Configuring Cisco IOS NAM PA for WAAS Express

First Published: March 28, 2011
Last Updated: March 30, 2011

The Configuring Cisco IOS NAM PA for WAAS Express feature is designed to analyze and measure network traffic. The Performance Agent (PA) enables baselining, monitoring, and troubleshooting of application performance. The analysis and measurement of network traffic is done by the Measurement, Aggregation, and Correlation Engine (MACE). MACE performs the required measurements on a subset of traffic and exports the necessary metrics to a target.

This feature also enhances the WAAS Express by providing application monitoring. Monitoring capability in the context of WAAS Express translates into the analysis and measurement of the TCP-based client/server messages to provide transaction- and session-based analytics. The Cisco IOS NAM PA for WAAS Express feature works independently of WAAS Express to provide users with application visibility.

You can configure this feature manually using the CLI.

Finding Feature Information

Your software release may not support all the features documented in this module. For the latest feature information and caveats, see the release notes for your platform and software release. To find information about the features documented in this module, and to see a list of the releases in which each feature is supported, see the "Feature Information for Configuring Cisco IOS NAM PA for WAAS Express" section.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.

Contents

•Information About Configuring Cisco IOS NAM PA for WAAS Express

•How to Configure Cisco IOS NAM PA for WAAS Express

•Configuration Examples for Cisco IOS NAM PA for WAAS Express

•Additional References

•Feature Information for Configuring Cisco IOS NAM PA for WAAS Express

Information About Configuring Cisco IOS NAM PA for WAAS Express

•NetFlow Overview

•MACE Metrics

•MACE Configuration Plane

•WAAS Express

•ART Engine

•MACE Exporter

NetFlow Overview

NetFlow is a Cisco IOS application that provides statistics on packets that flow through the router. It is emerging as a primary network accounting and security technology.

NetFlow identifies packet flows for both ingress and egress IP packets. It does not involve any connection-setup protocol, either between routers or to any other networking device or end station. NetFlow does not require any external change —either to the packets themselves or to any networking device. NetFlow is completely transparent to the existing network, including end stations and application software and network devices like LAN switches. Also, NetFlow capture and export are performed independently on each internetworking device; NetFlow need not be operational on each router in the network.

For more information, see Cisco IOS Netflow Configuration Guide.

MACE Metrics

MACE provides the following metrics:

•MACE metrics—Metrics that are extracted or calculated by the MACE engine itself, for example, the number of packets and bytes.

•ART metrics—Metrics that are extracted or calculated by the Application Response Time (ART) engine, for example, network delay. These metrics are available only for TCP flows.

•WAAS metrics—Metrics that are extracted or calculated by WAAS. For example, Data Redundancy Elimination (DRE) input bytes. These metrics are available only when WAAS is configured and MACE is monitoring the WAAS traffic.

MACE Configuration Plane

MACE can be configured either through an independent and new policy-map type or as part of the WAAS policy.

Table 1 provides the categories of MACE configuration.

Table 1  MACE Configuration Categories

Configuration
Description

Global set of metrics

Metrics that need to be collected.

Filters

Subset of traffic for which the metrics need be collected. You can configure MACE to monitor specific traffic. MACE uses filters to classify traffic that has to be analyzed.

Timers

Frequency with which the data needs to be exported. You can configure timer values for exporting the flow metrics. After the timer expires, flow metrics are exported using NetFlow Data Export (NDE) v9. This timer has a default value of 5 minutes.

NetFlow Collector's details

Details of the NetFlow Collector where the data needs to be exported. You can configure the information from NetFlow Collector to export the flow metrics. You can configure more than one exporter for the same set of metrics. In this case, the metrics are exported to all of the NetFlow collectors.


MACE collects the required metrics using the metric template that contains a specific set of metric fields and exports them using Flexible NetFlow (FNF) infrastructure.

WAAS Express

The Cisco WAN optimization system consists of Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) Express routers and Wide-area Application Engines (WAEs) that work together to optimize TCP traffic in your network. When the client and server applications attempt to communicate with each other, the network intercepts the traffic and acts on behalf of the client application and the destination server. The WAAS Express routers and WAEs examine the traffic and use built-in application policies to determine whether the traffic in the network can be optimized.

WAAS Express provides the following benefits:

•Complements the Cisco WAN optimization system by adding capability to the branch routers.

•Provides branch office employees with LAN-like access to information and applications across a geographically distributed network.

•Minimizes unnecessary WAN bandwidth consumption through the use of advanced compression algorithms.

•Virtualizes print and other local services to branch office users.

•Improves application performance over the WAN by addressing the following issues:

–Low data rates (constrained bandwidth).

–Slow delivery of frames (high network latency).

–Higher rates of packet loss (low reliability).

For more information on WAAS Express, see the Configuring WAAS Express module.

ART Engine

The MACE data plane forwards packets to the ART engine in the order in which it receives them. The ART engine checks every packet forwarded by MACE.

The ART engine saves some data from each packet in its own data structures and performs any necessary calculations based on its internal logic. It aggregates the flows based on the following Layer 7 (L7) information:

•Destination address

•Destination port

•L4 protocol

•Segment ID

•Source address

When the export timer expires, ART provides its flows and flow metrics to the MACE Exporter.

MACE Exporter

MACE Exporter receives the FNF templates from the MACE configuration plane and builds FNF records based on these templates. It then passes the flow templates along with each record to the NetFlow infrastructure. FNF requires the templates in order to understand the layout of the record, so that it can export the correct fields at the time of export.

MACE Exporter allows you to configure the time interval for export. The intervals 1, 2, 5, 10, and 15, in minutes, are supported. The export timer starts when MACE is enabled. There are two ways to enable MACE: by using the MACE policy or by using MACE along with the WAAS policy. In order to synchronize the export time of multiple routers running MACE across the network with the collector, the export timer expires when the current time modulo configured interval is zero. For instance, if the user configures a 5 minute interval at 10:07, the first export timer will expire at 10:10 (since 10:10 modulo 5 is 0) and subsequently at a gap of every 5 minutes (10:15, 10:20, and so on).

Note Modulo is the resulting reminder when one number is divided by another. For example, the modulo of 5 and 4 is 1 because 5 divided by 4 leaves a remainder of 1.

This export mechanism ensures that the time when the first export interval expires is independent from the time when the MACE policy was applied to the target. Any future update to the timeout interval causes the current timer to stop, and a new timer is started. The timer also stops when the policy is removed from the interface.

Note MACE Exporter works on a best-effort basis. Also, MACE being a monitoring tool, the export process does execute with a high priority.

When the MACE Exporter timer expires, all engines are notified to process the metrics. After this notification, a second set of calls are sent to collect the processed metrics. The MACE Exporter receives the metrics data from various sources, aggregates them into a single FNF record, and passes it to the NetFlow component. Aggregation is done on the basis of Layer 7 keys. Application ID (Network-Based Application Recognition [NBAR])) is provided as a metric only when requested through the configuration.

How to Configure Cisco IOS NAM PA for WAAS Express

•Enabling MACE (required)

•Enabling MACE on WAAS (required)

Enabling MACE

You can enable the Cisco IOS NAM PA for WAAS Express feature on both ingress and egress interfaces so that MACE can capture and monitor traffic in both directions. After enabling MACE in one direction, the same policy is internally configured in the other direction as well. Perform the following task to enable MACE.

SUMMARY STEPS

1. enable

2. configure terminal

3. flow record type mace name

4. collect art all

5. exit

6. flow exporter exporter-name

7. export-protocol netflow-v9

8. destination ip-address

9. exit

10. flow monitor type mace name

11. record record-name

12. exporter exporter-name

13. exit

14. class-map type waas class-map-name

15. exit

16. policy-map type mace name

17. class name

18. flow monitor monitor-name

19. exit

20. exit

21. interface type number [name-tag]

22. mace enable

23. end

DETAILED STEPS

 
Command or Action
Purpose

Step 1 

enable

Example:

Router> enable

Enables privileged EXEC mode.

•Enter your password if prompted.

Step 2 

configure terminal

Example:

Router# configure terminal

Enters global configuration mode.

Step 3 

flow record type mace name

Example:

Router(config)# flow record type mace my-flow-record

Configures a flow record for MACE and enters FNF flow record configuration mode.

Step 4 

collect art all

Example:

Router(config-flow-record)# collect art all

Collects all ART metrics.

Step 5 

exit

Example:

Router(config-flow-record)# exit

Exits Flexible NetFlow flow record configuration mode.

Step 6 

flow exporter exporter-name

Example:

Router(config)# flow exporter my-flow-exporter

Creates an FNF flow exporter and enters Flexible NetFlow flow exporter configuration mode.

Step 7 

export-protocol netflow-v9

Example:

Router(config-flow-exporter)# export-protocol netflow-v9

Configures NetFlow Version 9 export as the export protocol.

Step 8 

destination ip-address

Example:

Router(config-flow-exporter)# destination 209.165.201.1

Configures the IP address of the workstation to which you want to send the NetFlow information.

Step 9 

exit

Example:

Router(config-flow-exporter)# exit

Exits Flexible NetFlow flow exporter configuration mode.

Step 10 

flow monitor type mace name

Example:

Router(config)# flow monitor type mace my-flow-monitor

Configures an FNF flow monitor of type MACE and enters Flexible NetFlow flow monitor configuration mode.

Step 11 

record record-name

Example:

Router(config-flow-monitor)# record my-flow-record

Specifies the name of a user-defined flow record that was previously configured.

Step 12 

exporter exporter-name

Example:

Router(config-flow-monitor)# exporter my-flow-exporter

Specifies the name of a flow exporter that was previously configured.

Step 13 

exit

Example:

Router(config-flow-monitor)# exit

Exits Flexible NetFlow flow monitor configuration mode.

Step 14 

class-map type waas class-map-name

Example:

Router(config)# class-map type waas my-waas-class

Configures a WAAS Express class map and enters class map configuration mode.

Step 15 

exit

Example:

Router(config-cmap)# exit

Exits class-map configuration mode.

Step 16 

policy-map type mace name

Example:

Router(config)# policy-map type mace mace_global

Configures a MACE policy map and enters policy-map configuration mode.

Step 17 

class name

Example:

Router(config-pmap)# class my-waas-class

Configures a class name and enters policy-map class configuration mode.

Step 18 

flow monitor monitor-name

Example:

Router(config-pmap-c)# flow monitor my-flow-monitor

Configures a flow monitor name.

Step 19 

exit

Example:

Router(config-pmap-c)# exit

Exits policy-map class configuration mode.

Step 20 

exit

Example:

Router(config-pmap)# exit

Exits policy-map configuration mode.

Step 21 

interface type number [name-tag]

Example:

Router(config)# interface ethernet0/0

Configures an interface type and enters interface configuration mode.

Step 22 

mace enable

Example:

Router(config-if)# mace enable

Applies the global MACE policy on an interface.

Step 23 

end

Example:

Router(config-if)# end

Exits interface configuration mode and returns to privileged EXEC mode.

Enabling MACE on WAAS

MACE is invoked immediately before and after WAAS is enabled in both ingress and egress directions. This allows for measurements to be captured with no interference from any other feature. However, in the absence of WAAS, the before-WAAS and after-WAAS traffic is identical. Perform the following task to enable MACE on WAAS.

SUMMARY STEPS

1. enable

2. configure terminal

3. flow record type mace name

4. collect art all

5. exit

6. flow exporter exporter-name

7. export-protocol netflow-v9

8. destination ip-address

9. exit

10. flow monitor type mace name

11. record record-name

12. exporter exporter-name

13. exit

14. mace monitor waas {all | optimized} name

15. end

DETAILED STEPS

 
Command or Action
Purpose

Step 1 

enable

Example:

Router> enable

Enables privileged EXEC mode.

•Enter your password if prompted.

Step 2 

configure terminal

Example:

Router# configure terminal

Enters global configuration mode.

Step 3 

flow record type mace name

Example:

Router(config)# flow record type mace my-flow-record

Configures a flow record for MACE and enters Flexible NetFlow flow record configuration mode.

Step 4 

collect art all

Example:

Router(config-flow-record)# collect art all

Collects all ART metrics.

Step 5 

exit

Example:

Router(config-flow-record)# exit

Exits Flexible NetFlow flow record configuration mode.

Step 6 

flow exporter exporter-name

Example:

Router(config)# flow exporter my-flow-exporter

Creates an Flexible NetFlow flow exporter and enters Flexible NetFlow flow exporter configuration mode.

Step 7 

export-protocol netflow-v9

Example:

Router(config-flow-exporter)# export-protocol netflow-v9

Configures NetFlow Version 9 export as the export protocol.

Step 8 

destination ip-address

Example:

Router(config-flow-exporter)# destination 209.165.201.1

Configures the IP address of the workstation to which you want to send the NetFlow information.

Step 9 

exit

Example:

Router(config-flow-exporter)# exit

Exists FNF flow exporter configuration mode.

Step 10 

flow monitor type mace name

Example:

Router(config)# flow monitor type mace my-flow-monitor

Configures an FNF flow monitor of type MACE and enters FNF flow monitor configuration mode.

Step 11 

record record-name

Example:

Router(config-flow-monitor)# record my-flow-record

Specifies the name of a user-defined flow record that was previously configured.

Step 12 

exporter exporter-name

Example:

Router(config-flow-monitor)# exporter my-flow-exporter

Specifies the name of a flow exporter that was previously configured.

Step 13 

exit

Example:

Router(config-flow-monitor)# exit

Exists FNF flow monitor configuration mode.

Step 14 

mace monitor waas {all | optimized} name

Example:

Router(config)# mace monitor waas all my-flow-monitor

Enables MACE on WAAS for a flow monitor that was previously configured.

Step 15 

end

Example:

Router(config)# end

Exits global configuration mode and returns to privileged EXEC mode.

Configuration Examples for Cisco IOS NAM PA for WAAS Express

•Example: Enabling MACE

•Example: Enabling MACE on WAAS

Example: Enabling MACE

The following example shows how to enable MACE on an interface: 

Router> enable

Router# configure terminal

Router(config)# flow record type mace my-flow-record

Router(config-flow-record)# collect art all

Router(config-flow-record)# exit

Router(config)# flow exporter my-flow-exporter

Router(config-flow-exporter)# export-protocol netflow-v9

Router(config-flow-exporter)# destination 209.165.201.1

Router(config-flow-exporter)# exit

Router(config)# flow monitor type mace my-flow-monitor

Router(config-flow-monitor)# record my-flow-record

Router(config-flow-monitor)# exporter my-flow-exporter

Router(config-flow-monitor)# exit

Router(config)# class-map type waas my-waas-class

Router(config-cmap)# exit

Router(config)# policy-map type mace mace_global

Router(config-pmap)# class my-waas-class

Router(config-pmap-c)# flow monitor my-flow-monitor

Router(config-pmap-c)# exit

Router(config-pmap)# exit

Router(config)# interface ethernet0/0

Router(config-if)# mace enable

Router(config-if)# end

Example: Enabling MACE on WAAS

The following example shows how to enable MACE on WAAS: 

Router> enable

Router# configure terminal

Router(config)# flow record type mace my-flow-record

Router(config-flow-record)# collect art all

Router(config-flow-record)# exit

Router(config)# flow exporter my-flow-exporter

Router(config-flow-exporter)# export-protocol netflow-v9

Router(config-flow-exporter)# destination 209.165.201.1

Router(config-flow-exporter)# exit

Router(config)# flow monitor type mace my-flow-monitor

Router(config-flow-monitor)# record my-flow-record

Router(config-flow-monitor)# exporter my-flow-exporter

Router(config-flow-monitor)# exit

Router(config)# mace monitor waas all my-flow-monitor 

Router(config)# end

Additional References

Related Documents

Related Topic
Document Title

Cisco IOS commands

Cisco IOS Master Commands List, All Releases

Cisco IOS Flexible NetFlow commands

Cisco IOS Flexible NetFlow Command Reference

Cisco IOS Netflow configuration guide

Cisco IOS Netflow Configuration Guide

Cisco IOS Wide-Area Networking configuration guide

Cisco IOS Wide-Area Networking Configuration Guide

Cisco IOS Wide-Area Networking commands

Cisco IOS Wide-Area Networking Command Reference


Standards

Standard
Title

No new or modified standards are supported by this feature, and support for existing standards has not been modified for this feature.

—


MIBs

MIB
MIBs Link

None

To locate and download MIBs for selected platforms, Cisco software releases, and feature sets, use Cisco MIB Locator found at the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com/go/mibs


RFCs

RFC
Title

None

—


Technical Assistance

Description
Link

The Cisco Support and Documentation website provides online resources to download documentation, software, and tools. Use these resources to install and configure the software and to troubleshoot and resolve technical issues with Cisco products and technologies. Access to most tools on the Cisco Support and Documentation website requires a Cisco.com user ID and password.

http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/support/index.html


Feature Information for Configuring Cisco IOS NAM PA for WAAS Express

Table 2 lists the release history for this feature.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and software image support. Cisco Feature Navigator enables you to determine which software images support a specific software release, feature set, or platform. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.

Note Table 2 lists only the software release that introduced support for a given feature in a given software release train. Unless noted otherwise, subsequent releases of that software release train also support that feature.

Table 2 Feature Information for Configuring Cisco IOS NAM PA for WAAS Express 

Feature Name
Releases
Feature Information

Cisco IOS NAM PA for WAAS Express

15.1(4)M

The Cisco IOS NAM PA for WAAS Express feature is designed to analyze and measure network traffic. The PA enables baselining, monitoring, and troubleshooting of application performance.

The following commands were introduced or modified: collect_art.fm, collect_waas, flow_monitor_type_mace, flow_record_type_mace, mace_enable, mace_monitor_waas, policy-map_type_mace, show_flow_monitor_type_mace, show_flow_record_type, show_mace_metrics, show_policy-map_type_mace


Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1110R)

Any Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and phone numbers used in this document are not intended to be actual addresses and phone numbers. Any examples, command display output, network topology diagrams, and other figures included in the document are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any use of actual IP addresses or phone numbers in illustrative content is unintentional and coincidental.

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