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Product Lifecycle: Operate
This workflow describes a business-as-usual stage where you get the benefits of your Packeteer deployment. Here, you integrate the PacketShaper with your day-to-day network and application management processes. Operate is a cyclical, ongoing stage, as opposed to others such as Deploy that you attend to only once or just periodically.
To begin the Operate workflow, you should have all components of your PacketShaper deployment installed and then configured with a traffic tree and any basic partitions and policies you elected as part of your initial management strategy.
If you need help creating and implementing a basic management strategy, consult the Deploy workflow.
In Operate, you refine your configuration in response to network and application performance and keep tabs on anything of interest.
Each of the following sequential topics are covered:
- Detect applications that negatively impact others' performance
- Monitor critical applications' performance and adjust management strategy if needed
- Define and monitor regular reports to assess status
- Detect new applications and refine traffic organization
- Refine compression
- Refine acceleration
- Automate notification of problems
- Monitor the PacketShaper's own state of health
- Verify basic settings
- Establish upgrade procedures
- Maintain service contracts
Note: Tasks with an asterisk (*) require the Shaping Module.
Detect applications that negatively impact others' performance
Applications that use more than their fair share of bandwidth can undermine the performance of critical applications. Containing bandwidth-greedy traffic is a crucial aspect of protecting the performance of critical applications. The first step is to identify your own performance saboteurs.
If you have a suspiciously bandwidth-hungry application, examine its bandwidth usage patterns and evaluate its impact on your link's capacity and retransmission rates.
Once you have spotted the application(s) that you need to contain, rein them in! (*)
PacketShaper 1400 Lite users: You can use ReportCenter to help in the detection of new, bandwidth-greedy applications. See Using Packeteer ReportCenter Reports.
Monitor critical applications' performance and adjust management strategy if needed
Periodically, examine each critical application's behavior, especially when performance is poor. Since PacketShaper 1400 Lite models have limited reporting capability, you can use ReportCenter to analyze specific applications. See Using Packeteer ReportCenter Reports.
Evaluate the response times for your critical applications. Note any sudden dips in average response times. Follow the procedure's ideas for distinguishing poor network response from sluggish servers, pinpointing which servers are implicated, and other suggestions.
To ease the process of evaluating your critical application's performance on an ongoing basis, define a threshold that separates good performance from bad, and specify the percentage of transactions that should stay within your definition of "good" performance. And finally, keep tabs on your application's performance by monitoring its adherence to your performance goals. You can graph compliance or even notify yourself when compliance is poor. Instructions are in the same Analyze Application Response Times solution.
If you are trying to diagnose poor performance, examine the network efficiency of your whole link as well as the efficiency of your critical application to determine if retransmissions are to blame for sluggish performance.
Slow response times can be improved. If the culprit is server delay, then you can pursue options such as load balancing and application tuning. If the culprit is network delay, then the PacketShaper can help (*):
Check the list of applications with tailored management recommendations for your critical application. There are solutions for ERP applications, streaming media, voice or video over IP, Citrix-based applications, instant messaging, and more. For other applications, look for management suggestions in Policy and Partition Guidelines. (*)
In addition, consider using Packeteer's Compression Module, which incorporates compression technology and speeds performance, and the Acceleration Module, which can improve application response times in high-latency environments.
Define and monitor regular reports to assess status
A carefully selected group of reports, monitored on a regular basis, can uncover performance problems, reveal historical trends, confirm or deny the efficacy of network or configuration changes, and more.
Define and monitor the reports that help you the most (using the PacketShapers' individual reports).This is not applicable to the PacketShaper 1400 Lite since this model has limited reporting capability.
Define and monitor the reports that help you the most (using ReportCenter's reports) that incorporate multiple PacketShapers. ReportCenter's reports are especially helpful for PacketShaper 1400 Lites because of their limited number of built-in reports.
Detect new applications and refine traffic organization
New types of traffic or new applications on your network can impact performance, especially if they involve great volumes of traffic.
PacketShaper 1400 Lite Users: Use ReportCenter to analyze traffic and generate reports for your PacketShaper 1400 Lite. See Using Packeteer ReportCenter Reports.
If the Monitor screen or the Top Ten window shows that there is a new aggressive application, you can act to identify it and contain its impact. Such an application will appear in the Top Ten pie chart when it has not done so previously, or will move up into occupying one of the largest slices of pie.
If your newly aggressive traffic lands in a Default traffic class (when it's not classified), you can use the PacketShaper to identify the mystery traffic and create a class. Sometimes, you can get more granular information about the components of a single traffic class if you enable traffic discovery for just that one class.
Once you have identified your new aggressive traffic, you can control its impact on the performance of others by assigning an appropriate policy or partition to the new class. See Limit an Application's Total Bandwidth or Policy and Partition Guidelines for help. (*)
When many network administrators were caught by surprise by the Napster phenomenon a few years ago, they decided they wanted to detect and contain any new applications before any chance to wreak havoc. The downside is, of course, that new desirable applications also get thrown in a contained, best-effort strategy until you change it. (*)
Refine compression
Note: This section requires the Compression Module.
It is assumed you have already configured the Xpress feature and enabled compression. If not, see Configure Xpress compression and acceleration.
For background on Xpress compression, see Xpress Overview.
Examine the results you're getting from compression.
If compression doesn't seem to be working, take a look at Compression Troubleshooting. If you are having tunnel problems, see Xpress Tunnel Troubleshooting.
If you don't see the type of results you expect from compression, take a look at the tuning techniques described in Enabling and Tuning Compression.
Refine acceleration
Note: This section requires the Acceleration Module.
It is assumed you have already configured the Xpress feature and enabled acceleration. If not, see Configure Xpress compression and acceleration.
For background on Xpress, see Xpress Overview.
If acceleration doesn't seem to be working, take a look at Acceleration Troubleshooting . If you are having tunnel problems, see Xpress Tunnel Troubleshooting.
Automate notification of problems
If you don't want to be caught by surprise when a past problem recurs, or even when a problem surfaces for the first time, you can arrange for the PacketShaper to monitor any condition of interest and notify you when the situation occurs. For example, you can send email or an SNMP trap automatically when:
- Retransmissions rise to 30 percent of your network
- SAP's response time dips below promised service levels
- So many users swamp a streaming, distance-learning application that you have insufficient bandwidth to give each student smooth performance
See Monitor a Condition of Interest for details.
PacketShaper 1400 Lite users: For your PacketShaper 1400 Lites, you can save time and ensure consistency by configuring adaptive response from PolicyCenter.
Monitor PacketShaper's own state of health
Keep tabs on your PacketShapers' status and capacity to ensure they continue to serve you well. The adaptive response feature is especially useful for monitoring your Packeteer unit's health.
PacketShaper 1400 Lite users: For your PacketShaper 1400 Lites, you can save time and ensure consistency by configuring adaptive response from PolicyCenter.
Periodically, verify basic settings
Every couple of months or so, check to make sure that the settings you initially chose during installation are still appropriate, making adjustments if necessary. For example, is your link speed setting still correct? How about your DNS server?
Establish upgrade procedures
Review the details about when and where to find upgrades and associated information. Decide on a prudent PacketWise software upgrade procedure for your environment. For example, you might decide that you want to:
- Sign up to be automatically notified any time an upgrade becomes available.
- Explore the changes offered by each upgrade to determine if the upgrade is warranted for you.
- Pursue the upgrade if it's appropriate.
PolicyCenter includes a file distribution service that can obtain the latest software image files from the Packeteer support website, then schedule a time to copy and install these files to PacketShaper units assigned to a PolicyCenter configuration. See Distribute Image Files.
Maintain service contracts
PacketCare is the name for Packeteer's service programs. Maintaining your PacketCare contract secures your access to software upgrades, next-day hardware replacements, and technical support. See more about PacketCare Programs.
Packeteer will notify you twice via email before any of your PacketCare contracts expire — first at 30 to 60 days before expiration and then again at zero to 30 days before expiration. The email includes your product's serial number, the agreement number, its expiration date, and (if available) contact information for your reseller. Packeteer sends duplicate copies of the reminder emails to your reseller.
To renew your PacketCare contract, contact your Packeteer reseller. Resellers can place purchase orders on your behalf and have access to a website where they can look up your PacketCare contract information (contract number, start date, end date, and type of support).
*: Tasks with an asterisk (*) require the Shaping Module.
Please see bluecoat.com/support/packeteer
for more detailed information.
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