01-10-2012 06:09 AM - edited 03-04-2019 02:51 PM
Hello all,
I'm currently in the process of doing a bandwidth analysis on 2 WAN links at my current HQ / remote sites. The topology is pretty straightforward, two 3845 routers at HQ, and two 3845 routers at my remote site, both with P2P DS3 interfaces between them. From each router we then connect directly into a 6509 at the HQ, and a 4506 at my remote site where we are using equal cost load sharing (EIGRP) to split the load / give us redundancy between the sites.
I'm just looking for a good test for how well the circuits are performing. I've done some basic file transfer tests, but they're only showing about 4MBPS, which seems quite slow. I also know that this isn't a true measurement because there are amny different factors involved, like hard drive write speeds, network congestion, etc, that may influence the test.
Anyone out there have some suggestions on a good tool / bandwidth analysis tool?
Thanks in advance for any help!
01-10-2012 06:44 AM
Hello
I normaly copy a ISO file and use PRTG is runs of snmp and set the refresh to a second but you need the paid version
hope that helps
thanks
Ben
01-10-2012 06:55 AM
Grab any SNMP monitoring utility and pull SNMP stats off of your routers...
MRTG is a good one (a little complex to setup on windows if you're not familiar)
Whatsup Golds (trial available)
Solarwinds (trial available)
you'll need to enable SNMP on the routers/switches to allow monitoring traffic.
Thanks,
Sean Brown
01-10-2012 07:02 AM
The products above do not measure bandwidth. They display traffic amount.
Banditdh is measure with tools like iperf, and many others.
01-10-2012 07:05 AM
Yeah, actually they do measure bandwidth.... In fact let's split some hairs here... bandwidth is traffic...
Traffic received/send divided by the Bandwidth available = Utilization.... Anything that logs traffic can calculate bandwidth used/available/utilized.
01-10-2012 07:34 AM
I'm not splitting hairs, and you are missing the point.
OP want to measure capacity of a recently delivered circuit.
That is done by
1) offering traffic to the cricuit,
2) measuring how much is received within an unit of time.
Common network management tools, do (2) but not 1), so they don't do the job.
01-10-2012 07:31 AM
Its unlikeley you have < rated bandwidth on the links. you may have a throughput issue.
start poking around your traffic flows, take a look at some workstation configs to see if the window size can
be increased.
01-10-2012 08:23 AM
I agree with that assessment, I'm sure we have the 44.XX per DS3, so it does seem to be a throughput problem. We are a Vista shop (unfortunatley), until we migrate to Windows 7 in the coming months. I've tested disabling of the TCP auto-tuning which sets the MSS at 65535, but the fastest transfer i'm seeing is right around 5MBPS, not 20 or 30 like i'm expecting.
Any suggestions on tuning the systems?
01-10-2012 08:29 AM
Before blaming the circuit, measure the UDP performances using a proper tool.
And keep an eye on "show controllers" and "show interface", they have to 100% error free.
01-10-2012 08:49 AM
I'm not a workstation expert. There does appear to be a wealth of documents and suggestions available on the internet that
address workstation TCP IP stacks.
Paolos point is spot on. Its easy to do a quick check of the controllers, and interface counters, and either:
a. start there, if you notice CRC's & drops.
b. move on, since there are no reported problems.
If you are only having issues on one app, focus on that. If the symptoms are more global, gain an understanding of how
the client server apps communicate. Lots of apps tend to be real chatty, which manifests itself as slow throughput.
It can be a full time job.
01-10-2012 09:21 AM
Understood, I've run through all 4 routers already, 0 CRC errors on my serial interfaces, not problems with the controllers etc.
I'm in the process of getting some netmon tools, but I'm not sure they're going to show me exactly what i want to see.
Thanks -
01-10-2012 12:14 PM
Disclaimer
The Author of this posting offers the information contained within this posting without consideration and with the reader's understanding that there's no implied or expressed suitability or fitness for any purpose. Information provided is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as rendering professional advice of any kind. Usage of this posting's information is solely at reader's own risk.
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In no event shall Author be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of use, data or profit) arising out of the use or inability to use the posting's information even if Author has been advised of the possibility of such damage.
Posting
For quick performance testing I use a freebie pcattcp. It can easily saturate a DS3 link with it's UDP option and can also do TTCP testing. With this tool, you might first try sending 50 Mbps down a link and see what rate comes out the other side. Then you might try TTCP.
PS:
If you're doing packet-by-packet equal cost load balancing, you might be causing TCP performance issues.
01-11-2012 05:25 AM
Joseph,
Currently, I'm running equal cost load sharing (per destination, not per packet). It does look like there's a TCP throughput issue. From the quick tests I ran this morning using TTCP, this is what I'm seeing TCP vs UDP:
C:\TCP>pcattcp -t X.X.X.X
PCAUSA Test TCP Utility V2.01.01.14 (IPv4/IPv6)
IP Version : IPv4
Started TCP Transmit Test 0...
TCP Transmit Test
Transmit : TCPv4 0.0.0.0 -> X.X.X.X:5001
Buffer Size : 8192; Alignment: 16384/0
TCP_NODELAY : DISABLED (0)
Connect : Connected to X.X.X.X:5001
Send Mode : Send Pattern; Number of Buffers: 2048
Statistics : TCPv4 0.0.0.0 -> X.X.X.X:5001
16777216 bytes in 17.423 real seconds = 940.38 KB/sec +++
numCalls: 2048; msec/call: 8.711; calls/sec: 117.548
C:\TCP>pcattcp -t -u X.X.X.X
PCAUSA Test TCP Utility V2.01.01.14 (IPv4/IPv6)
IP Version : IPv4
Started UDP Transmit Test 0...
UDP Transmit Test
Transmit : UDPv4 0.0.0.0 -> X.X.X.X:5001
Buffer Size : 8192; Alignment: 16384/0
Send Mode : Send Pattern; Number of Buffers: 2048
Statistics : UDPv4 0.0.0.0 -> X.X.X.X:5001
16777216 bytes in 1.386 real seconds = 11819.88 KB/sec +++
numCalls: 2050; msec/call: 0.692; calls/sec: 1478.928
Thanks -
01-11-2012 06:07 AM
Disclaimer
The Author of this posting offers the information contained within this posting without consideration and with the reader's understanding that there's no implied or expressed suitability or fitness for any purpose. Information provided is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as rendering professional advice of any kind. Usage of this posting's information is solely at reader's own risk.
Liability Disclaimer
In no event shall Author be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of use, data or profit) arising out of the use or inability to use the posting's information even if Author has been advised of the possibility of such damage.
Posting
Drops (anywhere end-to-end) against TCP flows will very much slow their performance. Don't recall whether this particular TTCP program provides additional TCP stats, such as retransmits. (I recall Cisco's IOS hidden TTCP command [only in some/few IOS images] can.)
For TCP to saturate a link, receiving host's RWIN must be at least large enough for the path's BDP (usually not an issue for Windows' clients with the NextGen stack; Vista and later, but often worth checking).
Devices along the way also need to be able to buffer slow start TCP transmission window expansion.
TCP does take time to ramp up to full speed; very dependent on end-to-end latency. A small enough transmission window might not reach full transmission speed as it could still be ramping up. Quick test of that, with TTCP, increase total amount of transmission data (for example, increase from 16 MB to 32 MB and see if overall speed jumps; take special note if you monitor transmission rate whether it continues to increase over time of the transmission test).
01-12-2012 08:07 AM
Maybe run the test for longer time.
.
UDP 11819 KB/s = 94 Mb/s
Doesn't make sense for a DS3.
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