CA Nimsoft Monitor Probe Guide for Internet Control Message Protocol Ping icmp v1.1 series
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Contents Chapter 1: Overview 7 About This Guide... 7 Related Documentation... 8 Preconfiguration Requirements... 8 Supported Platforms... 10 Chapter 2: Configuration Details 11 icmp Node... 12 <Host Name> Node... 13 Configure a Node... 14 Configure the Monitors... 15 How to Configure Alarm Thresholds... 15 Configure Static Alarm Thresholds... 15 Add Resource... 16 Delete Resource... 16 Chapter 3: QoS Threshold Metrics 17 icmp QoS Metrics... 17 Contents 5
Documentation Changes This table describes the version history for this document. Version Date What's New? 1.1 May 2014 Updated the icmp node topic. Added a topic Configure RAM Consumption Limit. Updated the IP address topic. 1.0 Mar 2014 Documentation on the initial web-based version of the Internet Control Message Protocol Ping probe. 6 Probe Guide for Internet Control Message Protocol Ping
Chapter 1: Overview The Internet Control Message Protocol Ping probe tests network connectivity using ping request and generates Quality of Service (QoS) messages that are based on the response data. The probe can monitor up to 50000 resources in 5 minutes. The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is a network protocol which is used to provide feedback about network environments. Devices, like routers, use ICMP for monitoring network issues, such as, data packets not reaching the destination, a gateway service is unavailable, or, a network is congested. For example, a Network Administrator can use the icmp probe for monitoring the status of a ping request that is sent to a router present on a network. The probe generates QoS report in terms of the response time of the router, number of lost packets, or, the availability of the router on the network. This section contains the following topics: About This Guide (see page 7) Related Documentation (see page 8) About This Guide This guide is for the CA Nimsoft Monitor Administrator to help understand the configuration of the Internet Control Message Protocol Ping probe and provides the following information: Overview of the Internet Control Message Protocol Ping probe and related documentation for previous probe versions. Configuration details of the probe. Field information and common procedures for configuring the probe. Important! Description for intuitive GUI fields is not included in the document. Chapter 1: Overview 7
Related Documentation Related Documentation Related Documentation Documentation for other versions of the icmp probe The Release Notes for the icmp probe User documentation for the Admin Console Monitor Metrics Reference Information for CA Nimsoft Probes (http://docs.nimsoft.com/prodhelp/en_us/probes/probereference/index.htm) Preconfiguration Requirements System Requirements This section contains the preconfiguration requirements for the CA Nimsoft Internet Control Message Protocol Ping probe. This section contains the system requirements for the Internet Control Message Protocol Ping probe. Memory: 2 GB for 50000 resources. CPU: 2.13-GHz dual-core processor, 64-bit. 8 Probe Guide for Internet Control Message Protocol Ping
Related Documentation Configure RAM Consumption Limit For monitoring 50000 resources, the icmp probe requires a RAM of size 2 GB. However, if you want to monitor lesser number of resources then you can modify the size of RAM that the probe consumes. Follow these steps: 1. Open the Raw Configuration user interface of the icmp probe. 2. Go to the Startup tab and click Options key value. By default, the key value is -Xms32m -Xmx2048m -XX:MaxNewSize=716177408 -XX:+UseParallelOldGC. Note: If the Options field is empty, you can enter the key value as specified above. 3. Modify the numerical figures as per the following formula: -Xms32m -Xmx<RAM_SIZE>m -XX:MaxNewSize=<MAX_SIZE> -XX:+UseParallelOldGC Where, RAM_SIZE is the maximum amount of heap size (RAM), in megabytes, that you want the probe to consume from the total RAM of your system. MAX_SIZE is calculated as one third of RAM_SIZE, measured in megabytes and then converted to bytes. Note: The number 32 indicates the minimum RAM that the probe requires to execute. If the number of profiles that you want to monitor are less than 50000, then you can reduce the number from 32 megabytes to a lesser value. 4. Click Apply and close the Raw Configuration interface. 5. Restart the probe for implementing the changes. The icmp probe is configured. For example, if you want the icmp probe to monitor only 10000 resources, then you can modify the key value to make the probe use only 1 GB of your total system RAM. In this case, the key value is as follows: RAM_SIZE = 1024 megabytes MAX_SIZE = (1024/3) = 341.33 megabytes = 357910446 bytes. The key value is -Xms32m-Xmx1024m-XX:MaxNewSize=357910446-XX:+UseParallelOldGC. Chapter 1: Overview 9
Related Documentation Supported Platforms Refer to the Nimsoft Compatibility Support Matrix for the latest information on supported platforms. See also the Support Matrix for Nimsoft Probes for specific information on the icmp probe. 10 Probe Guide for Internet Control Message Protocol Ping
Chapter 2: Configuration Details The Internet Control Message Protocol Ping probe is configured for monitoring any networking device through ICMP ping request. The probe measures three key parameters of a network: Response Time, Service Availability, and Packet Loss. The QoS messages are generated based on the following network parameters: Average Response Time (Default Monitor) Maximum Response Time Minimum Response Time Successful Attempts Failed Attempts Percentage of Packet Loss (Default Monitor) Service Availability (Default Monitor) This section contains the following topics: icmp Node (see page 12) Configure a Node (see page 14) Configure the Monitors (see page 15) How to Configure Alarm Thresholds (see page 15) Configure Static Alarm Thresholds (see page 15) Add Resource (see page 16) Delete Resource (see page 16) Chapter 2: Configuration Details 11
icmp Node icmp Node This node lets you view the probe information and lets you configure the setup properties of the Internet Control Message Protocol Ping probe. You can also apply filter on existing resources for viewing a resource. Navigation: icmp Set or modify the following values as required: icmp > Probe Information This section provides information about the probe name, probe version, start time of the probe, and the probe vendor. icmp > Probe Setup This section lets you configure the log and setup properties of the Internet Control Message Protocol Ping probe. Log Level: specifies the detail level of the log file. Default: 1-Error Timeout (sec): specifies the response time limit for the host, exceeding which the ping request is marked as failed. Default: 2 Number of packets: specifies the number of packets that are sent in one ping request. Default: 3 Buffer Size: specifies the maximum size in bits of the icmp buffer. Default: 64 Interval in Seconds: specifies the time interval between each ping request. Default: 600 icmp > Add New Profile This section lets you create a profile for monitoring a resource. The profile is displayed as a child node under the icmp node. Hostname: defines the resource host name or IP address. Note: The probe resolves the IP address of the resource from the host name. Active: activates the resource monitoring. Default: Selected Interval in Seconds: specifies the time interval between each ping request. Default: 600 Buffer Size: specifies the maximum size of the icmp buffer in bits. 12 Probe Guide for Internet Control Message Protocol Ping
icmp Node icmp > Filter Default: 64 This section lets you filter the existing resources to view a specific resource. By default, the first 255 resources are visible under the icmp node on the left pane. You can apply a filter for viewing a resource. The Apply Filter field lets you enter the IP address of an existing resource or a combination of an IP address and a Regular Expression. For example, for viewing the resources that have host IDs starting with 10, you can enter the IP address as 10.*. Note: The Test Filter option under the Actions drop-down lets you view the number of resources that match the specified filter value. <Host Name> Node This node lets you view and configure the resource properties. Note: This node is referred to as the host name node in the document and is user-configurable. Navigation: icmp > host name host name > Resource Setup This section lets you view and configure the resource properties and packet-level values for monitoring the resource. Select Verify Selection under the Actions list for testing whether the resource is reachable in the network or not. Hostname: defines the resource host name or IP address. Active: activates resource monitoring. Default: Selected ICMP Buffer Size: specifies the maximum size of the icmp buffer in bits. Default: 64 Interval: specifies the time interval (in seconds) between each ping request. Chapter 2: Configuration Details 13
Configure a Node <IP Address> Node This node lets you view and configure the Internet Control Message Protocol Ping probe monitors. You can select specific monitors for measuring the networking parameters of the resource. The QoS messages are generated for only the selected monitors. You can also activate the calculation of dynamic and static threshold values for these monitors. The following monitors are enabled by default: Average Response Time Packet Loss Service Availability Note: This node is referred to as IP address node and is user-configurable. Navigation: icmp > host name > IP address Set or modify the following values as required: IP address > Monitors > AveResponseMs This section lets you view and configure the monitors for which QoS data is generated. QoS Name: indicates the monitor name. Unit: indicates the monitor unit. Publish Data: generates QoS data for the monitor. Compute Baseline: sends runtime information to the Baseline probe for generating dynamic threshold values for the monitor. Note: Similarly, you can enable and configure other monitors. Configure a Node This procedure provides the information to configure a section within a node. Each section within the node lets you configure properties of the probe for connecting to the database. Follow these steps: 1. Navigate to the section within a node that you want to configure. 2. Update the field information and click Save. The specified section of the probe is configured. 14 Probe Guide for Internet Control Message Protocol Ping
Configure the Monitors Configure the Monitors You can measure the specific counter values for the monitored device by enabling the respective monitors in the IP address node. These monitors generate QoS data that shows the network status of the device. Follow these steps: 1. Select the specific IP address node from the navigation pane. The list of available monitors is displayed in the Monitors section. 2. Select the appropriate monitor from the Monitors section. 3. Enable Publish Data check box. The respective monitor is enabled in the list. 4. Set the static or dynamic alarm threshold values. Note: The Static Alarm Thresholds and Compute Baseline check boxes can be enabled only when you enable Publish Data check box. 5. Click Save to update the configuration. The QoS data for all enabled monitors is generated. How to Configure Alarm Thresholds Some Quality of Service measurement probes allow you to set different types of alarm thresholds. These threshold options allow you to more broadly control when alarm messages are sent for each QoS probe. For more information about the different alarm thresholds and their configuration requirements, refer to the General Probe Configuration section of the Admin Console Help. Important! Alarm threshold settings are dependent on the baseline_engine probe. If you do not have the correct version of baseline_engine configured, you will not see the additional threshold options. Configure Static Alarm Thresholds Important! In order to create static alarm thresholds, you must have the baseline_engine probe version 2.2 installed on the robot and configured. Static thresholds can be set at the QoS metric level in some of the probes that publish alarms for a QoS metric. For more information about static alarm thresholds, refer to the How to Configure Static Thresholds section of the Admin Console Help. Chapter 2: Configuration Details 15
Add Resource Add Resource You can add a resource machine to test the ICMP ping status. Follow these steps: 1. Click the Options icon next to the icmp node in the navigation pane. 2. Select Add New Profile. 3. Update the field information and click Submit. The new resource is available for network monitoring. Delete Resource You can delete a resource profile to stop its monitoring. Follow these steps: 1. Click the Options icon next to the host name node that you want to delete. 2. Select Delete Profile. 3. Click Save. The resource profile is deleted. 16 Probe Guide for Internet Control Message Protocol Ping
Chapter 3: QoS Threshold Metrics Many CA Nimsoft Monitor probes ship with default QoS threshold values set. The default threshold values provide an idea of the type of values to be entered in the fields and are not necessarily recommended best practice values. To aid in tuning thresholds and reducing false-positive alarms, this section describes the QoS metrics and provides the default QoS thresholds. This section contains the following topics: icmp QoS Metrics (see page 17) icmp QoS Metrics The following table describes the checkpoint metrics that can be configured using the Internet Control Message Protocol Ping probe: Monitor Name Unit Description QOS_AVG_RESPONSE_TIME Milliseconds Average response time of the monitored resource measured in milliseconds QOS_MAX_RESPONSE_TIME Milliseconds Maximum response time of the monitored resource measured in milliseconds QOS_MIN_RESPONSE_TIME Milliseconds Minimum response time of the monitored resource measured in milliseconds QOS_FAILED_ATTEMPTS Count Number of failed attempts in receiving a response from the monitored resource. QOS_SUCCESSFUL_ATTEMPTS Count Number of successful attempts in receiving a response from the monitored resource. QOS_PACKET_LOSS Percent Percentage of lost packets in a ping request. By default, 3 packets are sent in 1 ping request. QOS_SERVICE_AVAILABILITY Percent Percentage of returning packets in a ping request. The value of this monitor is 0% when no packet returns and it is 100% when at least one packet returns. Chapter 3: QoS Threshold Metrics 17