Table Of Contents
Overview of IPM
What is IPM?
Key Terms and Concepts
How Does IPM Work?
Client/Server Architecture
New Features in IPM 2.6
Overview of IPM
This chapter provides an overview of Internetwork Performance Monitor (IPM) application. It contains the following sections:
•
What is IPM?
•Key Terms and Concepts
•How Does IPM Work?
•Client/Server Architecture
What is IPM?
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, and monitors jitter in networks.
You can use IPM to:
•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 then can be used to model and design future network topologies.
•Monitor latency, availability, and errors between two network end points.
•Monitor jitter, packet loss, and errors between two network end points.
•Discover network paths between two network end points, and monitor network performance statistics on a hop-by-hop basis.
•Provide Web-based access to long-term information to help determine statistical trends.
•Monitor the availability of critical network servers.
•Monitor SNA performance in mainframe environments.
•Establish service-level agreements.
The IPM/SA Agent monitoring solution is composed of:
1. The IPM server
2. The IPM client application
3. The Service Assurance (SA) Agent 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 SA Agent feature. Therefore, we have included some information about the Cisco IOS feature. Information about the SA Agent feature, provided in the latest Cisco IOS software documentation takes precedence over the information about the SA Agent feature, contained in this document.
Key Terms and Concepts
The key terms and concepts in IPM are:
•Network Performance Statistics—Five key statistics measured by IPM:
–Latency
–Availability
–Jitter
–Packet Loss
–Errors
•Source—Originating switch or router running IOS, from which IPM makes network performance measurements. The source switch or router must be running a version of Cisco IOS software that supports the SA Agent feature. For detailed information about the supported versions of the Cisco IOS software, see the "Cisco IOS Software Requirements" section in the Installation Guide for Internetwork Performance Monitor.
•Target—Destination of the network performance measurements. The target can be any IP-addressable device, an IBM Multiple Virtual Storage (MVS) mainframe that can be reached by the source router, or an SA Agent-enabled Cisco router. For jitter measurements, the target must be an SA Agent-enabled Cisco router or switch with RTR responder enabled.
•Operation—Set of parameters used in measuring network performance statistics. The parameters specify the type of measurement to be performed.
•Collector—Entity defined to measure network performance statistics from a specific source device to a specific target device. The collector definition includes information about its source, target, operation, start time, duration, and type.
•Interval—How often, in seconds, the collector on the source router executes the measurement to and from the target. The value is usually 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 once every hour.
•Duration—How long, in days, hours, and minutes, the collector runs and gathers information from the source router. The default value is forever. The valid range is 1 hour to forever.
•SA Agent Responder—Component embedded in a target Cisco device, running version 12.1 or later of the Cisco IOS software. It responds to SA Agent request packets from a source running the SA Agent software, supporting Enhanced UDP measurements, such as jitter.
How Does IPM Work?
IPM measures and displays network performance statistics (latency, availability, jitter, packet loss, and error information) between a source and a target device.
The target can be an IP-addressable device, an IBM MVS mainframe, or an SA Agent-enabled Cisco router:
•If the target is an IP-addressable device, it can be a network device, a server, or a 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. See the "Installing NSPECHO to Measure SNA Response Times" chapter of the Installation Guide for Internetwork Performance Monitor for more information.
•If the target is an SA Agent-enabled, the source must be running version 12.1 or later of the Cisco IOS software. The IPM application is used to configure the SA Agent in each source device. The SA Agent measures the performance between the source router and the target device.
The source aggregates all measurements into a single sample value for each network performance statistic. IPM gathers the data from the source and stores it in the IPM database.
IPM also provides a real-time feature that allows you to 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.
Additionally, IPM provides an extensive set of reports and graphs for viewing and analyzing the collected performance metrics. IPM supports both standalone and Web-based clients in a multi-platform environment.
Client/Server Architecture
IPM provides central services and database functions on an IPM server, which communicates through a messaging interface to multiple IPM 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.
Figure 1-1 IPM Client/Server Architecture
For this release of IPM, the server software runs on Solaris 2.8, Solaris 2.9, and Windows 2000 Professional and Server (with SP3 or SP4), Windows 2000 Advanced Server (with SP3 or SP4), Windows 2000 Terminal Services Remote Administration Mode (with SP3 or SP4) or Windows 2003.
The client software runs on Solaris 2.8, Solaris 2.9, Windows 2000 Professional and Server (with SP3 and SP4), Windows XP Professional (with SP1a) or Windows 2003 platforms.
The client/server architecture is cross-platform compatible, which allows you to run the client and server software in mixed operating system environments. For example, you can run the IPM server on a Solaris workstation and access it from an IPM client running on a Windows workstation.
Note IPM does not support Network Address Translation (NAT) and Port Address Translation (PAT) between the client and the server.
The IPM server software consists of a group of functional services that manage the data among the network, client workstations, and the centralized database.
The IPM server manages the exchange of data between the IPM database and the network devices, such as the source routers. The IPM process manager launches and manages all of the IPM servers, providing a robust and reliable launching platform for IPM.
The IPM client integrates with the CiscoWorks homepage.
From a Web browser running on a Solaris 2.8, Solaris 2.9, Windows 2000 Professional and Server (with SP3 and SP4), Windows XP Professional (with SP1a) or Windows 2003 platforms workstation on the network, you can:
•Access the source, target, operation, and collector definitions.
•View Web-based reports of the performance metrics.
•Download/Launch the IPM client.
•View Web-based troubleshooting information.
•Determine the version of IPM that has been installed.
•View seed files.
All the above functions can be launched via the CiscoWorks homepage.
New Features in IPM 2.6
These are the new features in IPM 2.6:
•Support for importing device from Device and Credential Repository — IPM 2.6 provides you the facility to import devices from the Device and Credential Repository. You can import devices as Sources, as Target SAA Responders, or as Target IP Devices.
•Differentiated Service Code Point (DSCP) support — In IPM 2.6 users are provided with the feature of selecting either the IP Precedence settings or DSCP setting.
•Source interface on collector — In the earlier IPM releases, users could not specify a source interface configuration on an individual collector basis while configuring a collector. IPM 2.6 has features to overcome this limitation.
•Device Center Integration — In IPM 2.6, the Device Center will be launched for devices in IPM. The Device Center will be launched irrespective of whether a device is present in Device and Credential Repository or not.
•Improved Scalability— IPM 2.6 supports 2000 collectors in one single IPM Server.
•SSL Compliance — IPM 2.6 is SSL compliant and enables secure HTTP communication between the client and server. The IPM web links from the CiscoWorks homepage are SSL-compliant.
