LiveAction 6.

0 for IWAN
Management and PfRv3
Deployment v2
BY RATNESH
Lab Scenario

Scenario 1: LiveAction Overview and Real-Time Monitoring

Scenario 2: PfRv3 Dashboard and Report Drill-Down
Scenario 3: Hop-by-Hop Medianet Path Analysis Using Perfmon
Scenario 4: LiveAction Application Dashboard Overview and Performance Monitoring
Scenario 5: PfRv3 Provisioning (Optional)
Scenario 1: LiveAction Overview and Real-Time
Monitoring
 Key features of Intelligent Path Control
with PfR
PfR monitors network performance and routes applications based on application performance policies
PfR load balances traffic based upon link utilization levels to efficiently utilize all available WAN bandwidth
Maximize link utilization
Utilize, rather than reserve, protection bandwidth
QoS to ensure priority traffic is delivered during an outage
Ref:
LiveAction IWAN Management:
https://marketplace.cisco.com/catalog/products/2620
Cisco Intelligent WAN:
https://www.cisco.com/go/iwan
Cisco PfR:
https://www.cisco.com/go/pfr
Navigation LIVENX

1. On wkst1, launch the LiveAction client application. Log in as admin/C1sco12345.

2. In LiveAction, select the Flow tab.
3. Select View > Fit to View to change the view to best fit your RDP session.
4. Point out that large circle represents a networking device (e.g., router or switch). Each
smaller circle represents an interface, where the top half circle is ingress and bottom half is
egress.
5. On the Flow tab, select the *DefaultFilterGroup option from the Filter dropdown menu. Click
the Refresh icon to update the topology with flows.
6. Point out that the arrows between the devices represent traffic flows going through the
network. Hover the mouse over a merged flow to display more information about these
conversations (source, destination, port number, bytes, etc).
7. Click the Table icon to see tabular format of different flow types.
8. From the drop down listings, select Flow Types to show all the different flow filters available.
 Using LiveAction to View Real-Time Traffic
Flows
1. You can create custom filters to target (or remove) certain traffic patterns from the LiveAction topology display. Select the *Hide-SD-
WAN-Control filter from the Filter dropdown menu to remove any flows related to PfR smart probes.
2. Select DSCP from the Color Filter dropdown menu to select the color pattern used to identify the different flows. This will organize and
color the flows displayed by their DSCP values.
3. Click the Refresh button to update the LiveAction topology. This updates the flows with the newly selected filters and coloring options.
4. During normal operations, you can see that traffic is being load balanced (default PfR behavior) across both the Internet and MPLS
networks between the branch locations and HQ. At this point, there are several traffic flows between the branch PC1 (198.19.1.101) and
wkst1 (198.18.133.136). High priority traffic, EF (shown in dark blue), is being routed by PfR via MPLS network. Low priority traffic, BE
(shown in light blue), is being routed by PfR via the Internet. PfR Default with Hide Smart Probes enabled, colored by DSCP
5. Select the TELEPRESENCE-VOIP filter from the Filter dropdown menu to view the packet flow of telepresence and VoIP packets from Los
Angeles to San Jose.
6. Change the filter to TELEPRESENCE-VOIP-CITRIX to add Citrix traffic to the shown flows. Notice that Citrix takes the same MPLS path as
Telepresence and VoIP but has a different DSCP value.
7. In addition to pre-built filters, real-time filtering is via the Search field. Re-select the *Hide-SD-WAN-Control filter option. In the Search
field type flow.dscp=CS1 and click Refresh to isolate CS1 only flows.
Before continuing remove the Search field string. Double-click the Branch1-B1 router.
8. Select Basic Flow from the Flow Types dropdown menu to see the FNF flow records. You can see Citrix, FTP, and RTP traffic going
through this router.
9. Select PfR from the Flow Types dropdown menu to see PfR specific flow information such as DSCP, packet loss, ingress/egress BW, or
service providers.
Scenario 2. PfRv3 Dashboard and Report Drill-
Down
Using LiveAction to View Real-Time Traffic
Flows

PfR dashboard also shows the managed network performance. The network shows acceptable
performance. Additional details on drilling into the dashboard will be discussed below.
1. Click Dashboard
2. Select WAN from the Dashboard menu options.
3. In the Top 10 Alerts by Site Pair section of this Dashboard, double-click the Los Angeles to San Jose alert
bar option.
4. The Alerts by Site Pair report shows periods of normal and impaired traffic flow. Your display will be different
as this report is dependent on when the WAN Impairment Toggle script toggled the impairment on and
off.
5. For best viewing, select 1h or 6h from the time ranges in the top right corner of the window and then click
Execute Report
6. Select a time from the middle of a brownout and one from a normal operation time period. Write them
down. You will use these times later in this demo to see route changes, packet loss, and other behaviors
during these normal vs. brownout periods.
7. Your specific demo will have impairments at different times, but here we can see that impairments occur
periodically (Impairment is off at 12:30PM and on 12:45PM shown here).
 Continue..

10. Right-click VOICE-VIDEO and navigate to Drill Down on Specific Flow > Alerts by Service
Provider Report to find out which service provider is causing the issue.
11. The Alert by Service Provider report shows that MPLS service provider is the one having the
packet loss problem.
12. Close the Reports window.
13. Close the Flow Reports window.
14. On the WAN dashboard, double-click on VOICE-VIDEO in the App Group (DSCP)
Bandwidth By Service Provider section flow to explore when each individual traffic flow was
on each service provider network.
15. Select an appropriate time range, 1h or 6h, and click Execute Report. Notice how this
traffic flow toggles between the MPLS and INET service providers. For the brownout that
occurred at around 12:35PM, PfR rerouted traffic from MPLS to INET to protect VOICE-VIDEO
application
16. Close the Flow Reports and Dashboard windows.
Route Change Virtualization

1. From the LiveAction window, click the Home icon in the device list to return to the topology
view of the network.
2. Ensure that the Search field is blank and that the _TELEPRESENCE-VOIP filter is selected.
3. To see what path the Tele-presence and VoIP packets took during a brownout, select the
Time dropdown menu and change the time to your written down time from the earlier demo
step. (For example, 12:30:00PM, the middle of the brownout).
4. Click OK and then Refresh to update the topology view.
5. Re-enable the WAN Impairment cycling by checking the Cycle Toggling the Impairment
checkbox in the WAN Impairment Toggle Application. The application will now toggle the
WAN impairment on and off to continue simulating brownout scenarios. Ensure that the WAN
Impairment State is On.
6. Re-enable the WAN Impairment cycling by checking the Cycle Toggling the Impairment
checkbox in the WAN Impairment Toggle Application. The application will now toggle the
WAN impairment on and off to continue simulating brownout scenarios. Ensure that the WAN
Impairment State is On.
 PfRv3 Performance Dashboard

1. LiveAction populates the Performance Dashboard based on ingress PfRv3 records to show PfR
performance over time. Go back to the Dashboard > WAN and click Performance. This report
shows performance metrics (jitter, loss, delay, etc.) received by the various sites.
2. Using the drop-down in the top right corner, select Los-Angeles. Then toggle through the
various time ranges to view statistics for traffic going to Los Angeles over various time periods.
3. Select a time range long enough to show packet loss to San-Jose (4hr). Then double-click the
red bar to generate a Site-toSite report.
4. Close the Flow Reports window to return to the WAN-PfR Dashboard.
5. Specific application groups and their thresholds can be configured to better control the
output of the PfRv3 Performance Dashboard. Click the Configure App Groups (DSCP) link to
display which applications, in this case based on DSCP, are used to generate the
performance report.
6. Additional traffic pattern can be added or existing groups can be modified to control the SLA
thresholds. Select CRITICAL from the list of group mappings and select Edit to view these
settings. Click Done when finished.
7. Close the Dashboard window.
Scenario 3. Hop-by-Hop Medianet Path
Analysis Using Perfmonance
 Medianet Path Analysis

1. LiveAction can show Medianet path statistics for each flow. Return to the main
LiveAction window and ensure you have the following parameters set. a. Click the
Home view. b. Select Current Time from the Time filter dropdown. c. Select
_TELEPRESENCE-VOIP from the Traffic filter dropdown. d. The Search field is empty. e.
Click Refresh.
2. Click the Table button and then select the Medianet tab.
3. Double-click the RTP flow from PC1 to WKST1. This will generate a report showing the
Medianet statistics for that flow for the given time period.
Scenario 4. LiveAction Application Dashboard
Overview and Performance Monitoring
 LiveAction Application Dashboard
Overview
1. Open the LiveAction Dashboard and go to the Application tab.
2. For best viewing results, set the dashboard time selector in the upper right-hand corner to 4hr. 3
3. Select the 4hr time range for the dashboard.
Note: The Application Dashboard is split into two sections. There is a section for understanding
groups of applications and another section of widgets focused on providing statistics for individual
applications. There is also a 24 hour trending graph for application group utilization.
4. The Application Dashboard includes the concept of Application Groups where LiveAction can
be used to group various applications together and provide statistics holistically as a group. By
default, LiveAction groups applications together by IOS defined NBAR groups and categories.
5. Click on Manage Application Groups in the list of links on the left-hand side of the dashboard to
explore the list of built in application groups.
6. Click Cancel when finished exploring to return to the Application dashboard.
 Continue..

7. Each widget heading can be clicked to open a corresponding report. Click on the
Top 10 Applications widget heading as an example
8. Close the Flow Reports window to return to the Application Dashboard.
9. LiveActions Application Dashboard can be used to drilldown on sites and applications of
interest. This is especially useful in large enterprise deployments. Drilldown on Los-Angeles
using the All Sites dropdown in the upper right-hand corner. The dashboard will update and
display only information about application statistics from the Los-Angeles site.
10. Click on the All Applications dropdown in the upper right-hand corner of the dashboard.
Select the business-andproductivity-tools application group. The dashboard will update and
display only information about the business-andproductivity-tools application group in Los-
Angeles.
11. Reset the Application Dashboard to show all applications by clicking the application
selector dropdown and changing the selection from business-and-productivity-tools to All
Applications. Please keep the site selection set to Los-Angeles.
 Application Performance Monitoring

In the upper right-hand corner of the Application Dashboard look for the Top 10 Application Group
Performance widget. This widget provides performance statistics for application groups, including
average network delay, average application delay and retransmission counts
1. Drilldown into one of these application groups to reveal the performance metrics for various
applications within the group by right-clicking on the business-and-productivity-tools application
group and clicking Top Applications Performance Report.
2. Notice that LiveAction drills down into the business-and-productivity-tools application group and
provides performance metrics for the individual applications making up the group in the Top
Applications Performance report. Notice that the applications listed include citrix and salesforce.
3. Close the Top Applications Performance report and go back to the Application Dashboard.
4. In the lower right-hand corner of the Application Dashboard look for the Top 10 HTTP Host widget. This
widget provides HTTP URL statistics for the top 10 websites accessed from the network. It includes HTTP
hit counts and total bytes transferred in the current dashboard time window.
5. Click the Top 10 HTTP Host widget heading to open a corresponding report.
6. Review the results of the HTTP Host report. Notice that this report provides statistics for many websites
including, www.amazon.com, www.salesforce.com, www.cisco.com and www.liveaction.com.
Scenario 5. PfRv3 Provisioning
 LiveAction offers complete PfRv3 bootstrap configuration in a greenfield
deployment. The IWAN Management lab with LiveAction starts up with the devices
pre-configured for PfRv3 to run the previous scenarios.
PfRv3 Configuration Wizard
1. Select the Dashboard menu item.
2. Select WAN-PfR from the Dashboard Menu Options.
3. In the left-hand column, click Configure PfRv3.
4. The PfRv3 configuration wizard is a seven-step process that will walk the user
through the setup.
5. In step 1, Hub Router Selection, you select the hub master controller and the hub
border routers. For the Hub Master Controller, highlight the HQ-MC device. Click
the right arrow to move to selected devices.
6. For the Hub Border Routers, highlight the HQ-B1 and HQ-B2 devices. Click the right
arrow to move to selected devices.
7. Click Next.
8. Since the lab devices have a pre-existing PfR domain configuration, LiveAction
provides a warning that the settings will be overwritten. Click Yes in the PfRv3
Configuration Conflict pop-up window.
9. In step 2, Master Controller (Hub) Settings, set the characteristics of the hub master controller. With
the information previously setup, the wizard automatically identifies the hub master controller and pre-
sets the IP address.
10. In the Domain field, type one.
11. The VRF setting is preset to default. You cannot change this setting.
12. In the Source Int field, type Loopback0.
13. Point out that you can set a password to secure connectivity between the MC and BRs. For the
purpose of this lab, leave the password blank.
14. Check the Enable PfR NetFlow box to send PfR NetFlow data to LiveAction.
15. The Load-Balance check box enables PfR load balancing. For this demonstration, leave it
unchecked.
16. Click Next
17. In step 3, you configure Border Router (Hub) Settings. Configure the source interface, WAN tunnel
interfaces and service provider settings for each of the hub border routers. With the information
previously setup, the wizard automatically identifies the hub border routers and pre-sets the Border
Router device selections.
18. Set the Source Interface for each of the border routers to Loopback0. 19. Set the WAN Tunnel
interfaces to Tunnel100 and Tunnel101 respectively for border routers HQ-B1 and HQ-B2.
20. Set the SP (service provider) settings to INET and MPLS respectively for border routers HQ-B1 and HQ-
B2.
21. Click Next.
22. In step 4, Configure Policy, you will be setting the PfRv3 performance policy for two
business critical applications, voice/video and critical. To match the original configuration
of the PfRv3, you will be setting the following policy: VOICE-VIDEO class matching DSCP
EF with a custom loss threshold of 5%. CRITICAL class matching DSCP AF31 with a custom loss threshold of
10%.
23. Click the yellow + icon to add a new Class.
24. Set the class name to VOICE-VIDEO and click OK.
25. Match DSCP value 46 (EF) and click Add Match. The match setting will show up on the right-hand
Matches box.
26. To show further capability within LiveAction, for the MATCH 46 (EF) line set the Policy dropdown to
Voice Profile to see how LiveAction has support for PfRv3s built-in profiles in IOS. Point out that by setting
the Voice Profile, LiveAction will automatically set the Loss, Delay and Jitter thresholds in the Profile box
below.
27. Change the settings for the MATCH 46 (EF) line in the Policy dropdown back branch to Custom.
28. In the Profile section below, click the Loss checkbox and the Threshold to 5%. 29. Click the Path
Preference checkbox and set the Primary service provider to MPLS, and the Fallback service provider to
INET.
30. Click the yellow + icon to add a new Class.
31. Set the class name to CRITICAL and click OK.
32. Match DSCP value 26 (AF31) and click Add Match. The match setting will show up on
the right-hand Matches box.
33. Set the Custom policy with a Loss threshold of 10%.
34. Click the Path Preference checkbox and set the Primary service provider to MPLS, and the Fallback
service provider to INET.
35. Click Next.
36. Since LiveAction has been previously setup for PfRv3 and IWAN monitoring the PfR configuration wizard
detected App Group monitoring settings that need to be updated. Click OK in the Save to App Group
Conflicts pop-up window.
37. In step 5, Branch List (MC and BR), you will select the branch devices that will be setup with both master
controller and border router functionality in the same device.
38. Type branch into the Available Devices search bar to find all devices with Branch in the hostname.
39. Highlight the Branch1-B1 and Branch2-B1 devices and click the right arrow to add them to the Selected
Devices section.
40. Set the Source Interface Loopback to 0.
41. Click Next.
42. In step 6, Review Configuration, we are able to review the overall PfRv3 settings before they are pushed
to the devices. Notice the summary of settings including the domain, VRF, hub devices and branch
selections. 43. Click Preview CLI to review the configuration to be sent by LiveAction to each of the devices.
44. After reviewing the configuration for each device, click Close to close the
Preview CLI dialog.
45. Review the PfRv3 configuration before pushing the changes to the devices. Once you have
reviewed, click Cancel to exit the PfRv3 configuration wizard without making any device changes.
NOTE: Please Cancel out of the wizard to prevent the configuration from being pushed to the
devices. This prevents the need to wait for the PfR settings to be propagated throughout the network
and NetFlow data to be exported by the devices.
46. Return to the LiveAction window and confirm LiveAction is receiving PfR NetFlow updates from the
devices by selecting San Jose > HQ-MC in the LiveAction device tree on the left-hand side of the
main topology screen.
47. Select the PfR flow technology dropdown next to the Pause Display button. Confirm the receipt of
PfR updates
48. Select Los Angeles > Branch1-B1.
49. Select the PfR flow technology dropdown next to the Pause Display button. Confirm the receipt of
PfR updates.