Performance Issues in Software Development

Performance Issues in Software Development

• A software development team faced a significant delay, with results taking nearly 60 seconds to appear.
• Initial assessment placed blame for delays: 20 seconds for the back end server, 20 seconds for network, and 20 seconds for the application.
• Responsibility for the back end and network was with the speaker, who doubted the accuracy of the delay measurements.

Importance of Testing Latency and Jitter

• Testing and verifying latency, jitter, and network communication aspects is crucial for performance assessment.
• Appropriate tools are necessary to measure latency and provide data visibility for troubleshooting.

Implementing SNMP for Monitoring

• Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) allows for periodic polling of device metrics like temperature, CPU usage, and memory.
• SNMP agents can be trained to send traps/notifications when certain thresholds (e.g., CPU > 90%) are exceeded, enabling proactive monitoring.

Monitoring Setup Using PRTG

In PRTG, adding sensors involves specifying what to monitor and the target system type (e.g., CPU usage).

An example setup involves using SNMP to monitor various health metrics of Cisco devices, including CPU load and temperature.

PRTG (Paessler Router Traffic Grapher) is a network monitoring software. It is designed to monitor the uptime, usage, and performance of various network components using different protocols such as SNMP, NetFlow, and WMI. PRTG can track metrics like CPU load, bandwidth, memory usage, and temperature of devices, providing real-time insights and alerts about the network's health and performance.

NetFlow is a network protocol developed by Cisco that collects information about the data flowing through a network. It helps in understanding which devices are communicating, how much data is being sent, and what types of data are being transferred. This information is useful for managing network traffic and identifying potential issues.

Yes, the information collected by NetFlow can indeed be revealed by looking at the log files. These log files typically store detailed records about network traffic, including:

1. Source and destination IP addresses, which reveal which devices are communicating.

2. The volume of data being transmitted, providing insights into how much data is being sent.

3. The types of data or protocols being used, such as HTTP, FTP, etc.

By analyzing these log files, network administrators can manage network traffic more effectively and identify potential issues, such as unusual traffic patterns that might indicate security threats or bottlenecks in network performance.

WMI, or Windows Management Instrumentation, is a set of tools provided by Microsoft for managing and monitoring Windows-based systems. It allows administrators to gather detailed information about the hardware and software on a computer, such as CPU usage, memory usage, and running processes, which helps in maintaining and troubleshooting the system.

WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) and NetFlow serve different purposes and are not directly interchangeable.

WMI is primarily used for detailed management and monitoring of Windows-based systems, providing information about hardware and software, system configuration, system status, and running processes. It's more focused on system-level details and interactions within an individual machine.

NetFlow, on the other hand, is a network protocol developed by Cisco for collecting IP traffic information. It provides detailed traffic analysis by capturing and exporting traffic flows, which helps network administrators analyze network bandwidth usage, monitor network performance, and troubleshoot network issues. It is a network-centric tool that gives insights into the flow of data across a network.

While WMI can provide some network-related information on a Windows machine, such as active network connections and some traffic statistics, it does not offer the detailed traffic flow data and in-depth network analysis capabilities that NetFlow provides. Therefore, WMI cannot replace NetFlow for network traffic analysis and monitoring purposes. If you need to monitor and analyze network traffic specifically, implementing NetFlow or a similar network flow analysis tool would be necessary.

Analyzing Jitter in VoIP Applications

• Jitter is a critical metric for network performance, especially affecting voice over IP (VoIP) communications.
• Jitter arises from fluctuations in round trip time (RTT), where even acceptable latency can cause problems if significantly varied.
• For effective VoIP, keep jitter under 150 milliseconds, aiming for stability without wide fluctuations.

Historical Testing Approaches

• The speaker once wrote a batch file for testing network and application performance by timestamping SQL queries.
• Findings indicated the back end and network combined took six seconds, while the application processing took around 53 seconds.

Resolving VoIP Performance Issues

• VoIP problems can often prompt user complaints. proactive monitoring of jitter and latency helps identify issues before users report failures.
• Cisco devices have built-in tools to measure jitter and delay, enabling automatic reporting to SNMP managers through SLA setups.

SLA Configuration for Performance Monitoring

• Cisco tools support defining SLAs to measure jitter between devices, using one device as a responder and another to initiate requests.
• Example configurations allow for regular testing intervals (e.g., every 10 seconds) and traffic measurements.

Basic Connectivity Testing Techniques

• Even without SLAs, basic connectivity can be verified through traditional pings to monitor latency metrics.
• Common observations in these processes include minimum, maximum, and average latency times during tests.

Logs as an Essential Tool

• In troubleshooting network issues, logs serve as a fundamental resource to analyze and understand service disruptions and performance failures.