User guide

8-1
AlliedView NMS Administration Guide (Setting Up Performance Management)
8. Setting Up Performance Management
8.1 Overview
Performance monitoring basically means collecting useful data from network devices and determining how efficiently the net-
work is functioning. Performance is measured based on factors such as:
• Number of bytes of data received (over a period) by a particular interface of a device.
• Number of bytes of data sent (over a period) by a particular interface of a device.
• An estimate of the interface's current bandwidth in bits per second.
The data pertaining to a network device are collected based on the definition of performance variables (called Statistics).
Note: During startup, the AlliedView NMS server creates a set of default statistics that are inactive. Figure 8-1
shows these default Statistics.
Once the AlliedView NMS server starts, data collection starts automatically. Data is collected from the devices listed under
the Hosts list in the Configured Collection panel, as shown in Figure 8-1. Data is collected only for those Statistics listed in
the panel that have been defined.
Performance configuration involves a series of steps that must be understood in sequence so that the Administrator can ensure
that all devices in the network are operating efficiently and that any degradation in performance is reported to users as quickly
as possible. Once the purpose of these steps is explained, the specific tasks can be shown.
Overall, performance management involves three main areas:
1. Data Collection
To configure data collection means to define from which devices (managed objects) data will be collected, what data to
collect, and how the data will be filtered before it is stored in the database.
2. Threshold Configuration
As the data is collected and scored, it needs to be checked against threshold values to provide a method to see that the
device performance is degrading.
3. Reporting
As the data is collected and thresholds are checked, users must be notified.
The settings for Performance Management are in a set of configuration files (.conf) in Extended Markup Language (XML)
format.
Warning: Editing configuration files directly should only be done under the supervision of Allied Telesis
support personnel, since it is very easy to delete or change data collection that would result in a
loss of performance monitoring for devices. Use the forms and menus described in this section
to set up Performance Management.