Barracuda SSL Servers Test
The Barracuda WAF forwards client requests to backend SSL servers to securely fetch responses after SSL decryption. These backend servers act as the actual content sources, and their responsiveness, capacity, and health have a critical impact on secure application delivery and user experience. Issues such as excessive timeouts, request rejections, connection failures, or imbalanced load distribution, if left unnoticed, can lead to delayed response times, degraded performance, broken SSL sessions, and even application outages. This test helps address such concerns.
This test monitors every SSL server that processes requests for each service and tracks various performance, connection, and availability metrics. The test reports on request handling statistics, connection usage, data throughput, and response times, enabling administrators to proactively detect anomalies and take corrective actions before they lead to catastrophic outcomes.
Target of the test : A Barracuda WAF
Agent deploying the test : An external agent
Outputs of the test : One set of results for every ServiceName:Port+ServerName:Port combination on the target firewall being monitored.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
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Test Period |
How often should the test be executed. |
|
Host |
The IP address of the target server that is being monitored. |
|
Data Over TCP |
By default, in an IT environment, all data transmission occurs over UDP. Some environments however, may be specifically configured to offload a fraction of the data traffic – for instance, certain types of data traffic or traffic pertaining to specific components – to other protocols like TCP, so as to prevent UDP overloads. In such environments, you can instruct the eG agent to conduct the SNMP data traffic related to the monitored target over TCP (and not UDP). For this, set this flag to Yes. By default, this flag is set to No. |
|
Timeout |
Specify the duration (in seconds) within which the SNMP query executed by this test should time out in this text box. The default is 10 seconds. |
|
SNMPPort |
The port at which the monitored target exposes its SNMP MIB; the default is 161. |
|
SNMPVersion |
By default, the eG agent supports SNMP version 1. Accordingly, the default selection in the SNMPversion list is v1. However, if a different SNMP framework is in use in your environment, say SNMP v2 or v3, then select the corresponding option from this list. |
|
Context |
This parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVERSION. An SNMP context is a collection of management information accessible by an SNMP entity. An item of management information may exist in more than one context and an SNMP entity potentially has access to many contexts. A context is identified by the SNMPEngineID value of the entity hosting the management information (also called a contextEngineID) and a context name that identifies the specific context (also called a contextName). If the Username provided is associated with a context name, then the eG agent will be able to poll the MIB and collect metrics only if it is configured with the context name as well. In such cases therefore, specify the context name of the Username in the Context text box. By default, this parameter is set to none. |
|
Username |
This parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPversion. SNMP version 3 (SNMPv3) is an extensible SNMP Framework which supplements the SNMPv2 Framework, by additionally supporting message security, access control, and remote SNMP configuration capabilities. To extract performance statistics from the MIB using the highly secure SNMP v3 protocol, the eG agent has to be configured with the required access privileges – in other words, the eG agent should connect to the MIB using the credentials of a user with access permissions to be MIB. Therefore, specify the name of such a user against this parameter. |
|
Authpass |
Specify the password that corresponds to the above-mentioned Username. This parameter once again appears only if the SNMPversion selected is v3. |
|
Confirm Password |
Confirm the AuthPass by retyping it here. |
|
AuthType |
This parameter too appears only if v3 is selected as the SNMPversion. From the AuthType list box, choose the authentication algorithm using which SNMP v3 converts the specified username and password into a 32-bit format to ensure security of SNMP transactions. You can choose between the following options:
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EncryptFlag |
This flag appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPversion. By default, the eG agent does not encrypt SNMP requests. Accordingly, the this flag is set to No by default. To ensure that SNMP requests sent by the eG agent are encrypted, select the Yes option. |
|
EncryptType |
If the EncryptFlag is set to Yes, then you will have to mention the encryption type by selecting an option from the EncryptType list. SNMP v3 supports the following encryption types:
|
|
EncryptPassword |
Specify the encryption password here. |
|
Confirm Password |
Confirm the encryption password by retyping it here. |
|
EngineID |
This parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVersion. Sometimes, the test may not report metrics when AES192 or AES256 is chosen as the Encryption type. To ensure that the test report metrics consistently, administrators need to set this flag to Yes. By default, this parameter is set to No. |
|
Measurement |
Description |
Measurement Unit |
Interpretation |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
State |
Indicates the current state of this SSL server while processing requests for this service. |
Number |
The values that this measure can report and its corresponding numeric equivalents are listed in the table below:
Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the status of this SSL server. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only. |
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|
Total accepted request |
Indicates the total number of requests accepted by this SSL server while processing requests for this service during the last measurement period. |
Number |
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Total active requests |
Indicates the total number of active requests currently being handled by this SSL server while processing requests for this service during the last measurement period. |
Number |
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Total rejected requests |
Indicates the total number of requests rejected by this SSL server while processing requests for this service during the last measurement period. |
Number |
If the value of this measure is high, then that implies the server is overloaded or security policies are blocking requests. |
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|
Total successful requests |
Indicates the total number of requests successfully processed by this SSL server while handling requests for this service during the last measurement period. |
Number |
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Total refused requests |
Indicates the total number of requests explicitly refused by this SSL server while handling traffic for this service during the last measurement period. |
Number |
A low value is desired for this measure, as a high value might be due to overloaded server. |
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|
Total timeout requests |
Indicates the total number of requests that timed out at this SSL server while processing requests for this service during the last measurement period. |
Number |
A high value for this measure migh indicate that the server is unable to respond to requests within expected time. This inturn indicates perfromance issues. |
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Average connection requests |
Indicates the average number of requests served per connection at this SSL server while processing requests for this service. |
Requests/Connection |
A low value denotes inefficient connection usage. |
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Total responses |
Indicates the total number of responses generated by this SSL server while processing requests for this service during the last measurement period. |
Number |
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Average response time |
Indicates the average time taken by this SSL server to respond while processing requests for this service. |
Milliseconds |
If the value is high, it means the server is taking too long to respond to requests. This indicates latency issues and is a cause for concern. |
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|
Total enqueued requests |
Indicates the number of requests that are currently enqueued at this SSL server while processing traffic for this service. |
Number |
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Total free connections |
Indicates the number of free connections at this SSL server while processing requests for this service. |
Number |
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Total opening connections |
Indicates the number of connections that are currently being opened at this SSL server while processing traffic for this service. |
Number |
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Total connections |
Indicates the total number of connections (both active and idle) at this SSL server while processing requests for this service. |
Number |
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Total IB disables |
Indicates the number of internal buffer disables observed at this SSL server while processing requests for this service. |
Number |
If the value of this measure is high, it might indicate internal buffering issues. |
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Total OOB disables |
Indicates the number of out-of-band health check disables recorded at this SSL server while processing traffic for this service. |
Number |
A low value is desired for this measure. |
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Total OOB enables |
Indicates the number of out-of-band health check enables recorded at this SSL server while processing traffic for this service. |
Number |
A low value is desired for this measure. |
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|
Data received |
Indicates the total volume of data received by this SSL server while processing requests for this service during the last measurement period. |
GB |
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|
Data transmitted |
Indicates the total volume of data transmitted by this SSL server while processing requests for this service during the last measurement period. |
GB |
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