eye of the Storm® (EYE) network management solution helps businesses realize the
maximum benefit of today’s distributed applications, virtualized environments, network-based services, and
contemporary data sharing strategies by ensuring the foundational resource for all these initiatives – the
network – is economically deployed and optimally performing. EYE automatically and continually discovers
and captures in-depth network data and analytics, and provides integrated fault and performance
management capabilities that help enterprises, service providers, and system integrators reduce network
downtime, commit to, deliver, assure and prove service level commitments, and
ensure network configuration compliance. Real-time notifications of physical
network and configuration changes, visibility to virtual servers and environments,
and open data accessibility prevent user-impacting business service
interruptions and enable transparent business-level reporting through high
level and detailed reports, corporate dashboards, or mash-ups.
Entuity’s customers include Global 2000 companies proactively solving
mission-critical business initiatives, leveraging complex and dynamic
distributed network environments. A sampling includes: ABB, Amtrak,
Astra Zeneca, BMC Software, Deutsche Bank, IBM Global Services,
The Royal Bank of Scotland, Sony, Visteon, and the Williams
Companies.

Eye of the Storm Integrated Network Suite

EYE provides a succinct suite of the most important functionality for network management, presented in an
easy to use, quick to deploy format. EYE delivers extremely fast time to value and low total cost of
ownership, resulting in superior overall price-performance. Its wide range of capabilities are the practical
middle ground between single function solutions that are difficult and costly to integrate, and heavily laden
frameworks that are difficult to deploy, learn, use, and expensive to support. EYE enables companies to
quickly and efficiently reach their business goals including:
„ Improved profitability and productivity through deployment of distributed server-based applications,
centralized content management, service oriented architectures (SOA), or virtualized environments by
proactively ensuring foundational network services are always available and performing well.
„ Successful deployment of bandwidth-intensive applications without incident by determining network
bandwidth headroom during feasibility studies, efficiently planning deployment, verifying performance
during pilots, and monitoring service levels post deployment.
„ Unification of business systems, processes, and infrastructures through cohesion of disparate networks
following mergers by automatically assessing the assets and connectivity of each network.
„ Optimization of the utilization and deployment of current IT assets and their configurations; both to
forestall capital expenditure and deliver improved service levels.
„ Improved Operations Center productivity with real-time change notification and event troubleshooting to
isolate root cause problems and performance anomalies most likely to degrade service response.
„ Mitigating risk and ensuring compliance for corporate security or configuration management initiatives
by delivering a real-time, accurate, and detailed data feeds into complementary applications.
„ Assuring the quality of delivered or received services of managed infrastructures through easily
understandable reports of the performance, availability and resource levels detailed in SLAs.
„ Successfully implementing network management best practices, such as ITIL Service Management and
Service Delivery ensuring alignment with corporate goals and objectives.
To learn more about EYE, please contact your local Entuity office, visit www.entuity.com, or email
info@entuity.com.

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