IP SLA - Threshold versus Timeout

[mgrift]

I am consistantly confused concerning the timeout and threshold settings when configuring IP SLA's. Can someone please clarify the difference between these two fields?

Let's use the following example:

I have two WAN routes of approximately equal bandwidth and speed (one is a 100Mb/s TLS, the other is a portion of an OC12 with compression equaling approximately 100Mb/s). The configuration should not be load balanced (i.e. no equal cost routing). The applications that run through these WAN links are unable to tolerate more than 6 or 7 seconds of link loss. I am using ASDM to configure the route monitoring options, and the device is an ASA5550.

If I wanted to have a maximum wait time before failing over to the other link of 5 seconds, what would my thrsehold and time out settings be, and why set them that way?

I would appreciate any assistance provided.

Thanks

[SamuraiEx]

Hello MG,

From my understanding, timeout is the amount of time that has to elapse before an IPSLA probe is deemed to have failed and stops trying. On the other hand, threshold is the maximum amount of time of a single operation to complete before its classified as a failure. 
e.g icmp-echo with threshold of 300ms configured. If the echo-request does not get an echo-reply within 300ms then the operation is classified as "failed" and an alert is raised maybe.

HTH

[Gopinath_Pigili]

Hello mgrift,

In IP SLA (Service-Level Agreement), the threshold is the limit an administrator sets for a successful test, while the timeout is the length of time the router waits for a response:
Threshold: The limit set by the administrator for a successful test. If the threshold is exceeded, the job fails.
Timeout: The total duration the router will wait for a response. For example, if a timeout of 2000ms is set, an ICMP echo-response at 1000 milliseconds would satisfy the timeout but fail the threshold.

Best regards
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[MHM Cisco World]

Ip sla use timout or use threshold if the mode it monitoring.

I think ASA not support ip sla monitor (dont confuse between sla monitor and ip sla monitor that ios use' it different).

So I think asa only supports timeout 

MHM