HP Network Node Manager iSPI Performance for Quality Assurance Software - Intelligent Response Agent Release Notes

for the Windows® and Linux operating systems

Software version: 9.20

Publication date: July 2013

This document gives an overview of the features of the Intelligent Response Agent (iRA) software. It contains important information that is not included in books or Help. You can find information about the following in this document:

Overview
Installation Notes
Recommendations
Known Problems and Limitations
Documentation Updates
Support
Legal Notices

Overview

The Intelligent Response Agent (iRA) is an agent that helps you configure Quality of Service (QoS) monitoring probes on NNMi-managed servers. These probes can generate different types of synthetic traffic to measure the performance of the network between the source and destination nodes. The iRA enables you to configure the probes of the following service types:

ICMP
UDP Echo
TCP Connect
UDP Jitter
DNS
HTTP
HTTPS
Oracle Connect

Installation Notes

Installation requirements, as well as instructions for installing iRA, are documented in the Intelligent Response Agent Installation Guide. The Installation Guide is provided in PDF (.pdf) format. You can find the Installation Guide on the product installation media.

The iRA provides you with a set of command line tools that help you configure probes and view the status of the probes.
For more information about command line tools, see the Intelligent Response Agent Command Reference, which is available on the installation media.

To obtain an electronic copy of the most up-to-date version of the Installation Guide, point your browsers to http://h20230.www2.hp.com/selfsolve/manuals.

Recommendations

When you configure and distribute the iRA probes, follow these recommendations to maintain the optimum response time, CPU usage, and memory consumption on the iRA system:

Maximum number of HTTP/HTTPS (combined), UDP Jitter, or Oracle database probes must not exceed 10 percent of the total number of probes. For example, if a total of 1500 probes are configured, there must not be more that 150 probes configured for each type, namely HTTP(S), UDP Jitter, and Oracle Connect.
Probes with frequency of less than a minute are not supported. The number of probes with one-minute frequency must not exceed 10 percent of the total number of probes.
For better accuracy of the scheduling on an iRA system with 1500 or more probes, the frequency of the probes must be at least five minutes.
If you want to run the probes frequently (every one or two minutes), make sure that the probe count (number of runs per execution cycle) is 1. By default, the probe count is 3.
If the URL configured in the HTTP/HTTPS probe is that of a well-monitored website such as a banking website, make sure that the frequency is very less (10 or 15 minutes) with probe count (number of runs per execution cycle) set to 1.

For the supported hardware system requirements, see the NNM iSPI Performance for QA support matrix document (nmQAispi_supportmatrix_en.html) available at the root location of the product's installation media or from the HP Software Product Manuals web site.

Known Problems and Limitations

After you restart the iRA, you must manually restart the UDP responder on the iRA system.

Documentation Updates

The first page of this release notes document contains the following identifying information:

Version number, which indicates the software version.
Publish date, which changes each time the document is updated.

To check for recent updates or to verify that you are using the most recent edition, visit this URL: HP Software Product Manuals.

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Product name.
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HP Software Support

This web site provides contact information and details about the products, services, and support that HP Software offers. For more information, visit the HP Support web site at: HP Software Support Online.

HP Software support provides customer self-solve capabilities. It provides a fast and efficient way to access interactive technical support tools needed to manage your business. As a valued support customer, you can benefit by being able to:

Search for knowledge documents of interest
Submit and track progress on support cases
Submit enhancement requests online
Download software patches
Manage a support contract
Look up HP support contacts
Review information about available services
Enter discussions with other software customers
Research and register for software training

To access the Self-solve knowledge base, visit the Self-solve knowledge search home page.

Note: Most of the support areas require that you register as an HP Passport user and sign in. Many also require an active support contract. To find more information about support access levels, go to: Access levels.

To register for an HP Passport ID, go to: HP Passport Registration.

Legal Notices

Confidential computer software. Valid license from HP required for possession, use or copying. Consistent with FAR 12.211 and 12.212, Commercial Computer Software, Computer Software Documentation, and Technical Data for Commercial Items are licensed to the U.S. Government under vendor's standard commercial license.

The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

The information contained herein is subject to change without notice.

For information about third-party license agreements, see the license-agreements directory on the product installation media.

Trademark Notices

Acrobat® is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

DOM4J® is a registered trademark of MetaStuff, Ltd.

HP-UX Release 10.20 and later and HP-UX Release 11.00 and later (in both 32 and 64-bit configurations) on all HP 9000 computers are Open Group UNIX 95 branded products.

Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Microsoft® and Windows® are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

UNIX® is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

Oracle Technology — Notice of Restricted Rights

Programs delivered subject to the DOD FAR Supplement are ‘commercial computer software’ and use, duplication, and disclosure of the programs, including documentation, shall be subject to the licensing restrictions set forth in the applicable Oracle license agreement. Otherwise, programs delivered subject to the Federal Acquisition Regulations are ‘restricted computer software’ and use, duplication, and disclosure of the programs, including documentation, shall be subject to the restrictions in FAR 52.227-19, Commercial Computer Software-Restricted Rights (June 1987). Oracle America, Inc., 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood City, CA 94065.

For the full Oracle license text, see the license-agreements directory on the NNMi product DVD.

Acknowledgements

This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation. (http://www.apache.org)

This product includes software developed by the Indiana University Extreme! Lab. (http://www.extreme.indiana.edu)

This product includes software developed by The Legion of The Bouncy Castle. (http://www.bouncycastle.org)

This product contains software developed by Trantor Standard Systems Inc. (http://www.trantor.ca)