Thank You so much for the prompt assisatance.... that will really help.

what i am confused is how to select my source and tagrets....

We have a Hierarchal layout where we do have Access ----- Distribution------Core ----Edge which connects to the Router through the Firewall...

i am assuming the targets to be Access Devices, but not sure.

Please assist on how to proceed in the such layout.

Thank You Again and Regards,

Genet T.

Where are you concerned with latency? With what latency are you concerned? That is, do you want to check for jitter in your internal voice/video network, or do you want to verify your end users have good Internet connectivity? There are no hard and fast rules as to where you stick your collectors. It depends on what you want to monitor.

For example, if you want to test for jitter, putting your collectors in the core, and having the access layer devices act as responders would work. Of course, this means you need to add overhead onto your core switches. To alleviate this, a leading practice is to use a "shadow router" which is basically a small router (e.g. 1800, 2600, etc.) with the latest IOS loaded which acts as an end station (i.e. no IP routing). This router will be located as close to the real source as possible (e.g. directly connected to a core switch). Instead of configuring your collectors on the core device, you configure them on the shadow router. This reduces the risk to the network since it doesn't matter if this router crashes due to something in IP SLA.

Thank You very much in deed, yes this greatly helps.

Mainly I am concerned with the end users Internet connectivity. But as you suggested, I will use a shadow router which I understand will be the source and the access devices as target and see the out put. But then what if I need to verify end users' internet connectivity, What do I require? what do i need to configure? and what is the best practice?

Thank You again for your valuable time and assistance,

Genet T.

For verifying end users connectivity, you would either user the access-layer switches (assuming they are IOS), or shadow routers in the access closets. Since a router per closet can get kind of expensive, deploying one collector per access switch is probably not going to cause any damage, and it will give you a clear idea of (I'm assuming) HTTP latency for the users on that switch.

Thank You so much.........

I will try to put all in place and get back with my success and any doubts if any!

Thank You again and Have a Great Day!

Genet T.