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Comprehensive Overview of Health and Performance Monitoring Techniques Across Various Networking Solutions

GOOVER DAILY REPORT August 1, 2024
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1. Summary
  2. Health Monitoring in Avi Vantage
  3. Health and Performance Monitoring in BIG-IP LTM
  4. System Monitoring and Troubleshooting in Cisco DNA Center
  5. Conclusion

1. Summary

  • The report titled 'Comprehensive Overview of Health and Performance Monitoring Techniques Across Various Networking Solutions' investigates the health and performance monitoring strategies used in Avi Vantage, BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM), and Cisco DNA Center. It aims to highlight how active and passive monitoring methods ensure operational reliability and effective workload management in network environments. The report details key functionalities such as health monitor configurations, system integrations, and performance metrics. Real-world application insights provide a comprehensive understanding of modern health monitoring practices, covering specific techniques like active and passive monitors, custom external monitors in Avi Vantage, pre-configured and custom monitors in BIG-IP LTM, and integration with tools like Grafana and Kibana in Cisco DNA Center for enhanced monitoring and troubleshooting.

2. Health Monitoring in Avi Vantage

  • 2-1. Active vs Passive Health Monitors

  • In Avi Vantage, health monitors are crucial for validating server performance and ensuring they can handle additional workloads before client load balancing. There are two types of health monitors: active and passive. Active health monitors periodically send synthetic transactions to servers from Service Engines assigned to the application's virtual service. These health monitors are attached to the pool for the virtual service and must be successful for a server to be marked as up. Passive health monitors, on the other hand, do not send checks to the server. Instead, they monitor client-server interactions and infer server health based on the server's responses to client requests. While active monitors provide a binary health assessment, passive monitors allow for a more nuanced understanding of server performance.

  • 2-2. Health Monitor Profile Configurations

  • Health monitor profiles in Avi Vantage can be configured through the Health Monitor tab, which provides options for creating, editing, or deleting profiles. Avi Vantage supports several types of health monitors, including DNS, External, HTTP, HTTPS, Ping, TCP, UDP, and SIP. Each type of monitor has specific settings for send intervals, receive timeouts, successful checks, and failed checks. For instance, a DNS monitor queries name servers and matches responses against expected IP addresses, while an External monitor allows for user-written scripts to conduct customized health checks. Active health monitors have editable settings and send proactive queries to servers, while passive monitors do not have settings and rely on client interaction data to assess server health.

  • 2-3. Custom External Monitors

  • Avi Vantage also supports custom external monitors, which use user-written scripts for granular health checks. These scripts can be written in languages like Linux shell, Python, or Perl and can execute commands like wget, netcat, curl, snmpget, or dig. These monitors run with constrained resources to avoid affecting the platform's performance. Specific parameters, like Script Code, Health Monitor Port, Script Parameters, and Script Variables, allow administrators to fine-tune these monitors. Errors generated by the scripts are logged in the Operations Events log. An example would be a script that authenticates to a Microsoft SharePoint server and checks for a '200 OK' response to determine health.

3. Health and Performance Monitoring in BIG-IP LTM

  • 3-1. Types of Monitors: Simple, Active, and Passive

  • BIG-IP® Local Traffic Manager™ (LTM) supports three primary methods of monitoring: simple, active, and passive. Simple monitors determine whether the status of a node is up or down. The system contains two types of simple monitors: ICMP and TCP_ECHO. These monitors check the health of a node only and not individual pool members. Active monitoring checks the status of a pool member or node on an ongoing basis at set intervals. This type of monitoring provides specific protocol, service, or application checks and can redirect traffic if required. For example, HTTP monitors assess the availability of the HTTP service. There are two categories of active monitors: Extended Content Verification (ECV) and Extended Application Verification (EAV). Examples include HTTP and WMI monitors. Passive monitoring assesses the health of a pool member based on client request patterns without generating additional traffic. The only type of passive monitor is the Inband monitor. This method measures health via connection attempts over time.

  • 3-2. Pre-configured and Custom Monitoring Types

  • F5 provides both pre-configured and custom monitoring options with the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager™. Pre-configured monitors are ready-made monitoring solutions that do not require user modifications and include various types such as gateway_icmp, https, and snmp_dca. These monitors are typically linked to pools, pool members, or nodes and used directly if default settings suffice. Custom monitors offer flexibility for users needing specific configurations not available in pre-configured monitors. Users can import settings from an existing monitor and adjust parameters to fit their needs. Examples include modifying the interval or timeout settings of an ICMP monitor or associating multiple monitors (e.g., HTTP and HTTPS) to a pool member.

  • 3-3. Integration of Health and Performance Monitors

  • BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager™ facilitates the integration of health and performance monitors to ensure accurate node status reporting. For instance, when configuring performance monitors such as SNMP DCA or WMI, users should also configure a health monitor to provide precise node availability. Monitor settings vary by type and can be customized. For example, ICMP monitors periodically check the status of an IP address with configurable intervals and timeouts. Users can implement monitors via the BIG-IP Configuration utility or a command-line interface, associating them with relevant pools or nodes. Additionally, monitors can run in Transparent mode to check nodes through intermediate devices, such as firewalls. The system supports dynamic ratio load balancing for various server types, utilizing special monitor plug-ins and performance monitors for real-time communication and performance tracking. Associated monitors must be linked to pools, pool members, or nodes, depending on the desired monitoring scope.

4. System Monitoring and Troubleshooting in Cisco DNA Center

  • 4-1. System 360 Overview

  • The System 360 Overview in Cisco DNA Center provides at-a-glance information about hosts, including IP addresses and details about running services. A green badge indicates a healthy host, while a red badge indicates an unhealthy host. The health status of nodes and services is also displayed, providing essential information for troubleshooting. Users can access detailed information by hovering over status indicators.

  • 4-2. Monitoring via Grafana and Kibana

  • Cisco DNA Center integrates with Grafana and Kibana for monitoring and logging purposes. Grafana is an open-source metric analytics and visualization suite used to review key metrics such as memory and CPU usage. Kibana is an open-source analytics and visualization platform that works with Elasticsearch for reviewing system logs. These tools help in troubleshooting by providing detailed metrics and logs.

  • 4-3. Integration with External Systems

  • Cisco DNA Center integrates with external systems like Identity Services Engine (ISE) and IP Address Manager (IPAM). This integration includes displaying configuration data, status of primary and secondary servers for ISE, and IPAM configuration status. Additionally, Cisco DNA Center can be used as a AAA server for authentication purposes, reinforcing access control policies when integrated with ISE.

  • 4-4. Health Status Indicators and Troubleshooting

  • Health status indicators in Cisco DNA Center use color badges to denote the status of updates, backups, and automation health. A green badge indicates success, while yellow and red badges indicate issues or areas needing attention. Users can click on these indicators to access further details and perform troubleshooting. Logs and metrics are accessible to pinpoint specific issues within the network.

5. Conclusion

  • The report underscores the significant role of robust health and performance monitoring in maintaining network stability and managing workloads effectively. Each system—Avi Vantage, BIG-IP LTM, and Cisco DNA Center—utilizes unique monitoring methodologies tailored to meet its specific operational needs. Avi Vantage leverages both active and passive monitoring to ensure server readiness, while BIG-IP LTM employs simple, active, and passive monitoring types to provide precise status reporting. Cisco DNA Center offers an integrated monitoring approach through System 360 and external tools like Grafana and Kibana. The diversity and adaptability of these methods highlight the necessity of a comprehensive approach combining various monitoring types and proper configurations for optimal network performance. Despite their extensive capabilities, continuous advancements through AI-driven analytics could further enhance these monitoring practices, ensuring more intelligent and responsive network management in the future. Nevertheless, understanding and effectively applying these existing methodologies is crucial for immediate improvements in network reliability and efficiency.

6. Glossary

  • 6-1. Avi Vantage [Product]

  • Avi Vantage utilizes dynamic health monitors to determine server readiness for client traffic, employing both active and passive monitoring techniques for diverse application health validation.

  • 6-2. BIG-IP LTM [Product]

  • BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) employs various health and performance monitoring types, ensuring reliable status reporting and operational stability through active and passive checks.

  • 6-3. Cisco DNA Center [Product]

  • Cisco DNA Center provides a comprehensive overview of system statuses through System 360, integrating with external systems for detailed performance metrics and monitoring through the use of Grafana and Kibana dashboards.

  • 6-4. Active Monitoring [Technology]

  • Active monitoring involves sending synthetic transactions to assess server health, requiring successful responses for the servers to be considered operational.

  • 6-5. Passive Monitoring [Technology]

  • Passive monitoring relies on client interactions to assess server health, avoiding the need for additional network traffic.

7. Source Documents