Cisco Catalyst 2960 Series, Configuration Manual

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• Switches running the IP base or LAN base feature set support only IP SLAs responder functionality and
must be configured with another device that supports full IP SLAs functionality
Related Topics
Configuring the IP SLA Responder, on page 2030
IP SLA Responder and IP SLA Control Protocol, on page 2028
Response Time Computation for IP SLAs, on page 2028
Information About SLAs
Cisco IOS IP Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
Cisco IOS IP SLAs send data across the network to measure performance between multiple network locations
or across multiple network paths. They simulate network data and IP services and collect network performance
information in real time. Cisco IOS IP SLAs generate and analyze traffic either between Cisco IOS devices
or from a Cisco IOS device to a remote IP device such as a network application server. Measurements provided
by the various Cisco IOS IP SLA operations can be used for troubleshooting, for problem analysis, and for
designing network topologies.
Depending on the specific Cisco IOS IP SLA operations, various network performance statistics are monitored
within the Cisco device and stored in both command-line interface (CLI) and Simple Network Management
Protocol (SNMP) MIBs. IP SLA packets have configurable IP and application layer options such as source
and destination IP address, User Datagram Protocol (UDP)/TCP port numbers, a type of service (ToS) byte
(including Differentiated Services Code Point [DSCP] and IP Prefix bits), Virtual Private Network (VPN)
routing/forwarding instance (VRF), and URL web address.
Because Cisco IP SLAs are Layer 2 transport independent, you can configure end-to-end operations over
disparate networks to best reflect the metrics that an end user is likely to experience. IP SLAs collect and
analyze the following performance metrics:
• Delay (both round-trip and one-way)
• Jitter (directional)
• Packet loss (directional)
• Packet sequencing (packet ordering)
• Path (per hop)
• Connectivity (directional)
• Server or website download time
Because Cisco IOS IP SLAs is SNMP-accessible, it can also be used by performance-monitoring applications
like Cisco Prime Internetwork Performance Monitor (IPM) and other third-party Cisco partner performance
management products.
Using IP SLAs can provide the following benefits:
• Service-level agreement monitoring, measurement, and verification.
• Network performance monitoring
Consolidated Platform Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS Release 15.2(4)E (Catalyst 2960-X Switches)
2026
Information About SLAs