Monitoring Port Performance

To monitor the performance of one or more ports on a switch, select the port and choose Port from the Monitor menu.

Note: For 64-bit counters, IF-MIB are provided to prevent overflow as the port speed reaches 1GB and the 32-bit counters become impractical. You must enable the 64-bit counters through the CLI command line, in engineering mode, or all 64-bit counters will return 0. Refer to the user manual for the device for information about using the engineering mode from the command line.

The following categories of information are available:

Interface

Monitors interface traffic for the port.

Bridge and

Instance Based Bridge

Displays bridging activity for the port.

Ethernet Errors

Displays error counts for an Ethernet port.

FDDI

Displays FDDI activity for the port.

Transmit Collisions

Displays transmit collisions for a repeater port.

Token Ring Errors

Displays Token Ring errors performance information.

Source Route Frames

Displays source-route frames performance data.

Flow Control

Displays flow control information for gigabyte ports.

PAgP Statistics

Displays the PagP-related statistics information for a port.

Layer2 Protocol Tunneling Statistics

Displays the Layer2 protocol tunneling statistics for this interface.

To monitor the traffic and utilization levels of all the ports in a module, select the module, hold down the right mouse button, and select Port Utilization from the drop-down menu.


Interface

Port>Monitor>Interface

To monitor port interface information, select Interface from the CATEGORY popup menu.

The following information is displayed:

Utilization    

Level of utilization on the port. The current value represents the utilization levels over the last polling period. The utilization percentage is calculated using the following formula:

For half duplex port: 8 * DELTA_OCTETS * 100 / (DELTA_TIME * ifSpeed)

For full duplex port: 8 * DELTA_OCTETS * 100 / (DELTA_TIME * 2 * ifSpeed)

where DELTA_OCTETS = (ifInOctets1 + ifOutOctets1) - (ifInOctets0 + ifOutOctets0)
DELTA_TIME = (sysUpTime1 - sysUpTime0)/100 ---> in seconds (sysUpTime will be in hundredths of a second. Divide by 100 to see in seconds.)
ifSpeed is speed of the interface (Example: 10000000 for 10Mbps port)

ifInOctets0 is ifInOctets value at sysUpTime0, and ifInOctets1 is ifInOctets value at sysUpTime1
ifOutOctets0 is ifOutOctets value at sysUpTime0, and ifOutOctets1 is ifOutOctets value at sysUpTime1
(Example: If the monitor chart is at a refresh rate of 30 sec, and if ifInOctets0 is at 12:10:20, then ifInOctets1 will be at 12:10:50)

Note: This field displays an absolute value.

Unicasts (ifInUcastPkts + ifOutUcastPkts)

Pattern and current number of Unicast packets received and sent.

Broadcasts (ifExtnsBroadcastsTransmittedOks + ifExtnsBroadcastsReceivedOks)

Total number of frames successfully transmitted to a subnetwork or link-layer broadcast address and broadcast frames successfully received.

Multicasts (ifExtnsMulticastsTransmittedOks + ifExtnsMulticastsReceivedOks)

Total number of frames successfully transmitted to a subnetwork or link-layer multicast address and successfully received multicast frames.

Errors (ifInErrors + ifOutErrors)

Number of total errors for the port. The value is the total of inbound and outbound packets discarded because they contained errors.

Discards (ifInDiscards + ifOutDiscards + ifInUnknownProtos)

Total number of discards for the port. The value is the total number of inbound and outbound packets discarded because they contained errors and the number of inbound packets discarded because they were directed to an unknown or unsupported protocol.

To specify the refresh rate for this dialog box, select a value from the drop-down box. Click Start/Stop to begin/end device monitoring. Click Cancel to close the dialog box. Click Print to print the contents of the dialog box. Click Help to access online help.

Note: The Start/Stop toggle feature is supported only by CiscoView 5.x.


Absolute/Differential Values Explained

The fields in monitor dialog boxes display either absolute or differential values: 

Unless otherwise noted, the fields in this dialog box display differential values.


Bridge

Port>Monitor>Bridge

The following information is displayed in this dialog box:

VLAN Number (dot1dTpPort)

Click Monitor to launch the Bridge Monitor dialog box. Click Cancel to close the dialog box. Click Refresh to update the contents of the dialog box. Click Print to print the contents of the dialog box. Click Help to access online help.


Instance Based Bridge

Port>Monitor>Bridge>Instance Based Bridge

The following information is displayed in this dialog box:

STP Instance Number (dot1dStpInstance)

In MISTP and MST mode, the bridge instance number is the MISTP/MST instance number of the native VLAN this port belongs to. For MISTP, the default value is the MISTP instance number mapped to this port's native VLAN. For MST, the default value is zero.

Note: Since a trunk port can have more than one valid VLAN, multiple bridge instances are also valid.

Click Monitor to launch the Bridge Monitor dialog box. Click Cancel to close the dialog box. Click Refresh to update the contents of the dialog box. Click Print to print the contents of the dialog box. Click Help to access online help.


Ethernet Errors

Port>Monitor>Ethernet Errors

To monitor activity on an Ethernet port, on the CiscoView Monitor Port window, select Ethernet Errors from the CATEGORY popup menu. The CiscoView Monitor Port window displays the following information:

Alignments (dot3StatsAlignmentErrors)

Number of frames with an alignment error. This means that the length is not an integral number of octets and the frame cannot pass the FCS test. Alignment errors are usually caused by a nonlocal network problem.

Frame Checks (dot3StatsFCSErrors)

Pattern of occurrences and latest count of frames with an alignment error, indicating that there is an integral number of octets but an incorrect FCS.

MAC Tx (dot3StatsInternalMacTransmitErrors)

Number of frames for which transmission failed because of an internal MAC layer transmit error, that is, transmit errors not picked up in any other count.

MAC Rx (dot3StatsInternalMacReceiveErrors)

Number of frames for which reception failed because of an internal MAC layer receive error, that is, the receive errors not picked up in any other count.

Carrier Sense (dot3StatsCarrierSenseErrors)

Number of transmission attempts that failed because the carrier sense condition was lost or never asserted.

Giant Frames (dot3StatsFrameTooLongs)

Number of received frames that were bigger than the maximum permitted size. A giant frame indicates a non-local software error occurred or that a protocol using nonstandard frame lengths is in use.

SQE Test (dot3StatsSQETestErrors)

Number of times that the Signal Quality Error TEST ERROR message was generated by the interface.

Deferred Tx (dot3StatsDeferredTransmissions)

Number of frames whose transmission was delayed because of an error.

Single Collisions (dot3StatsSingleCollisionFrames)

Pattern of occurrences and number of successfully transmitted frames for which there was exactly one collision.

Multi Collisions (dot3StatsMultipleCollisionFrames)

Pattern of occurrences and number of successfully transmitted frames for which there were multiple collisions.

Late Collisions (dot3StatsLateCollisions)

Number of times that a collision was detected later than 64 octets into the transmission. (The total number of late collisions is added into the collision count.) Late collisions indicate either that the network has too large a propagation delay between the reporting station and some other stations, or that some other station is not detecting/responding to collisions correctly.

Excess Collisions (dot3StatsExcessiveCollisions)

Pattern of occurrences and latest number of frames for which transmission failed because of excessive collisions.

To specify the refresh rate for this dialog box, select a value from the drop-down box. Click Start/Stop to begin/end device monitoring. Click Cancel to close the dialog box. Click Print to print the contents of the dialog box. Click Help to access online help.

Note: The Start/Stop toggle feature is supported only by CiscoView 5.x.


Absolute/Differential Values Explained

The fields in monitor dialog boxes display either absolute or differential values: 

Unless otherwise noted, the fields in this dialog box display differential values.


FDDI

Port>Monitor>FDDI

To monitor FDDI activity for a port, select FDDI from the CATEGORY popup menu.

The CiscoView Monitor Port window displays the following FDDI information:

LCT Fails (fddimibPORTLCTFailCts)

Pattern and last number of consecutive times that the link confidence test (LCT) failed during connection management. The last number refers to the number that occurred during the last polling interval.

Ler Estimate (fddimibPORTLerEstimate)

Long-term average link error rate.

Lem Rejects (fddimibPortLemRejectCts)

Pattern and last number of times a link has been rejected. The number of times refers to the last value measured for the latest polling period.

Lem Count (fddimibPORTLemCts)

Pattern and last value of the Aggregate Link Error Monitor Error Count.

To specify the refresh rate for this dialog box, select a value from the drop-down box. Click Start/Stop to begin/end device monitoring. Click Cancel to close the dialog box. Click Print to print the contents of the dialog box. Click Help to access online help.

Note: The Start/Stop toggle feature is supported only by CiscoView 5.x.


Transmit Collisions

Port>Monitor>Transmit Collisions

To monitor transmit collisions on a repeater port, on the CiscoView Monitor Port window, select Transmit Collisions from the CATEGORY popup menu. The CiscoView Monitor Port window displays the following information:

Transmit Collisions (rptrMonitorTransmitCollisions)

Number of transmit collisions detected on the repeater port.

To specify the refresh rate for this dialog box, select a value from the drop-down box. Click Start/Stop to begin/end device monitoring. Click Cancel to close the dialog box. Click Print to print the contents of the dialog box. Click Help to access online help.

Note: The Start/Stop toggle feature is supported only by CiscoView 5.x.


Token Ring Errors

Port>Monitor>Token Ring Errors

To monitor Token Ring errors for a Token Ring port, select Token Ring Errors from the CATEGORY popup menu.

The CiscoView Monitor Port window displays the following information about Token Ring errors:

Line (dot5StatsLineErrors)

This graph is incremented when a frame or token is copied or repeated by a station, the E bit is zero in the frame or token, and there is a nondata bit (J or K bit) between the SD and the ED of the frame or token or there is an FCS error in the frame.

Burst (dot5StatsBurstErrors)

This graph is incremented when a station detects the absence of transitions for five half-bit timers (burst-five error).

AC (dot5StatsACErrors)

This graph is incremented when a station receives an SMP or SMP frame in which A equal to C is equal to 0, and then receives another SMP frame with A equal to C is equal to 0 without first receiving an AMP frame. It denotes a station that cannot set the AC bits properly.

Abort Trans (dot5StatsAbortTransErrors)

This graph is incremented when a station transmits an abort delimiter while transmitting.

Internal (dot5StatsInternalErrors)

This dial is incremented when a station recognizes an internal error.

Lost Frame (dot5StatsLostFrameErrors)

This graph is incremented when a station is transmitting and its TRR time expires. In this condition, a transmitting station in strip mode does not receive the trailer of the frame before the TRR time ends.

Rx Congestions (dot5StatsReceiveCongestions)

This graph is incremented when a station recognizes a frame addressed to its specific address but has no available buffer space, indicating that the station is congested.

Frame Copied (dot5StatsFrameCopiedErrors)

This graph is incremented when a station recognizes a frame addressed to its specific address and detects that the FS field A bits are set to 1, indicating a possible line hit or duplicate address.

Token (dot5StatsTokenErrors)

This graph is incremented when a station acting as the active monitor recognizes an error condition that needs a token transmitted.

Soft (dot5StatsSoftErrors)

This graph shows the number of soft errors the interface has detected. It directly corresponds to the number of Report Error MAC frames that this interface has transmitted. Soft errors are those that are recoverable by the MAC-layer protocols.

Hard (dot5StatsHardErrors)

This graph shows the number of times that this interface has detected an immediately recoverable fatal error. It denotes the number of times this interface is either transmitting or receiving beacon MAC frames.

Signal Loss (dot5StatsSignalLoss)

This graph shows the number of times that this interface has detected the loss of signal condition from the ring.

Transmit Beacons (dot5StatsTransmitBeacons)

This graph shows the number of times this interface has transmitted a beacon frame.

Recoverys (dot5StatsRecoverys)

This graph shows the number of Claim Token MAC frames received or that transmitted after the interface has received a Ring Purge MAC frame. This counter signifies the number of times that the ring has been purged and is recovering back to a normal operating state.

Lobe Wires (dot5StatsLobeWires)

This graph shows the number of times the interface has detected an open or short circuit in the lobe data path. The adapter will be closed, and the MIB variable dot5RingState will indicate this condition.

Removes (dot5StatsRemoves)

This graph shows the number of times that the interface has received a Remove Ring Station MAC frame request. When this frame is received, the interface will enter the closed state, and the MIB variable dot5RingState will indicate this condition.

Singles (dot5StatsSingles)

This graph shows the number of times the interface has sensed that it is the only station on the ring. This will happen if the interface is the first one up on a ring, or if there is a hardware problem.

Freq (dot5StatsFreqErrors)

This graph shows the number of times the interface has detected that the frequency of the incoming signal differs from the expected frequency by more than that specified by the IEEE 802.5 standard.

To specify the refresh rate for this dialog box, select a value from the drop-down box. Click Start/Stop to begin/end device monitoring. Click Cancel to close the dialog box. Click Print to print the contents of the dialog box. Click Help to access online help.

Note: The Start/Stop toggle feature is supported only by CiscoView 5.x.


Source Route Frames

Port>Monitor>Source Routing

To show source routing information for the selected port, select Source Routing from the CATEGORY popup menu in the CiscoView Configure Port window.

The CiscoView Configure Port window shows the following information:

SR In Frames (dot1dSrPortSpecInFrames)

Number of Specifically-Routed frames (also referred to as source-routed frames) that have been received from this port’s segment.

SR Out Frames (dot1dSrPortSpecOutFrames)

Number of Specifically-Routed frames (also referred to as source-routed frames) that this port has transmitted on its segment.

APE In Frames (dot1dSrPortApeInFrames)

Number of All-Paths Explorer frames (also referred to as all-routes explorer frames) that have been received by this port from its segment.

APE Out Frames (dot1dSrPortApeOutFrames)

Number of All-Paths Explorer frames (also referred to as all-routes explorer frames) that have been transmitted by this port on its segment.

STE In Frames (dot1dSrPortSteInFrames)

Number of spanning-tree explorer frames that have been received by this port from its segment.

STE Out Frames (dot1dSrPortSteOutFrames)

Number of spanning-tree explorer frames that have been transmitted by this port on its segment.

Duplicate Segment Discards (dot1dSrPortDuplicateSegmentDiscards)

Number of explorer frames that have been discarded by this port because the routing descriptor field contained a duplicate segment identifier.

Segment Mismatch Discards (dot1dSrPortSegmentMismatchDiscards)

Number of explorer frames that have been discarded by this port because the routing descriptor field contained an invalid adjacent segment value.

LAN ID Mismatch Errors (dot1dSrPortLanIdMismatches)

Number of explorer frames that were discarded because the last LAN ID in the routing information field did not equal the LAN-in ID.

Hop Count Exceeded Discards (dot1dSrPortHopCountExceededDiscards)

Number of explorer frames that have been discarded by this port because the number of routing descriptors in the routing information field exceeded the specified maximum hop count.

To specify the refresh rate for this dialog box, select a value from the drop-down box. Click Start/Stop to begin/end device monitoring. Click Cancel to close the dialog box. Click Print to print the contents of the dialog box. Click Help to access online help.

Note: The Start/Stop toggle feature is supported only by CiscoView 5.x.


Flow Control

Port>Monitor>Flow Control

Use the Flow Control display to review flow control information for gigabyte ports.

MAC Control Frames Transmitted (portMacControlTransmitFrames)

The total number of MAC control frames passed to the MAC sub-layer for transmission.

MAC Control Frames Received (portMacControlReceiveFrames)

The total number of MAC control frames passed by the MAC sub-layer to the MAC Control sub-layer on receive.

Pause Frames Transmitted (portMacControlPauseTransmitFrames)

The total number of PAUSE frames passed to the MAC sub-layer for transmission.

Pause Frames Received (portMacControlUnknownProtocolFrames)

The total number of PAUSE frames passed by the MAC sub-layer to the MAC Control sub-layer on receive.

Unknown Protocol Frames Received (portMacControlUnknownProtocolFrames)

The total number of MAC Control frames received with an opcode that is not supported by the device.

To specify the refresh rate for this dialog box, select a value from the drop-down box. Click Start/Stop to begin/end device monitoring. Click Cancel to close the dialog box. Click Print to print the contents of the dialog box. Click Help to access online help.

Note: The Start/Stop toggle feature is supported only by CiscoView 5.x.


Absolute/Differential Values Explained

The fields in monitor dialog boxes display either absolute or differential values: 

Unless otherwise noted, the fields in this dialog box display differential values.


PAgP Statistics

Port>Monitor>PagP Statistics

Use this option to display the PAgP-related statistics for a selected port.

In Packets (pagpInPackets)

The number of PAgP information packets received on this interface.

Out Packets (pagpOutPackets)

The number of PAgP information packets transmitted on this interface

In Flushes (pagpInFlushes)

The number of PAgP flush packets received and echoed on this interface not matching any pagpDeviceId object belonging to the managed device. This object counts PagP flush packets originated by another device, and indicates that the other device implements the PagP flush feature and uses that feature to prevent mis-ordering of data frames within an ordered stream.

Out Flushes (pagpOutFlushes)

The number of PAgP flush packets generated on this interface. This object does not count PagP flush packets counted in pagpInFlushes and returned to the sender. If pagpOutFlushes is counting, and pagpReturnedFlushes is not, the other device may not be returning PagP flush packets.

Returned Flushes (pagpReturnedFlushes)

The number of PAgP flush packets received on this interface matching some pagpDeviceId belonging to this device. This object counts PagP flush packets that were originated by the managed device and returned to it by another device. The counting of returned flush packets indicates that the managed device is implementing the PAgP flush protocol and the other device is correctly returning PAgP flush protocol packets.

In Errors (pagpInErrors)

The number of packets received on this interface identified by encapsulation as PagP packets (of any type, for example: information or flush), but which were not valid packets because of length, version, number of TLVs (the packet’s tag, length, and value), or an illegal value in an enumerated field.

To specify the refresh rate for this dialog box, select a value from the drop-down box. Click Start/Stop to begin/end device monitoring. Click Cancel to close the dialog box. Click Print to print the contents of the dialog box. Click Help to access online help.

Note: The Start/Stop toggle feature is supported only by CiscoView 5.x.


Absolute/Differential Values Explained

The fields in monitor dialog boxes display either absolute or differential values: 

Unless otherwise noted, the fields in this dialog box display differential values.


Port Utilization

The Port Utilization dialog box lists traffic and utilization information for each port in a module. Traffic information is reported in bytes per second. Utilization, a measurement of the port's usage compared to its capacity, is calculated by the following formula:

For half duplex port: 8 * DELTA_OCTETS * 100 / (DELTA_TIME * ifSpeed)

For full duplex port: 8 * DELTA_OCTETS * 100 / (DELTA_TIME * 2 * ifSpeed)

where DELTA_OCTETS = (ifInOctets1 + ifOutOctets1) - (ifInOctets0 + ifOutOctets0)
DELTA_TIME = (sysUpTime1 - sysUpTime0)/100 ---> in seconds (sysUpTime will be in hundredths of a second. Divide by 100 to see in seconds.)
ifSpeed is speed of the interface (Example: 10000000 for 10Mbps port)

ifInOctets0 is ifInOctets value at sysUpTime0, and ifInOctets1 is ifInOctets value at sysUpTime1
ifOutOctets0 is ifOutOctets value at sysUpTime0, and ifOutOctets1 is ifOutOctets value at sysUpTime1
(Example: If the monitor chart is at a refresh rate of 30 sec, and if ifInOctets0 is at 12:10:20, then ifInOctets1 will be at 12:10:50)

Port

Number of the port for which traffic statistics are gathered. The module number is listed first, followed by a period and the port number.

Current

Traffic and utilization level for this port in the most recent 60-seond interval.

Average

Average traffic and utilization level for this port since polling of this module began.

Peak

Highest recorded traffic and utilization level for this port since polling of this module began.

Peaktime

Date and time at which the peak traffic level for this port was recorded.

To specify the refresh rate for this dialog box, select a value from the drop-down box. Click Start/Stop to begin/end device monitoring. Click Cancel to close the dialog box. Click Print to print the contents of the dialog box. Click Help to access online help.

Note: The Start/Stop toggle feature is supported only by CiscoView 5.x.