Normal scheduling of IP SLAs operations allows you to schedule one operation at a time. If you have large networks with thousands of IP SLAs operations to monitor network performance, normal scheduling (scheduling each operation individually) will be inefficient and time-consuming.
Multiple operations scheduling allows you to schedule multiple IP SLAs operations using a single command through the command line interface (CLI) or the CISCO-RTTMON-MIB. This feature allows you to control the amount of IP SLAs monitoring traffic by scheduling the operations to run at evenly distributed times. You must specify the operation ID numbers to be scheduled and the time range over which all the IP SLAs operations should start. This feature automatically distributes the IP SLAs operations at equal intervals over a specified time frame. The spacing between the operations (start interval) is calculated and the operations are started. This distribution of IP SLAs operations helps minimize the CPU utilization and thereby enhances the scalability of the network.
The IP SLAs multiple operations scheduling functionality allows you to schedule multiple IP SLAs operations as a group, using the following configuration parameters:
- Group operation number--Group configuration or group schedule number of the IP SLAs operation to be scheduled.
- Operation ID numbers--A list of IP SLAs operation ID numbers in the scheduled operation group.
- Schedule period--Amount of time for which the IP SLAs operation group is scheduled.
- Ageout--Amount of time to keep the operation in memory when it is not actively collecting information. By default, the operation remains in memory indefinitely.
- Frequency--Amount of time after which each IP SLAs operation is restarted. When the frequency option is specified, it overwrites the operation frequency of all operations belonging to the group. Note that when the frequency option is not specified, the frequency for each operation is set to the value of the schedule period.
- Life--Amount of time the operation actively collects information. The operation can be configured to run indefinitely. By default, the lifetime of an operation is one hour.
- Start time--Time when the operation starts collecting information. You can specify an operation to start immediately or at an absolute start time using hours, minutes, seconds, day, and month.
The IP SLAs multiple operations scheduling functionality schedules the maximum number of operations possible without aborting. However, this functionality skips those IP SLAs operations that are already running or those that are not configured and hence do not exist. The total number of operations will be calculated based on the number of operations specified in the command, irrespective of the number of operations that are missing or already running. The IP SLAs multiple operations scheduling functionality displays a message showing the number of active and missing operations. However, these messages are displayed only if you schedule operations that are not configured or are already running.
A main benefit for scheduling multiple IP SLAs operations is that the load on the network is reduced by distributing the operations equally over a scheduled period. This distribution helps you to achieve more consistent monitoring coverage. To illustrate this scenario, consider configuring 60 operations to start during the same 1-second interval over a 60-second schedule period. If a network failure occurs 30 seconds after all 60 operations have started and the network is restored before the operations are due to start again (in another 30 seconds), then this failure would never be detected by any of the 60 operations. However, if the 60 operations are distributed equally at 1-second intervals over a 60-second schedule period, then some of the operations would detect the network failure. Conversely, if a network failure occurs when all 60 operations are active, then all 60 operations would fail, indicating that the failure is possibly more severe than it really is.
Operations of the same type and same frequency should be used for IP SLAs multiple operations scheduling. If you do not specify a frequency, the default frequency will be the same as that of the schedule period. The schedule period is the period of time in which all the specified operations should run.
The following sections focus on the interaction of the schedule period and frequency values, additional values, such as start time and lifetime values, are not included in the illustrations.
Default Behavior of IP SLAs Multiple Operations Scheduling
The IP SLAs Multiple Operations Scheduling feature allows you to schedule multiple IP SLAs operations as a group.
The figure below illustrates the scheduling of operation group 1 that includes operation 1 to operation 10. Operation group 1 has a schedule period of 20 seconds, which means that all operations in the group will be started at equal intervals within a 20-second period. By default, the frequency is set to the same value as the configured schedule period. As shown in the figure below, configuring the frequencyis optional because 20 is the default.
Figure 1. Schedule Period Equals Frequency--Default Behavior
In this example, the first operation (operation 1) in operation group 1 will start at 0 seconds. All 10 operations in operation group 1 (operation 1 to operation 10) must be started in the schedule period of 20 seconds. The start time of each IP SLAs operation is evenly distributed over the schedule period by dividing the schedule period by the number of operations (20 seconds divided by 10 operations). Therefore, each operation will start 2 seconds after the previous operation.
The frequency is the period of time that passes before the operation group is started again (repeated). If the frequency is not specified, the frequency is set to the value of the schedule period. In the example shown above, operation group 1 will start again every 20 seconds. This configuration provides optimal division (spacing) of operations over the specified schedule period.
IP SLAs Multiple Operations Scheduling with Scheduling Period Less Than Frequency
The frequency value is the amount of time that passes before the schedule group is restarted, if the schedule period is less than the frequency, there will be a period of time in which no operations are started.
The figure below illustrates the scheduling of operation 1 to operation 10 within operation group 2. Operation group 2 has a schedule period of 20 seconds and a frequency of 30 seconds.
Figure 2. Schedule Period Is Less Than Frequency
In this example, the first operation (operation 1) in operation group 2 will start at 0 seconds. All 10 operations in operation group 2 (operation 1 to operation 10) must be started in the schedule period of 20 seconds. The start time of each IP SLAs operation is evenly distributed over the schedule period by dividing the schedule period by the number of operations (20 seconds divided by 10 operations). Therefore, each operation will start 2 seconds after the previous operation.
In the first iteration of operation group 2, operation 1 starts at 0 seconds, and the last operation (operation 10) starts at 18 seconds. However, because the group frequency has been configured to 30 seconds each operation in the operation group is restarted every 30 seconds. So, after 18 seconds, there is a gap of 10 seconds as no operations are started in the time from 19 seconds to 29 seconds. Hence, at 30 seconds, the second iteration of operation group 2 starts. As all ten operations in the operation group 2 must start at an evenly distributed interval in the configured schedule period of 20 seconds, the last operation (operation 10) in the operation group 2 will always start 18 seconds after the first operation (operation 1).
As illustrated in the figure above, the following events occur:
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At 0 seconds, the first operation (operation 1) in operation group 2 is started.
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At 18 seconds, the last operation (operation 10) in operation group 2 is started. This means that the first iteration (schedule period) of operation group 1 ends here.
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From 19 to 29 seconds, no operations are started.
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At 30 seconds, the first operation (operation 1) in operation group 2 is started again. The second iteration of operation group 2 starts here.
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At 48 seconds (18 seconds after the second iteration started) the last operation (operation 10) in operation group 2 is started, and the second iteration of operation group 2 ends.
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At 60 seconds, the third iteration of operation group 2 starts.
This process continues until the lifetime of operation group 2 ends. The lifetime value is configurable. The default lifetime for an operation group is forever.
Multiple Operations Scheduling When the Number of IP SLAs Operations Are Greater Than the Schedule Period
The minimum time interval between the start of IP SLAs operations in a group operation is 1 second. Therefore, if the number of operations to be multiple scheduled is greater than the schedule period, the IP SLAs multiple operations scheduling functionality will schedule more than one operation to start within the same 1-second interval. If the number of operations getting scheduled does not equally divide into 1-second intervals, then the operations are equally divided at the start of the schedule period with the remaining operations to start at the last 1-second interval.
The figure below illustrates the scheduling of operation 1 to operation 10 within operation group 3. Operation group 3 has a schedule period of 5 seconds and a frequency of 10 seconds.
Figure 3. Number of IP SLAs Operations Is Greater Than the Schedule Period--Even Distribution
In this example, when dividing the schedule period by the number of operations (5 seconds divided by 10 operations, which equals one operation every 0.5 seconds) the start time of each IP SLAs operation is less than 1 second. Since the minimum time interval between the start of IP SLAs operations in a group operation is 1 second, the IP SLAs multiple operations scheduling functionality instead calculates how many operations it should start in each 1-second interval by dividing the number of operations by the schedule period (10 operations divided by 5 seconds). Therefore, as shown in the figure above, two operations will be started every 1 second.
As the frequency is set to 10 in this example, each iteration of operation group 3 will start 10 seconds after the start of the previous iteration. However, this distribution is not optimal as there is a gap of 5 seconds (frequency minus schedule period) between the cycles.
If the number of operations getting scheduled does not equally divide into 1-second intervals, then the operations are equally divided at the start of the schedule period with the remaining operations to start at the last 1-second interval.
The figure below illustrates the scheduling of operation 1 to operation 10 within operation group 4. Operation group 4 has a schedule period of 4 seconds and a frequency of 5 seconds.
Figure 4. Number of IP SLAs Operations Is Greater Than the Schedule Period--Uneven Distribution
In this example, the IP SLAs multiple operations scheduling functionality calculates how many operations it should start in each 1-second interval by dividing the number of operations by the schedule period (10 operations divided by 4 seconds, which equals 2.5 operations every 1 second). Since the number of operations does not equally divide into 1-second intervals, this number will be rounded off to the next whole number (see the figure above) with the remaining operations to start at the last 1-second interval.
IP SLAs Multiple Operations Scheduling with Scheduling Period Greater Than Frequency
The value of frequency is the amount of time that passes before the schedule group is restarted. If the schedule period is greater than the frequency, there will be a period of time in which the operations in one iteration of an operation group overlap with the operations of the following iteration.
The figure below illustrates the scheduling of operation 1 to operation 10 within operation group 5. Operation group 5 has a schedule period of 20 seconds and a frequency of 10 seconds.
Figure 5. IP SLAs Group Scheduling with Schedule Period Greater Than Frequency
In this example, the first operation (operation 1) in operation group 5 will start at 0 seconds. All 10 operations in operation group 5 (operation 1 to operation 10) must be started in the schedule period of 20 seconds. The start time of each IP SLAs operation is evenly distributed over the schedule period by dividing the schedule period by the number of operations (20 seconds divided by 10 operations). Therefore, each operation will start 2 seconds after the previous operation.
In the first iteration of operation group 5, operation 1 starts at 0 seconds, and operation 10, the last operation in the operation group, starts at 18 seconds. Because the operation group is configured to restart every 10 seconds (frequency 10), the second iteration of operation group 5 starts again at 10 seconds, before the first iteration is completed. Therefore, an overlap of operations 6 to 10 of the first iteration occurs with operations 1 to 5 of the second iteration during the time period of 10 to 18 seconds (see the figure above). Similarly, there is an overlap of operations 6 to 10 of the second iteration with operations 1 to 5 of the third iteration during the time period of 20 to 28 seconds.
In this example, the start time of operation 1 and operation 6 need not be at exactly the same time, but will be within the same 2-second interval.
The configuration described in this section is not recommended as you can configure multiple operations to start within the same 1-second interval by configuring the number of operations greater than the schedule period. For information, see the "Multiple Operations Scheduling When the Number of IP SLAs Operations Are Greater Than the Schedule Period" section.