About Indicators
Chapter 7 Managing and Viewing Indicators 199
About Indicators
For each type of monitored device, PATROL DashBoard is constantly collecting (at 5-
minute intervals) pertinent indicators on the system and on each of its components
(interfaces, protocols, DLCI, VP, and VC) to analyze and assess the state of the
network. PATROL DashBoard automatically filters and aggregates this mass of
information to supply only pertinent data, never exceeding seven indicators for each
component.
The PATROL DashBoard indicators are simple, independent, limited in number, and
apply across your network. However, they require a full description of the state of the
system being monitored.
PATROL DashBoard manages the following indicators to help you understand the
workload of the active network components:
■ load indicators (Workload)
■ rate indicators (Input and Output)
These indicators constitute the main diagnostic source.
PATROL DashBoard handles the following resource management indicators:
■ buffer-related drop indicators
■ memory load indicators
■ CPU load indicators
■ congestion indicators for Frame Relay networks
■ server disk usage indicators
With these indicators, you can predict performance problems caused by the depletion
of one of the resources.
In terms of network survey and Quality of Service control, PATROL DashBoard can
help you plan the network architecture evolution with methods to reduce or solve
typical problems such as collisions or bottlenecks.
Also, PATROL DashBoard manages communication chain indicators, which assess
the behavior of a group of systems that cooperate to create a network path or a link
chain.
Indicator data is displayed in the following types of graphs:
■ the round-trip time from end to end of a Web transaction, measured by the proxy
ping technique, which shows the slow-running resources as perceived by the user
