Network Traffic - OS Test

This is an internal test that monitors the incoming and outgoing traffic through each Windows guest of a Hyper-V server.

Target of the test : A Hyper-V / Hyper-V VDI server

Agent executing the test : An internal agent

Output of the test : For a Hyper-V server, one set of results will be reported for every network interface supported by each Windows VM on the server.

For a Hyper-V VDI server, one set of results will be reported for every network interface used by the user who is logged into each Windows virtual desktop on the server

First-level descriptor: Windows VM or User on Windows virtual desktop

Second-level descriptor: Network interface

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test period

This indicates how often should the test be executed.

Host

Specify the HOST for which this test is to be configured.

Port

Specify the port at which the target host is listening. By default, this is NULL

Inside View Using

By default, this test obtains the “inside view” of VMs using the eG VM Agent. Accordingly, the Inside view using flag is set to eG VM Agent by default. The eG VM Agent is a piece of software, which should be installed on every VM on a hypervisor. Every time the eG agent runs this test, it uses the eG VM Agent to pull relevant 'inside view' metrics from each VM. Once the metrics are collected, the eG agent then communicates with each VM agent and pulls these metrics, without requiring administrator privileges. Refer to Configuring the Remote Agent to Obtain the Inside View of VMs for more details on the eG VM Agent.

Domain, Admin User, and Admin Password, and Confirm Password

By default, these parameters are set to none. This is because, by default, the eG agent collects 'inside view' metrics using the eG VM agent on each VM. Domain administrator privileges need not be granted to the eG agent if it uses this default approach to obtain the 'inside view' of Windows VMs.

Report By User

For the Hyper-V monitoring model, the Report By User flag is set to No by default, indicating that by default, the guest operating systems on the Hyper-V server are identified using the hostname specified in the operating system. On the other hand, for the Hyper-V VDI model, this flag is set to Yes by default; this implies that in case of VDI servers, by default, the guests will be identified using the login of the user who is accessing the guest OS. In other words, in VDI environments, this test will, by default, report measures for every username_on_virtualmachinename.

Report Powered OS

This flag becomes relevant only if the report by user flag is set to ‘Yes’.

If the Report Powered OS flag is set to Yes (which is the default setting), then this test will report measures for even those VMs that do not have any users logged in currently. Such guests will be identified by their virtualmachine name and not by the username_on_virtualmachinename. On the other hand, if the Report Powered OS flag is set to No, then this test will not report measures for those VMs to which no users are logged in currently.

Is Full Duplex

By default, this flag is set to Yes, indicating that the incoming and outgoing data traffic is handled in full duplex mode. If the data traffic in your environment is handled in half-duplex mode, set this flag to No.

Ignore VMs Inside View

Administrators of some high security Hyper-V environments might not have permissions to internally monitor one/more VMs. The eG agent can be configured to not obtain the 'inside view' of such ‘inaccessible’ VMs using the Ignore VMs Inside View parameter. Against this parameter, you can provide a comma-separated list of VM names, or VM name patterns, for which the inside view need not be obtained. For instance, your Ignore VMs Inside View specification can be: *xp,*lin*,win*,vista. Here, the * (asterisk) is used to denote leading and trailing spaces (as the case may be). By default, this parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent obtains the inside view of all VMs on a Hyper-V host by default.

Note:

While performing VM discovery, the eG agent will not discover the operating system of the VMs configured in the Ignore VMs Inside View text box.

Exclude VMs

Administrators of some virtualized environments may not want to monitor some of their less-critical VMs - for instance, VM templates - both from 'outside' and from 'inside'. The eG agent in this case can be configured to completely exclude such VMs from its monitoring purview. To achieve this, provide a comma-separated list of VMs to be excluded from monitoring in the Exclude VMs text box. Instead of VMs, VM name patterns can also be provided here in a comma-separated list. For example, your Exclude VMs specification can be: *xp,*lin*,win*,vista. Here, the * (asterisk) is used to denote leading and trailing spaces (as the case may be). By default, this parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent obtains the inside and outside views of all VMs on a virtual host by default. By providing a comma-separated list of VMs/VM name patterns in the Exclude VMs text box, you can make sure the eG agent stops collecting 'inside' and 'outside' view metrics for a configured set of VMs.

Ignore WINNT

By default, the eG agent does not support the inside view for VMs executing on Windows NT operating systems. Accordingly, the Ignore WINNT flag is set to Yes by default.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements reported by the test:
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Incoming traffic

Indicates the rate at which data (including framing characters) is received on a network interface.

Mbps

An abnormally high rate of incoming traffic may require additional analysis.

Outgoing traffic

Represents the rate at which data (including framing characters) is sent on a network interface.

Mbps

An abnormally high rate of outgoing traffic may require additional analysis.

Maximum bandwidth

An estimate of the capacity of a network interface.

Mbps

 

Bandwidth usage

Indicates the percentage of bandwidth used by a network interface.

Percent

By comparing the bandwidth usage with the maximum bandwidth of an interface, an administrator can determine times when the network interface is overloaded or is being a performance bottleneck.

Output queue length

Indicates the length of the output packet queue (in packets)

Number

If this is longer than 2, delays are being experienced and the bottleneck should be found and eliminated if possible.

Outbound packet errors

The number of outbound packets that could not be transmitted because of errors

Number

Ideally, number of outbound errors should be 0.

Inbound packet errors

The number of inbound packets that contained errors preventing them from being deliverable to a higher-layer protocol.

Number

Ideally, number of inbound errors should be 0.

Note:

If this t test is not reporting measures for a VM, make sure that you have enabled the SNMP service for the VM.