Pool Details Test

This test auto-discovers the pools configured on the Coyote Load Balancer and for each pool, this test reports whether/not each application pool is enabled. In addition, this test also reports the amount of data/compressed data that had been transmitted/received and the number of HTTP responses that were compressed by the server pool. This way, administrators can constantly keep a vigil on the load balancing pool and proactively avoid performance and load balancing issues, if any.

Target of the test: Coyote Load Balancer

Agent deploying the test: An external agent

Outputs of the test: One set of results for each pool of the Coyote Load Balancer that is being monitored.

Descriptor: Pool

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter	Description
Test period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The IP address of the target host to be monitored.
SNMPPort	The port at which the monitored target exposes its SNMP MIB; the default value is 161.
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.
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.
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 switch. This parameter is specific to SNMP v1 and v2 only. Therefore, if the SNMPVersion chosen is v3, then this parameter will not appear.
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.
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.
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: MD5 - Message Digest Algorithm SHA - Secure Hash Algorithm SHA224 - Secure Hash Algorithm 224 bit SHA256 - Secure Hash Algorithm 256 bit SHA384 - Secure Hash Algorithm 384 bit SHA512 - Secure Hash Algorithm 512 bit
EncryptFlag	This flag appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVersion. By default, the eG agent does not encrypt SNMP requests. Accordingly, 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: DES - Data Encryption Standard 3DES - Triple Data Encryption Standard AES - Advanced Encryption Standard AES128 - Advanced Encryption Standard 128 bit AES192 - Advanced Encryption Standard 192 bit AES256 - Advanced Encryption Standard 256 bit
EncryptPassword	Specify the encryption password here.
Confirm Password	Confirm the encryption password by retyping it here.
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.
ISPASSIVE	If the value chosen is Yes, then the server under consideration is a passive server in a cluster. No alerts will be generated if the server is not running. Measures will be reported as "Not applicable" by the agent if the server is not up.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Total connections	Indicates the total number of connections processed in this server pool.	Number	If a sudden/consistent increase in the value of this measure is noticed, you might have to investigate further to identify the reason for this occurrence.
Active connections	Indicates the number of active connections currently available in this server pool.	Number	This measure indicates the connection load on the server pool. By observing the graph of this measure over time, you can analyze the rate of growth of the load on the server. By comparing the value of this measure across all the clusters, you can instantly identify overloaded clusters; this in turn brings irregularities in load balancing to light.
Connection usage	Indicates the current usage of connections for this server pool.	Percent
Total transactions	Indicates the total number of transactions (client requests and server responses) processed on this server pool.	Number
Data received	Indicates the data received by this server pool.	KB	Compare the values of these measures across the pools to identify the pool that is experiencing the maximum traffic.
Data transmitted	Indicates the data transmitted by this server pool.	KB	Compare the values of these measures across the pools to identify the pool that is experiencing the maximum traffic.
Current compressed HTTP responses	Indicates the number of HTTP responses currently compressed by this server pool.	Number
Total compressed HTTP responses	Indicates the total number of HTTP responses compressed by this server pool, since restart.	Number
Compressed data received	Indicates the total amount of compressed data received by this server pool.	KB	Comparing the values of these measures across the server pool will help you identify the server pool that is the busiest in the Coyote Load Balancer. This in turn, helps the administrators to identify load balancing irregularities, if any.
Compressed data transmitted	Indicates the total amount of compressed data transmitted by this server pool.	KB	Comparing the values of these measures across the server pool will help you identify the server pool that is the busiest in the Coyote Load Balancer. This in turn, helps the administrators to identify load balancing irregularities, if any.