NFM-P bandwidth requirements

Bandwidth requirements for collocated NFM-P installations

The following table lists the bandwidth requirements for the connections between the components of an NFM-P collocated installation. It is a good practice to measure the bandwidth utilization between the various components to determine a suitable bandwidth. There are a number of factors that could require an increase above our bandwidth utilization recommendations, including: GUI activity, XML-API activity, network events, number of network elements being managed.

Table 4-1: NFM-P collocated server/database bandwidth requirements

Available bandwidth required from primary NFM-P server/database station	Recommended bandwidth: excluding statistics bandwidth requirements
NFM-P client (GUI)	1 Mbps
XML API client (The bandwidth will depend on the XML-API application)	1 Mbps
Between primary and standby NFM-P server/database station NOTE: When network element database backup synchronization is enabled, the bandwidth requirement between the NFM-P servers will vary significantly depending on the size of the network element backup file sizes.	5-10 Mbps (sustained) 16-26 Mbps (during re-instantiation or database backup synchronization)

Bandwidth requirements for distributed NFM-P installations

The following tables list the requirements for the connections between the components of an NFM-P distributed installation. It is a good practice to measure the bandwidth utilization between the various components to determine a suitable bandwidth. There are a number of factors that could require an increase above our bandwidth utilization recommendations – including: GUI activity, XML-API activity, network events, number of network elements being managed.

Table 4-2: NFM-P distributed server/database bandwidth requirements

Available bandwidth requirements for NFM-P	Recommended bandwidth: excluding statistics bandwidth requirements
NFM-P server to an NFM-P database NOTE: This depends on GUI changes and lists, # of changes occurring in the network, and network objects managed.	5 to 10 Mbps (3 Mbps minimum)
NFM-P server to an NFM-P client	1 Mbps
NFM-P server to an XML API client (The bandwidth will depend on the XML-API application)	1 Mbps
Between a primary and a standby NFM-P server NOTE: When network element database backup synchronization is enabled, the bandwidth requirement between the NFM-P servers will vary significantly depending on the size of the network element backup file sizes.	1 Mbps
NFM-P server to an NFM-P auxiliary statistics collector	1 Mbps
Between primary and standby NFM-P databases NOTE: The higher bandwidth is required to handle re-instantiation and is also required immediately after a database backup when database backup synchronization is enabled.	6 Mbps (sustained) 15-25 Mbps (during re-instantiation or database backup synchronization) 3 Mbps (minimum)

Table 4-3: Additional bandwidth requirements for file accounting STM results collection

Bandwidth requirements for installations collecting file accounting STM results using the logToFile method only	Increased bandwidth per 50 000 file accounting STM records
NFM-P server to an XML API client if using registerLogToFile NOTE: a higher bandwidth may be desirable	3.5 Mbps
NFM-P server to NFM-P database station	1.5 Mbps
Between the NFM-P database stations – required for sufficient bandwidth for database re-instantiations NOTE: The higher bandwidth is required to handle re-instantiation during STM collection	2 Mbps (sustained) 12 Mbps (during re-instantiation or database backup synchronization)

Additional bandwidth requirements for statistics collection

The size of the network and the number of statistics that are collected will impact the recommended bandwidth. The following tables should be used to determine how much additional bandwidth will be required between the NFM-P stations when statistics collection is added to the system. The collecting server, in the tables below, would be either the NFM-P auxiliary statistics collector or, in the absence of the NFM-P auxiliary statistics collector, the NFM-P server. The additional bandwidth requirements are per 200 000 collected records per interval. The bandwidths of connections not listed do not change dramatically with the addition of statistics.

The registerLogToFile method of retrieving statistics can be compressed or uncompressed. Using the compressed option requires additional CPU requirements on the station that is collecting the statistics (either NFM-P server or NFM-P auxiliary statistics collector). In this case, the bandwidth required will be reduced.

Table 4-4: Additional bandwidth requirements for accounting statistics collection

Record storage location	Bandwidth between collecting server and NFM-P database	Bandwidth between collecting server and NFM-P auxiliary database	Bandwidth between NFM-P databases	Bandwidth between NFM-P auxiliary database clusters	Bandwidth between NFM-P databases during re-instantiation	Bandwidth between collecting server and XML-API client
NFM-P database	2.2 Mbps	N/A	3.2 Mbps	N/A	18 Mbps	N/A
NFM-P auxiliary database	N/A	2.2 Mbps	N/A	0.8 Mbps per NFM-P auxiliary database node	N/A	N/A
logToFile (NFM-P server or NFM-P auxiliary statistics collector)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	3.5 Mbps
findToFile (NFM-P server)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	3.5 Mbps

Table 4-5: Additional bandwidth requirements for application assurance accounting statistics collection

Record storage location	Bandwidth between collecting server and NFM-P database	Bandwidth between collecting server and NFM-P auxiliary database	Bandwidth between NFM-P databases	Bandwidth between NFM-P auxiliary database clusters	Bandwidth between NFM-P databases during re-instantiation	Bandwidth between collecting server and XML-API client
NFM-P database	3.1 Mbps	N/A	4.2 Mbps	N/A	20 Mbps	N/A
NFM-P auxiliary database	N/A	3.1 Mbps	N/A	0.8 Mbps per NFM-P auxiliary database node	N/A	N/A
logToFile (NFM-P server or NFM-P auxiliary statistics collector)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	4.6 Mbps

Table 4-6: Additional bandwidth requirements for performance statistics collection

Record storage location	Bandwidth between collecting server and NFM-P database	Bandwidth between collecting server and NFM-P auxiliary database	Bandwidth between NFM-P databases	Bandwidth between NFM-P auxiliary database clusters	Bandwidth between NFM-P databases during re-instantiation	Bandwidth between collecting server and XML-API client
NFM-P database	5.4 Mbps	N/A	14.4 Mbps	N/A	72 Mbps	N/A
NFM-P auxiliary database	5.4 Mbps	5.4 Mbps	14.4 Mbps	0.8 Mbps per NFM-P auxiliary database node	72 Mbps	N/A
logToFile (NFM-P server or NFM-P auxiliary statistics collector)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	3.5 Mbps
findToFile (NFM-P server)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	3.5 Mbps

When an NFM-P auxiliary statistics collector is installed to collect statistics using the NFM-P database, the bandwidth requirements between two geographic locations will need to reflect the state where an NFM-P auxiliary statistics collector in geographic location A may send information to the active NFM-P server in geographic location B which will, in turn, send information back to the NFM-P database in geographic location A. For this reason, the bandwidth between geographic location A and B must be the sum of the bandwidth requirements between the NFM-P auxiliary statistics collector to NFM-P server and NFM-P server to NFM-P database. It is also a best practice to ensure that the NFM-P auxiliary statistics collector, NFM-P server, and NFM-P database are all collocated in the same geographic site.

NSP analytics server

When an NSP analytics server is deployed with NFM-P, the following bandwidth requirements should be noted. The connections between the NSP analytics server and the NFM-P auxiliary database(s) and NFM-P database(s) require minimal bandwidth.

Table 4-7: Additional bandwidth requirements for the NSP analytics server

Bandwidth requirements for installations with NSP analytics	Recommended bandwidth
Between the NSP analytics server and the end user (web browser)	2.5 Mbps minimum requirement, 10 Mbps optimal
Between the NSP analytics server and the server hosting nspOS	3 Mbps
Between the NSP analytics server and external FTP host (if used for sending results of scheduled reports)	3 Mbps

NFM-P auxiliary database

When an NFM-P auxiliary database is part of an NFM-P deployment, there are a number of bandwidth requirements listed below. Any bandwidths not listed are not impacted significantly by the use of the NFM-P auxiliary database for statistics collection.

When the auxiliary database cluster is deployed with a minimum of three nodes, the NFM-P auxiliary database server requires a minimum of two network interfaces; one for communication to the NFM-P management complex and one for internal data communication between each of the NFM-P auxiliary database servers in the cluster. The interface for internal data communication needs to be dedicated with a minimum interface speed of 1Gbps and part of a private network.

Table 4-8: Additional bandwidth requirements for NFM-P auxiliary database

Bandwidth requirements for installations with NFM-P auxiliary database	Bandwidth usage characterization
NFM-P auxiliary statistics collector to NFM-P auxiliary database cluster	Higher bandwidth to write statistics data into the NFM-P auxiliary database cluster
NSP analytics server to NFM-P auxiliary database cluster NOTE: a higher bandwidth may be desirable	Higher bandwidth to generate reports based upon raw and aggregated data
NFM-P auxiliary database node to NFM-P auxiliary database node (intra-cluster)	High — must use a dedicated, minimum 1Gbps interface
NFM-P auxiliary database to NFM-P auxiliary database (redundant cluster)	High — up to 500Mb