SM Agent Transactions Test

Web agents place IsProtected calls on the Policy server to check whether a resource is protected or not. This test monitors such IsProtected calls.

Target of the test : A SiteMinder Policy server

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every Web agent that reports measurements to the OneView Monitor on the Policy server.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter	Description
Test Period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The IP address of the Policy server for which this test is to be configured.
Port	Refers to the port at which the Policy server listens to.
SNMPPort	The port at which the monitored target exposes its SNMP MIB; The default value 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.
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.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Resource protect calls	Indicates the number of times in the last measurement period, the Web agent has checked the Policy server to see if a resource is protected.	Number	If the resource cache is adequately sized, then the value of this measure can be kept at a healthy minimum. For instance, if the resource cache is set to 0, two or more IsProtected calls may be recorded per login attempt. If the Web agent is not caching information, it must check with the Policy server to determine whether or not a resource is protected each time a request is made to the Web server. If the resource cache is not set to 0, only one IsProtected call will be recorded. In this case, the Web agent makes one IsProtected call to the Policy server; subsequent requests to the Web server for the same resource are satisfied against the Web agent’s resource cache until the resource in the cache expires or the resource cache is flushed.
Resource protect errors	Indicates the number of times during the last measurement period, an error occurred when the Web agent asks the Policy server whether or not a resource is protected.	Number	A high value of this measure could indicate a high incidence of communication failures between the Web agent and the Policy server.
Resource protect time	The average amount of time it takes for the Web agent to determine from the Policy server whether or not a resource is protected.	Secs	Ideally, this value should be low.
Cross site script hits	Indicates the number of cross-site scripting hits that occurred during the last measurement period.	Number	Ideally, this value should be 0. Any value higher than that indicates the existence of malicious code in some pages of your site.
Bad url character hits	Indicates the number of requests that this Web agent refused during the last measurement period, because of bad URL characters.	Number	Bad URL characters are specifically blocked to prevent a Web client from evading SiteMinder rules. These characters are specified in the Web agent’s configuration. Ideally, this value should be low. A very high value could either indicate the frequent usage of bad URL characters in requests, or a misconfiguration of the Web agent.
Bad cookie hits	Indicates the number of cookies that this Web agent could not decrypt in the last measurement period.	Number
Expire cookie hits	Indicates the number of requests that contained an expired cookie in the last measurement period.	Number