BlackBerry Dispatcher Test
The BlackBerry Dispatcher is designed to compress and encrypt all information sent to the BlackBerry device. The BlackBerry Dispatcher is also designed to decompress and decrypt all information that users send from the BlackBerry device, and to send that information to other BlackBerry services and components.
To receive or send information to BES, the BlackBerry Dispatcher must first connect to the SRP host to determine which BES to communicate with. This test monitors the health of the interactions between the BlackBerry Dispatcher and the SRP host.
Target of the test : A BlackBerry Enterprise Server
Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent
Outputs of the test : One set of results for every server being monitored.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
|
Test Period |
How often should the test be executed |
|
Host |
The IP address of the host for which this test is to be configured. |
|
SNMPPort |
The port at which the monitored target exposes its SNMP MIB; The default value is 161. |
|
SNMPVersion |
By default, the eG agent supports SNMP version 1. Accordingly, the default selection in the SNMPversion list is v1. However, if a different SNMP framework is in use in your environment, say SNMP v2 or v3, then select the corresponding option from this list. |
|
SNMPCommunity |
The SNMP community name that the test uses to communicate with the firewall. This parameter is specific to SNMP v1 and v2 only. Therefore, if the SNMPVersion chosen is v3, then this parameter will not appear. |
|
Username |
This parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPversion. SNMP version 3 (SNMPv3) is an extensible SNMP Framework which supplements the SNMPv2 Framework, by additionally supporting message security, access control, and remote SNMP configuration capabilities. To extract performance statistics from the MIB using the highly secure SNMP v3 protocol, the eG agent has to be configured with the required access privileges – in other words, the eG agent should connect to the MIB using the credentials of a user with access permissions to be MIB. Therefore, specify the name of such a user against this parameter. |
|
Context |
This parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVersion. An SNMP context is a collection of management information accessible by an SNMP entity. An item of management information may exist in more than one context and an SNMP entity potentially has access to many contexts. A context is identified by the SNMPEngineID value of the entity hosting the management information (also called a contextEngineID) and a context name that identifies the specific context (also called a contextName). If the Username provided is associated with a context name, then the eG agent will be able to poll the MIB and collect metrics only if it is configured with the context name as well. In such cases therefore, specify the context name of the Username in the Context text box. By default, this parameter is set to none. |
|
AuthPass |
Specify the password that corresponds to the above-mentioned Username. This parameter once again appears only if the SNMPversion selected is v3. |
|
Confirm Password |
Confirm the AuthPass by retyping it here. |
|
AuthType |
This parameter too appears only if v3 is selected as the SNMPversion. From the AuthType list box, choose the authentication algorithm using which SNMP v3 converts the specified username and password into a 32-bit format to ensure security of SNMP transactions. You can choose between the following options:
|
|
EncryptFlag |
This flag appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPversion. By default, the eG agent does not encrypt SNMP requests. Accordingly, the this flag is set to No by default. To ensure that SNMP requests sent by the eG agent are encrypted, select the Yes option. |
|
EncryptType |
If the EncryptFlag is set to Yes, then you will have to mention the encryption type by selecting an option from the EncryptType list. SNMP v3 supports the following encryption types:
|
|
EncryptPassword |
Specify the encryption password here. |
|
Confirm Password |
Confirm the encryption password by retyping it here. |
|
Timeout |
Specify the duration (in seconds) within which the SNMP query executed by this test should time out in this text box. The default is 10 seconds. |
|
Data Over TCP |
By default, in an IT environment, all data transmission occurs over UDP. Some environments however, may be specifically configured to offload a fraction of the data traffic – for instance, certain types of data traffic or traffic pertaining to specific components – to other protocols like TCP, so as to prevent UDP overloads. In such environments, you can instruct the eG agent to conduct the SNMP data traffic related to the monitored target over TCP (and not UDP). For this, set this flag to Yes. By default, this flag is set to No. |
|
EngineID |
This parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVersion. Sometimes, the test may not report metrics when AES192 or AES256 is chosen as the Encryption type. To ensure that the test report metrics consistently, administrators need to set this flag to Yes. By default, this parameter is set to No. |
| Measurement | Description | Measurement Unit | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Dispatcher server is not connected to SRP |
Indicates whether/not the BlackBerry Dispatcher is currently connected to SRP. |
Boolean |
The value 1 indicates that the dispatcher is connected to the SRP server. The value 0 indicates that the dispatcher is not connected to the SRP server. Without establishing a connection with the SRP server, the dispatcher will not know which BES to communicate with, and therefore will not be able to send/receive information from the BES. |
|
Many successful reconnections to SRP |
Indicates the number of times the dispatcher server has successfully reconnected to the SRP host during the last measurement period. |
Number |
The BlackBerry Dispatcher may disconnect the Server Routing Protocol (SRP) connection to the BlackBerry Infrastructure due to the following network conditions:
Immediately following the SRP disconnection, the BlackBerry Dispatcher attempts to reconnect to the BlackBerry Infrastructure. However, if poor network conditions persist during this time, the SRP connection may be repeatedly disconnected and reconnected by the BlackBerry Dispatcher. This is what a high value of the Failed reconnections to SRP host measure would typically imply. |
|
Few failed reconnections to SRP |
Indicates the number of number of failed reconnections to SRP during the last measurement period. |
Number |
|
|
Time dispatcher is not connected to SRP |
Indicates the duration for which the dispatcher could not connect to SRP during the last measurement period. |
Secs |
If the dispatcher remains disconnected from the SRP host for too long a time, it would disrupt the interaction between BlackBerry infrastructure and the wireless network. Such disconnections could be caused due to any of the following practical reasons:
Improper configuration of BES can also affect the Dispatcher-SRP host connectivity. Such configuration issues include:
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