Specifications

Monitoring and Administration
BIG-IP® Reference Guide 11 - 1
Monitoring and administration utilities
The BIG-IP platform provides several utilities for monitoring and
administration of the BIG-IP. You can monitor system statistics, as well as
statistics specific to virtual servers and nodes, such as the number of current
connections, and the number of packets processed since the last reboot.
The BIG-IP platform provides the following monitoring and configuration
and administration utilities:
◆ bigpipe
If you type certain bigpipe commands, such as bigpipe virtual or
bigpipe node, and use the show keyword in the command, the command
displays statistical information about the elements that you configure
using that command. You can also use bigpipe commands to selectively
reset any statistic collected by the BIG-IP.
◆ The Configuration utility
You can use the Configuration utility to configure any feature on the
BIG-IP. You can reset any statistic, or all statistics, for virtual servers,
nodes, NATs, and SNATs in the Configuration utility.
◆ BIG/stat
This utility is provided specifically for statistical monitoring of virtual
servers, nodes, NATs, SNATs, and services. One benefit of using
BIG/stat is that you customize the display of statistical information.
◆ BIG/top
BIG/top provides statistical monitoring. You can set a refresh interval,
and you can specify a sort order.
◆ Syslog
Syslog is the standard UNIX system logging utility, which monitors
critical system events, as well as configuration changes made on the
BIG-IP.
◆ BIG/db
BIG/db is a database that contains various configuration information for
the BIG-IP.
Using the bigpipe utility as a monitoring tool
Using the bigpipe utility, you can view information about the BIG-IP itself,
as well as elements such as virtual servers, virtual addresses, virtual ports,
nodes, and node addresses. Typically, the bigpipe utility provides the
following statistics:
• Current number of connections
• Maximum number of concurrent connections
• Total number of connections since the last system reboot
• Total number of bits (inbound, outbound, total)
• Total number of packets (inbound, outbound, total)