LiveAction For Cisco Intelligent WAN Management Solution ...€¦ · routing/adjacency tables, and next-hop route tracing. IP SLA includes IP SLA dashboard, GUI-based IP SLA test

www.liveaction.com 1

LiveAction For Cisco Intelligent WAN

Management

Solution Design Guide

July, 2014


Table Of Table Of Table Of Table Of ContentsContentsContentsContents About This Guide ................................................................................................................... 3

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 3

Solution Overview ................................................................................................................. 4

Solution Benefits ................................................................................................................... 5

System Requirements ............................................................................................................ 5

LiveAction Server Specifications .......................................................................................... 5

LiveAction IWAN Management Licenses .............................................................................. 6

Solution Use Cases ..................................................................................................................................... 7

Use Case 1: Visualizing Application Path Changes ...................................................................... 7

Use Case 2 –Leveraging NBAR2 and QoS Control ....................................................................... 9

Use Case 3 - QoS Monitoring and Configuration ...................................................................... 10

Use Case 4: ASA and ASR 1K Security Event Reporting ............................................................. 13

Use Case 5 - Network Health and Status .................................................................................. 14

Getting Started ......................................................................................................................................... 15

Enable Cisco Intelligent WAN .................................................................................................... 15

Install LiveAction ....................................................................................................................... 17

Add Devices to the Topology Map ............................................................................................ 17

Provision NetFlow and QoS Monitoring.................................................................................... 17

Create Network Objects for Devices ......................................................................................... 18

Enable PfR Flows ....................................................................................................................... 18

Enable AVC Flows ...................................................................................................................... 18

Validate traditional, PfR and AVC Flows ................................................................................... 20

Set Alert Thresholds .................................................................................................................. 21

Filter Traffic to Visualize Path Changes ..................................................................................... 22

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 23

Appendix A .......................................................................................................................... 24

Configure AVC to Export Flows on an ASR .......................................................................... 24


About This GuideAbout This GuideAbout This GuideAbout This Guide

Cisco Application Experience (AX) delivers application-centric networking by integrating essential

application-aware services and infrastructure tools into the router, enabling customers to overcome

application performance challenges. Cisco® Intelligent WAN (IWAN) is enabled by the Cisco AX platform

and delivers an unmatched user experience over any connection, allowing businesses to simplify their

operations and lower costs. LiveAction See-Point-Click-Fix features leverage Performance Routing and

Cisco Applications Experience capabilities to provide intelligent path control visualization and

application performance optimization for Cisco IWAN. The information in this guide is intended to help

customers implement LiveAction IWAN management by turning on LiveAction features that support

these functions. In addition, it provides some high level requirements for ensuring Cisco IWAN

infrastructure is enabled.

Related Documentation

LiveAction For IWAN Management

LiveAction IWAN Management Demo

LiveAction PfR Demo

LiveAction IWAN Management Solution Overview

LiveAction IWAN Management Datasheet

LiveAction IWAN Management Ordering Guide

LiveAction IWAN Management Solution Deployment Guide

LiveAction IWAN Management Webinar Recording

LiveAction Cisco Market Place Resources

Cisco Intelligent WAN

Cisco Intelligent WAN (IWAN) Design Guide

Cisco Application Experience

ISR-Application Experience Overview Video

LiveAction FAQs

InInInIntroductiontroductiontroductiontroduction As Enterprise Information Technology (IT) budgets become continually smaller, organizations must

optimize their investments while managing increasingly complex network and services, and they must

do so without compromising performance, reliability, or security. In addition, the application landscape

is changing dramatically. Applications are moving to public or private clouds to promote efficiencies and

tools such as Microsoft Office 365, Google Docs, and WebEx are becoming part of Software as a Services

(SaaS) delivery model. Furthermore, the proliferation of mobile devices, adoption of BYOD (Bring-Your-

Own-Device) and high-bandwidth video applications put growing demands on WAN usage.

Customers who are using premium WAN connections are looking for ways to reduce recurring WAN

costs by migrating their WAN to the Internet. For large deployments of hundreds of branch offices,

these savings can be significant. For example, migrating 100 branches in 3 cities to Internet connections

can save approximately $2.5M+ annually (estimated by Telegeography). While the Internet is quickly

becoming a more stable platform with better price-performance and improved reliability, it still falls

short of meeting standards for many businesses. Businesses are primarily deploying “Internet as WAN”

in their smaller sites or as a backup path because of the risks. Yet, with Cisco Intelligent IWAN, Internet

connections can be managed as a cost-effective, performance-enhancing, reliable and secure alternative


to realize these financial benefits.

Solution Overview Solution Overview Solution Overview Solution Overview Cisco Intelligent WAN is a solution that enables enterprises to realize significant cost savings by moving

to less expensive transport options without compromising performance, reliability, and security. The

savings from IWAN not only pays for the branch infrastructure investments, but can also free up

resources for new, innovative business services. IT can quickly roll out bandwidth intensive applications

like video, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and guest Wi-Fi with lower costs and a great user

experience.

LiveAction is application-aware network management software with QoS control, designed to simplify

network management. LiveAction features an innovative visual display, real-time big data analytics and

deep control of routers and switches for unparalleled ease of network administration. At a high level,

LiveAction has the See-Point-Click-Fix features below:

See – Visualization

• Visualize real-time end-to-end network traffic

• Examine historical QoS, Flow, routing and IP SLA data

Point – Decision Making

• Analyze hop-by-hop path, devices, interfaces, and queues

• Locate and troubleshoot problems

Click-Fix -- Control

• Set up NBAR, FnF, AVC, Medianet, MSI endpoints

• Edit QoS policies, ACL, PBR, IP SLA

For Cisco IWAN, LiveAction provides GUI-based management and situational awareness for intelligent

path control and application performance optimization. Specifically, LiveAction offers the following

IWAN management functions:

• Real-time and historical graphical displays of Performance Routing (PfR) intelligent path changes

• AVC Visualization, Reporting, and Configuration

• QoS Monitoring and Control using NBAR2 to optimize application performance

• Overall Network Health and Status

The diagram below depicts Cisco IWAN and LiveAction IWAN management solution components:


Figure 1 - Cisco IWAN and LiveAction IWAN Management

Solution BenefitsSolution BenefitsSolution BenefitsSolution Benefits

In addition to the financial benefits of moving from premium connections to lower cost Internet links,

LiveAction-Cisco IWAN solution provides the following unique benefits to customers:

• Save Time and Money

o Faster IWAN troubleshooting through visual display and situational awareness

o Faster, more intuitive and less error-prone configuration and provisioning

• Facilitate IWAN Adoption

o Demonstrate Cisco IWAN value to customers with visualization

o Bridge the management gap for an end-to-end IWAN solution

• Increased Productivity

o Deep understanding of application traffic with end-to-end flow visibility

o Find and fix problems faster with graphical QoS control

o Robust IWAN reporting

• Ease of Operations

o Clear visualization of path changes

o Intuitive GUI for faster deployment, configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting

System RequirementsSystem RequirementsSystem RequirementsSystem Requirements

LiveActionLiveActionLiveActionLiveAction Server SpecificatioServer SpecificatioServer SpecificatioServer Specificationsnsnsns

LiveAction is a Windows-based application that comprises of a LiveAction Server and a LiveAction Client.

The LiveAction Client software can be run on a standard 32-bit/64-bit Windows-based PC or Mac,

accessed via supported web browsers. The LiveAction Server has the following minimum requirements,


outline below:

Number of Devices (routers/switches)

Monitoring

Recommended Server Specifications

Less than 100K (less than 100K flows/sec) • 4 Core, 2+ GHz

• 8 GB RAM

• 1.5 TB, 7200 RPM*

• Windows 64-bit Operating System – Server

2008 R2, Windows 7 (Professional or

Ultimate)

100-200K (greater than 100K flows/sec) • 6 Core, 2+ GHz

• 12 GB RAM

• 3 TB, 7200 RPM*

• Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows 64-bit

Operating System – Server 2008 R2, Windows

7 (Professional or Ultimate)

200-250K (greater than 200K flows/sec) • X2 - 6 Core, 2+ GHz

• 16 GB RAM

• 6 TB, 7200 RPM*

• Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows 64-bit

Operating System – Server 2008 R2, Windows

7 (Professional or Ultimate)

*For higher performance use RAID 10 or RAID 0, if redundancy is not required

Estimated Disk Utilization per flow rate for 30 days:

Flow Rate 10K flows/sec 50K flows/sec 100K flows/sec

Disk Usage 900 GB 4.5 TB 9 TB

LiveAction LiveAction LiveAction LiveAction IWAN IWAN IWAN IWAN Management Management Management Management Licenses Licenses Licenses Licenses

LiveAction is a SolutionPlus partner, and LiveAction IWAN Management software is available on the

Cisco Global Price List (GPL) as listed below. Multiple licenses can be combined to reach the desired

number of devices to be managed. For example, to manage 700 devices, purchase a 500-device license

and two 100-device licenses.

LiveAction Enterprise -

o LiveAction multi-server, multi-user, unlimited historical data, full-function features with

Flow, QoS Monitor, QoS Configure, Routing, IP SLA, and LAN modules

o In this configuration, Routing includes PBR (Policy-Based Routing), visualization of VRF/

routing/adjacency tables, and next-hop route tracing. IP SLA includes IP SLA dashboard,

GUI-based IP SLA test generation, visualization of IP SLA test status, and all IP SLA

reports. LAN functionality includes Layer 2 QoS monitoring, LAN path visualization, and

STP (Spanning Tree Protocol) visualization.

LiveAction WAN – LiveAction multi-server, multi-user, rolling 14 days of historical data with Flow, QoS

Monitor, QoS Configure, and Routing.


LiveAction Professional – LiveAction for SMBs, single-server, single-user, 5 days of historical data with

Flow, QoS Monitor, QoS Configure, Routing, IP SLA, and LAN modules. Up to 200 devices can be

managed for this single-server LiveAction Professional version. For more than 200 devices on a single

server, please use the multi-server licenses above.

Solution Solution Solution Solution Use CasesUse CasesUse CasesUse Cases

Use Case 1: Visualizing Application Path ChangesUse Case 1: Visualizing Application Path ChangesUse Case 1: Visualizing Application Path ChangesUse Case 1: Visualizing Application Path Changes

IWAN can be enabled on the Cisco ISR-AX and ASR1000-AX platforms, which offer intelligent path

control (PfR), security (firewall, IPsec, SSL VPN), and application services (AVC, NBAR2, QoS) at a lower

cost. The PfR component of an IWAN can select the best path for each application based upon

advanced criteria such as, reachability, delay, loss, jitter, and mean opinion score (MOS). PfR improves

application availability by dynamically detecting and routing around network problems like black holes

and brownouts that traditional IP routing may not detect. Furthermore, the intelligent load balancing

capability of PfR can optimize path selection based on link usage or circuit pricing.

To complement IWAN, LiveAction visualizes application “before and after” path changes from PfR, so

customers can verify that key application paths are being adjusted as needed. In particular, when PfR

makes a path change to protect the applications due to an Out-Of-Policy (OOP) condition, LiveAction

renders the end-to-end path changes graphically from the branch Master Controller (MC)/Border Router

(BR) through the service provider(s) to the data center where the applications reside, providing more

meaningful and actionable information than the standard PfR CLI outputs. In the example below, a

brown-out caused an “Unreachable Criteria” OOP condition, which prompted PfR to select an alternate

path. You can easily see how the green flow for the application was moved from the upper (AT&T) path

to the lower (Verizon) path.

Figure 2 – LiveAction’s Visualization of PfR path changes

In addition to visually displaying the path changes, LiveAction generates TCAs (Threshold Crossing Alert)

for the “Unreachable Criteria” OOP condition that triggered the above path changes, and for easy

troubleshooting, color codes these alerts “Red” based on pre-configured thresholds that have been

Before Brown-Out (Northern Path) After Brown-Out (Southern Path)


exceeded. In this example, the diagram below shows the OOP events in the alert and device views.

Figure 3 – Out-of-Policy Threshold Crossing Alerts

Another important point that customers want to understand is what applications were moved by the

PfR-managed traffic. LiveAction can provide application traffic usage per interface. With an option to

filter traffic by applications, classes, or prefixes, LiveAction can report that after the path change, the

associated application traffic going through ATT is now shown going through Verizon as shown below:

Application Traffic To ATT

Application Traffic To Verizon

Before Path Change

After Path Change

Figure 4 – Application Traffic Being Moved


Use Case 2 Use Case 2 Use Case 2 Use Case 2 ––––Leveraging NBAR2 and QoS Control Leveraging NBAR2 and QoS Control Leveraging NBAR2 and QoS Control Leveraging NBAR2 and QoS Control

LiveAction provides AVC flow visualization, robust AVC reporting, and full NBAR2 QoS control to

optimize application performance. The diagram below shows LiveAction display of NBAR2 applications

and associated AVC metrics such as application, server, and network response times. This graphical

representation can greatly assist in troubleshooting efforts.

Figure 5 - LiveAction AVC Flow Visualization

LiveAction NBAR Comparison report enables network administrators to understand what application

traffic is incoming to/outgoing from an interface and how much bandwidth, thus providing useful

knowledge for QoS shaping and trending. In the example below, LiveAction recognizes the NBAR2

applications both entering and leaving the same interface, enabling users to understand what

applications traverse various devices in the network.

NBAR applications

inbound an interface

NBAR applications

outbound the same

interface

Figure 6 – NBAR Application Traffic Comparison

LiveAction allows full NBAR2 QoS control on Cisco routers both on a per-application level and also at the

higher group level. Thus, network engineers can take advantage of Cisco’s NBAR2 grouping feature and

LiveAction QoS graphical configurator to vastly reduce the complexity and verbosity of the router

NBAR2 application

names


configuration. In the example below, simply selecting the “browsing” category enables the user to

include applications such as flash-video, flashmyspace, flashyahoo, http, shockwave and others.

Figure 7 – NBAR QoS Control

Use Case 3 Use Case 3 Use Case 3 Use Case 3 ---- QoS Monitoring and ConfigurationQoS Monitoring and ConfigurationQoS Monitoring and ConfigurationQoS Monitoring and Configuration

Part of understanding and improving application performance is the ability to efficiently monitor and

configure QoS. Via AVC flow and CBQoS monitoring, LiveAction tracks NBAR2 application and QoS per-

class performance and provides extensive analyses, making it easy for IT engineers to fully understand

QoS behaviors on their networks. With congestion indicator visualization and color-coded status,

LiveAction offers proactive QoS monitoring that detects and alerts on critical policy drops before

problems are reported by end users as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8 – QoS Monitoring & Visualization

LiveAction’s real-time QoS graphical reporting at intervals as short as 10-seconds enables quick

validation of policy changes. For example, in Figure 9, once a policy is applied to police the Interactive

Video traffic to 512 Kbps, LiveAction’s graphical display of QoS information allows network

administrators to monitor the class and see how the policy has taken effect. It can be seen that the

QoS Marking

Congestion Indicator (amber color)


traffic was throttled down as intended.

Figure 9 – QoS Policy Impact

In the example below, LiveAction QoS control feature resolves an issue where Bittorrent slows down MS

Office 365 performance. By policing Bittorrent traffic through LiveAction QoS GUI interface, one can

instantly validate the performance of MS Office 365 which was restored to a favorable level as shown:

Figure 10 – BitTorrent Traffic Throttled Down For increased MS Office 365 Performance

LiveAction graphical QoS configurator and management empowers IT engineers of all experience levels

to create, edit, and implement highly effective QoS policies on live networks with complete ease and

confidence. LiveAction has deep QoS expertise built-in based on extensive research of the features,

functions, and idiosyncrasies of Cisco devices. With LiveAction, QoS configurations can be created from

scratch or using Cisco best practice templates with hundreds of device specific rules and guidelines.

Once QoS policies have been created, they can be immediately deployed or scheduled on multiple

devices or interfaces. Below is an example of LiveAction’s graphical QoS configurator.

BitTorrent

MS-Office 365


Add Policy

Create Hierarchical Policy

Edit QoS Statements

Copy Policy

Figure 11 – QoS Graphical Configurator

For example, LiveAction can create and manage QoS policies for Dynamic Multipoint Virtual Private

Network (DMVPN) tunnel endpoints and then apply them to tunnel interfaces. Each policy can then be

assigned to the desired next hop routing protocol (NHRP) tunnel interface.


Figure 12 – DMVPN QoS Configuration

Use Case 4: ASA and ASR 1K Security Event ReportingUse Case 4: ASA and ASR 1K Security Event ReportingUse Case 4: ASA and ASR 1K Security Event ReportingUse Case 4: ASA and ASR 1K Security Event Reporting

ASA Network Security Event Logging (NSEL) Processing ASA Network Security Event Logging (NSEL) Processing ASA Network Security Event Logging (NSEL) Processing ASA Network Security Event Logging (NSEL) Processing

ASA NSEL event information indicates when flows are created, deleted, or denied by an ACL. Combined

with GEO IP information, LiveAction provides real-time views of flows going through an ASA with

country information. The flows are graphically traced from specific inside, outside and DMZ interfaces

for easier response and understanding.

ASASASASR 1K High Speed Logging (HSL) Event ProcessingR 1K High Speed Logging (HSL) Event ProcessingR 1K High Speed Logging (HSL) Event ProcessingR 1K High Speed Logging (HSL) Event Processing

The ASR1K zone-based firewall writes HSL records through NetFlow Version 9 when sessions are created

and torn down. Capturing these HSL flows, LiveAction visualizes Audit, Alert, Drop, and event

notifications. LiveAction also provides network visualization of HSL events on the topology map, device

views, and historical playback. This interactive view allows ACLs to be directly created from the HSL flow.

Figure 13 – Session creation/removal flows from ASR1K HSL


Use Case 5 Use Case 5 Use Case 5 Use Case 5 ---- Network Health and Status Network Health and Status Network Health and Status Network Health and Status

LiveAction provides additional Network Health and Status reporting for IWAN Management, including

but not limited to:

• Network discovery and network topology – LiveAction discovers devices and draws them on

the topology map. This topology is also interactive in that network administrators can perform

commands or take actions (like creating ACL off a flow) by right-clicking on that topology. This

interactive topology is at the core of LiveAction’s intuitive “See – Point – Click-Fix” user

interface model.

• End-to-end flow visualization - LiveAction visualizes the end-to-end flows and imposes them on

the network topology to help network administrators graphically understand traffic pattern,

bandwidth consumption, priority setting, and other performance conditions.

Figure 14 – LiveAction Interactive Topology

• Network-wide audits of QoS policies – With a single click of a button, LiveAction generates a

policy and performance audit report analyzing QoS configurations for errors and performance

issues and details this information in an easy-to-navigate report. This report will show

everything you need to know about your QoS policies in great detail including configuration

settings, performance issues, drops, and policy errors.


Figure 15 – Network-wide QoS Audit Report

• Network monitoring using NetFlow, IPFIX, SNMP, IP SLA, routing and LAN statistics

• Threshold crossing alert processing – User-defined thresholds can be configured such that

Threshold Crossing Alerts (TCAs) are generated by LiveAction to warn network administrators of

impending performance issues

• Dashboard – LiveAction features System, Flow, QoS, and IP SLA dashboards to provide at-a-

glance status for top application performance, site performance, networking device

CPU/memory usage, link utilization, interface up/down, top QoS conditions on interfaces, links,

and Layer 2 devices (drops, congestions)

• Routing visualization - LiveAction provides real-time routing layer visualizations and path

debugging tools for Cisco networks. In addition, the module’s policy-based routing editor

provides a high degree of traffic engineering for managing policy-specific forwarding paths.

Getting StartedGetting StartedGetting StartedGetting Started

Enable Cisco Intelligent WANEnable Cisco Intelligent WANEnable Cisco Intelligent WANEnable Cisco Intelligent WAN

Figure 15 shows a typical IWAN environment with dual transport paths between the branch and the

corporate data center, a Cisco integrated service router at the branch and dual Cisco routers at the data

center. Though one Internet and one MPLS VPN transport path are shown here, the transport can be

provided by any combination of transport services (MPLS VPN, Business Internet or Broadband).


Figure 16 – Typical IWAN Environment

Please refer to www.cisco.com/go/iwan and

http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/PfR:Solutions:EnterpriseWAN for more specific platform, connectivity,

and configuration requirements. In general, Cisco IWAN requirements include the following:

1. WAN connections

• Dual MPLS-VPN service, or

• a primary MPLS-VPN and a secondary DMVPN over the public Internet, or

• dual DMVPN over the public Internet

2. Cisco Application Experience platforms – provides increasing performance and module slot

density that include licenses for Data (DATA), Security (SEC) and Wide Area Application Services

(WAAS).

• CSR1000V

• ASR 1000 AX - Cisco ASR 1001 (5G) and ASR 1002-X (5G, 10G, 20G and 36G)

• ISR AX - Cisco 4400-AX, 3900-AX, 2900-AX, 1900-AX Series Application

Experience Routers and an AX Feature Set software licensing option for 800

Series.

If you buy the new AX hardware bundle, security license is part of the bundle. If you buy generic ISR,

ASR platforms and add AX licenses, the Security license has to be purchased separately.

Note: Ensure you refresh Access Routing installed base (ISR G1 and older) to AX, or upgrade ISR G2

to AX

3. Router Configurations

a. Configure ACL or Firewall for security on Internet connections – for threat defense and

secure Internet access.


b. Configure DMVPN - The IWAN independent transport solution requires a DMVPN dual-

cloud design, each with a single hub router. The DMVPN routers use tunnel interfaces

that support IP unicast as well as IP multicast and broadcast traffic, including the use of

dynamic routing protocols.

c. Enable Cisco Performance Routing (PfR) in both the branch office and headquarters ISR-

AX devices if you are using more than one WAN link. To do this, you’ll need to define the

criteria for routing the mission-critical protocols across the WAN. Configure the branch-

office hub master controller and all branch master controllers, which will then configure

their corresponding border routers.

d. Enable any desired Application Visibility and Control (AVC) components to provide

application visibility. The NBAR2 Custom Protocol feature enables the administrator to

create custom application signatures for application protocols not pre-defined in the

standard Cisco protocols packs. This process identifies all traffic traversing the ISR-AX by

application. It can be trained to recognize new protocols or encrypted protocols. Note

that this step can be performed with LiveAction (for ISR-AX) through simple point-and-

click operations instead of coding hundreds of CLI commands.

e. Enable WAAS to improve network responsiveness and provide LAN-like performance on

the WAN. This process reduces application latency through application-specific

optimizations. It also reduces the WAN usage through advanced caching techniques,

and optimizes the TCP performance over high-latency WANs.

InstallInstallInstallInstall LiveActionLiveActionLiveActionLiveAction

To install LiveAction, follow the steps below and refer to the LiveAction User Guide for more information

http://www.liveaction.com/support/resources

1. Download LiveAction to the server

2. Run the LiveAction server installer

3. Load your LiveAction permanent license

4. Activate your permanent license

5. Install your LiveAction client on end-user Windows PCs or Mac’s

Add DAdd DAdd DAdd Devices to evices to evices to evices to the Topology Mthe Topology Mthe Topology Mthe Topology Mapapapap

The first step when using LiveAction is to add your network devices to the topology. You can add

multiple devices in one operation using the device discovery function (“Discover Device” icon) or

add devices one at a time (“Add Device” icon). Please refer to LiveAction User Guide, Chapter 4,

“Add Devices To Topology” for more detailed instructions.

Provision NetFlowProvision NetFlowProvision NetFlowProvision NetFlow and QoSand QoSand QoSand QoS MMMMonitoring onitoring onitoring onitoring

After any supported Cisco devices are added to the topology they need to be configured for NetFlow

and QoS (basic SNMP, NBAR and CBQoS) and NetFlow. LiveAction uses basic NetFlow to draw the

end-to-end flows across the topology and to show the “before” and “after” PfR path changes. In

addition, LiveAction also leverages PfR and AVC NetFlow records to provide OOP conditions and

application response time statistics respectively, among other things. Once the devices are added,

the Device Discovery wizard will prompt you to configure the devices you have just added. Click

“Yes” to configure them with the device setup wizard. Please refer to LiveAction User Guide,

Chapter 4, “Configure Cisco Devices for QoS, Flow and IP SLA” for more detailed instructions. This

step allows for basic NetFlow and SNMP to be collected. PfR and AVC flows are also needed for


IWAN management and that will be separately configured in the next few steps.

Create Network OCreate Network OCreate Network OCreate Network Objects for bjects for bjects for bjects for DDDDevicesevicesevicesevices

This step is to change the IP address box to device icon on the topology map. Right-click in the

system topology and select “Create Network Object” to add a network object with descriptive text.

To edit or delete a network object, right-click on the object and select “Edit Network Object”.

Objects may be connected using the Connect icon in the topology view toolbar. Three types of

Network Objects are available: Annotation only, IP Address End Point or Merged clouds. Please refer

to LiveAction User Guide, Chapter 4, “Adding Generic Network Objects and Annotations” for more

detailed instructions.

Enable PfREnable PfREnable PfREnable PfR FlowsFlowsFlowsFlows

• For IOS provisioning of the MC/BRs, please refer to PfR Configuration Guide

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios-xml/ios/pfr/configuration/xe-3s/pfr-xe-3s-

book.html and http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/PfR:Solutions:EnterpriseWAN.

• In addition to basic NetFlow above, you will need to enable PfR NetFlow V9 export. The PfR

NetFlow records enable LiveAction to report on OOP conditions that triggered the path changes.

Enter the following CLI on the PfR Master Controller

flow exporter PFR_EXPORT

destination <LIVEACTION’S IP Address>

source <SOURCE INTERFACE>

transport udp 2055

template data timeout 60

option interface-table timeout 60

option exporter-stats timeout 60

option vrf-table timeout 60

option sampler-table timeout 60

option application-table timeout 60

option metadata-version-table timeout 60

!

pfr master

exporter PFR_EXPORT

EnableEnableEnableEnable AVCAVCAVCAVC FlowsFlowsFlowsFlows

LiveAction uses FNF and NBAR for traffic statistics, PA (Performance Agent on ISR-AX) and MMA (Metric

Mediation Agent for ASR1K) for application response time (ART) measurements, and PerfMon for

Medianet. For ISR-AX platforms, AVC can be enabled by LiveAction through the Flow Configuration

wizard where users select the AVC metrics to collect rather than having to code a series of CLIs. For ASR

platforms, AVC NetFlow needs to be configured via CLI as shown in Appendix A.

LiveAction inventories the ISR-AX devices and provide a list of capabilities as shown below:


Figure 17 - Enabling AVC Flows with LiveAction

By selecting this option for the interfaces, LiveAction generates the CLIs in the back-end and push them

to the devices to enable these flows for analysis.


ValidateValidateValidateValidate traditional, traditional, traditional, traditional, PfR andPfR andPfR andPfR and AVC AVC AVC AVC FFFFlowlowlowlowssss

Select the appropriate NetFlow types (basic, AVC, PfR) under the drop down in the device view to

ensure you can see flows coming in and going out of the interface as shown below.


Figure 18- Validating Basic, PfR and AVC Flows

SetSetSetSet Alert ThreAlert ThreAlert ThreAlert Thresholdssholdssholdssholds

Under “Tools”, “Configure Alerts”, and “Flow Triggers” Tab, click on PfR to enable Alerts to be generated

by LiveAction when an OOP condition occurs as shown in Figure 19.


Figure 19 – Setting PfR TCA

Filter Traffic to Filter Traffic to Filter Traffic to Filter Traffic to VisualizeVisualizeVisualizeVisualize Path ChangesPath ChangesPath ChangesPath Changes

To see the “before and after” application path changes between different locations as shown in Figure 2,

filter the traffic by clicking on the “Configure Flow Display Filters” option from the “Flow” tab.

From here, you can add an entry and select “Match IP, Range, Subnet” or “Match Device Interface” to

specify device end points you want to see the traversed path.


Figure 20 – Filter Traffic To Visualize Path Changes

ConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusion Cisco IWAN enables businesses to deliver an uncompromised experience over any connection. With

Cisco IWAN, traffic is dynamically routed based on application, endpoint, and network conditions to

deliver the best-quality experience. The realized savings from IWAN not only pays for the infrastructure

upgrades, but also frees resources for business innovation.

LiveAction for IWAN management increases Cisco IWAN value to customers by providing unparalleled

visualization that bridges the management gap for an end-to-end IWAN solution, resulting in faster

IWAN troubleshooting and easier justification of IWAN ROI.

For More Information

LiveAction is available to be resold on the Cisco Global Price List (GPL) as shown in the LiveAction IWAN

Management Licenses section. Contact [email protected] if you have a question or would like

to request a LiveAction demonstration. You may also login directly to our LiveAction server as a demo

user via a LiveAction client and explore its various capabilities via http://liveaction.com/testdrive/


Appendix A Appendix A Appendix A Appendix A

Configure AVC to Export Flows on an ASRConfigure AVC to Export Flows on an ASRConfigure AVC to Export Flows on an ASRConfigure AVC to Export Flows on an ASR

At this time LiveAction does not configure AVC to export to LiveAction for ASR’s, but it can be configured

manually through the CLI. Following are the sample CLIs for AVC configuration on ASR.

Create Flow Records

flow record type performance-monitor LIVEACTION-FLOWRECORD-AVC

match routing vrf input

match ipv4 protocol

match application name account-on-resolution

match connection client ipv4 address

match connection server ipv4 address

match connection server transport port

match services waas segment account-on-resolution

collect ipv4 dscp

collect ipv4 source address

collect ipv4 destination address

collect interface input

collect interface output

collect connection initiator

collect connection new-connections

collect connection sum-duration

collect connection delay response to-server sum

collect connection server counter responses

collect connection delay response to-server histogram late

collect connection delay network to-server sum

collect connection delay network to-client sum

collect connection client counter packets retransmitted

collect connection delay network client-to-server sum

collect connection delay application sum

collect connection delay response client-to-server sum

collect connection server counter bytes long

collect connection server counter packets long

collect connection client counter bytes long

collect connection client counter packets long

collect connection transaction duration sum

collect connection transaction duration min

collect connection transaction duration max

collect connection transaction counter complete

collect services waas passthrough-reason

collect application http host


Create FlowExporters

flow exporter LIVEACTION-FLOWEXPORTER-IPFIX

description DO NOT MODIFY. USED BY LIVEACTION.

export-protocol ipfix

destination <LiveAction Server’s Ip >

source <Source Interface >

transport udp 2055

option interface-table

option application-table

option c3pl-class-table

option c3pl-policy-table

option interface-table

option vrf-table

Create Flow Monitors

flow monitor type performance-monitor LIVEACTION-FLOWMONITOR-AVC

description DO NOT MODIFY. USED BY LIVEACTION.

record LIVEACTION-FLOWRECORD-AVC

exporter LIVEACTION-FLOWEXPORTER-IPFIX

cache entries 65000

Create an extended Access List*

ip access-list extended LIVEACTION-ACL-AVC

permit tcp any any

Create Class-Maps

class-map match-any LIVEACTION-CLASS-AVC

match access-group name LIVEACTION-ACL-AVC

Create a Policy Map to unify AVC and Medianet

policy-map type performance-monitor LIVEACTION-POLICY-UNIFIED

class LIVEACTION-CLASS-AVC

flow monitor LIVEACTION-FLOWMONITOR-AVC

Apply to Interfaces

interface <Interface Name>

service-policy type performance-monitor input LIVEACTION-POLICY-UNIFIED


service-policy type performance-monitor output LIVEACTION-POLICY-UNIFIED

*This access-list may be modified if only specific TCP applications types need to be monitored by AVC

Documents

LiveAction For Cisco Intelligent WAN Management Solution ...€¦ · routing/adjacency tables, and next-hop route tracing. IP SLA includes IP SLA dashboard, GUI-based IP SLA test