F5 Pool Members Test

This test auto-discovers the members of each load balancing pool and reports the data /packet traffic through each member, the number of active connections and total connections. In addition, this test reports how well the connections are used by each member. This way, administrators can figure out how well each pool member handles the load and proactively detect load balancing irregularities, if any.

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 pool configured on a traffic manager

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 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
Measurements Descriptions Measurement Unit Interpretation

Pool member available status

Indicates the current availability state of this pool member.

 

The values that this measure can report and its numeric equivalents are mentioned in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Unknown 0
None 1
Available 2
Currently not available 3
Offline 4
Unlicensed 5

Note:

By default, this measure can report the Measure Values mentioned above while indicating the current status of each pool member. However, the graph of this measure is indicated using the numeric equivalents 0 - 5 only.

Pool member activity status

Indicates the current activity status of this pool member as specified by the user.

 

The values that this measure can report and its numeric equivalents are mentioned in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
None 0
Enabled 1
Disabled 2
Disabled by parent 3

Note:

By default, this measure can report the Measure Values mentioned above while indicating the current activity status of the pool. However, the graph of this measure is indicated using the numeric equivalents 0 - 3 only.

Connection during the last measure period

Indicates the rate at which connections were established during the last measurement period.

Conns/Sec

 

Data transmitted

Indicates the rate at which data is transmitted from this member during the last measurement period.

MB/Sec

Comparing the value of these measures across the pool members will help you identify the pool member that is handling maximum traffic.

Data received

Indicates the rate at which data is received in this member during the last measurement period.

MB/Sec

Packets transmitted

Indicates the rate at which packets were transmitted from this member during the last measurement period.

Packets/Sec

Compare the value of these measures across the pool members to identify the pool member that is experiencing the maximum traffic.

Packets received

Indicates the rate at which packets were received in this member during the last measurement period.

Packets/Sec

Active connections

Indicates the number of connections that are currently active in this member.

Number

 

Connection usage

Indicates the percentage of connections that were used by this member.

Percent

 

Maximum connections established

Indicates the maximum number of connections that were established on this member since the restart of the traffic manager.

Number

 

Requests

Indicates the rate at which the requests were processed by this member

Requests/sec

This measure is a good indicator of the workload on the member.

Comparing the value of this measure across members will help you determine whether all the requests have been processed or not. Request processing bottlenecks if any, can thus be isolated and resolved.