On Sat, Mar 07, 2009 at 12:26:45PM +0100, Chris Meidinger wrote: > Saqib, > > On 07.03.2009, at 12:12, Saqib Ilyas wrote: > > >I must thank everyone who has answered my queries. Just a couple more > >short questions. > >For instance, if one is using MRTG, and wants to check if we can meet > >a 1 Mbps end-to-end throughput between a couple of customer sites, I > >believe you would need to use some traffic generator tools, because > >MRTG merely imports counters from routers and plots them. Is that > >correct? > > Yes, if you want to do a test bandwidth, iperf should probably be your > first stop.
Or for more sophisticated matricies of spot-checks, BWCTL (http://www.nanog.org/meetings/nanog43/presentations/Boote_tools_N43.pdf) > >We've heard of the BRIX active measurement tool in replies to my > >earlier email. Also, I've found Cisco IP SLA that also sends traffic > >into the service provider network and measures performance. How many > >people really use IP SLA feature? > > I know a lot of people that use IPSLA. Remember, that you set it up > between two routers or higher-end switches and it constantly tests > that connection. However, IPSLA is the wrong tool for a one-off test > of whether you can push a Mbps from site A to site B, because you need > to saturate the link to do that test. IPSLA is great for monitoring > things like jitter. While Birx is awesome and a cisco-heavy site certainly should use rtr/ipsla in their mix, don't underestimate the value of a lightweight system built on smokeping (http://oss.oetiker.ch/smokeping/). Choose the right set of tools for your budget and environment. Cheers! Joe -- RSUC / GweepNet / Spunk / FnB / Usenix / SAGE
