F5 Nodes Test
Nodes are the network devices to which a BIG-IP local traffic management system passes traffic. You can explicitly create a node, or you can instruct the BIG-IP system to automatically create one when you add a pool member to a load balancing pool. Nodes are the basis for creating a load balancing pool. For any server that you want to be part of a load balancing pool, you must first create a node i.e., designate that server as a node. After designating the server as node, you can add the node to a pool as a pool member. Therefore it becomes essential to check the status of each node and the load through each node in the system so that load balancing is maintained consistently. This test exactly does the same.
This test reports the current status of each of the nodes configured on the traffic manager and tracks the data/packet traffic through each node. In addition, this test also reports how well the connections are utilized by the nodes and the active connections on each node.
Target of the test : A Big-IP/F5 Local Traffic Manager
Agent deploying the test : An external agent
Outputs of the test : One set of results for each node configured on a traffic manager
Parameter | Description |
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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 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:
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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:
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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 | Measurement | Measurement Unit | Interpretation | ||||||||||||||
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Node available status |
Indicates the current status of this node. |
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The values that this measure can report and its numeric equivalents are mentioned in the table below:
Note: By default, this measure can report the Measure Values mentioned above while indicating the current status of the node. However, the graph of this measure is indicated using the numeric equivalents 0 - 5 only. |
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Node activity status |
Indicates the current activity status of this pool as specified by the user. |
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The values that this measure can report and its numeric equivalents are mentioned in the table below:
Note: By default, this measure can report the Measure Values mentioned above while indicating the current activity status of the node. However, the graph of this measure is indicated using the numeric equivalents 0 - 3 only. |
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Data transmitted |
Indicates the rate at which data is transmitted from this node during the last measurement period. |
MB/Sec |
Compare the values of these measures across nodes to identify the node that is handling maximum traffic. |
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Data received |
Indicates the rate at which data is received in this node during the last measurement period. |
MB/Sec |
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Packets transmitted |
Indicates the rate at which packets were transmitted from this node during the last measurement period. |
Packets/Sec |
Compare the values of these measures to identify the node that is experiencing maximum traffic. |
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Packets received |
Indicates the rate at which packets were received in this node during the last measurement period. |
Packets/Sec |
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Active connections |
Indicates the number of connections that are currently active on this node. |
Number |
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Total connections |
Indicates the total number of connections established on this node since the start of the traffic manager. |
Number |
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Connection usage |
Indicates the percentage of connections that were used by this node. |
Percent |
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Connection during the last measure period |
Indicates the rate at which connections were established during the last measurement period. |
Conns/Sec |
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Maximum connections established |
Indicates the maximum number of connections that were established on this node since the start of the traffic manager. |
Number |
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Requests |
Indicates the rate at which the requests were processed by this node. |
Requests/Sec |
This measure is a good indicator of the workload on the node. Comparing the value of this measure across nodes will help you determine whether all the requests have been processed or not. Request processing bottlenecks if any, can thus be isolated and resolved. |