Monitoring with Cisco WAAS › How Cisco WAAS Works as a Monitoring Device › How Network Segments Work

How Network Segments Work

Because the management console is now monitoring from multiple points on the network for a single application-server-network combination, the management console generates a separate set of metrics for each of the three network segments and treats each network segment as a separate application. The management console generates a separate set of metrics for the:

• Client segment, which is the network segment between the client IPs in the branch location and the branch WAE device. To report this network segment, the management console requires the branch WAE device to export response time data.
• WAN segment, which is the network segment between the branch WAE device and the data center WAE device. To report this network segment, the management console requires the data center WAE device to export response time data.
• Server segment, which is the network segment between the data center WAE device and the data center servers. To report this network segment, the management console requires the data center WAE device to export response time data.

  When using a monitoring device to monitor the server SPAN, the management console replaces the Server segment data from the data center Cisco WAE with the more accurate server SPAN data. It is more accurate because the server’s SPAN source is closer to the actual server. If the management console sees unoptimized application traffic in the server SPAN, it generates a separate set of metrics for the unoptimized application, for example, SMTP.

The management console appends the network segment to the application name, for example, SMTP [Client], SMTP [WAN], and SMTP [Server]. In the example below, the SMTP application represents the unoptimized application performance. Note that the unoptimized application response time is faster because the data comes from local users in the data center.