Configuring Active Latency Monitoring

This chapter contains the following sections:

Active Latency Monitoring Overview

Active Latency Monitoring provides a real-time view of the latency that is incurred by the packets while traveling through the switch on a per port basis. The latency measurement is FIFO measurement. Functionally, as soon as the packet enters the switch, the ASIC adds a timestamp to it. When it is scheduled to go out of the egress port, the egress port calculates the latency for each packet that is going out of that port based on current time and the ingress timestamp on the packet.


Note


Active latency monitoring is currently not available for Cisco Nexus N3548 Series switches. This feature is only supported for Cisco Nexus 3548-X and 3548-XL Series switches.


Each egress port maintains the information in the frame count and the latency register, along with the minimum and maximum latency on that port. The software periodically reads the frame count (default 3 seconds) and the total latency to calculate the average latency per port. Based on per port latency information, the software calculates the average switch latency.

Active Latency Monitoring Guidelines and Limitations

Active Latency Monitoring has the following limitations and guidelines:

  • Disabling the latency monitor does not clear the existing latency monitor data.

  • Clear the latency monitor data before enabling the latency monitor.

  • The latency monitor data is lost when the sampling interval is modified.

  • The latency monitor data is not maintained across a switch reload.

Configuring Active Latency Monitoring

To configure active latency monitoring, complete the following steps:


Note


The average or maximum latency threshold is in nanoseconds. The software sampling interval value is between 1 to 30 seconds. The default values for the parameters are:

  • Sampling = 3 seconds

  • Threshold-avg = 1000000 nanoseconds

  • Threshold-max = 2000000 nanoseconds


SUMMARY STEPS

  1. clear hardware profile latency monitor
  2. [no] hardware profile latency monitor
  3. (Optional) hardware profile latency monitor threshold-avg <value>
  4. (Optional) hardware profile latency monitor threshold-max <value>
  5. (Optional) hardware profile latency monitor sampling <value>
  6. exit
  7. (Optional) show hardware profile latency monitor summary

DETAILED STEPS

  Command or Action Purpose

Step 1

clear hardware profile latency monitor

Clears the latency monitor data.

Step 2

[no] hardware profile latency monitor

Enables or disables latency monitoring.

Step 3

(Optional) hardware profile latency monitor threshold-avg <value>

(Optional)

Sets the average threshold for syslog generation. Range is 300 to 2000000 nanoseconds.

Step 4

(Optional) hardware profile latency monitor threshold-max <value>

(Optional)

Sets the maximum threshold for syslog generation. Range is 300 to 2000000 nanoseconds.

Step 5

(Optional) hardware profile latency monitor sampling <value>

(Optional)

Sets the sampling interval in seconds. Range is 1 to 30 seconds.

Step 6

exit

Updates the configuration and exits the configuration mode.

Step 7

(Optional) show hardware profile latency monitor summary

(Optional)

Displays the latency values on the packets.

Show Examples for Active Latency Monitoring

See the following examples that provide a real-time view of the latency incurred by the packets:

switch# show hardware profile latency monitor summary 

10/13/2015 06:55:58
Device instance 0

Total Switch
============
                    3s              30s             1hr             All Time    
    
Min Latency (ns)    390             375             n/a             369         
    
Max Latency (ns)    775             1844            n/a             1950        
    
Avg Latency (ns)    612             721             n/a             754         
    
Std Deviation       205.24          117.23          n/a             69.17       
    

Ethernet1/1
===========
                    3s              30s             1hr             All Time    
    
Min Latency (ns)    775             762             n/a             762         
    
Max Latency (ns)    775             1757            n/a             1950        
    
Avg Latency (ns)    775             838             n/a             870         
    
Std Deviation       n/a             83.87           n/a             100.93 

<snip>

Ethernet1/13
============
                    3s              30s             1hr             All Time    
    
Min Latency (ns)    671             646             n/a             644         
    
Max Latency (ns)    671             1844            n/a             1844        
    
Avg Latency (ns)    671             736             n/a             740         
    
Std Deviation       n/a             100.16          n/a             93.76