Bluecoat HTTP Performance Test

This test tracks the performance of the HTTP connections established between the clients and the Bluecoat ProxySG appliance.

Target of the test : A Bluecoat ProxySG

Agent deploying the test : An external agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the target Blue Coat ProxySG that is being monitored

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameters Description

Test period

How often should the test be executed

Host

The host for which the test is to be configured.

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.

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

Http request rate

Indicates the rate at which the HTTP requests were received from the client during the last measurement period.

Requests/sec

 

Http hit rate

Indicates the rate at which the HTTP hits were produced by the client during the last measurement period.

Hits/Sec

 

Http partial hit rate

 

Hits/Sec

 

Http miss rate

Indicates the rate at which the HTTP hits were missed during the last measurement period.

Misses/Sec

 

Http errors

Indicates the total number of errors occurred when the Http requests were established by the ProxySG during the last measurement period.

Errors

 

Average http request

Indicates the average number of Http client requests received by the ProxySG per second during the last measurement period.

Requests/sec

 

Http hit ratio

Indicates the percentage of hits generated by the client during the last measurement period.

Percent

 

Data transmitted from client

Indicates the rate at which the amount of data was transmitted from the client to the ProxySG during the last measurement period.

MB/sec

 

Data received from proxy

Indicates the rate at which the amount of data was received by the client from the ProxySG during the last measurement period.

MB/sec

 

Http request issued by proxy

Indicates the total number of Http requests made by the ProxySG during the last measurement period.

Requests/sec

Http errors while fetching objects

Indicates the total number of errors occurred while fetching the objects from the remote server during the last measurement period

Errors

 

Data transmitted from proxy

Indicates the rate at which the amount of data was transmitted to the remote servers during the last measurement period.

MB/sec

 

Data received from remote server

Indicates the rate at which the amount of data was received from the remote server during the last measurement period.

MB/sec

 

Average service time for all Http requests

Indicates the average time taken by the ProxySG to service for all the requests during the last measurement period.

Seconds

 

Average service time for all Http hits

Indicates the average time taken by the ProxySG to service for the Http hits during the last measurement period.

Seconds

 

Average service time for all Http partial hits

Indicates the average time taken by the ProxySG to service for the Http partial hits during the last measurement period.

Seconds

 

Average service time for all Http misses

Indicates the average time taken by the ProxySG to service for the Http misses during the last measurement period.

Seconds