Configure Ping Latency Pairs

The NNM iSPI Performance for QA enables you to configure ping latency pairs to monitor RTT between pairs of routers and nodes. You must define router-node pairs that you want to monitor in a configuration file. The configuration file—PingPair.conf—must be placed in the following location in the NNMi management server:

• Windows: %NnmDataDir%\shared\qa\conf
• Linux: /var/opt/OV/shared/qa/conf

The NNM iSPI Performance for QA installer places a sample copy of the PingPair.conf file in the NNMi management server. You can use the sample file as a template.

Contents of the PingPair.conf File

You can define as many router-node pairs as you like in the PingPair.conf file. Each line in the file contains definition of only one pair. Therefore, to define a new router-node pair, introduce a new line first.

Syntax

Hostname,ifName,ifIndex,ifAlias|DestinationName,ifName,ifAlias,ifIndex,DestinationIP|Hostname,IP

• The segment before the first pipe character (|) represents the details of the source router.
• The segment before the second pipe character (|) represents the details of the destination node.
• The last segment represents the details of the source proxy.

You must use the following format to define a router-node pair:

Source Details|Destination Details|SourceProxy Details

The SourceProxy Details segment is an optional segment. You can use this segment if you want to use a proxy router to trigger the ping request on behalf of the source router. In a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) environment, you can specify the details of the shadow router in this segment. When you omit the SourceProxy Details segment, the expression must contain a trailing | character, that is, Source Details|Destination Details|.

When specifying the entities in each segment, you must maintain the given order. Not all entities in each segment are mandatory. Each segment includes only one mandatory entity. For each optional entity you omit in a segment, you must add an additional comma before you type the next entity or the | character. For example, if you want to omit ifIndex and ifAlias in the Source Details segment and ifName, ifAlias, and ifIndex in the Destination Details segment, then the definition must look like this:

Hostname,ifName,,|DestinationName,,,,DestinationIP|

Segments of a Pair Definition

The following sections list the segments of a router-node pair definition:

Source Details

The Source Details segment includes the following entities:

Entity	Description
Host Name	This is a mandatory entity. The fully qualified domain name of the source router. The router must be an NNMi-managed node. You must specify the same FQDN that appears in the NNMi console.
IfName	The name of the interface that triggers the ping request.
IfIndex	A number for identifying the above interface. This value must be same as the ifIndex reported from the MIB.
IfAlias	Use this Interface MIB variable as an additional filter to identify the interfaces to include when creating the subnet connections. This attribute is useful if you have an alias naming convention that is used to identify a set of interfaces. For example, Connection to remote store in Hawaii. Maximum 255 characters. The following wildcard characters are allowed: Asterisk (*) represents any string Question mark (?) represents a single character

Destination Details

The Destination Details segment includes the following entities:

Details	Description
Host Name	The name that is assigned to any device within a network, for identification
IfName	The name of the interface that receives the ping request.
IfIndex	A unique number for identifying an interface. Example: 12345
IfAlias	Use this Interface MIB variable as an additional filter to identify the interfaces to include when creating the subnet connections. This attribute is useful if you have an alias naming convention that is used to identify a set of interfaces. For example, Connection to remote store in Hawaii. Maximum 255 characters. The following wild card characters are allowed: Asterisk (*) represents any string Question mark (?) represents a single character
Dest_IPAddress	This is a mandatory entity. The IP address of the destination. You must specify the destination IP address for the ping pair destination information.

SourceProxy Details

The SourceProxy segment includes the following entities:

Details	Description
Host Name	The fully qualified domain name of the router that triggers the ping request on behalf of the source router. If you want to use a source proxy, make sure that the proxy router is managed by NNMi and the Write community string is configured on the router.
Proxy_IP	The IP address of the proxy router.

Configure Ping Pairs

To configure the ping latency pairs in the PingPair.conf file, you must have an administrator's or root access to the NNMi management server where you installed the NNM iSPI Performance for QA.

To configure router-node pairs:

1. Identify the routers in your environment from which you want to trigger ping requests. If you do not have adequate rights on a router, you can use a proxy router for the purpose of triggering the ping request. The source routers (and proxy routers) must be managed by NNMi and the Write community string must be enabled on source routers.
2. Identify the nodes to which you want to send the ping requests.
3. Log on to the NNMi management server as administrator or root.

4. Go to the following directory:

   Windows: %NnmDataDir%\shared\qa\conf

   Linux: /var/opt/OV/shared/qa/conf

5. Open the PingPair.conf file with a text editor.

6. Add router-node pair definitions. Each line in the file can contain only one definition. Introduce a new line before adding a new pair definition. While typing the definitions, follow the guidelines provided in Contents of the PingPair.conf File.

   The PingPair.conf file provides a template for adding pair definitions.

7. Save the file.

   During the subsequent polling cycle of the NNM iSPI Performance for QA, all routers defined in the PingPair.conf file start triggering ping requests. NNM iSPI Performance for QA continue to trigger ping requests from the source node at the frequency of 300 sec by default. You can define the custom polling interval in the PingPairPoll.conf file. For more information about attributes for ping request, see .

If the PingPair.conf file is deleted from the NNMi management server, you can do one of the following:

• Add a backed-up copy of the old the PingPair.conf file in the appropriate directory (see step 4).

• Recreate the PingPair.conf file:

  1. Add an empty text file in the directory where the file was present (see step 4).
  2. Save the text file as PingPair.conf.
  3. Add router-node pair definitions with the help of the information in Contents of the PingPair.conf File.

In both cases, you must run the following command for the change to take effect:

• Windows: %nnminstalldir%\bin\nmsqapingpairconfig.ovpl -u<admin_user>-p<admin_password>-resyncConfig
• Linux: /opt/OV/bin/nmsqapingpairconfig.ovpl -u<admin_user>-p<admin_password>-resyncConfig

In this instance, <admin_user> is an NNMi administrator and <admin_password> is the password of the NNMi administrator.

Configure Default Ping Attributes

The size and frequency of ping requests are defined in the PingPairPoll.conf file by different properties. The NNM iSPI Performance for QA installer places the file on the NNMi management server. The table below lists the default attribute values:

Default Attributes of Each Ping Request

Attribute	Default Value
Packet count of each ping request	5
Size of each packet	100 bytes
Packet time-out	2000 milliseconds
Polling interval (the interval between two consecutive ping requests)	300 seconds

To change the default attribute values, you must edit the PingPairPoll.conf file.

To configure the default ping attributes:

1. Log on to the NNMi management server as administrator or root.

2. Go to the following directory:

   Windows: %NnmDataDir%\shared\qa\conf

   Linux: /var/opt/OV/shared/qa/conf

3. Open the PingPairPoll.conf file with a text editor. Uncomment the lines having the polling attributes.

4. Specify values of your choice for the following properties:

   Property	Description
   PacketCount	Packet count of each ping request
   PacketSize	Size of each packet (in bytes)
   PollingInterval	Polling interval (the interval between two consecutive ping requests, in seconds)
   PacketTimeOut	Packet time-out (in milliseconds)

5. Save the file.
6. For the configuration to take effect, restart the NNM iSPI Performance for QA processes:

   1. ovstop -c qajboss

   2. ovstart -c qajboss