Fine-Grain NBAR for Select Applications

NBAR provides two levels of application recognition: coarse-grain and fine-grain modes. Coarse-grain mode optimizes performance. Fine-grain mode provides NBAR's full application recognition capabilities, but with a higher performance cost. By default, NBAR operates in coarse-grain mode.

Feature Information

The following table provides release information about the feature or features described in this module. This table lists only the software release that introduced support for a given feature in a given software release train. Unless noted otherwise, subsequent releases of that software release train also support that feature.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.
Table 1. Feature Information for NBAR Fine-Grain Application Recognition Mode

Feature Name

Releases

Feature Information

Fine-grain application recognition mode

Cisco IOS XE Release 3.15S

By default NBAR operates in the fine-grain mode, offering NBAR's full application recognition capabilities. Used when per-packet reporting is required, fine-grain mode offers a troubleshooting advantage. Cisco recommends using fine-grain mode only when detailed Layer 7 metrics is required to be extracted by NBAR for critical applications. The fine-grain NBAR for Selective Applications feature enables a customer to dynamically monitor critical applications including collection of detailed Layer 7 metrics. The feature helps troubleshoot slowness in a particular application while the rest of the applications are running in coarse-grain mode and thus preventing any impact on the performance of the system.

The following command was introduced or modified:

ip nbar custom .

Fine-grain application recognition mode

Cisco IOS XE Release 3.16S

Cisco IOS XE 16.x releases

Default mode changed to coarse-grain.

Fine-Grain NBAR for Selective Applications

Overview

NBAR provides two levels of application recognition: coarse-grain and fine-grain modes. Coarse-grain mode optimizes performance. Fine-grain mode provides NBAR's full application recognition capabilities, but with a higher performance cost.

By default, NBAR operates in coarse-grain mode. NBAR automatically changes to fine-grain mode when required, based on the configuration and traffic patterns. Typically, it is not necessary to change NBAR's automatic behavior, but you can configure fine-grain mode manually, using the procedure described below.

Forcing fine-grain mode for specific applications may be useful for monitoring a subset of applications, without adversely affecting performance, while other applications continue in coarse-grain mode.

How to Configure Fine-Grain NBAR for Specific Applications

To override NBAR’s automatic behavior and force fine-grain mode, use the following procedure. The procedure enables specifying applications individually by name or specifying applications that match a specific attribute value, such as "business-relevance = business-relevant".


Note

For application attribute types, see Application Attributes. For attribute values, see the protocol examples provided through the Protocol Library site.

Configure fine-grain mode:

enable
configure terminal
ip nbar classification granularity fine-grain { [protocol protocol-name] | [attribute attribute-type attribute-value] }
exit

Display the currently configured NBAR classification mode:

show ip nbar classification granularity { [protocol protocol-name] | [attribute attribute-type attribute-value] }

Example

This example configures fine-grain mode for the application protocol, cisco-media-audio, then verifies with the show command.
Device#enable
Device#configuration terminal
Device(config)#ip nbar classification granularity fine-grain protocol cisco-media-audio
Device(config)#exit
Device#show ip nbar classification granularity protocol cisco-media-audio

Protocol                  Force mode
------------------------------------- 
cisco-media-audio         fine-grain

Additional References

Related Documents

Related Topic

Document Title

Cisco IOS commands

Cisco IOS Master Command List, All Releases

AVC information

AVC User Guide

Technical Assistance

Description

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https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/index.html