BlackBerry PolicyServer Traffic Test

An IT policy consists of rules that define BlackBerry device security, settings for synchronizing data over the wireless network, and other behaviors for the individual groups or user accounts that you define. You can configure IT policies using the BlackBerry Administration Service.

The BlackBerry Policy Service sends IT policies and IT administration commands to BlackBerry devices and provisions service books over the wireless network. When you activate a BlackBerry device, change an IT policy, or request that a BlackBerry Enterprise Server resend service books, the BlackBerry Enterprise Server uses the BlackBerry Policy Service to send the updates to the BlackBerry handheld device.

If the BlackBerry Policy Service experiences overloads or processing bottlenecks, then, it may not be able to update the BlackBerry devices with critical changes in IT policies; this in turn may affect device security, user account behavior and more! Using this test, you can closely monitor the transaction load on the Policy Service, proactively detect surges in failed and pending transaction counts, and thus quickly isolate processing bottlenecks. This way, you can instantly initiate measures to clear the bottlenecks and ensure the prompt delivery of updates of devices.

Target of the test : A BlackBerry Enterprise Server

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the BlackBerry Policy Service being monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter	Description
Test Period	How often should the test be executed
Host	The IP address of the host for which this test is to be configured.
SNMPPort	The port at which the monitored target exposes its SNMP MIB; The default value 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.
SNMPCommunity	The SNMP community name that the test uses to communicate with the firewall. This parameter is specific to SNMP v1 and v2 only. Therefore, if the SNMPVersion chosen is v3, then this parameter will not appear.
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.
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.
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: MD5 - Message Digest Algorithm SHA - Secure Hash Algorithm SHA224 - Secure Hash Algorithm 224 bit SHA256 - Secure Hash Algorithm 256 bit SHA384 - Secure Hash Algorithm 384 bit SHA512 - Secure Hash Algorithm 512 bit
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: DES - Data Encryption Standard 3DES - Triple Data Encryption Standard AES - Advanced Encryption Standard AES128 - Advanced Encryption Standard 128 bit AES192 - Advanced Encryption Standard 192 bit AES256 - Advanced Encryption Standard 256 bit
EncryptPassword	Specify the encryption password here.
Confirm Password	Confirm the encryption password by retyping it here.
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.
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.
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.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Transactions received by policy server	Indicates the number of transactions that were received by the BlackBerry Policy Service from all the BlackBerry handheld devices during the last measurement period.	Number
Message size	Indicates the size of the messages that were sent from the BlackBerry Policy Service to all the BlackBerry handheld devices during the last measurement period.	KB
Pending requests to policy server	Indicates the number of requests that are yet to be delivered by the policy service to the BlackBerry handheld devices.	Number	A low value is desired for this measure. A consistent increase in this value could indicate a processing bottleneck.
Transactions sent by policy server	Indicates the number of transactions that were sent by the BlackBerry Policy service to all the BlackBerry handheld devices during the last measurement period.	Number
Failed requests for policy server	Indicates the number of requests that failed to be delivered to the BlackBerry Policy Service from the BlackBerry handheld devices during the last measurement period.	Number	Ideally, the value of this measure must be 0.