Application Monitoring

NimBUS for Cisco VoIP Monitoring

Today's successful VoIP deployments require incessant network availability and 360 degree transparency of the infrastructure. To achieve this requirement, it is crucial to proactively monitor end-to-end performance of all VoIP components for improved quality of service and problem diagnosis.

The NimBUS for Cisco VoIP solution provides full VoIP infrastructure monitoring with emphasis on continuous SLA compliance and end-user satisfaction.

Primary Features:

• Monitors the following end-to-end Cisco components as a unified VoIP service;
• Cisco CallManager
• Cisco Gateways and Gatekeepers
• Cisco IP and ATA Phones
• Cisco Routers and Switches
• Correlates VoIP infrastructure information into business service dashboards
• Reports for capacity planning, load balancing, and preempting degrading conditions
• Monitors VoIP SLA compliance with predictive trending and reporting

Additional Features

• Extremely quick to install and deploy, with rapid time-to-value
• Scalable to manage multiple sites using Cisco VoIP
• Optimizes VoIP network performance with jitter, latency, and packet loss monitoring
• Can be implemented in VoIP pre-deployment phases to assess network readiness

Figure below: The NimBUS for Cisco VoIP solution delivers on the critical requirement of proactive and complete infrastructure visibility to assure uninterrupted IP telephony services. (Click for a larger image.)

Optimized VoIP Network with NimBUS for Cisco IP SLA - With the convergence of Voice, Video, and Data services on the network, it is becoming increasingly important to monitor network performance to ensure quality of service (QoS) and Service Level Agreement (SLA) compliance. These services are more susceptible to even the slightest network changes. It is imperative to understand the traffic characteristics of the network before and after deployment of network-based services such as VoIP in order to ensure successful implementations and sustained service level compliance.

The NimBUS for Cisco IP SLA probe awakens inherent network simulation capabilities within Cisco devices for proactive network performance testing. Embedded in each Cisco device is a software agent called 'IP SLA' (formerly SAA) - this Cisco agent is easily configured by the NimBUS for Cisco IP SLA probe - the probe will setup the Cisco agent to run periodic traffic simulations for network performance analysis. VoIP service level killers such as excessive jitter, packet loss, and high latency are exposed with the NimBUS for Cisco IP SLA probe. The probe activates the traffic simulations on Cisco devices then consolidates and analyzes the resulting test data to determine its impact on Cisco VoIP service level agreements.

Figure below: The NimBUS for Cisco IPSLA probe monitors and reports on VoIP service killers such as excessive jitter, latency, and packet loss. (Click for a larger image.)

Continuous Call Processing with NimBUS for Cisco CallManager - NimBUS for Cisco CallManager provides complete reporting and diagnostic capabilities for CallManager, Cisco's software-based call processing package for IP telephony. Featuring a simple, yet powerful user interface, NimBUS for Cisco CallManager allows IT managers to easily define and manage virtually any CallManager performance metric or threshold. Users can also conveniently activate or deactivate checkpoints, designate hosts to be monitored, or view real-time graphs including hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly call summary information.

NimBUS for Cisco CallManager monitors all aspects of call processing activity in the VoIP environment. Its data gathering capability extends to; Cisco CallManager services, H.323 calls, IP and ATA phones, gateways, ports, processes, memory utilization and much more. All critical CallManager metrics are analyzed, with major checkpoints and thresholds pre-defined to simplify setup and operation. The probe does not require any software to be installed on Cisco CallManager servers to operate.

NimBUS for Cisco CallManager Monitors:

• CPU, Disk, and Memory
• Cisco Phones
• Registered
• Active
• InActive
• H.323 Calls
• Active
• InProgress
• Attempted
• Completed
• Gateways
• Active
• InActive
• Ports
• Active
• InService
• Services
• TFTP
• CallManager
• CTIManager
• CTL Provider
• Telephone Call Dispatcher
• And more...

Cisco VoIP Service Level Compliance with NimBUS - NimBUS provides a graphical and text-based representation of Cisco VoIP performance contrasted against service level agreements (SLA). They are both historical - showing VoIP service compliance during prior periods, and forward-looking - showing the likelihood of achieving service level compliance during the current measurement period. SLA periods may be defined in day, week, or month increments. The NimBUS SLA compliance calculation engine can generate alerts when trends suggest that VoIP service level commitments will not be met given the failures that have already occurred during the current SLA measurement period.

Figure below: NimBUS enables Cisco VoIP infrastructure components such as those discussed above to be defined and monitored as a unified VoIP service and against service level agreements. NimBUS' web-based service level reports display current VoIP SLA compliance with forecasted breach (in the example below compliance has been achieved for the 1 week SLA period). (Click for a larger image.)

The NimBUS for Cisco VoIP Monitoring solution requires minimal effort for implementation, training, and will not require extensive ongoing maintenance.

If you would like to request a free trial of NimBUS, please click here. For free white papers or additional information click here.