Ldap Test

This test emulates a client accessing an LDAP server to issue a query. Based on the response reported by the server, measurements are made of the availability and responsiveness of the LDAP server. Many LDAP servers have been designed to report a number of usage statistics if the query is the special string “cn=monitor”. For such LDAP servers, this test also reports a number of usage statistics.

Target of the test : An LDAP server

Agent deploying the test : An external agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results per LDAP server monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameters	Description
Test Period	How often should the test be executed
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured.
Port	The port on which the specified host is listening.
Search	Specify the Distinguished Name to search for in the LDAP server. By default, this value is set to "cn=monitor". Many LDAP servers (iPlanet/Sun One LDAP, Open LDAP, etc.) expose performance metrics when this DN is used. However, for more recent LDAP versions, the distinguished name has to be represented as a sequence of relative distinguished names (RDN) connected by commas. For instance, the Search parameter can be configured as: cn=eguser,cn=Users,dc=citrix,dc=eGinnovations,dc=com
DistinguishedName	Represents the server's Distinguished name. This value is to be specified when the server requires explicit authentication of requests. By default, this attribute is set to "none", implying that authentication is not required. Where authentication is required, the DistinguishedName has to be represented as a sequence of relative distinguished names (RDN) connected by commas. For instance, your specification can be: cn=ctxuser,cn=Users,dc=citrix,dc=eGinnovations,dc=com
Password	Password to be used for authenticating the request. The password is to be specified whenever the DistinguishedName is not "none".
Confirm Password	Confirm the password (if specified) by retyping it here.
IsPassive	If the value chosen against this parameter is Yes, then the LDAP server under consideration is a passive server in an LDAP 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
LDAP availability	Whether a successful response is received from the LDAP server in response to the emulated user request.	Percent	An availability problem can be caused by different factors – e.g., the server process may not be up, a network problem may exist, or there could be a configuration problem with the LDAP server.
LDAP response time	Time taken (in seconds) by the server to respond to a request.	Secs	An increase in response time can be caused by several factors such as a server bottleneck, a configuration problem with the LDAP server, a network problem, etc.
Current LDAP connections	Number of connections currently being processed by the LDAP server.	Number	A high value could result whenever the server is experiencing a problem (due to overload, or because of application problems).
LDAP connection rate	Quantifies the workload in terms of connections per second to the LDAP server.	Conns/Sec	This value directly represents the user workload.
Operations outstanding	The number of outstanding requests waiting for processing by the LDAP server.	Number	A consistent non-zero value of this metric is indicative of a server bottleneck.
Data transmit rate	Quantifies the traffic handled by the LDAP server in Kbytes/Sec.	KB/Sec	Typically, an increase or decrease in connection rate will result in a corresponding change in the data transmission rate. A deviation from this rule signifies a possible change in the characteristics of applications accessing the LDAP server, or a change in the organization of the LDAP schema.
LDAP TCP port availability	This measure indicates whether the test managed to establish a TCP connection to the server.	Percent	Failure to establish a TCP connection may imply that either the web server process is not up, or that the process is not operating correctly. In some cases of extreme overload, the failure to establish a TCP connection may be a transient condition. As the load subsides, the server may start functioning properly again. If this measure is 100% but the LDAP availability is 0, this could indicate a problem with the server configuration. Alternatively, the search string provided as a parameter to the LdapTest may not be supported by the corresponding LDAP server. In this case, configure the test based on the directory structure configured for the target LDAP server (i.e., change the "cn=monitor" value with an appropriate alternative).

Note:

The Processes test of LDAP servers takes an additional parameter named IsPassive. If the value chosen against this parameter is yes, then the LDAP server under consideration is a passive server in an LDAP 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.