Chapter 12. Summary of Data Collection Methodology

This chapter serves two purposes. First, you can read it as a summary of the chapters in Part II to get an overview of the accounting and performance device instrumentation features. With that in mind, this chapter summarizes the high-level technical characteristics of all features discovered in the previous chapters and provides a way to structure, categorize, and compare the features.

Second, this chapter offers an entry point into the accounting and performance features. So that you won't read all the chapters and then discover that some of the accounting and performance features are not suitable for your specific scenario, the two matrixes in this chapter guide you toward the features of interest.

The previous eight chapters offer many details about the Cisco different device instrumentation features for accounting and performance management. Because the variety of functions could make it difficult to choose the "right" feature, this chapter offers you some guidance in the selection process. Two matrixes compare the features from a technical and business perspective.

Tables 12-1 and 12-2 assess the accounting and performance features described in Part II. Table 12-1 offers answers to the fundamental questions:

• What to collect?

• Who is the user?

• How to collect (metering method)?

Table 12-1. Overall Functional Area Comparison Related to the Collected Details

Area	Data	SNMP	IP Accounting	MAC Address IP Accounting	Precedence IP Accounting	ACL IP Accounting	NetFlow	BGP PA	AAA	NBAR	IP SLA
What to collect?	DSCP/ToS	NA
	MIB	NA
	Memory	NA
	Response time	NA
	BGP AS number	NA
	Applications/type	NA
	Availability	NA
	Session start time	NA
	Session stop time	NA
Who is the user?	Interface counters	NA
	MAC address	NA
	IP address	NA
	Username	NA
How to collect (metering method)?	Observed traffic
	Synthetic traffic
	Sampling
	Direction: ingress
	Direction: egress
	Originated traffic
	Destined traffic
	Transit traffic
How to collect (collecting method)?	SNMP read						[*]		[*]
	SNMP write						[*]
Security options

^[*] Partly supported

Table 12-2. MIB-Specific Functional Area Comparison Related to the Collected Details

	MIB-I, II; IF-MIB	PING-MIB	PROCESS-MIB	ENVMON-MIB, MEMORY-POOL-MIB	DATA-COLLECTION-MIB	CB-QOS-MIB	FRAME-RELAY-MIB	MLS-TE-MIB	Expression and Event MIB	RMON, SMON, DSMON, ART MIB
DSCP/ToS										[*]
CPU Utilization
Memory
Response Time
BGP AS Number
Applications/type
Availability
Session Start Time
Session Stop Time
Interface Counters
MAC Address
IP Address

^[*] Partly supported

Here are some comments for clarification:

• Collection details relate to IP address, MAC address, interface counters, BGP autonomous system number, ToS/DSCP, and more. Because this is a summary table, only the most important parameters are described.

• SNMP has two rows because most features support SNMP read operations but only some have writable MIB objects. Note that only a subset of available MIBs is listed.

• Most features meter observed traffic, which is the actual network traffic. Metering observed traffic does not have an impact on the network traffic, compared to synthetic traffic, which is generated specifically for measurement purposes.

• The session start and stop time parameters are explicitly required for billing solutions.

• The metering interface (ingress or egress) and the traffic destination are distinguished. Transit traffic passes the network element and has a remote destination, whereas destined traffic targets the collection device. Originated traffic is generated at the metering device itself. Note that destined traffic can be collected only at the ingress interface and originated traffic is captured only at the egress interface. Figure 12-1 illustrates the different metering options per traffic direction.

  Figure 12-1. Metering Direction and Interface

  [View full size image]
  

• The Security Options row considers SNMPv3 as security for the listed MIBs and MD5 authentication for IP SLA.

• SNMP is the protocol to transfer the MIB variables' content and therefore is independent of their type. Thus, the SNMP protocol cannot answer the questions "What to collect?" and "Who is the user?" This is why Table 12-1 shows several "not applicable" (NA) cells. These two questions are answered in Table 12-2 for the most important MIBs covered in this book.

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Table 12-3 assigns accounting and performance features to the different business cases. The idea of this table is to help you choose the feature that offers exactly the level of detail you need. An alternative would be to select a feature that collects all the details and keep only the required fields. Even though this is a valid option, it is not an economical approach, because more data is collected than is actually required. For example, if you are interested in only the total amount of traffic per interface, the SNMP interface statistics provide sufficient details. Of course, alternatively you could collect all NetFlow records and aggregate the flows afterwards, but this is not suggested. Current best practice advises that you meter exactly the level of detail that fulfills your requirements.

Table 12-3. Functional Area Comparison Related to Business Cases

	MIB-I, II; IF-MIB	PING-MIB	PROCESS-MIB	ENVMON-MIB, MEMORY-POOL-MIB	DATA-COLLECTION-MIB	CB-QOS-MIB	FRAME-RELAY-MIB	MLS-TE-MIB	Expression and Event MIB
Device Performance Monitoring		[*]
Network Performance Monitoring and Baselining
User Monitoring and Profiling	[*]
System and Server Performance Monitoring
Application Performance Monitoring and Profiling						[*]
Link Capacity Planning
Network-Wide Capacity Planning
Traffic Profiling and Engineering
Peering and Transit Agreements
Source- and Destination-Sensitive Billing
Generic Service Monitoring
Class/Quality of Service Billing
Application- and Content-Based Billing
Time- and Connection-Based Billing
VoIP Billing
Security Analysis
Fault Management
	RMON, SMON, DSMON, ART	IP Accounting	MAC Address IP Accounting	Precedence IP Accounting	ACL IP Accounting	NetFlow	BGP PA	AAA	NBAR
Device Performance Monitoring
Network Performance Monitoring and Baselining
User Monitoring and Profiling
System and Server Performance Monitoring
Application Performance Monitoring and Profiling
Link Capacity Planning						Network Management: Accounting and Performance Strategies - Graphically Rich Book About the Authors About the Technical Reviewers Acknowledgments Icons Used in This Book Command Syntax Conventions Introduction Part I: Data Collection and Methodology Standards Chapter 1. Understanding the Need for Accounting and Performance Management Definitions and the Relationship Between Accounting and Performance Management The Purposes of Accounting Purposes of Performance Applying the Information to the Business Summary Chapter 2. Data Collection Methodology Data Collection Details: What to Collect Defining the User Metering Methods: How to Collect Data Records Metering Positions: Where to Collect Data Records Collection Infrastructure: How to Collect Data Records Mediation Device Functionality: How to Process Data Records Security Considerations: How to Ensure Data Authenticity and Integrity Summary Chapter 3. Accounting and Performance Standards and Definitions Understanding Standards and Standards Organizations Architectural and Framework Standards: The TMN/FCAPS Model (ITU-T) Architectural and Framework Standards: the eTOM Model (TMF) Informational IETF Standards Information Modeling Data Collection Protocols: SNMP, SMI, and MIB Data Collection Protocols: NetFlow Version 9 and IPFIX Export Protocols Data Collection Protocols: PSAMP Data Collection Protocols: AAA (RADIUS, Diameter, and TACACS+) Data Collection Protocols: IPDR Data Collection Protocols: CMISE/CMIP and GDMO Service Notions Summary Part II: Implementations on the Cisco Devices Chapter 4. SNMP and MIBs MIBs IOS Support for SNMP Versions net-snmp Utilities CLI Operations and Configuration Example for SNMPv2c CLI Operations and Configuration Examples for SNMPv3 MIB Table Retrieval Example MIB Functional Area Comparison Table General-Purpose MIBs for Accounting and Performance Advanced Device Instrumentation Technology-Specific MIBs for Accounting and Performance Creating New MIB Objects: EXPRESSION-MIB Obtaining MIBs Chapter 5. RMON RMON 1 and RMON 2 MIBs DSMON MIB SMON MIB APM MIB and ART MIB Applicability Further Reading Chapter 6. IP Accounting IP Accounting (Layer 3) IP Accounting Access Control List (ACL) IP Accounting MAC Address IP Accounting Precedence Applicability Chapter 7. NetFlow Fundamentals of NetFlow CLI Operations SNMP Operations with the NETFLOW-MIB Example: NetFlow Version 5 on a Router Example: NetFlow Configuration on the Catalyst Example: NetFlow Version 8 Example: NetFlow Version 9 New Features Supported with NetFlow Version 9 Deployment Guidelines Supported Devices and IOS Versions Chapter 8. BGP Policy Accounting Input BGP Policy Accounting Output BGP Policy Accounting Summary of All Four BGP Policy Accounting Combinations Fundamentals BGP Policy Accounting Commands SNMP Operations Examples (CLI and SNMP) Destination-Sensitive Services Applicability Chapter 9. AAA Accounting Fundamentals of AAA Accounting High-Level Comparison of RADIUS, TACACS+, and Diameter RADIUS Diameter Details Chapter 10. NBAR NBAR Functionality Supported Devices and IOS Versions NBAR Protocol Discovery (PD) MIB NBAR Configuration Commands NBAR show Commands NBAR Examples (CLI and SNMP) NBAR Applicability Chapter 11. IP SLA Measured Metrics: What to Measure Operations: How to Measure IP SLA CLI Operations SNMP Operations with the CISCO-RTTMON-MIB Application-Specific Scenario: HTTP Application-Specific Scenario: VoIP Advanced Features Implementation Considerations Chapter 12. Summary of Data Collection Methodology Applicability Part III: Assigning Technologies to Solutions Chapter 13. Monitoring Scenarios Network Blueprint for Monitoring Device and Link Performance Network Connectivity and Performance Application Monitoring Service Monitoring and Routing Optimization Chapter 14. Capacity Planning Scenarios Link Capacity Planning Network Blueprint for Capacity Planning Problem Space Capacity Planning Tools Methods for Generating the Core Traffic Matrix Additional Considerations: Peer-to-Peer Traffic Summary Chapter 15. Voice Scenarios Network Blueprint for IP Telephony Voice Performance Measurement Voice Accounting Is Your Network Ready for IP Telephony? Chapter 16. Security Scenarios Network Blueprint for Security Management Security Management Process Summary Chapter 17. Billing Scenarios Network Blueprint for Billing Billing Approaches Summary Remember the name: eTutorials.org Copyright eTutorials.org 2008-2023. All rights reserved.