How can I track bandwidth

[kgbsd]

I want to check our Internet conneciton to make sure we are getting our 512k dedicated bandwidth. How can I do this?? We have our connection coming into a 2621 router and then into our switches. Any help would be great because I think we are getting screwed! THANKS!

[vkasacavage]

I would recommend a monitoring tool such as Whats Up Gold from IPSwitch or SolarWinds. These programs can track bandwidth utilization and report the results graphically. They are also much less expensive than other programs such as OpenView.

Of course, you could go with freeware like MRTG or Cricket, but the require more work to setup........for the ultimate in hands on.....you can simply look at the interface statistics on the router and do manual calculations

[kgbsd]

I downloaded the solarwinds pro evaluation and started some monitoring of my Serial 0/0 port. I also did the CPU utilization meter and it is constantly in the 40-50% range and errors out quite often. This doesn't look good to me, is this reliable software??? So far it has shown my received bandwidth under 400kbps the whole time, but it is only showing my transmitted kbps around 50.. That doesn't seem right either or the connection should be much fast shouldn't it??

[GW6]

All that software does is go to the router and ask the router for SNMP variables. Then it graphs those variables. I've used SolarWinds before and think it's fairly decent. I can't remember what the difference is between all of their versions. However, the slickest tool they offer is in the Engineer's edition. The Network Monitor is similar to MRTG giving you a histogram of traffic.

Your connection should be a little faster. I would think. Have you checked for port errors in IOS?

I'm monitoring a few 2621's and do not have problems seeing what's going on with them.

[vkasacavage]

The software is very reliable.......I use it all the time. You can quickly check to see by looking at a show proc cpu on the router ...... btw, 40-50% isn't bad on a router........start getting concerned if it is continually spiking above 80 or averages over 70%

If you are talking about internet traffic, that is not uncommon either......typical web browsing will generate significantly more received traffic than sent traffic. If you question the results from solarwinds.......get a trial from another company and compare the results

[londint]

Sorry to barge in but how do you use openview to monitor bandwitdh. I have HP OPenview 6.2 running but I still have not been able to monitor any bandwidth.?

Thanks

[vkasacavage]

Openview is fairly complex and can do many things....what are you using it for? All you have to do is setup openview to poll the interface on the cisco routers. I believe that openview keeps track of the interfaces by the interface index....then you can poll transmitted, received, errors.........

needless to say programs like solarwinds and whats up gold were created because Openview is quite complicated

[rbatchu]

u can use mrtg

go to www.mrtg.org. Its bit difficult to configure for the First time.

But once its on. Its really awesome.