A Measurement Job is method that is defined by the user and run by Netsight to make a measurement on the network. This could be for example, a measurement of the traffic that is arriving into an interface over a period of time. Another example would be a measurement of the round-trip time for a packet of data sent over the network in a Ping job. Data from Measurement Jobs is collected in the Netsight Database, and can be viewed on graphs.
To view the details of an existing Measurement Job, you must navigate to it using the Netsight Explorer, or search for it using the Search page. Click the appropriate Measurement Job to show the View Measurement Job. This page shows the details of the Measurement Job, including:
There may be a yellow box at the top of the page listing any jobs that this job duplicates. Please see the section below for information about Duplicate Jobs
In addition to this basic information, various parameters and return data are shown. The timeout and interval parameters are included in all types of jobs. Respectively, these are the maximum time to wait for a requested measurement to be made, and the gap to wait between successive measurements. For each output parameter, you get a time series created, which can then be plotted on a chart. For more information about the types of Job available in Netsight see the Job Types help page.
Lastly, the page shows details of any Alerts that have been configured on this Measurement Job. Click here for more information about alerts.
Under the Output Parameters, there is a useful link to view data from the Measurement Job - "Graph these outputs". Clicking this link will plot a chart for each output parameter of the Job.
On the View Measurement Job page, there is a link "Show Source History" for Ping and NTP jobs. This takes you to a page that shows the past and present measurement sources for that job. The system will always try to assign the job to the primary source, but this may not be possible, or there may not be one assigned. The source history page shows which measurement device the job was using at any point in the job's history, and whether that was the primary or secondary source, or an "other" source. "Other" means that neither a primary nor secondary source was available at that time, so the system assigned another one automatically.
To create edit, and delete Measurement Jobs, write access must be enabled on the system. You must also have been granted the appropriate permissions to carry out the operation.
To create a new measurement job in Netsight enable write access, navigate to the folder in which you wish to create the job using Netsight Explorer, and then select "New" next to the Measurement Jobs section. This opens the Create a New Measurement Job page.
Occasionally you may be informed that the Data Gatherer Controller could not be notified about the creation of your new job. When this happens, you can still save your job. The system will pick it up automatically at a later time, and start recording measurements for it.
As mentioned above, Netsight can 'test' measurement jobs by making sample measurements before the job is created and started running. This should make it easier to set up jobs correctly before they are started, since most job details cannot be changed once the job has started running.
There are, however, a few things to bear in mind when testing jobs:
When write access is enabled, you can edit a Measurement Job. Navigate to the Job in the Netsight Explorer, right-click and choose "Edit" from the context menu. There is also an "Edit" link on the View Measurement Job page. Either of these opens the job details for editing.
When you save your new settings, the job will be updated to use them.
Note that some settings for a job cannot be edited - for example the job type. To change these settings, you need to create a new job.
If start and end times for the job are specified, the job will start automatically as the start time passes, and stop automatically at the end time. The start and end times can be adjusted after the job has been created as required.
If you want to stop a Measurement Job before its finish time, there is a quick link on the View Measurement Job page, when you have write access enabled. By the End Time field is a "Stop now" link. If you click this link, the end time is set to the current time, and the data gatherer controller is immediately notified to stop the job.
If you stop a job manually, you will be asked whether you want to request that this job and its data are deleted from the system. To retain the data, click "Keep data (recommended)". The measurement job is then marked as "Completed" and appears under "Completed Measurement Jobs" within the Explorer.
To restart a job that has been stopped, either manually or automatically, you can click "Re-start" by the End Time field. The End Time of the job is cleared (so that it is set to never end), and started immediately by the data gatherer controller.
If you do not have permission to delete a job, you may have permission to request that a job is deleted. This can be handy if you've set up a job with incorrect parameters and want to get rid of it.
How you request the deletion of a job depends on whether the job is currently running or not:
Both methods take you to a form where you can enter your reasons for wanting the job deleted. Once you've entered your reason, the measurement job page is updated to reflect your request.
Please note that the system administrators may not always honour your request to delete a job. Data may need to be retained for reporting purposes.
The process for deleting a measurement job is similar to that for requesting the deletion of a job, except that there is no form to fill in with your reasons for deleting the job. Once the job and its data have been deleted, they cannot be retrieved. As a result, this operation is only available to users with appropriate permissions.
Two jobs are considered to be duplicates if they have the same type and they target the same interface. In addition, two Ping or NTP jobs also have to originate from the same source to be considered as duplicates.
Duplicate jobs are allowed to be created in Netsight because they are sometimes desirable. However, if you attempt to create a job that duplicates another, a warning is shown, asking whether you want to proceed with creating this job. In addition, a list of jobs that a job duplicates is given at the top of the page.
The Network Status Summary shown on the home page derives its data from the ping jobs in the system. A ping job is included in the summary if it is in the appropriate folder (e.g. ping jobs in the "Backbone" folder contribute towards the "Backbone" summary). Sometimes, it is not appropriate to include a node in the summary, even if it is needed in the folder, and you want to make ping measurements against it. In such a case, the box marked "Exclude from Home Page Summary" should be checked when editing or creating the job. This marks the job as unavailable for use when the system calculates the summary.
Ping jobs marked as "Exclude from Home Page Summary" also do not feature in Traffic Light Pages.
A Completed Measurement Job is one that is no longer running because its finish time has expired. These are visually different in the Explorer and on the View Job pages to reflect the fact that they are no longer gathering data. However, they can be restarted and otherwise edited in all the usual ways.