Session Statistics Test
Administrators need a fair understanding of the typical session load on the load balancer before they can size it with adequate CPU and memory resources. Using the Session Statistics test at frequent intervals, administrators can judge the current session load on the balancer. Additionally, the test also enables administrators to study the load trends over the last 1 minute and figure out if the load is on an upswing. This way, the test provides administrators with effective pointers for planning the resource capacity of the load balancer.
Target of the test : A Radware Alteon Load Balancer
Agent deploying the test : An external agent
Outputs of the test : One set of results for the Radware Alteon load balancer being monitored.
Parameter | Description |
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Test period |
How often should the test be executed |
Host |
The IP address of the Radware Alteon load balancer that is being monitored. |
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:
|
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:
|
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. |
Engine ID |
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. |
Measurement | Description | Measurement Unit | Interpretation |
---|---|---|---|
Current session |
Indicates the number of sessions currently handled by the load balancer. |
Number |
This is a good indicator of the current session load on the load balancer. |
Current session in 4 seconds |
Indicates the average number of sessions handled by the load balancer during the last 4 seconds. |
Number |
These measures reveal how session load has changed in over 1 minute. Compare the value of these measures with that of the Current session to understand if the variations have been erratic. If the comparison reveals that session load has not changed significantly in the last minute, then administrators can conclude that this is the normal session load on the device. Capacity plans can be drawn on the basis of this. On the other hand, if session load has changed drastically in the last minute, the reason for the anomaly has to be investigated and determined. |
Current session in 64 seconds |
Indicates the average number of sessions handled by the load balancer during the last 64 seconds. |
Number |