IPSLA - Maipu and Cisco with ICMPEcho

As we discussed in last post about Managed services, Let’s see everything in action with Maipu Routers and Cisco Routers for ICMPEcho. 

In this section, we will see IPSLA - ICMPEcho working flow and  Maipu and Cisco Router configuration example. Which will help us to understand Maipu RTR (IPSLA) for ICMPEcho. Before we see about Maipu IPSLA. Let’s understand some terms related to IPSLA.

SLA Terms

SLA stands for Service Level Agreements; sending the packets of the specified protocol to detect and monitor the network communication.

RTR stands for Response Time Reporter. SLA calculates and outputs the report according to the packet transmission, so it is also called RTR (Response Time Reporter) in Maipu router.

RTR ENTITY -  RTR entity is one common concept; different application detection corresponds with the specified RTR entity. Currently, the RTR entities include MACSLA, ICMPECHO, JITTER, UDPECHO, ICMP-PATH-ECHO, ICMP-PATH-JITTER, and FLOW-STATISTICS. We can monitor above mentioned features using Maipu RTR (IPSLA).

Let’s understand ICMPECHO (IPSLA entity) -

It is the RTR entity that sends the ICMP PING packet to detect the network communication, it help to measure end to end response time between routers. Response time is calculated by measuring the time taken between sending an ICMP Echo request message to the destination and receiving an ICMP Echo reply.

With the rich schedule policies and log recording function, the network administrator can get to know the network communication and history information, as well as it is reducing the work of inputting the common PING commands to check the reachable status of destination device. 

Let’s see a  configuration example for Maipu IPSLA – ICMPEcho

MAIPU ICMPECHO EXAMPLE -

ICMP entity checking network

The configuration of router 1:

Command	Description
router1# configure terminal
router1 (config)# rtr enable	Enable the SLA (RTR) module
router1 (config)# rtr 1 icmpecho	Create the icmpecho entity with ID as 1 and enter the icmpecho configuration mode
router1 (config-rtr-icmpecho)# set 3.3.3.2 5 80 5 5000 extend 3.3.3.1 0 false false	Set the checking attributes of rtr1; the destination address is 3.3.3.2; send five packets in one scheduling; the length of each packet is 80 bytes; the timeout time is 5s; the scheduling interval is 5000s; enable the extend option; the source address is 3.3.3.1; tos field is 0; the DF bit is FALSE; the data parity is FALSE.
router1 (config-rtr-icmpecho)#alarm-type log	Set the alarm type of rtr1 as log, that is, give the user prompt only on shell.
router1 (config-rtr-icmpecho)# periods 2	After two rtr1 entity scheduling, save one history record.
router1 (config-rtr-icmpecho)# number-of-history-kept 200	The number of the history records of rtr1 entity is 200. Note: if exceeding 200, the records cover the old records.
router1 (config-rtr-icmpecho)# threshold-pktLoss 2 direction be	Configure the packet loss threshold of rtr1 entity as 2; in one detection, if the number of the lost packets is larger than 2, give the alarm according to the alarm type configured by the user.
router1 (config-rtr-icmpecho)# threshold-rtt 2 direction be	Configure the come-and-go delay threshold of rtr1 entity as 2; in one detection, if the come-and-go delay is larger than or equal to 2, give the alarm according to the alarm type configured by the user.
router1 (config-rtr-icmpecho)#exit	Exit the configure mode
router1 (config)#rtr schedule 1 entity 1 start now ageout 300 life 700 repeat 3	Initiate schedule 1 to schedule rtr entity 1; start to schedule at once; the ageout is 300s; the life time is 700s; repeat scheduling for three times.

Device used – MP1800

IOS – rp10-i-6.2.8.pck

After the above configuration, router 1 performs the icmpecho check for network communication. After checking, use the command show rtr history to view the checking result.

Execute the command show rtr entitycand show rtr history 1 on router 1

Outputs : 

Router1#show rtr entity 1

--------------------------------------------------------------

ID:1            name:IcmpEcho1          Created:TRUE

****************type:ICMPECHO****************

CreatedTime:THU JAN 01 00:41:53 1970

LatestModifiedTime:THU JAN 01 01:05:39 1970

TargetIp:3.3.3.2

Transmit-packets:1

Totally-send-packets:4

Packet-size:80

Timeout:5(s)

Alarm-type:log

Threshold-of-rtt:2 (direction be)

Threshold-of-pktLoss:2 (direction be)

Number-of-history-kept:200

Periods:2

Extend parameters:

sourceIp:3.3.3.1  tos:0   DF(DON'T FRAG):FALSE    Verify-data:FALSE

In-scheduling:FALSE

Schedule frequency:10(s)

Status:REACHABLE

--------------------------------------------------------------

Router1#show rtr history 1

--------------------------------------------------------------

ID:1    Name:IcmpEcho1  CurHistorySize:10       MaxHistorysize:200

History recorded as following:

THU JAN 01 01:06:18 1970

        Rtt:1(ms)     PktLoss:0

THU JAN 01 01:06:38 1970

        Rtt: 1(ms)     PktLoss:0

THU JAN 01 01:06:58 1970

        Rtt: 2(ms)     PktLoss:0

THU JAN 01 01:07:18 1970

        Rtt: 1(ms)     PktLoss:0

THU JAN 01 01:07:38 1970

        Rtt: 1(ms)     PktLoss:0

THU JAN 01 01:07:58 1970

        Rtt: 2(ms)     PktLoss:0

THU JAN 01 01:08:18 1970

        Rtt: 1(ms)     PktLoss:0

THU JAN 01 01:08:38 1970

        Rtt: 1(ms)     PktLoss:0

THU JAN 01 01:08:58 1970

        Rtt: 1(ms)     PktLoss:0

THU JAN 01 01:09:18 1970

        Rtt: 1(ms)     PktLoss:0

Same time have a look on Maipu command reference  for ICMPEcho–

Command	Description	Configuration Mode
rtr entity-id icmpecho	*Create one icmpecho entity and enter its configuration mode; or enter the configuration mode of one existing entity	config
set {vrf vrf-name targetIp| targetIp}[npackets|CR data-size|CR time-out|CR] [extend sourceIp|CR tos|CR setDF|CR verify-data|CR]	*Configure the checking attributes of the icmpecho entity. vrf-name: The vrf name of the icmpecho entity destination address; targetIp: the destination address of the icmpecho entity; npackets: The number of the ping packets sent during one detection schedule of the icmpecho entity; the default value is 5; data-size: The size of the ping packet sent by the icmpecho entity; the default value is 70bytes; time-out: The timeout of waiting for response after the icmpecho entity sends the packet; extend: The icmpecho entity adds the related extended detection attribute tag; sourceIp: The source address of the icmpecho entity detection; tos: The tod value when the icmpecho entity sends the detection PING packet; setDF: The option when the icmpecho entity sends the detection PING packet, whether to set the DF (DON’T FRAG); verify-data: Whether to verify the data when the icmpecho entity receives the response packet sent from the peer end;	config-rtr-icmpecho

Now Let’s see Cisco IPSLA configuration template –

Device used – Cisco 1841

IOS - c1841-advsecurityk9-mz[1].124-12c.bin

Configuration Template -

ip sla monitor 1

 type echo protocol ipIcmpEcho 4.2.2.2 source-ipaddr 203.123.140.68

exit

ip sla monitor schedule 1 life forever start-time now ageout 6000

Show Commands

show ip sla monitor collection-statistics

show ip sla monitor configuration

Another test –

IOS - 12.2(31)SB2  and 12.2(33)SRB1 

Configuration Template -

ip sla 1

 icmp-echo 192.168.1.2 source-ip 172.16.1.2

 frequency 300

 request-data-size 28

 timeout 2000

ip sla schedule 6 life forever start-time now

In this post I tried to provide details about Cisco IPSLA and Maipu IPSLA , majorly about ICMPEcho.

You can check the show output in routers and all network devices. But majorly the output from IPSLA configuration is used by NMS to generate various reports.

Hope this post will help you to understand more about  Maipu IPSLA  and Cisco IPSLA.

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