A handy QoS configuration tool

A software application that saves time in QoS configuration and monitoring

Configuring QoS is not a hard task for me, with all the time that I spent in front of it while studying for certs and or configuring network devices it is easy. Nevertheless, it is time consuming and requires many details that I prefer to not memorize if I do not have to.

Well, apparently there is a tool for that, which I got to know through this blog and wanted to share back. It is called LiveAction and is the product of a company called Action Packed Networks (http://www.actionpacked.com).

The test environment that I used it on was a virtual one, running GNS3 with a few 2691 instances in a simple network but it should be as good as a regular network, which I intend to use it on in the future.

The results were very impressive and I easily created an eight class, NBAR based QoS policy using a template-based wizard. This would save an experienced tech around twenty minutes per interface and to the inexperienced one it can save hours. The wizard did not do all the work and you still need to assign queuing policy to every class. Here is what LiveAction programmed to the router:

class-map match-any 8C_BL_NetworkControl_App-Match
match protocol bgp
match protocol dns
match protocol dhcp
match protocol eigrp
match protocol ospf
match protocol snmp
match protocol syslog
class-map match-any 8C_BL_CriticalData_App-Match
match protocol telnet
match protocol ssh
match protocol sqlnet
match protocol sqlserver
match protocol citrix
match protocol secure-telnet
match protocol streamwork
class-map match-any 8C_BL_BulkData_App-Match
match protocol exchange
match protocol tftp
match protocol pop3
match protocol ftp
match protocol smtp
class-map match-any 8C_BL_Voice_App-Match
match protocol rtp
class-map match-any 8C_BL_Video_App-Match
match protocol netshow
match protocol cuseeme
class-map match-any 8C_BL_Scavenger_App-Match
match protocol bittorrent
match protocol gnutella
match protocol kazaa2
class-map match-any 8C_BL_CallSignaling_App-Match
match protocol skinny
match protocol sip
match protocol rtcp
!
!
policy-map 8C-BL_App-Match_FA00_Out_ch_0
class 8C_BL_BulkData_App-Match
bandwidth percent 15
class 8C_BL_CallSignaling_App-Match
bandwidth percent 5
class 8C_BL_CriticalData_App-Match
bandwidth percent 10
class 8C_BL_NetworkControl_App-Match
bandwidth percent 10
class 8C_BL_Scavenger_App-Match
bandwidth percent 1
class 8C_BL_Video_App-Match
bandwidth percent 12
class 8C_BL_Voice_App-Match
priority percent 33
class class-default
bandwidth percent 1
random-detect dscp-based
policy-map 8C-BL_App-Match_FA00_Out_pa_0
class class-default
shape average percent 90
service-policy 8C-BL_App-Match_FA00_Out_ch_0
!
!

This tool is a time saving necessity for someone that knows QoS, and what to do, but would not mind getting some help on the how to part.

Another nice bonus was the IP SLA configuration options and the ability to graph results with it, this one is also a labor-intensive task, and graphing IP SLA results requires additional tools.

That is it for now, if I will get to use it on a live network I will update with the results.

• Cisco
• LANs / WANs
• Network Management
• Cisco
• Liveaction
• QoS