-
- Monitoring Devices
- Monitoring Wireless Devices
- Creating Monitoring Policies and Thresholds
- Monitoring Alarms
- Monitoring Clients and Users
- Performance Routing Version 3 Based Network Monitoring
- Monitoring Wireless Technologies
- Using Monitoring Tools
- Viewing Performance Graphs
- Troubleshooting
- Monitoring Multiple Prime Infrastructure Instances
-
- Securing Network Services
- Configuring and Monitoring IWAN
- Using Converged Access Workflow
- Configuring and Monitoring Cisco Catalyst Instant Access
- Configuring Application Visibility and Control
- Ensuring Consistent Application Experiences
- Troubleshooting Applications
- Monitoring Microsoft Lync Traffic
- Using Mediatrace
- Cisco Mobility Services Engine and Services
- Configuring the Cisco AppNav Solution
- Configuring WAAS Container
- Working with Wireless Mobility
Cisco Prime Infrastructure 3.1 User Guide
- Updated:
- June 12, 2019
Chapter: Performance Routing Version 3 Based Network Monitoring
Performance Routing Version 3 Based Network Monitoring
Performance Routing
Performance Routing Version 3 (PfRv3) represents the third generation of enhancement to the intelligent path control capabilities offered by Cisco. PfR monitors network performance and selects the best path for each application based upon advanced criteria such as reachability, delay, jitter and packet loss. PfR can evenly distribute traffic to maintain equivalent link utilization levels using an advanced load balancing technique.
PfRv3 is an intelligent path control of the IWAN initiative and provides a business-class WAN over Internet transports. PfR allows customers to protect critical applications from fluctuating WAN performance while intelligently load balancing traffic over all WAN paths.
PfR comprises two major Cisco IOS components:
- Master Controller—The master controller is a policy decision point at which policies are defined and applied to various traffic classes that traverse the border router systems. The master controller can be configured to learn and control traffic classes on the network.
- Border Routers— The border routers are in the data forwarding path. The border router collects data from the Performance Monitor cache and from the smart probe results. The border router influences the packet forwarding path as directed by the master controller to manage user traffic.
Getting Access to PfR Monitoring for a User Group
PfR monitoring is enabled for the Prime Infrastructure root user group by default.
To access the PfR monitoring landing page by other user groups, do the following:
Step 1
Choose Administration > User, Roles & AAA > User.
Step 2 Click Users in the left pane, and choose Select a command > Add User, then click Go.
Step 3 Enter the username and password, and then confirm the password, for the new user.
Step 4 Assign user group to the new user by selecting the check box next to each user group which has PfR Monitoring Access entry in its task list.
Step 6 Log in to Prime Infrastructure using the new Username and Password.
Step 7 Choose Services > Application Visibility & Control > PfR Monitoring.
Step 8 If you do not see PfR Monitoring, go to Administration > User, Roles & AAA > User Groups.
Step 9 Click Task List corresponding to the assigned user group and check whether PfR Monitoring is available.
Step 10 If PfR Monitoring is not available in the task list, click the Task Permissions tab and check the PfR Monitoring Access check box under the Network Monitoring list.
PfR Monitoring Page
You can launch the PfR monitoring page by choosing Services > Application Visibility & Control > PfR Monitoring. The PfR monitoring page has PfR Events tab including Site to Site PfR Events table, a filter panel, Metrics panel (Service Provider view and Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) View charts), time slider, and Compare WAN Links tab.
You can manually refresh the PfR landing page by clicking the Refresh icon 
at the top right corner of the PfR monitoring page.
You can select your preferences for Events table and the charts, by clicking the settings icon at the top right corner of the page.
- Configuring and Monitoring IWAN
- Site to Site PfR Events Table
- PfR Filter Panel
- Service Provider View and DSCP View Charts
- PfR Site To Site Details
- Comparing WAN Interfaces
Site to Site PfR Events Table
The Site to Site PfR events table displays sites (Hub, Branch and Transit sites) and the events including Threshold Crossing Alert (TCA), Route change (RC) and Immitigable event (IME). The PfR events that occurred over last 72 hours are displayed, by default.
The events are represented by red and blue dots in the Site to Site PfR events table. The metric violations that could not be corrected by the PfR are classified as IME and indicated as red dots in the table. The degraded network performance that are identified and corrected by PfR are indicated by blue dots.
The events in the table are sorted such that the site combinations with maximum number of IMEs, is present at top row of the table. If two site combinations have equal number of IMEs, then the one with maximum number of events (including IME, TCA, and RC) is placed on the top of the table and indicated in red color. You can view the site hierarchy by hovering the mouse over the source and destination sites.
You can perform the following tasks in the Events table:
– Click the topology icon 
next to any site pair to view the live topology that shows traffic corresponding to different DSCPs. For more information see Site to Site PfR Topology.
– Click the links or Border Router to view the metrics details at the bottom of the live topology.
– Check the Open Metrics in-Popup check box in the live topology window to view the metrics details in a pop-up.
– Check the Show DSCP Labels check box in the live topology window to view the DSCPs.
– Click a dot in the events table, to view PfR events pop-up. For more information, see PfR Site To Site Details.
PfR Filter Panel
The PfR Filter Panel allows you to filter events based on time filter, location group filter, event filter, and service provider filter. The Metrics panel and the Site to Site PfR Events table display the details based on the selected filter options.
Table 14-1 displays the filter options available in the Filter panel.
You can view the selected filter options in the top of the filter panel. You can click more to view all the selected filter options.
Service Provider View and DSCP View Charts
The Metrics panel displays Service provider View and DSCP View charts.
Service Provider View Chart—Displays the metrics gathered using the TCA. Each service provider is represented by a unique color in the chart. The charts available in this view are:
- Unreachability event count over time
- Maximum Delay over time
- Maximum Jitter over time
- Maximum Packet Loss% over time
DSCP View Chart—Displays six different metric charts with respect to different DSCPs. A maximum of five DSCPs can be viewed in the maximized view of the chart. You can also choose the required DSCP using the DSCP filter. The charts available in this view are:
- Service Provider (SP) Bandwidth (B/W) usage per DSCP
- DSCP vs TCAs
- DSCP vs Unreachable TCAs
- Maximum Delay Over time
- Maximum Jitter Over time
- Maximum Packet Loss% Over time
You can perform the following tasks in the Metrics Panel:
– Viewing different charts—Click the arrow icons in the metrics panel.
– Adding new charts —Click the add icon. In the Add components dialog box, choose the required components and click Save.
Time Slider
A time slider present at the bottom of the page, represents the time range selected using the filter. You can drag the slider and set a particular time range. The Metrics Panels and the Site to Site PfR events table change corresponding to the set time range.
PfR Site To Site Details
A PfR events pop-up window appears when you click an event (dot) in the Site to Site PfR Events table. The pop-up window displays the type of events occurred in the selected time range, along with the event details in a table format.
The table displays few columns by default. If you want to display the additional columns that are available, click 
, and then click Columns. The available columns appear. Select the columns that you want to show in the table.
The violated metrics (Byte Lost%, Delay, Jitter, Packet Loss%) that cause IME are indicated within Square Brackets [].
Click Site to Site details in the pop-up window to view the schematic Site to Site topology representation, Threshold Crossing Alert(s), Route Change Event(s), and Immitigable Event(s) and All Events tabs.
Table 14-2 displays the details of the PfR Events.
Site to Site PfR Topology
The site to site network topology includes legends representing border router, master controller, service provider, and Internal and External links. The topology is plotted based on the data for a minimum of 72 hours, even if you select a time frame of less than 72 hours using the time filter.
The Border router and the corresponding links are dimmed and you cannot click them for the following reasons:
- If the inventory collection has failed for the border router.
- If the border router is not managed.
- If a user is not authorized to access the border router (as per Role Based Access Control).
Click a border router or master controller to view the device metrics pop-up window. Click Launch Device Dashboard in the device metrics pop-up window to view the Device dashlets in the Performance dashboard. See Performance Dashboard in Related Topics.
Similarly, click a link to view the link metrics pop-up window from where you can navigate to the link context page. Click Launch Interface Dashboard in the Link Metrics pop-up window to view the Interface dashlets in the Performance dashboard.
If the topology diagram is not loaded, check the following:
- Availability of any one of the border router, master controller or service provider.
- Availability of PfR Bandwidth between the sites for the selected time Interval.
- There is no inventory failure in the Protocol Endpoint.
- The Interfaces are managed by Prime Infrastructure.
- Availability of WAN links.
- Whether you have logged in as “root” user and have access to the required devices.
Viewing Device Context View
The device context view displays the border router metrics and WAN link Usage and Performance.
Step 1 Click a border router in the topology.
The device metrics pop-up window showing CPU Utilization and Memory Utilization appears.
Step 2 Click Analyze in the device metrics pop-up window to view the device context view. You can see:
- Border router metrics—Displays three charts in which the utilization of service provider Bandwidth, memory and CPU are plotted for the selected time range. In the CPU and memory utilization charts, click the CPU and memory modules to know their utilization. Click the zoom icon to see the enlarged view of the chart. You can further enlarge the chart to view the data pattern in a specific time interval by moving the slider.
- WAN Link Usage and Performance—Displays a table that shows WAN link usage and performance with respect to DSCP markings, for the WAN interfaces of the selected border router. The data includes Egress Bandwidth (B/W) usage, number of TCAs, RCs and IMEs occurred and the number of applications associated to DSCP markings.The number of applications is visible only if AVC NetFlow is received by Prime Infrastructure for this WAN link.
Step 3 Click the Expand arrow adjacent to the Traffic Class in the WAN Link Usage and Performance table to view and compare the Egress Bandwidth Utilization over time and Top Application traffic (Out) over time for that traffic class.
Viewing Link Context View
The link context page view WAN link metrics and WAN Link Usage and Performance details.
Step 1 Click Egress orange link in the topology.
The Link Metrics pop-up window comprising Egress B/W utilization, Interface Tx/Rx utilization, Maximum one-way delay, Maximum packet loss%, and Maximum Jitter appears.
Step 2 Click Ingress orange link in the topology.
The Link Metrics pop-up window comprising Ingress B/W utilization and Interface Tx/Rx utilization appears.
Step 3 Click Analyze in the Link Metrics pop-up window to view the link context view. You can see:
- WAN link metrics—Displays WAN Link (Service Provider) B/W Usage Over Time, Top N Application Traffic (In and Out) Over Time, Top QOS Class Map Statistics Trend and Interface Availability Trend charts. Click the zoom icon to view the enlarged view of the chart. You can further enlarge the chart to view the data pattern in a specific time interval by moving the slider.
- WAN Link Usage and Performance—Displays a table that shows WAN Link Usage and Performance with respect to DSCP markings, for the WAN interface. The data includes Egress Bandwidth (B/W) usage, number of TCAs, RCs and IMEs occurred and the number of applications associated to DSCP markings.The number of applications is visible only if AVC NetFlow is received by Prime Infrastructure for this WAN link.
Step 4 Click the Expand arrow adjacent to the DSCP in the WAN Link Usage and Performance table to view the Egress Bandwidth Utilization over time and Top Application traffic (Out) over time for that DSCP.
Comparing WAN Interfaces
The Compare WAN Links tab shows a guided workflow for comparing the WAN link usage and performance of the selected WAN links.
Step 1 Choose Services > Application Visibility & Control > PfR Monitoring.
Step 2 Click Compare WAN Links tab.
Step 3 Click the filter icon to view the Time Filter, if required.
Step 4 Choose the required options from PfR Controlled Site, Border Router and WAN Interface/SP drop-down lists, in each WAN link you want to compare.
Step 5 Click Compare to compare the selected WAN links.
Step 6 If you want to add third WAN link for comparison click “+” icon and select the required options and click Update.
Step 7 Click the edit icon to change the previous selections.
You can view charts representing WAN link Utilization, Top N application, Top QOS Trend and Interface Availability of the select WAN links, and a table that compares the Egress Bandwidth (B/W) usage, number of TCAs, RCs and IMEs occurred and number of applications routed, for the selected WAN links.
Step 8 Click the required WAN link metrics to view the respective charts.
You can also click Compare WAN Links in the device metrics pop-up window in the topology representation or click Add To Compare in the Link Metrics pop-up window to view the Compare WAN Links tab. The border router and WAN Interface details get automatically populated based on the device or link you clicked.
Feedback