How to: Cisco SAA Agents and genDevConfig

This is a short how-to on creating a simple SAA ping (ICMP) agent on a Cisco router and collecting the information using Cricket. The Service Assurance Agent is used in testing path availability and two-way latency. Additional agents are supported by Cricket please consult Cisco’s web site or your IOS documentation to learn how to configure them.

The same procedure applies for using gendevConfig with Shinken.

Sections:

1. Determine the icmp packet path
2. The SAA Agent configuration
3. Recognizing the new SAA agent in Cricket
4. Troubleshooting why the agent didn’t appear in the Cricket targets file

First Step: Determine the icmp packet path

Determine the IP address of the router’s egress interface that will have the SAA agent on it.

Second decide on the destination IP for the path you want to test. A router or other device that is always available is recommended. If the SAA agent is testing a redundant path, select the IP address of the egress interface of the remote router or it’s loopback interface if there are multiple egress interfaces. The goal is to have the best interpretation of path availability. It could even be the service IP address of the critical resource that is served from that location.

We will now call the source router (The one with the SAA agent on it), Router A, and the destination device, router B.

Second Step: The SAA Agent configuration *

*The following configuration example is applicable on most IOS based platforms. Consult the Cisco web site for more detailed information or platform particularities.

Log into the router, get into enable mode then go into config mode.

Creating a simple ICMP echo test:

rtr 1

type echo protocol ipIcmpEcho 10.10.1.1 source-ipaddr 10.10.55.1

owner <your_name>

tag <informational tag>

exit

rtr schedule 1 forever start-time now

exit

copy running-config startup-config

Third Step: Recognizing the new SAA agent in Cricket

Now, you need to use the genRtrConfig or genDevConfig utility to create a profile for your device which includes recognition of the SAA agent you just configured. The configuration generators supports automatic recognition of HTTP, ICMP and FTP based SAA agents other agents are also recognized but your mileage may vary.

cd $CRICKET/util

genRtrConfig -c public –vendorint –rtragents -v <HOSTNAME-OF-ROUTER>

genDevConfig –snmpv2 –namedonly –rtragents –community=public –loglevel=info <HOSTNAME-OF-ROUTER>

You should see a reference about an saa or rtr agent that was collected via the verbose/loglevel snmp output. Note that the tag is used in some versions of genRtrConfig to identify the use or destination of the SAA agent. This will appear in the information output in the web interface.

vi <HOSTNAME-OF-ROUTER>/targets

In the target file you should see the created saa_rtt_1 target between the Chassis target and the Interface targets.

Fourth Step: Troubleshooting

Figure out why an agent may not appear in the Cricket targets file

Run the configuration generator again with the following options:

genRtrConfig -c public –rtragents –vendorint –loglevel debug <HOSTNAME-OF-ROUTER>

genDevConfig –snmpv2 –namedonly –rtragents –community=public –loglevel=debug <HOSTNAME-OF-ROUTER>

If you successfully created your SAA agent you should see the SNMP collection reference.

Then you should also see the operating of the SAA Agent. If it is not eqal to 6 (six) then the agent is not currently running. Which means that the configuration generator will NOT add it to the profile. Check in the cisco router if the SAA agent is active or if it has expired.