Create Partition Utilization Agents

A dynamic way to keep tabs on your partitions is to create a Partition Utilization agent to monitor the utilization of the partitions you have created. When a class' utilization reaches a certain percentage of the partition's maximum size, the adaptive response feature will alert you that a threshold has been exceeded. The standard alert is a red indicator on the info tab (PacketWise) or configuration tab (PolicyCenter). In addition, you can have an email, SNMP trap, or syslog message sent when the class' utilization crosses a predefined threshold; this method requires that you create an action file — a text file of PacketWise commands. The action file can take other actions, as well, such as modifying the partition size.

You can monitor the partition utilization of your Inbound and Outbound links, a specific traffic class, or all classes.

In order to use this feature, the adaptive response feature must be enabled and you must create an agent based on the Partition Utilization template.

Create a New Agent

To create a partition utilization agent that monitors the utilization of one or more partitions:

1. On the setup tab, click the Adaptive Response Settings link.
   
   
2. Click add. The add agent entry window will open.
   
   
3. Click the create a new agent from this agent template drop-down list, and choose Partition Utilization.
   
   
4. Enter a unique identifying name for the new agent in the Name field, for example FTP Partition Utilization.
   
   
5. If desired, change the evaluation interval, in minutes (how often the agent should measure its target).
   
   
6. Click OK and Edit Parms. This will open the Edit Agent Entry window where you can define the parameter values for your new agent.
   
   
7. In the ClassName field, enter the name of the class to be monitored (for example, Inbound/FTP). Note that the class must already have a partition defined. If desired, a wildcard may be used to monitor many classes (for example, /inbound* to monitor all classes in the inbound direction or * to monitor all classes).
   
   
8. If desired, modify the threshold values:
   
   Utilization — The percent utilization of the partition which, when exceeded, will cause a class to be in violation. For instance, if the Utilization is set to 90 and the utilization of one of the monitored classes exceeds 90 percent of the partition size, that class will be in violation. Assuming the RedThreshold is set to 1 (the default), the agent's status will change to red.
   
   RedThreshold — The value at which the status of the agent turns red, and a red action file is triggered, if present. For a Partition Utilization agent, this number represents an unacceptable number of violating classes; a class is in violation if it exceeds the defined Utilization percentage. For instance, if the RedThreshold is set to 1, the agent's status will change to red when at least one class had utilization greater than the defined Utilization percent.
   
   GreenThreshold — An acceptable number of violating classes (usually 0).
   
   
9. Click OK to save your changes.

After creating the agent, you will want to monitor it to see whether usage in the class(es) has come close to the partition's maximum size.

Check the Agent Status

To check the status of the Partition Utilization agent:

1. Click the info tab. The PacketShaper’s info tab shows an icon for each agent category, and a colored status indicator for each. The Partition Utilization agent is in the Network Health category (the first one).
   
   
2. To see the status of each individual agent in the Network Health category, hover your mouse over the first colored status indicator, as shown below.
   
   
   
   
3. In the pop-up window, locate the Partition Utilization agent that you defined. What color is its status indicator?
   
   Green — During the last evaluation interval, usage did not exceed the Utilization percentage you defined. In other words, the partition size is appropriate at this time.
   Red — During the last evaluation interval, usage exceeded the defined Utilization percentage. In other words, usage is close to the partition's maximum size. In this case, you may want to consider increasing the size of the partition (assuming it is traffic you are trying to protect, not contain). If the status indicator is red, you should look at the incident report for details.
   
   If the agent has ever changed status (from green/yellow to red or from red/yellow to green, a report icon with a link to a detailed report will be available for that agent.
   
   
4. If there is a report for the Partition Utilization agent, click the report icon. The Partition Utilization report appears in a separate browser window and lists all the classes during the interval whose utilization was higher than the specified Utilization percentage.
   
   
   
   

Create an Action File that Sends an Email Notification

If you would like to be notified by email when the class' usage is approaching the partition's maximum size, you can create a command file that contains a single line: the send email command. By designating this command file as the red action file, an email will be sent when the red threshold is crossed.

Note: In order to send email notification, you must configure an SMTP server in PacketWise.

To create an action file that sends an email notification:

1. If the info tab is currently displayed, click the Settings link; otherwise, go to the setup tab and click the Adaptive Response Settings link.

2. Click the edit button next to the partition agent.

3. Click the browse files button. The File Browser window opens and shows the contents of the 9.258/agent/cmd directory (where action files need to be stored).

4. Click the new cmd file button. A command file window opens.

5. In the File Name field, enter a unique name for your action file up to eight characters long, including 0-9, a-z, AZ, -,_, and . (period). Spaces are not allowed. Example: ftp-part

6. In the Contents area, enter the following commands:

#Title: red action file for Partition Utilization agent
send email <address> "<subject>" ["<body>"]

where <address> is the email address of the recipient. For example, if the agent is monitoring all classes you can send an email notification that indicates the number of classes whose partitions had utilization higher than the Utilization threshold during the evaluation interval:

send email raltman@test.com "High Partition Utilization" "$scorevalue classes had utilization greater than $Utilization percent."

Note: If you want to send an email notification to more than one recipient, repeat the send email command for each email address.

If the agent is monitoring a single class, you can include the variables for the class name ($class-id) and the utilization ($avg-bps) in the <subject> or <body>, as the following example shows:

send email raltman@test.com "$class-id partition" "Average utilization for the evaluation interval was $avg-bps bps. The utilization for $class-id exceeded $Utilization percent of the partition size."

When the message is sent, the body of the email message would look something like this:

Average utilization for the evaluation interval was 383047 bps. The utilization for /Inbound/ftp exceeded 90 percent of the partition size.

7. Click save.

8. Enter the name of your action file in the Red Action File field (for example, ftp-part.cmd).

9. Click OK.

After the next evaluation interval, an email will be sent if and when the agent's red threshold is crossed. If you like, you can create a green action file to notify you when the Partition Utilization agent returns to a green status.

See also:

Create Partition Utilization Graphs