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User Guide for Internetwork Performance Monitor
OL-11291-01
Chapter 1 Overview of IPM
Key Terms and Concepts
The IPM/SA Agent monitoring solution is composed of:
1. The IPM server
2. The IPM client application
3. The Service Assurance (SA) Agent feature of the Cisco IOS software
The focus of this document is the IPM network management application, which includes the server and
the client. In some cases, however, it is not possible to fully describe IPM without including information
about the SA Agent feature. Therefore, we have included some information about the Cisco IOS feature.
Information about the SA Agent feature, provided in the latest Cisco IOS software documentation takes
precedence over the information about the SA Agent feature, contained in this document.
Key Terms and Concepts
The key terms and concepts in IPM are:
• Network Performance Statistics—Five key statistics measured by IPM:
–
Latency
–
Availability
–
Jitter
–
Packet Loss
–
Errors
• Source—Originating switch or router running IOS, from which IPM makes network performance
measurements. The source switch or router must be running a version of Cisco IOS software that
supports the SA Agent feature. For detailed information about the supported versions of the Cisco
IOS software, see the “Cisco IOS Software Requirements” section in the Installation Guide for
Internetwork Performance Monitor.
• Target—Destination of the network performance measurements. The target can be any
IP-addressable device, an IBM Multiple Virtual Storage (MVS) mainframe that can be reached by
the source router, or an SA Agent-enabled Cisco router. For jitter measurements, the target must be
an SA Agent-enabled Cisco router or switch with RTR responder enabled.
• Operation—Set of parameters used in measuring network performance statistics. The parameters
specify the type of measurement to be performed.
• Collector—Entity defined to measure network performance statistics from a specific source device
to a specific target device. The collector definition includes information about its source, target,
operation, start time, duration, and type.
• Interval—How often, in seconds, the collector on the source router executes the measurement to
and from the target. The value is usually every 60 seconds. The valid range is 10 to 3600 seconds (1
hour). The source router automatically aggregates all samples for a single hour into a single set of
metrics for that hour. IPM retrieves these metrics from the source router once every hour.
• Duration—How long, in days, hours, and minutes, the collector runs and gathers information from
the source router. The default value is forever. The valid range is 1 hour to forever.
• SA Agent Responder—Component embedded in a target Cisco device, running version 12.1 or
later of the Cisco IOS software. It responds to SA Agent request packets from a source running the
SA Agent software, supporting Enhanced UDP measurements, such as jitter.