Solace Interfaces Test

A Solace PubSub+ appliance relies on several interfaces and internal routing components to enable the transfer of data between the appliance and either management applications that connect to the appliance’s management interfaces or client applications that connect to the appliance's Network Acceleration Blade (NAB) interfaces. These components include:

• Management and network physical interfaces, which can be:

  • configured and used directly as independent physical interfaces;

  • grouped into virtual interfaces, using link aggregation groups (LAGs);

  • or used in a combination of independent physical interfaces and LAGs

• IP interfaces: One or more IP interfaces are created for each independent physical interface and for each LAG. Each IP interface must be assigned a unique IP address.

• Message Backbone VRF: This Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) object contains all the NAB interfaces (physical, LAG, and IP), and transports message and topic subscription traffic between client applications and the virtual routers on the appliance.

• Management VRF: This VRF object contains all the management interfaces (physical, LAG, and IP), and transports management traffic between management applications and the event broker.

• IP routes: IP routes are defined independently for the Management and Message Backbone VRFs, associating destination CIDR addresses in the VRF with next-hop gateway addresses. Default routes may also be defined.

Solace PubSub+ appliances support LAGs so that multiple physical Ethernet interfaces can be grouped together to form a single, virtual, link layer interface.

To the client and management applications connecting to one/more appliances, a LAG appears as a single IP interface, but inside the LAG, packets are transmitted and received on the bundled physical ports. Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) actively monitors the status of those grouped physical interfaces.

If too many packets are dropped from an interface or if the interfaces are down for a longer duration, then, message transmission through those interfaces will be affected to a large extent which may in turn affect the user experience. Therefore, administrators need to proactively identify the interfaces that are down for an unusually longer periods. The Solace Interfaces test helps administrators identify problem-prone interfaces!

This test auto-discovers the interfaces on the target Solace PubSub+ Event Broker, reports the current operational state of each interface, and also reveals how much traffic is handled by every interface. In the process, the test quickly pinpoints unavailable interfaces and the ones handling heavy traffic.

Target of the test : A Solace PubSub+ Event Broker

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each interface of the Solace PubSub+ Event Broker being monitored

Configurable parameters for the test

Parameter	Description
Test Period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The IP address of the target host for which this test is to be configured.
Port	Refers to the port at which the Solace PubSub+ Event Broker listens to.
UserName and Password	By default, the eG agent executes SEMP ( Solace Element Management Protocol) APIs on the target broker to collect the required metrics. For the eG agent to execute the SEMP APIs, a special user with read only privilege is required. Specify the credentials of such a user in the UserName and Password text boxes. To know how to create such a user, refer to Creating a New User for Monitoring Solace PubSub+ Event Broker.
Confirm Password	Confirm the Password by retyping it in the Confirm Password text box.
SSL	By default, this flag is set to No indicating that the Solace PubSub+ Event Broker is not SSL-enabled by default. Set this flag to Yes if the Solace PubSub+ Event Broker is SSL-enabled.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Operational status	Indicates the current operational state of this interface.		The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalents are mentioned in the table below: Measure values Numeric values Down 0 Up 100 Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the current operational state of this interface. The graph of this measure however, is represented using the numeric equivalents only i.e., 0 or 100.
Packets received	Indicates the rate at which packets were received by this interface during the last measurement period.	Packets/sec	These are good indicators of the level of network activity on an interface. You can compare the value of each of these measures across interfaces to identify the busiest / overloaded interface.
Packets transmitted	Indicates the rate at which packets were transmitted through this interface during the last measurement period.	Packets/sec
Data received	Indicates the rate at which data was received by this interface during the last measurement period.	Mbps	Compare the value of these measures across the network interfaces to identify the network interface that is transmitting/receiving the maximum amount of data.
Data transmitted	Indicates the rate at which data was transmitted through this interface during the last measurement period.	Mbps
Mode	Indicates the operational mode of this interface.		The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalents are mentioned in the table below: Measure values Numeric values LACP 1 Active-Backup 2 Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the operational mode of each interface. The graph of this measure however, is represented using the numeric equivalents only i.e., 1 or 2.
Operational members	Indicates the number of members that were operational on this LAG interface.	Number
Configured members	Indicates the number of physical interface members that were added to this LAG interface.	Number
Available members	Indicates the number of members that were available on this LAG interface.	Number
Primary members	Indicates the number of primary members that were configured/added to this LAG interface.	Number
Fragmented IP packets dropped	Indicates the number of packets of IP fragments that were dropped from this interface during the last measurement period.	Number	A high value is a cause for concern, and presents a strong case for changing the rate threshold.