IP SLA bandwidth monitor and packet loss

[Amafsha1]

Hello, I would like to setup 1 of my branches to talk SLA to our MPLS router back at the main datacenter here.

I'm specifically testing for packet loss and bandwidth:

Branch-Router(config-ip-sla)#?
IP SLAs entry configuration commands:
dhcp DHCP Operation
dns DNS Query Operation
ethernet Ethernet Operations
exit Exit Operation Configuration
ftp FTP Operation
http HTTP Operation
icmp-echo ICMP Echo Operation
path-echo Path Discovered ICMP Echo Operation
path-jitter Path Discovered ICMP Jitter Operation
tcp-connect TCP Connect Operation
udp-echo UDP Echo Operation
udp-jitter UDP Jitter Operation

From what I understand ICMP-Jitter is a good option, but this is not available as you can see.  What would be the best option to watch for bandwidth and packet loss from the options I am given?

Thank you

[Alex Pfeil]

I think you should look at UDP-echo and UDP-jitter. I have never attempted to use an sla for bandwidth measurement. I use sla to ensure that a link is working properly and for tracking purposes in order to failover.  The  UDP jitter function will let you determine the number of packets to send and it will measure the jitter.

Here is an example from https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios-xml/ios/ipsla/configuration/15-mt/sla-15-mt-book/sla_udp_jitter.html#task_49723D1D58A249DDAEF50E40059622BE.

Example:

Device# show ip sla statistics

Type of operation: udp-jitter 
Packet Loss Values:
Loss Source to Destination: 19
Source to Destination Loss Periods Number: 19
Source to Destination Loss Period Length Min/Max: 1/1
Source to Destination Inter Loss Period Length Min/Max: 1/546
Loss Destination to Source: 0
Destination to Source Loss Periods Number: 0
Destination to Source Loss Period Length Min/Max: 0/0
Destination to Source Inter Loss Period Length Min/Max: 0/0
Out Of Sequence: 0 Tail Drop: 0
Packet Late Arrival: 0 Packet Skipped: 0

• udp-jitter has the ability to detect in which direction a packet was lost in. It also calculates statistics about the periods of packet loss

• Loss Source to Destination: 19—Indicates that 19 packets were sent from the sender but never reached the responder.

• Source to Destination Loss Periods Number: 19—Indicates that there were 19 incidents of packet loss (an incident of packet loss is a period where packets are lost, irrespective of the actual number of lost packets.)

• Source to Destination Loss Period Length Min/Max: 1/1—indicates that all packets lost in this direction are isolated; there are no instances of multiple lost packets back-to-back.

• Source to Destination Inter Loss Period Length Min/Max: 1/546—indicates that the minimum gap between lost packets is 1, and the maximum gap between successive packet losses is 546 successfully sent packets.

[Amafsha1]

Thanks a lot man.  I'm now looking into Path-Jitter and seeing if maybe that might be a good solution as well.  From what I noticed, you can't setup more than 1 instance of SLA in my configs.  So I can only pick 1 from the list of either path-jitter, udp-jitter, udp-echo...

[Alex Pfeil]

I have not worked on any equipment that only allowed one SLA to be configured.

[Amafsha1]

my mistake.  I am able to run more than 1 instance of SLA.