WHAT TO EXPECT
In this article, users will learn about the various options in the Layers Toolbox and how it alters the appearance of the topology graph to see more or less data.
Links and Nodes
The Topology Toolbox enables users to change the appearance of their topology graph and display information important to them. The toolbox is organized into two categories: links and layers.
Links
Links are the lines that connect component nodes in the topology graph, representing the traffic that is flowing between them. This section of the Layers Toolbox will edit the appearance of those links or the information displayed.
Links are broken into 4 categories, 2 of which can be expanded for more option Stream and SLP:
Streams
SLP
Clusters
SwXtch Connections
Streams
The stream layer can be expanded, once expanded the user can choose to hide/show data as shown.
By default, the stream links are animated to illustrate the direction of the stream. Below shows the data for most of the options:
Animation: This will illustrate via animation the direction of the steam using.
MC Groups: This will display the IP and Port of the Multicast Group.
Aliases: This will display the stream names at the center of the link.
Rates: This will display packet metrics. Rates must be selected in order to view Missing and OoO Stats under Other Stats.
Channels: This will show the channel or channels the stream is part of.
Grouped Streams: This will show the streams as a group. See Grouped Streams below.
Protocol Stats: This will display Missing and Out-of-Order (OoO) packet statistics.
Frag. Stats: This will display how many packets were fragmented in the stream.
Grouped streams
Streams can be grouped between components that have stream links between them. In most cases this will be a cloudSwXtch and a VM with a xNIC installed. In this example the steams will be grouped between a cloudSwXtch and a XNIC.
Below is an example before the stream links are grouped between the cloudSwXtch and the xNIC.
To group the streams the two components must be selected in the “Selected Nodes” dialog box. To do this you can just uncheck all the nodes except for the ones you want to group streams. Or use the left mouse button to highlight between a cloudSwXtch and a node or more to group many streams across components. Or you can select the cloudSwXtch select “ctrl” then select the xNIC node. When any of these functions are done then the group streams button will display on the Selected Nodes selector.
Below is after the selection:
Note that only 2 components are in the Node Selection. However you could select all components and select group to group every stream link between all components. Also note that now the Group Stream links button is enabled.
Select the Group Stream Links button. The streams are now linked an now you see the 4 streams as one line.
Below is a example of 9 streams that are grouped together.
By selecting the “+” button you can see the details of the streams within the linked multicast groups.
By selecting the “ungroup” button the data for the streams to no longer be grouped.
Alternatively you can use the “Remove Groups Config” button to ungroup all streams in mass. To do this select the “Remove Groups Config” button, Select Stream Links, and confirm.
SLP
The SLP layer can be expanded, once expanded the user can choose to hide/show data as shown. SLP data is supproted for the cloudSwXtch and swXtch Bridge, and for xNIC type 3 (xNIC Type 1 and 2 it is not supported).
RX RTT: This will display the Round Trip Time to Receive Packets.
RX RTT Var: This will display the variance between Round Trip times to Receive Packets.
RX Data Pkts: This will display the data packets for Received Packets.
RX Retr Pkts: This will display number of retries of for Received Packets.
RX Lost Pkts: This will display the number of lost Received Packets.
TX RTT: This will show the Round Trip Time for Transmitted Packets.
TX RTT VAR: This will display the variance between Round Trip times to Transmitted Packets.
TX Data Pkts: This will display the data packets for Transmitted Packets.
TX Retr Pkts: This will display number of retries of for Transmitted Packets.
TX Retr Drops: This will display number of drops after retries for Transmitted Packets.
Clusters
The Clusters layer will show any cloudSwXtches in a cluster. To create a cluster see: wXcked Eye System Management.
swXtch Connections:
The Clusters layer will show relationships between cloudSwXtches, cloudSwXtch Bridges and xNICs.
Nodes
Nodes are the circle icons in the topology graph. They can represent cloudSwXtches, cloudSwXtch Bridges, and endpoints (with or without xNICs).
Names
Selecting this option will display the names of the nodes.
Tags
Tags will show colors surrounding the components based on the Tags that are associated with it. For more information on tags see wXcked Eye System Management.
Tags can be added to a component by selecting the component, selecting the edit button and adding the tag. Tags that already exist will display in the drop-down, or create a new tag by keying in the tag you desire.
Clouds
Toggling this one will display the cloud provider for the cloudSwXtch and cloudSwXtch Bridge components.
Regions
This will display where the node is located.
Instances
When activated, this will display information about a virtual machine’s instance.
Interfaces
Toggling this on will display the interfaces the components are using the send or receive traffic.
Zooming in and out of the graph will minimize the interfaces.
HA Stats
When activated, information about data flow in an HA configuration at the node will be displayed.
