vwijhe

updated

13 years ago

V

vwijhe

1 Rookie

•

35 Posts

0

52015

November 12th, 2013 07:00

Network traffic priority best practices at switch level

What is usually the best way to prioritize specific traffic from a specific VLAN?

I am working with Differentiated Services to match traffic from a specific VLAN and assign a switch queue of 6 to give this traffic a higher priority than normal traffic. But I am not sure with this configuration. I've red much about switch traffic priority but I didn't understand it all i think.

The policy is definitely working. In the web interface I see that are packets offered for this DiffServ, I think I am missing something...

Config:
policy-map {policy name} in
class {class name}
assign-queue 6
exit
interface port-channel 1
service-policy in {policy name}

  • vwijhe

    1 Rookie

    •

    35 Posts

    8989

    0

    Posted November 21st, 2013 00:00

    Just an short update: I think my configuration is working fine. I figured out that the ping reply delay has more to do with the end device then with the switch configuration :) 

  • vwijhe

    1 Rookie

    •

    35 Posts

    8989

    0

    Posted November 12th, 2013 23:00

    The match criteria was configured, but it has to be configured somewhat different than you have explained.

    This is also part of my configuration:
    class-map match-all WGF ipv4 match vlan 30 exit

    I think the assign queue command isn't appropriate for giving some traffic a higher priority over standard traffic. I was looking for someone to confirm of denial my thoughts of how to prioritize network traffic...

    If I take a look in switch queuing in a general way, I would need to give my high priority network traffic a ToS byte value of '1000' to minimize delay. But now I have to configure it with DIFFSERV, I don't really understand what I am doing. I think I'll to use DSCP values instead of the queue command.

    Do you agree?

    Here's my source: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/technologies/tk543/tk766/technologies_white_paper09186a00800a3e2f_ps6610_Products_White_Paper.html

    Maybe I've to configure 'mark ip-dscp ??' instead of 'assign-queue 6'? My next question will be: what dscp value I'll need to minimize delay, maximize reliability with a normal bandwidth? I've got this source which should make things clear, but I don't know how to read the table: http://bogpeople.com/networking/dscp.shtml. There are 6 binary values in the table, and the RFC791/RFC1349 is giving me 8 values...

  • vwijhe

    1 Rookie

    •

    35 Posts

    8989

    0

    Posted November 13th, 2013 23:00

    Assigning queue 6 is perfectly fine and usually done when handling voice traffic. It may help to know what traffic you are wanting to give extra priority to. The priority goes from 0-6,lowest-highest priority.

    Thanks for confirming my thoughts. So my configuration seems to be okay. Now I would like to verify if DiffServ is working... The traffic is coming from interface 1/g19 on the core switch of the datacenter. The packets meets to the policy-map I've created (VLAN 30), please take a look in the 'In Offered Packets': CoreSwitchDataCenter#show policy-map interface 1/g19 in
    Interface...................................... 1/g19
    Direction...................................... In
    Operational Status............................. Up
    Policy Name.................................... WGF
    Interface Summary:
    Class Name..................................... WGF
    In Offered Packets............................. 8971
    In Discarded Packets........................... 0

    After this the VLAN is tagged over port-channel 1 to our Campus core switch, I am unable to verify if the policy-map is working on the port-channel, because there is no command to show the policy map on a port-channel:

    LANStack2#show policy-map interface ?
    unit/port-type/port/ Enter interface in interface format.
    So no option to query a port-channel...
    If I try to view the offered packets on the interfaces them selves, there is nothing to see because everything is configured on the port-channels:
    CoreSwitchCampus#show policy-map interface 1/g21 in
    Interface...................................... 1/g21
    Direction...................................... In
    Operational Status............................. Down
    Policy Name.................................... WGF
    Interface Summary:
    Class Name..................................... WGF
    In Offered Packets............................. 0
    In Discarded Packets........................... 0
    CoreSwitchCampus#show policy-map interface 2/g21 in
    Interface...................................... 2/g21
    Direction...................................... In
    Operational Status............................. Down
    Policy Name.................................... WGF
    Interface Summary:
    Class Name..................................... WGF
    In Offered Packets............................. 0
    In Discarded Packets........................... 0
    Although it's definitly configured to match packets of this vlan:
    interface ethernet 1/g21
    channel-group 1 mode auto
    service-policy in WGF
    exit
    !
    interface ethernet 2/g21
    channel-group 1 mode auto
    service-policy in WGF
    exit
    !
    interface port-channel 1
    service-policy in WGF
    switchport mode general
    switchport general allowed vlan add 20,30,99-100 tagged
    switchport general allowed vlan add 1 tagged
    exit

     

     

    This document is about VOIP, but it also goes into QoS. The commands wont be the same, but the general info is good.

    http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pwcnt/en/app_note_11.pdf

     

    When it comes to priority each network can have different needs and goals. Because of this I don’t have a chart or list that shows which CoS we recommend placing certain traffic. I found an example chart on Cisco's site of priority levels that could be given out. But again these could change for each network you run into.

    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Data_Center/VMDC/2.2/collateral/IPVS_files/IPVS-12.jpg

    Wikipedia also has a similar example chart.

    "The way traffic is treated when assigned to any particular class is undefined and left to the implementation. The IEEE however has made some broad recommendations:"

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_P802.1p

     

    What traffic are you wanting to prioritize and maybe we can give some recommendations of priority levels to give.

    Thanks for the information, but I think I understand how coq works. I just need some practical examples of how it will work on PowerConnect switches. Like you did on the assign-queue command :) Any idea's of how to verify if DeffServ is working?