Agents Administration - Tests

Default Parameters for PzStatCacheTest This test monitors the local storage of the target appliance and reports the number of cache hits and misses with pinned and auto-cached data in the local cache. This way administratrors can easily identify when the amount of pinned data increases beyond the permissible limit over-riding the auto-cached data. This test also keeps a track on the number of cache misses, thereby shedding light on the unavailability of hot pinned or auto-cached data. In addition, this test also promptly alert administrator on the number of evictions from the local cache, thus helping them to proactively resolve any potential perfromance issues before it affects the user experience. This page depicts the default parameters that need to be configured for the PzStatCacheTest. The TEST PERIOD list box helps the user to decide how often this test needs to be executed. In the HOST text box, specify the IP address of the host for which this test is to be configured. In the SNMPPORT text box, specify the port at which the monitored target exposes its SNMP MIB; the default is 161. By default, the eG agent supports SNMP version 1. Accordingly, the default selection Configurable parameters for the test 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. 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. The USERNAME 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. The CONTEXT 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. In the AUTHPASS text box, specify the password that corresponds to the above-mentioned Username. This parameter once again appears only if the SNMPversion selected is v3 and CONFIRM PASSWORD by retyping it here. The AUTHTYPE 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 The ENCRYPTFLAG appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVersion. By default, the eG agent does not encrypt SNMP requests. Accordingly, this flag is set to No by default. To ensure that SNMP requests sent by the eG agent are encrypted, select the Yes option. If this EncryptFlag is set to Yes, then you will have to mention the encryption type by selecting an option from the ENCRYPT TYPE list. SNMP v3 supports the following encryption types: DES - Data Encryption Standard AES - Advanced Encryption Standard Specify the encryption password in the ENCRYPTIONPASSWORD text box, and confirm the encryption password by retyping it in the CONFIRMPASSWORD text box. In the TIMEOUT text box, 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. 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, the DATA OVER TCP flag is set to No. The ENGINEID 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. Once the necessary values have been provided, clicking on the UPDATE button will register the changes made. When changing default configurations of tests, the values with “$” indicate variables that will be replaced by the eG system according to the specific server being managed - for instance, $hostName is the host/nickname of the target host, $port is the port number of the server being monitored. E.g., for a server xyz:80, $hostName will be changed automatically by the eG manager to “xyz*” and $port will be changed to “80” when configuring a test.