Configuring Cisco IOS IP SLAs FTP Operations

First Published: August 14, 2006
Last Updated: January 6, 2011

This module describes how to configure a Cisco IOS IP Service Level Agreements (SLAs) File Transfer Protocol (FTP) operation to measure the response time between a Cisco device and a FTP server to retrieve a file. The IP SLAs FTP operation supports an FTP GET request only. This module also demonstrates how the results of the FTP operation can be displayed and analyzed to determine the capacity of your network. The FTP operation can be used also for troubleshooting FTP server performance.

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 IP SLAs FTP Operations" 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

•Restrictions for IP SLAs FTP Operations

•Information About IP SLAs FTP Operations

•How to Configure IP SLAs FTP Operations

•Configuration Examples for IP SLAs FTP Operations

•Additional References

•Feature Information for IP SLAs FTP Operations

Restrictions for IP SLAs FTP Operations

The IP SLAs FTP operation only supports FTP GET (download) requests.

Information About IP SLAs FTP Operations

•FTP Operation

FTP Operation

The FTP operation measures the round-trip time (RTT) between a Cisco device and an FTP server to retrieve a file. FTP is an application protocol, part of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/IP protocol stack, used for transferring files between network nodes.

In Figure 1 Router B is configured as the source IP SLAs device and an FTP operation is configured with the FTP server as the destination device.

Figure 1 FTP Operation

Connection response time is computed by measuring the time taken to download a file to Router B from the remote FTP server using FTP over TCP. This operation does not use the IP SLAs Responder.

Note To test the response time to connect to an FTP port (Port 21), use the IP SLAs TCP Connect operation.

Both active and passive FTP transfer modes are supported. The passive mode is enabled by default. Only the FTP GET (download) operation type is supported. The URL specified for the FTP GET operation must be in one of the following formats:

•ftp://username:password@host/filename

•ftp://host/filename

If the username and password are not specified, the defaults are anonymous and test, respectively.

FTP carries a significant amount of data traffic and can affect the performance of your network. The results of an IP SLAs FTP operation to retrieve a large file can be used to determine the capacity of the network but retrieve large files with caution because the FTP operation will consume more bandwidth. The FTP operation also measures your FTP server performance levels by determining the RTT taken to retrieve a file.

How to Configure IP SLAs FTP Operations

•Configuring an FTP Operation on a Source Device (required)

•Scheduling IP SLAs Operations (required)

Configuring an FTP Operation on a Source Device

Note There is no need to configure an IP SLAs responder on the destination device.

Perform one of the following tasks:

•Configuring a Basic FTP Operation on the Source Device

•Configuring an FTP Operation with Optional Parameters on the Source Device

Configuring a Basic FTP Operation on the Source Device

SUMMARY STEPS

1. enable

2. configure terminal

3. ip sla operation-number

4. ftp get url [source-ip {ip-address | hostname}] [mode {passive | active}

5. frequency seconds

6. 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 

ip sla operation-number

Example:

Router(config)# ip sla 10

Begins configuration for an IP SLAs operation and enters IP SLA configuration mode.

Step 4 

ftp get url [source-ip {ip-address | hostname}] [mode {passive | active}

Example:

Router(config-ip-sla)# ftp get ftp://username:password@hostip/test.cap

Defines an FTP operation and enters IP SLA FTP configuration mode.

Step 5 

frequency seconds

Example:

Router(config-ip-sla-ftp)# frequency 30

(Optional) Sets the rate at which a specified IP SLAs operation repeats.

Step 6 

end

Example:

Router(config-ip-sla-ftp)# exit

Exits to privileged EXEC mode.

Configuring an FTP Operation with Optional Parameters on the Source Device

SUMMARY STEPS

1. enable

2. configure terminal

3. ip sla operation-number

4. ftp get url [source-ip {ip-address | hostname}] [mode {passive | active}

5. history buckets-kept size

6. history distributions-of-statistics-kept size

7. history enhanced [interval seconds] [buckets number-of-buckets]

8. history filter {none | all | overThreshold | failures}

9. frequency seconds

10. history hours-of-statistics-kept hours

11. history lives-kept lives

12. owner owner-id

13. history statistics-distribution-interval milliseconds

14. tag text

15. threshold milliseconds

16. timeout milliseconds

17. 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 

ip sla operation-number

Example:

Router(config)# ip sla 10

Begins configuration for an IP SLAs operation and enters IP SLA configuration mode.

Step 4 

ftp get url [source-ip {ip-address | hostname}] [mode {passive | active}

Example:

Router(config-ip-sla)# ftp get ftp://username:password@hostip/filename

Defines an FTP operation and enters IP SLA FTP configuration mode.

Step 5 

history buckets-kept size

Example:

Router(config-ip-sla-ftp)# history buckets-kept 25

(Optional) Sets the number of history buckets that are kept during the lifetime of an IP SLAs operation.

Step 6 

history distributions-of-statistics-kept size

Example:

Router(config-ip-sla-ftp)# history distributions-of-statistics-kept 5

(Optional) Sets the number of statistics distributions kept per hop during an IP SLAs operation.

Step 7 

history enhanced [interval seconds] [buckets number-of-buckets]

Example:

Router(config-ip-sla-ftp)# history enhanced interval 900 buckets 100

(Optional) Enables enhanced history gathering for an IP SLAs operation.

Step 8 

history filter {none | all | overThreshold | failures}

Example:

Router(config-ip-sla-ftp)# history filter failures

(Optional) Defines the type of information kept in the history table for an IP SLAs operation.

Step 9 

frequency seconds

Example:

Router(config-ip-sla-ftp)# frequency 30

(Optional) Sets the rate at which a specified IP SLAs operation repeats.

Step 10 

history hours-of-statistics-kept hours

Example:

Router(config-ip-sla-ftp)# history hours-of-statistics-kept 4

(Optional) Sets the number of hours for which statistics are maintained for an IP SLAs operation.

Step 11 

history lives-kept lives

Example:

Router(config-ip-sla-ftp)# history lives-kept 5

(Optional) Sets the number of lives maintained in the history table for an IP SLAs operation.

Step 12 

owner owner-id

Example:

Router(config-ip-sla-ftp)# owner admin

(Optional) Configures the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) owner of an IP SLAs operation.

Step 13 

history statistics-distribution-interval milliseconds

Example:

Router(config-ip-sla-ftp)# history statistics-distribution-interval 10

(Optional) Sets the time interval for each statistics distribution kept for an IP SLAs operation.

Step 14 

tag text

Example:

Router(config-ip-sla-ftp)# tag TelnetPollServer1

(Optional) Creates a user-specified identifier for an IP SLAs operation.

Step 15 

threshold milliseconds

Example:

Router(config-ip-sla-ftp)# threshold 10000

(Optional) Sets the upper threshold value for calculating network monitoring statistics created by an IP SLAs operation.

Step 16 

timeout milliseconds

Example:

Router(config-ip-sla-ftp)# timeout 10000

(Optional) Sets the amount of time an IP SLAs operation waits for a response from its request packet.

Step 17 

end

Example:

Router(config-ip-sla-ftp)# end

Exits to privileged EXEC mode.

Scheduling IP SLAs Operations

Restrictions

•The frequency of all operations scheduled in a multioperation group must be the same.

•Operation ID numbers are limited to a maximum of 125 characters. Do not give large integer values as operation ID numbers.

SUMMARY STEPS

1. enable

2. configure terminal

For individual IP SLAs operations only:

3. ip sla schedule operation-number [life {forever | seconds}] [start-time {hh:mm[:ss] [month day | day month] | pending | now | after hh:mm:ss}] [ageout seconds] [recurring]

For multioperation scheduler only:

4. ip sla group schedule group-operation-number operation-id-numbers schedule-period schedule-period-range [ageout seconds] [frequency group-operation-frequency] [life {forever | seconds}] [start-time {hh:mm[:ss] [month day | day month] | pending | now | after hh:mm:ss}]

5. exit

6. show ip sla group schedule

7. show ip sla configuration

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 

ip sla schedule operation-number [life {forever | seconds}] [start-time {hh:mm[:ss] [month day | day month] | pending | now | after hh:mm:ss}] [ageout seconds] [recurring]

Example:

Router(config)# ip sla schedule 10 start-time now life forever

For individual IP SLAs operations only:

Configures the scheduling parameters for an individual IP SLAs operation.

Step 4  

ip sla group schedule group-operation-number 
operation-id-numbers 
schedule-period schedule-period-range [ageout  
seconds] [frequency group-operation-frequency] 
[life {forever | seconds}] 
[start-time {hh:mm[:ss] 
[month day | day month] | pending | now | 
after hh:mm:ss}]
Example:

Router(config)# ip sla group schedule 1 3,4,6-9

For multioperation scheduler only:

Specifies an IP SLAs operation group number and the range of operation numbers to be scheduled in global configuration mode.

•The frequency of all operations scheduled in the operation group should be the same.

•The operation ID numbers are limited to a maximum of 125 characters. Do not use large integer values as operation ID numbers.

Step 5 

exit

Example:

Router(config)# exit

Exits to privileged EXEC mode.

Step 6 

show ip sla group schedule

Example: 
Router# show ip sla group schedule

(Optional) Displays the IP SLAs group schedule details.

Step 7  

show ip sla configuration
Example: 
Router# show ip sla configuration

(Optional) Displays the IP SLAs configuration details.

Examples

The following sample output shows the configuration of all the IP SLAs parameters (including defaults) for the FTP operation number 10. 

Router# show ip sla configuration 10


Complete Configuration Table (includes defaults)

Entry number: 10

Owner: FTP-Test

Tag: FTP-Test

Type of operation to perform: ftp

Source address: 0.0.0.0

FTP URL: ftp://username:password@hostip/filename

Type Of Service parameters: 128

Operation timeout (milliseconds): 30000

Operation frequency (seconds): 30

Next Scheduled Start Time: Start Time already passed

Group Scheduled: FALSE

Life (seconds): Forever

Entry Ageout (seconds): never

Recurring (Starting Everyday): FALSE

Status of entry (SNMP RowStatus): Active

Threshold (milliseconds): 30000

Number of statistic hours kept: 2

Number of statistic distribution buckets kept: 1

Statistic distribution interval (milliseconds): 20

Number of history Lives kept: 0

Number of history Buckets kept: 15

Troubleshooting Tips

Use the debug ip sla trace and debug ip sla error commands to help troubleshoot issues with the FTP operation.

What to Do Next

To add proactive threshold conditions and reactive triggering for generating traps, or for starting another operation, to an IP SLAs operation, see Configuring Proactive Threshold Monitoring.

To view and interpret the results of an IP SLAs operation use the show ip sla statistics command. Checking the output for fields that correspond to criteria in your service level agreement will help you determine whether the service metrics are acceptable.

Configuration Examples for IP SLAs FTP Operations

•Example: Configuring an FTP Operation

Example: Configuring an FTP Operation

The following example shows how to configure an FTP operation as shown in Figure 1 from Router B to the FTP server. The operation is scheduled to start every day at 1:30 a.m. In this example, the file named test.cap is to be retrieved from the host, cisco.com, with a password of abc using FTP in active mode.

Router B Configuration 

ip sla 10

 ftp get ftp://user1:abc@test.cisco.com/test.cap mode active

 frequency 20

 tos 128

 timeout 40000

 tag FLL-FTP

ip sla schedule 10 start-time 01:30:00 recurring

Additional References

Related Documents

Related Topic
Document Title

Cisco IOS commands

Cisco IOS Master Commands List, All Releases

Cisco IOS IP SLAs commands

Cisco IOS IP SLAs Command Reference

Cisco IOS IP SLAs: general information

"Cisco IOS IP SLAs Overview" chapter of the Cisco IP SLAs Configuration Guide.


Standards

Standards
Title

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

—


MIBs

MIBs
MIBs Link

CISCO-RTTMON-MIB

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

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


RFCs

RFCs
Title

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

—


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 IP SLAs FTP Operations

Table 1 lists the features in this module and provides links to specific configuration information.

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 1 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 1 Feature Information for IP SLAs FTP Operations 

Feature Name
Releases
Feature Information

IP SLAs FTP Operation

12.2(31)SB2
12.2(33)SRB1
12.2(33)SXH
12.3(14)T
15.0(1)S
Cisco IOS XE 3.1.0SG

The Cisco IOS IP SLAs File Transfer Protocol (FTP) operation allows you to measure the network response time between a Cisco device and an FTP server to retrieve a file.


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

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