Cisco Application Visibility and Control User Guide

Added support for Cisco 5000 Series routers

Added support for Cisco 5915, 5921, 5930, 5940 routers

For more information, see: AVC Supported Platforms

Configurable export interval in ezPM

Option to specify the cache timeout (exporting interval) in seconds. At this interval, the cached NetFlow records are exported.

For more information, see: ezPM Configuration Options

Easy Performance Monitor (ezPM) enhancement:

• Application Performance profile added

The Application Performance profile is an improved form of the existing Application Experience profile. Application Experience remains available to support legacy configurations, but it is recommended to use the Application Performance profile for new configurations.

For more information, see: Application Performance Profile

Easy Performance Monitor (ezPM) enhancement:

• Improved identification of HTTP traffic

Due to an improvement in NBAR (class-hierarchy feature), URL and Media traffic monitors can more accurately identify HTTP traffic.

For more information, see: Easy Performance Monitor (ezPM)

NBAR coarse-grain mode added

NBAR provides two levels of application recognition: fine-grain and coarse-grain.

Fine-grain mode provides NBAR's full application recognition capabilities. Coarse-grain mode offers a performance advantage by minimizing deep packet inspection, and can be used in scenarios where the full power of fine-grain classification is not required.

For more information, see: NBAR2 Fine-grain and Coarse-grain Modes

Easy Performance Monitor (ezPM) enhancements:

• Application Statistics profile added to Easy Performance Monitor
• Added the cache-type parameter to ezPM configuration

The Application Statistics profile collects application statistics on all IPv4 and IPv6 traffic. It is a simpler profile than the Application Experience profile introduced in an earlier release.

A new cache-type parameter enables specifying the type of cache for a monitor.

For more information, see: Easy Performance Monitor (ezPM)

Convergence of Cisco AVC Architecture Across Platform Types

The convergence of AVC architecture brings together the strongest AVC features from IOS and IOS XE platforms, providing powerful features and greater standardization of configuration tasks across different Cisco platforms.

Metrics, such as ART, HTTP, and QoS metrics, that were available in earlier releases can now be configured in the same way as on Cisco IOS XE platforms. Additional metrics are also newly available for Cisco IOS.

Metric Mediation Agent (MMA)

The Metric Mediation Agent (MMA) introduces an enhancement to Cisco AVC infrastructure, enabling addition of stateful and derived parameters with dynamic registration. The MMA provides aggregation of connections, history, and alarms from the route processor. The aggregated data is exported at a lower speed than the data path export.

For more information about the MMA, see:
Metric Mediation Agent

QoS Metrics

This Cisco AVC release provides new monitors for collecting metrics related to Quality of Service (QoS) policy. Monitors can indicate:

• Packets dropped on an interface, per QoS queue, due to a QoS policy that limits resources available to a specific type of traffic.
• Class hierarchy (indicating traffic priority) of a reported flow, as determined by the QoS policy map.

For more information, see:
QoS Metrics: Cisco IOS Platforms

Easy Performance Monitor (ezPM) Configuration

Easy Performance Monitor “express” method of provisioning monitors. Easy perf-mon provides “profiles” that represent typical deployment scenarios. After a user selects a profile and specifies a small number of parameters, Easy perf-mon provides the remaining provisioning details. This release provides one profile, which includes five different traffic monitors. Future releases will provide additional options. For more information, see:
Easy Performance Monitor (ezPM)

Customizing attribute values

See Customizing Attribute Values.

Export Spreading

The export-spreading feature spreads out the export of records from the monitor cache over a time interval, to improve collector performance. For more information, see:
NetFlow/IPFIX Flow Monitor

IPv6 Support

The Cisco AVC solution supports both IPv4 and IPv6.

Unified Solution

Unifies the technologies of several reporting/control solutions. AVC technologies include the configuration mechanism, metrics, and reports of such components as TCP performance, and so on.

Media Metrics

For an overview of the metrics collected by Cisco routers, both for Cisco IOS and for Cisco IOS XE, see:
Cisco Application Visibility and Control Field Definition Guide for Third-Party Customers

Cisco Performance Agent (MACE) Metrics, including:

• Application response (ART)
• FNF
• HTTP
• QoS

For information about using these metrics, see Configuring AVC to Monitor MACE Metrics.

TCP Performance Metrics

AVC includes several TCP performance measurements for traffic performance reporting.

Cisco Prime Infrastructure

The Cisco Prime Infrastructure management and reporting system is an integral part of the Cisco AVC solution and provides extensive management and reporting features, including provisioning the system, storing exported data, and generating reports.

AVC in L2 Transparent mode

A router operating in layer 2 transparent mode (local switching) bridges two interfaces, transparently forwarding packets directly from one interface to the other, without any other routing functionality. AVC can operate on a device configured in this mode, providing full AVC functionality on the bridged traffic.

For more information, see: AVC Compatibility with Layer 2 Transparent Mode

Configurable export interval in ezPM

Option to specify the cache timeout (exporting interval) in seconds. At this interval, the cached NetFlow records are exported.

For more information, see: ezPM Configuration Options

Easy Performance Monitor (ezPM) enhancement:

• Application Performance profile added

The Application Performance profile is an improved form of the existing Application Experience profile. Application Experience remains available to support legacy configurations, but it is recommended to use the Application Performance profile for new configurations.

For more information, see: Application Performance Profile

Easy Performance Monitor (ezPM) enhancement:

• Improved identification of HTTP traffic

Due to an improvement in NBAR (class-hierarchy feature), URL and Media traffic monitors can more accurately identify HTTP traffic.

For more information, see: Easy Performance Monitor (ezPM)

Configuring Multiple Policies on an Interface

Multiple policies can be configured simultaneously on an interface, enabling additional flexibility in metrics collection.

For more information, see: Configuring Multiple Policies on an Interface

NBAR coarse-grain mode added

NBAR provides two levels of application recognition: fine-grain and coarse-grain.

Fine-grain mode provides NBAR's full application recognition capabilities. Coarse-grain mode offers a performance advantage by minimizing deep packet inspection, and can be used in scenarios where the full power of fine-grain classification is not required.

For more information, see: NBAR2 Fine-grain and Coarse-grain Modes

Easy Performance Monitor (ezPM) enhancements:

• Application Statistics profile added to Easy Performance Monitor
• Added the cache-type parameter to ezPM configuration

The Application Statistics profile collects application statistics on all IPv4 and IPv6 traffic. It is a simpler profile than the Application Experience profile introduced in an earlier release.

A new cache-type parameter enables specifying the type of cache for a monitor.

For more information, see: Easy Performance Monitor (ezPM)

New sampling-rate option added to Easy Performance Monitor configuration.

Added option of entering value of 1 for sampling-rate in Easy Performance Monitor configuration, to disable the sampler feature.

For more information, see: Easy Performance Monitor (ezPM)

AVC interoperability with GETVPN

AVC interoperability with Group Encrypted Transport VPN (GETVPN).

For more information, see AVC Interoperability with Cisco GET VPN.

Support for virtual template interface

Support for configuring ezPM monitors on virtual template interfaces.

For more information, see: Logical Interface and VPN Support in AVC

Additional support for FLEXVPN

Added support for hub-to-spoke topologies.

For more information, see: Logical Interface and VPN Support in AVC

Performance improvements

This release includes optimization changes that improve AVC performance.

NBAR protocol pack hitless upgrade

When updating an NBAR protocol pack or any NBAR configuration, the previous configuration remains active until the new configuration becomes active. This ensures that NBAR continues to classify traffic in the data path.

New metric added to track information about the interface being monitored

The observation point id metric provides the physical port number of the interface to which the monitor is attached.

Customizing attribute values

See Customizing Attribute Values.

Interoperability with Cisco GET VPN

See NBAR Interoperability with Cisco GET VPN.

Improved Exporting Model

An improved and optimized exporting configuration model includes:

• Exporting only a single record per packet, reducing duplicate data.
• Optimizing monitor assignment.
• Filtering low-bandwidth traffic.
• Per server reports.

The improved exporting model is used as part of the Easy Performance Monitor profile included in this release.

Easy Performance Monitor Configuration

Easy Performance Monitor “express” method of provisioning monitors. Easy perf-mon provides “profiles” that represent typical deployment scenarios. After a user selects a profile and specifies a small number of parameters, Easy perf-mon provides the remaining provisioning details. This release provides one profile, which includes five different traffic monitors. Future releases will provide additional options. For more information, see:
Easy Performance Monitor (ezPM)

Performance Improvements

This release includes changes, such as an improved exporting model, predefined monitors, and MMA optimization, that improve performance by up to 30%.

Parsing URI Address

This release introduces the ability to parse URI addresses, enabling AVC to report depth 1 of the URI and filter traffic according to that value. For more information, see:
HTTP URI

Support for Records with 40 Fields

This release introduces support for configuring records containing 40 fields.

Enhanced Connection/Transaction Metrics

Beginning with IOS XE release 3.9S, Flexible NetFlow (FNF) monitors can report on individual transactions within a flow. This enables greater resolution for traffic metrics. For more information, see:
Connection/Transaction Metrics

QoS Metrics

This Cisco AVC release provides new monitors for collecting metrics related to Quality of Service (QoS) policy. Monitors can indicate:

• Packets dropped on an interface, per QoS queue, due to a QoS policy that limits resources available to a specific type of traffic.
• Class hierarchy (indicating traffic priority) of a reported flow, as determined by the QoS policy map.

For more information, see:
QoS Metrics: Cisco IOS XE Platforms

Interoperability with Cisco AppNav

Cisco AppNav is the Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) diversion mechanism. Beginning with IOS XE release 3.8S, AVC provides statistics before and after the AppNav WAAS service controller (AppNav SC), as well as inspecting and reporting application information on optimized traffic.

Unified Solution

Unifies the technologies of several reporting/control solutions. AVC technologies include the configuration mechanism, metrics, and reports of such components as TCP performance, and so on.

Metric Mediation Agent (MMA)

The Metric Mediation Agent (MMA) is a new infrastructure element developed in the IOS XE 3.8 release to manage, correlate, and aggregate metrics from different metric providers. MMA provides the following functions:

• Controls traffic monitoring and filtering policy.
• Correlates data from multiple metric providers (see Metric Providers) into the same record.
• Aggregates metrics.
• Supports history and alert functions. This requires sending the metrics records to the route processor (RP) before exporting them to the management and reporting tools.

TCP Performance Metrics

This release adds several TCP performance measurements for traffic performance reporting.

Interoperability with AppNav

AppNav is the Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) diversion mechanism. AVC for IOS XE 3.8 provides statistics before and after the AppNav WAAS service controller (AppNav SC), as well as inspecting and reporting application information on optimized traffic.

Packet Capture

Cisco Embedded Packet Capture (EPC) technology performs packet capture.

Cisco Prime Infrastructure

The Cisco Prime Infrastructure management and reporting system is an integral part of the Cisco AVC solution and provides extensive management and reporting features, including provisioning the system, storing exported data, and generating reports.

IPv6 Support

The Cisco AVC solution supports both IPv4 and IPv6.