Layers Toolbox

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 Layers 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 Nodes.

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 3 categories, 2 of which can be expanded for more options: Stream and SLP

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.
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 into components that have stream links between them. In most cases, this will be a cloudSwXtch and a VM with an xNIC installed. In this example, the streams will be grouped between a cloudSwXtch and an 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, users can just uncheck all the nodes except for the ones 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, users could select all components and select a 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, and the 4 streams are seen as one line.

Below is an example of 9 streams that are grouped together.

By selecting the “+” button, users can see the details of the streams within the linked multicast groups.

By selecting the “ungroup” button, the data for the streams is no longer grouped.

Alternatively, users 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 supported for the cloudSwXtch and swXtch Bridge, and for xNIC Type 3 (SLP in xNIC Type 1 and 2 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 the number of retries 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 the number of retries for Transmitted Packets.
TX Retr Drops: This will display the number of drops after retries for Transmitted Packets.