Implementing QoS with Cisco Security Device Manager (SDM) QoS Wizard
The Cisco Security Device Manager (SDM) allows a network administrator with little experience of the Cisco IOS to easily configure routing, security, and QoS services on a Cisco router. The Cisco SDM QoS Wizard offers easy optimization of LAN, WAN, and VPN bandwidth and application for different business needs.
Note
Within the SDM are three predefined categories for business needs: Real Time; Business-Critical; and Best-Effort.
As shown in Figure 3-1, from the home page of SDM, click the Configure button at the top of the page, and then click the Quality of Service icon in the Tasks toolbar on the left.
Figure 3-1. Quality of Service
From this page you have two different tabs that you can start from: Create QoS Policy and Edit QoS Policy. Click the Create QoS Policy tab, and then click Launch QoS Wizard located in the bottom-right corner to start the QoS Wizard. The first screen of the wizard is shown in Figure 3-2.
Figure 3-2. Quality of Service Wizard
Clicking the Next button takes you to the second screen of the QoS Wizard: Interface Selection. Choose the interface on which this QoS policy will be applied, as shown in Figure 3-3. If you want to see specific details about an interface, you can select an interface and then click the Details button. Click the Next button to continue.
Figure 3-3. Interface Selection
SDM will now help you create a QoS policy to provide quality of service to two different types of traffic: Real-Time and Business-Critical. Figure 3-4 shows the QoS Policy Generation screen, which prompts you to enter in bandwidth percentages for each class. Cisco SDM will not allow you to allocate more than 75 percent of the total interface bandwidth to one or more QoS classes. SDM recommends 72 percent of available bandwidth allocation for real-time traffic and 3 percent of available bandwidth for business-critical traffic. As you enter in these numbers, SDM will automatically calculate the Best-Effort class and bandwidth requirements for each class, making sure that the total bandwidth is always 100 percent. Click Next to continue.
Figure 3-4. QoS Policy Generation
After you click Next, an SDM warning might appear if you do not have NBAR enabled on the interface. Figure 3-5 shows this warning. Click Yes to enable NBAR on the interface and to continue to the last screen of the wizard.
Figure 3-5. SDM Warning
Figure 3-6 shows the final screen of the QoS Wizard, the summary of the configuration. After reviewing the configuration to ensure no errors, click Finish to deliver the configuration to the router.
Figure 3-6. Configuration Summary
Figure 3-7 shows the Commands Delivery Status window. Click OK to close the window, and the Edit QoS Policy tab in SDM appears.
Figure 3-7. Commands Delivery Status
Monitoring QoS Status with Cisco SDM
After QoS is configured you can monitor its status by entering monitor mode in SDM. Click the Monitor icon in the toolbar at the top of the SDM window, and then click the Traffic Status icon in the Tasks toolbar on the left. Selecting the QoS item from the Top N Traffic Flows folder as shown in Figure 3-8 opens the QoS monitor.
Figure 3-8. Monitor QoS Status
The traffic statistics that appear in the bar charts are based on the combination of the interval selected and QoS parameters. The View Interval drop-down menu has four options, as shown in Figure 3-9:
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Now
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Every 1 minute
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Every 5 minutes
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Every 1 hour
Figure 3-9. View Interval Drop-Down Menu
Other QoS parameters include direction of traffic flow (input or output) and statistics (bandwidth, bytes, or packets dropped). You can change the statistics by using the Statistics drop-down menu, shown in Figure 3-10.
Figure 3-10. Statistics Drop-Down Menu
