Cisco IP SLAs is a part of
Cisco IOS software that allows Cisco customers to analyze IP service levels for
IP applications and services by using active traffic monitoring—the generation
of traffic in a continuous, reliable, and predictable manner—for measuring
network performance. With Cisco IOS IP SLAs, service provider customers can
measure and provide service level agreements, and enterprise customers can
verify service levels, verify outsourced service level agreements, and
understand network performance. Cisco IOS IP SLAs can perform network
assessments, verify quality of service (QoS), ease the deployment of new
services, and assist with network troubleshooting.
Cisco IOS IP SLAs send data
across the network to measure performance between multiple network locations or
across multiple network paths. They simulate network data and IP services and
collect network performance information in real time. Cisco IOS IP SLAs
generate and analyze traffic either between Cisco IOS devices or from a Cisco
IOS device to a remote IP device such as a network application server.
Measurements provided by the various Cisco IOS IP SLA operations can be used
for troubleshooting, for problem analysis, and for designing network
topologies.
Depending on the specific
Cisco IOS IP SLA operations, various network performance statistics are
monitored within the Cisco device and stored in both command-line interface
(CLI) and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) MIBs. IP SLA packets have
configurable IP and application layer options such as source and destination IP
address, User Datagram Protocol (UDP)/TCP port numbers, a type of service (ToS)
byte (including Differentiated Services Code Point [DSCP] and IP Prefix bits),
Virtual Private Network (VPN) routing/forwarding instance (VRF), and URL web
address.
Because Cisco IP SLAs are Layer 2 transport
independent, you can configure end-to-end operations over disparate networks to
best reflect the metrics that an end user is likely to experience. IP SLAs
collect and analyze the
following performance metrics:
-
Delay (both round-trip and
one-way)
-
Jitter (directional)
-
Packet loss (directional)
-
Packet sequencing (packet
ordering)
-
Path (per hop)
-
Connectivity (directional)
-
Server or website download
time
Because Cisco IOS IP SLAs is
SNMP-accessible, it can also be used by performance-monitoring applications
like Cisco Prime Internetwork Performance Monitor (IPM) and other third-party
Cisco partner performance management products.
Using IP SLAs can provide the
following benefits:
-
Service-level agreement
monitoring, measurement, and verification.
-
Network performance
monitoring
-
Measurement of jitter,
latency, or packet loss in the network.
-
Continuous, reliable, and
predictable measurements.
-
IP service network health
assessment to verify that the existing QoS is sufficient for new IP services.
-
Edge-to-edge network
availability monitoring for proactive verification and connectivity testing of
network resources (for example, shows the network availability of an NFS server
used to store business critical data from a remote site).
-
Network operation
troubleshooting by providing consistent, reliable measurement that immediately
identifies problems and saves troubleshooting time.
-
Multiprotocol Label Switching
(MPLS) performance monitoring and network verification (if the
switch supports MPLS).