Step 2: Find Additional Components and Segments from a Load Balancer
The discovery process begins with identifying the front end component. Step 1 discovers the clients that are connecting to the front end component and the applications/ports with which they connect. That allows you to define the front end segments.
Once the end user component, the front end component and the segments including them have been defined, Step 2 performs the discovery process again, looking for the next tier of components. It finds hosts that the front end component connects to in the role of client, and identifies these as new components to be explored. This is performed as two sub-steps:
These are repeated until all newly-discovered connections and components have been added, dropped, deleted or skipped.
Discover new applications and ports
The default action of Step 2 is to perform the discovery process in the server direction. That is, it looks in the direction of the back end for a component that is acting in the role of server to the current component. However, the Advanced options allow you to select the direction of the discovery process. You can discover other components that are acting in the role of client to the current component. This enables you to identify clients that you might not otherwise have known about.
This section describes discovering the next component from a load balancer. If you defined the current component as a server or group of servers, the procedure and displays are slightly different. Click here for the description of the setup fields that are required for server components: Servers
Discovery method - It gives you the choice of querying the load balancer itself to determine which applications it is serving. However, you can still choose to discover the services by analyzing traffic. This allows you to find which ports are actually in use and not include ports that are configured but unused.
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Traffic query - The appliance uses historical traffic data for the previous business day to determine the applications, protocols and server ports that were connecting to the next component. However, you can change this time frame in the Advanced options section.
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Load balancer configuration query - The appliance obtains information directly from the load balancer. This feature is currently available for Riverbed SteelApp Traffic Manager and F5 Local Traffic Manager versions 9 and 10 load balancers that can be queried.
Note: If the load balancer is a SteelApp Traffic Manager, the configuration query will not detect IP addresses for the Pools (i.e. backend servers) that are added to SteelApp Traffic Manager by Traffic Scripts.
Advanced options - You can use this option to change the direction of discovery, to limit the discovery process to specific applications or ports, to propose segments as aggregations of port and/or applications, and to specify a time frame.
Advanced options for the traffic query discovery method are:
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Discovery direction
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Toward clients - Assume that the current component is a server. Discover which clients it is accepting connections from in addition to the end users you have already identified.
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Toward servers - assume that the current component is a client. Discover which servers it is connecting to.
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Restrict discovery to applications/ports - Enter ports or applications manually, or use the Browse feature to look up named applications and ports. This limits the discovery process to just those applications, ports, or application-port combinations that you select. Syntax notes
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Aggregate discovery results by - The discovery process finds each application, port, or application-port combination in use between end users and the front end servers. You can use the Aggregate discovery results by options to control how the discovered applications and ports are aggregated into proposed service segments:
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Ports only – a service segment is proposed for each server port that is in use.
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Applications and Ports – a service segment is proposed for each application-port combination discovered.
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Applications only – a service segment is proposed for each Layer 7 application that is discovered.
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- Discovery time frame - The time frame must include a time when there was traffic involving the front end servers component.
Advanced options for the load balancer configuration query discovery method are:
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Discovery direction
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Toward clients - Assume that the current component is a server. Discover which clients it is accepting connections from in addition to the end users you have already identified.
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Toward servers - assume that the current component is a client. Discover which servers it is connecting to.
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- Restrict discovery to ports - Enter ports manually or use the Browse feature to look up named ports. This limits the discovery process to just those ports. Syntax notes
Skip discovery - Select this option if you choose to enter the segment definition manually instead of using the discovery process.
Manage segments
The Manage Segments section is used to select the applications/ports that you want to be included in new segments of the service you are defining. Use the New Apps/Ports tab to add discovered applications or ports to the service. Use the other tabs help you keep track of what you have added or merged into the definition of the service.
Note that all the tabs show applications/ports and segments that are associated with the current component, which is identified in the Checklist section.
New Apps/Ports tab
This tab lists all server ports and applications that were discovered in the preceding section and have not yet been processed. Each application/port combination, along with its client component and server component, is a candidate for being added to the service as a service segment. The selected component will be either a client or a server for all the applications/ports.
Select the check box for a proposed segment and click Add to add it to the service. Alternatively, select the check boxes for multiple proposed segments and click Merge to include them in the service as a single segment.
Clicking Add or Merge opens a window in which you can assign names to the new segment and the discovered component. Note that the definition of the newly discovered component contains a list of hosts that were discovered using the selected application/port. Assign a name to this new component.
If the newly discovered component is a load balancer, you will be prompted to enter the same type of load balancer information as described in Step 1.
When you click Save, the NetProfiler adds your selected application/port connections, and the client and server components that are using them, as a new service segment. The Service Map displays the new segment with the name that you assigned to it.
Any discovered application/port that you did not add, drop or delete is displayed as "Undecided." Note that if the Undecided segment and the added segment are using the same client and server components, those components are displayed only once. Each segment includes the both components, and the components are highlighted for each segment that you hover the mouse over.
To remove an "Undecided" connection from the Service Map, click Drop or Delete.
If you click Drop, the application/port connection is not monitored as part of the service and it is not rediscovered if you run the discovery step again. However, it is saved in case you choose to add it in the future. It remains listed on the All Segments tab.
If you choose Delete, the proposed segment is discarded and no longer available to be added to the definition of the service. However, it will be rediscovered if you run the discovery step again.
Added Segments tab
This tab lists the segment names, their client and server components and applications/ports between the components. Select the check box for a segment and click Edit to open a window in which you can edit the definition and run a service traffic report. You can select two or more segments and click Merge to combine them into one segment. You can also drop or delete the segment.
All Segments tab
This tab lists the segments that have been added or merged and the proposed segments that have been dropped or remain undecided.
Continuing the discovery process
After you have added, dropped or deleted all discovered connections and clicked Next, the page re-displays the Discover new applications and ports section, but this time for the component you just added. If you continue, the discovery process is run again, by default looking downstream from the component you just added.
If this is as far as you care to track the service, you can click Skip discovery. You can return later and run the discovery process. But if you want to identify the complete end-to-end service delivery path, then continue the process of discovering connections and adding or dropping them as segments connecting the current component to the next downstream component.
Continue to run the discovery process until you have defined all the segments associated with each downstream component you discover.
Note on segment counts:
Under Step 2 in the checklist, each component is listed. The "Manage segments" entry for each component identifies the number of segments each component is part of, including both undecided and added segments. These numbers are also shown on the Service Map, indicating the number of application/port connections between each component and every other component it connects to. For example, the checklist entry for the end users component reports both undecided and added segments that are formed by the end users component, the front end component, any other components that the end users component connects to, and the applications and ports in use between them.
Likewise, the checklist entry for the front end component reports undecided and added segments that are formed by the front end component, the end users component, any other components that the front end component connects to, and the applications and ports in use between them. Therefore, the segments that include the end users component and the front end component are reported twice; once as seen from the end users component and once as seen from the front end component. The same is true for each of the components listed.
Step 2 shows the total number of undecided segments remaining to be added, with none being reported twice. Because no segment is reported more than once in this count, the number is lower than you would obtain by adding the segments reported for each individual component.
When you have identified all the segments and components that you want to include in the service, Step 2 is complete. If the final component is connecting to other components that you do not want to include, click Skip Discovery. If all components have been discovered, click Next. Either action moves on to Step 3: Review Service Definition.