Configuring IP SLAs FTP Operations

This module describes how to configure an IP Service Level Agreements (SLAs) File Transfer Protocol (FTP) operation to measure the response time between a Cisco device and an FTP server to retrieve a file. The IP SLAs FTP operation supports an FTP GET request only. This module also demonstrates how the results of the FTP operation can be displayed and analyzed to determine the capacity of your network. The FTP operation can be used also for troubleshooting FTP server performance.

Restrictions for IP SLAs FTP Operations

The IP SLAs FTP operation only supports FTP GET (download) requests.

Information About IP SLAs FTP Operations

FTP Operation

The FTP operation measures the round-trip time (RTT) between a Cisco device and an FTP server to retrieve a file. FTP is an application protocol, part of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/IP protocol stack, used for transferring files between network nodes.

In the figure below Device B is configured as the source IP SLAs device and an FTP operation is configured with the FTP server as the destination device.

Figure 1. FTP Operation

Connection response time is computed by measuring the time taken to download a file to Device B from the remote FTP server using FTP over TCP. This operation does not use the IP SLAs Responder.


Note

To test the response time to connect to an FTP port (Port 21), use the IP SLAs TCP Connect operation.

Both active and passive FTP transfer modes are supported. The passive mode is enabled by default. Only the FTP GET (download) operation type is supported. The URL specified for the FTP GET operation must be in one of the following formats:

  • ftp://username:password@host/filename

  • ftp://host/filename

If the username and password are not specified, the defaults are anonymous and test, respectively.

FTP carries a significant amount of data traffic and can affect the performance of your network. The results of an IP SLAs FTP operation to retrieve a large file can be used to determine the capacity of the network but retrieve large files with caution because the FTP operation will consume more bandwidth. The FTP operation also measures your FTP server performance levels by determining the RTT taken to retrieve a file.

How to Configure IP SLAs FTP Operations

Configuring an FTP Operation on a Source Device


Note

There is no need to configure an IP SLAs responder on the destination device.

Perform one of the following tasks:

Configuring a Basic FTP Operation on the Source Device

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. enable
  2. configure terminal
  3. ip sla operation-number
  4. ftp get url [source-ip {ip-address | hostname }] [mode {passive | active }
  5. frequency seconds
  6. end

DETAILED STEPS

  Command or Action Purpose

Step 1

enable

Example:

Device> enable

Enables privileged EXEC mode.

  • Enter your password if prompted.

Step 2

configure terminal

Example:

Device# configure terminal

Enters global configuration mode.

Step 3

ip sla operation-number

Example:

Device(config)# ip sla 10

Begins configuration for an IP SLAs operation and enters IP SLA configuration mode.

Step 4

ftp get url [source-ip {ip-address | hostname }] [mode {passive | active }

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla)# ftp get ftp://username:password@hostip/test.cap

Defines an FTP operation and enters IP SLA FTP configuration mode.

Step 5

frequency seconds

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-ftp)# frequency 30

(Optional) Sets the rate at which a specified IP SLAs operation repeats.

Step 6

end

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-ftp)# exit

Exits to privileged EXEC mode.

Configuring an FTP Operation with Optional Parameters on the Source Device

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. enable
  2. configure terminal
  3. ip sla operation-number
  4. ftp get url [source-ip {ip-address | hostname }] [mode {passive | active }
  5. history buckets-kept size
  6. history distributions-of-statistics-kept size
  7. history enhanced [interval seconds ] [buckets number-of-buckets ]
  8. history filter {none | all | overThreshold | failures }
  9. frequency seconds
  10. history hours-of-statistics-kept hours
  11. history lives-kept lives
  12. owner owner-id
  13. history statistics-distribution-interval milliseconds
  14. tag text
  15. threshold milliseconds
  16. timeout milliseconds
  17. end

DETAILED STEPS

  Command or Action Purpose

Step 1

enable

Example:

Device> enable

Enables privileged EXEC mode.

  • Enter your password if prompted.

Step 2

configure terminal

Example:

Device# configure terminal

Enters global configuration mode.

Step 3

ip sla operation-number

Example:

Device(config)# ip sla 10

Begins configuration for an IP SLAs operation and enters IP SLA configuration mode.

Step 4

ftp get url [source-ip {ip-address | hostname }] [mode {passive | active }

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla)# ftp get ftp://username:password@hostip/filename

Defines an FTP operation and enters IP SLA FTP configuration mode.

Step 5

history buckets-kept size

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-ftp)# history buckets-kept 25

(Optional) Sets the number of history buckets that are kept during the lifetime of an IP SLAs operation.

Step 6

history distributions-of-statistics-kept size

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-ftp)# history distributions-of-statistics-kept 5

(Optional) Sets the number of statistics distributions kept per hop during an IP SLAs operation.

Step 7

history enhanced [interval seconds ] [buckets number-of-buckets ]

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-ftp)# history enhanced interval 900 buckets 100

(Optional) Enables enhanced history gathering for an IP SLAs operation.

Step 8

history filter {none | all | overThreshold | failures }

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-ftp)# history filter failures

(Optional) Defines the type of information kept in the history table for an IP SLAs operation.

Step 9

frequency seconds

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-ftp)# frequency 30

(Optional) Sets the rate at which a specified IP SLAs operation repeats.

Step 10

history hours-of-statistics-kept hours

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-ftp)# history hours-of-statistics-kept 4

(Optional) Sets the number of hours for which statistics are maintained for an IP SLAs operation.

Step 11

history lives-kept lives

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-ftp)# history lives-kept 5

(Optional) Sets the number of lives maintained in the history table for an IP SLAs operation.

Step 12

owner owner-id

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-ftp)# owner admin

(Optional) Configures the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) owner of an IP SLAs operation.

Step 13

history statistics-distribution-interval milliseconds

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-ftp)# history statistics-distribution-interval 10

(Optional) Sets the time interval for each statistics distribution kept for an IP SLAs operation.

Step 14

tag text

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-ftp)# tag TelnetPollServer1

(Optional) Creates a user-specified identifier for an IP SLAs operation.

Step 15

threshold milliseconds

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-ftp)# threshold 10000

(Optional) Sets the upper threshold value for calculating network monitoring statistics created by an IP SLAs operation.

Step 16

timeout milliseconds

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-ftp)# timeout 10000

(Optional) Sets the amount of time an IP SLAs operation waits for a response from its request packet.

Step 17

end

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-ftp)# end

Exits to privileged EXEC mode.

Scheduling IP SLAs Operations

Before you begin

  • All IP Service Level Agreements (SLAs) operations to be scheduled must be already configured.
  • The frequency of all operations scheduled in a multioperation group must be the same.
  • The list of one or more operation ID numbers to be added to a multioperation group must be limited to a maximum of 125 characters in length, including commas (,).

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. enable
  2. configure terminal
  3. Enter one of the following commands:
    • ip sla schedule operation-number [life {forever | seconds }] [start-time {[hh:mm:ss ] [month day | day month ] | pending | now | after hh:mm:ss }] [ageout seconds ] [recurring ]
    • ip sla group schedule group-operation-number operation-id-numbers {schedule-period schedule-period-range | schedule-together } [ageout seconds ] frequency group-operation-frequency [life {forever | seconds }] [start-time {hh:mm [:ss ] [month day | day month ] | pending | now | after hh:mm [:ss] }]
  4. end
  5. show ip sla group schedule
  6. show ip sla configuration

DETAILED STEPS

  Command or Action Purpose

Step 1

enable

Example:


Device> enable

Enables privileged EXEC mode.

  • Enter your password if prompted.

Step 2

configure terminal

Example:


Device# configure terminal

Enters global configuration mode.

Step 3

Enter one of the following commands:

  • ip sla schedule operation-number [life {forever | seconds }] [start-time {[hh:mm:ss ] [month day | day month ] | pending | now | after hh:mm:ss }] [ageout seconds ] [recurring ]
  • ip sla group schedule group-operation-number operation-id-numbers {schedule-period schedule-period-range | schedule-together } [ageout seconds ] frequency group-operation-frequency [life {forever | seconds }] [start-time {hh:mm [:ss ] [month day | day month ] | pending | now | after hh:mm [:ss] }]

Example:


Device(config)# ip sla schedule 10 life forever start-time now

Device(config)# ip sla group schedule 10 schedule-period frequency

Device(config)# ip sla group schedule 1 3,4,6-9 life forever start-time now 

Device(config)# ip sla schedule 1 3,4,6-9 schedule-period 50 frequency range 80-100

  • Configures the scheduling parameters for an individual IP SLAs operation.

  • Specifies an IP SLAs operation group number and the range of operation numbers for a multioperation scheduler.

Step 4

end

Example:


Device(config)# end

Exits global configuration mode and returns to privileged EXEC mode.

Step 5

show ip sla group schedule

Example:


Device# show ip sla group schedule

(Optional) Displays IP SLAs group schedule details.

Step 6

show ip sla configuration

Example:


Device# show ip sla configuration

(Optional) Displays IP SLAs configuration details.

Troubleshooting Tips

  • If the IP Service Level Agreements (SLAs) operation is not running and not generating statistics, add the verify-data command to the configuration (while configuring in IP SLA configuration mode) to enable data verification. When data verification is enabled, each operation response is checked for corruption. Use the verify-data command with caution during normal operations because it generates unnecessary overhead.

  • Use the debug ip sla trace and debug ip sla error commands to help troubleshoot issues with an IP SLAs operation.

What to Do Next

To add proactive threshold conditions and reactive triggering for generating traps (or for starting another operation) to an IP Service Level Agreements (SLAs) operation, see the “Configuring Proactive Threshold Monitoring” section.

Configuration Examples for IP SLAs FTP Operations

Example: Configuring an FTP Operation

The following example shows how to configure an FTP operation from Device B to the FTP server as shown in the "FTP Operation" figure in the "Information About IP SLAs FTP Operation" section. The operation is scheduled to start every day at 1:30 a.m. In this example, the file named test.cap is to be retrieved from the host, cisco.com, with a password of abc using FTP in active mode.

Device B Configuration


ip sla 10
 ftp get ftp://user1:abc@test.cisco.com/test.cap mode active
 frequency 20
 tos 128
 timeout 40000
 tag FLL-FTP
ip sla schedule 10 start-time 01:30:00 recurring

Additional References

Related Documents

Related Topic

Document Title

Cisco IOS commands

Cisco IOS Master Commands List, All Releases

Cisco ACNS software configuration information

  • Cisco ACNS Software Caching Configuration Guide, Release 4.2

  • Cisco ACNS Software listing page on Cisco.com

IP access list overview, configuration tasks, and commands

Cisco IOS Security Command Reference

IP addressing and services commands and configuration tasks

  • Cisco IOS IP Addressing Services Configuration Guide

  • Cisco IOS IP Addressing Services Command Reference

WCCP commands: complete command syntax, command mode, command history, defaults, usage guidelines, and examples

Cisco IOS IP Application Services Command Reference

Standards

Standard

Title

No new or modified standards are supported, and support for existing standards has not been modified.

—

MIBs

MIB

MIBs Link

No new or modified MIBs are supported, and support for existing MIBs has not been modified.

To locate and download MIBs for selected platforms, Cisco software releases, and feature sets, use Cisco MIB Locator found at the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com/go/mibs

RFCs

RFC

Title

No new or modified RFCs are supported, and support for existing RFCs has not been modified.

—

Technical Assistance

Description

Link

The Cisco Support and Documentation website provides online resources to download documentation, software, and tools. Use these resources to install and configure the software and to troubleshoot and resolve technical issues with Cisco products and technologies. Access to most tools on the Cisco Support and Documentation website requires a Cisco.com user ID and password.

http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/support/index.html

Feature Information for Configuring IP SLAs FTP Operations

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 the IP SLAs FTP Operation

Feature Name

Releases

Feature Information

IP SLAs - FTP Operation

12.2(31)SB2

12.2(33)SRB1

12.2(33)SXH

12.3(14)T

Cisco IOS XE Release 2.1

15.0(1)S

Cisco IOS XE Release 3.1.0SG

The IP SLAs File Transfer Protocol (FTP) operation allows you to measure the network response time between a Cisco device and an FTP server to retrieve a file.

IPSLA 4.0 - IP v6 phase2

15.2(3)T

15.2(4)S

Cisco IOS XE release XE 3.7S

15.1(2)SG

Cisco IOS XE Release 3.4SG

Support was added for operability in IPv6 networks.

The following commands are introduced or modified: ftp get (IP SLA), show ip sla configuration , show ip sla summary .

IP SLAs VRF Aware 2.0

12.4(2)T

15.1(1)S

15.1(1)SY

Cisco IOS XE Release 3.8S

Support was added for IP SLAs VRF-aware capabilities for TCP connect, FTP, HTTP and DNS client operation types.