1 Overview of Session Monitor Installation

This chapter provides an overview of the Oracle Communications Session Monitor in real-time, and storing it in indexed formats so that they are available for the various system architecture and the installation process.

Session Monitor System Architecture

The Session Monitor system works by capturing the traffic from your network, correlating it s reports offered by the web interface.

The Session Monitor system architecture has three layers:

Probe layer: This layer is responsible for capturing the traffic from your network and performing the Media Quality analysis. The probes send meta-data for each of the signaling messages to the Mediation Engine layer and analyze the RTP streams locally, sending the results of this analysis to the Mediation Engine layer.
Mediation Engine (ME) layer: This layer is responsible for understanding in real-time the traffic received, correlating it and storing it for future reference. This layer is also responsible for measuring, managing, and storing the KPIs. In the common case, there is one ME per geographical site. It is possible, however, to have the probes from multiple geographical sites sending the traffic to a single ME. It is also possible to have multiple ME installations in the same geographical site.
Aggregation Engine (AE) layer: This layer is responsible for aggregating the global KPIs from all the MEs linked to it, and for the global search features. In a typical setup, there is only one AE for the whole network.

Figure 1-1 shows the Session Monitor system architecture.

Figure 1-1 Session Monitor System Architecture

Each of the three layers supports high-availability by deploying two identical servers in active-passive or active-active modes of operation. For small setups, it is possible to run the probe layer and the ME layer on the same physical hardware. The AE layer always requires its own hardware.

From the Session Monitor products perspective, the Operations Monitor and the Control Plane Monitor (CPM) run on the Mediation Engine (ME) while the Mediation Engine Connector (MEC) and the Fraud Monitor products run on the Aggregation Engine (AE).

About Installing Session Monitor

The installation of Session Monitor includes these steps:

Reviewing the system requirements and selecting the hardware that is needed.
Using the Session Monitor Installer to do the software installation.
Using the Platform Setup Application for initial system configuration.

Session Monitor System Requirements

The following sections describe the system requirements for installing Session Monitor.

Compatibility Matrix for Session Monitor

Following products can be configured with Session Monitor:

Table 1-1 Compatibility Matrix for Session Monitor

Product Name	Version
DPDK	17.05
ISR	6.0, 6.2* Note: The * marked version recordings at ISR should not be segmented.
Oracle Linux	7.5
SP-SBC	8.2 or lower: Works with Operations Monitor and Enterprise Operations Monitor
E-SBC	8.1 or lower: Works with Operations Monitor and Enterprise Operations Monitor

Compatibility Matrix for Fraud Monitor

Following products can be configured with Fraud Monitor:

Table 1-2 Compatibility with Fraud Monitor

Product Name	Version
DPDK	17.05
ISR	6.0, 6.2* Note: The * marked version recordings at ISR should not be segmented.
Oracle Linux	7.5
SP-SBC	8.2 or higher: works with Fraud Monitor and Enterprise Telephony Fraud Monitor
E-SBC	7.5 or higher: works with Fraud Monitor and Enterprise Telephony Fraud Monitor
SDM	8.1.1

Note:

Fraud Monitor 4.1.0.0.0 is supported only with Session Monitor 4.1.0.0.0.

Session Monitor Connectivity

Following are Session Monitor connectivity details:

One AE (OCOM's MEC feature): Supports up to 64 MEs
One ME (OCOM, OCCPM): Supports up to
- Native-Only Probes:
  - Media+Sig ; Signalling-Only: 128
  - Packet Inspector: 16
- Embedded-Only Probes (SBC as a probe):
  - < 500 parallel calls per SBC: 1k (might require some manual tweaking, unlimit open files)
  - >= 500 parallel calls per SBC: 128
Mixture of SBC and native probes: 128 (individual limits still apply)
One Probe (OCOM, OCCPM) or SBC-probe can be connected to up to:
- Probe: 2 MEs
- SBC: 8 MEs
One ME (OCOM, OCCPM): Connected to up to 1 AE

Session Monitor Operating System Requirements

Table 1-3 lists the supported operating systems for running Session Monitor.

Table 1-3 Supported Operating Systems

Product	Version	Notes
Oracle Linux 7 x86-64 (64 bit)	7 or higher (with Oracle UE Kernel for Linux)	By default Oracle Linux installs Kernel 3. Oracle recommends that the latest Unbreakable Enterprise (UE) Kernel 4 for Linux is installed.

Product

Version

Notes

Oracle Linux 7 x86-64 (64 bit)

7 or higher (with Oracle UE Kernel for Linux)

By default Oracle Linux installs Kernel 3.

Oracle recommends that the latest Unbreakable Enterprise (UE) Kernel 4 for Linux is installed.

Note:

You must configure network device when installing Oracle Linux 7.
If required, update the DPDK Drivers.

Session Monitor Software Requirements

Table 1-4 lists the supported client browsers:

Table 1-4 Supported Client Browsers

Browser	Version
Microsoft Internet Explorer	8 or higher
Mozilla Firefox	1.5 or higher (on any operating system)
Apple Safari	Any version, including Safari for iPad
Google Chrome	Any version
Opera	9 or higher (on any operating system)

Session Monitor Supported Hardware

Session Monitor is supported on Oracle, Sun, and HP systems.

Table 1-5 lists the hardware supported for Oracle systems.

Table 1-5 Supported Hardware for Oracle systems

Component	Requirement
Server	The following severs are supported: Oracle Server X7-2 Oracle Server X6-2 Oracle Server X6-2L Oracle Server X5-2 Oracle Server X5-2L
Network Adapter	The following adapters are supported: Oracle Quad Port 10GBase-T Adapter i40e (X710)

Component

Requirement

Server

The following severs are supported:

Oracle Server X7-2
Oracle Server X6-2
Oracle Server X6-2L
Oracle Server X5-2
Oracle Server X5-2L

Network Adapter

The following adapters are supported:

Oracle Quad Port 10GBase-T Adapter
i40e (X710)

Note:

Oracle X7-2 server supports only Session Monitor Installation using RPM installer.

Table 1-6 lists the hardware supported for Oracle systems.

Table 1-6 Supported Hardware for Oracle Sun systems

Component	Requirement
Server	The following severs are supported: Oracle Sun Server X4-2 Oracle Sun Server X4-2L Oracle Sun Server X3-2 Oracle Sun Server X2-4
Network Adapter	The following network adapters are supported: Sun Dual Port 10 GbE PCle 2.0 Networking Card with Intel 82599 10 GbE Controller Sun Quad Port GbE PCIe 2.0 Low Profile Adapter, UTP Sun Dual Port GbE PCIe 2.0 Low Profile Adapter, MMF

Component

Requirement

Server

The following severs are supported:

Oracle Sun Server X4-2
Oracle Sun Server X4-2L
Oracle Sun Server X3-2
Oracle Sun Server X2-4

Network Adapter

The following network adapters are supported:

Sun Dual Port 10 GbE PCle 2.0 Networking Card with Intel 82599 10 GbE Controller
Sun Quad Port GbE PCIe 2.0 Low Profile Adapter, UTP
Sun Dual Port GbE PCIe 2.0 Low Profile Adapter, MMF

Table 1-7 lists the hardware supported for HP systems.

Table 1-7 Supported Hardware for HP Systems

Component	Requirement
Server	The following servers are supported: HP DL580 G9 HP DL380 G9 HP DL380p G8 HP DL580 G7
Network Adapter	The following network adapter s are supported: HP NC365T PCIe Quad Port Gigabit Server Adapter HP NC364T PCIe Quad Port Gigabit Server Adapter HP Ethernet 1Gb 4-port 366FLR Adapter
Driver/Chipsets	The following drivers/chipsets are supported: e1000 (82540, 82545, 82546) e1000e (82571, 82574, 82583, ICH8..ICH10, PCH..PCH2) igb (82575, 82576, 82580, I210, I211, I350, I354, DH89xx) ixgbe (82598, 82599, X540, X550)

Component

Requirement

Server

The following servers are supported:

HP DL580 G9
HP DL380 G9
HP DL380p G8
HP DL580 G7

Network Adapter

The following network adapter s are supported:

HP NC365T PCIe Quad Port Gigabit Server Adapter
HP NC364T PCIe Quad Port Gigabit Server Adapter
HP Ethernet 1Gb 4-port 366FLR Adapter

Driver/Chipsets

The following drivers/chipsets are supported:

e1000 (82540, 82545, 82546)
e1000e (82571, 82574, 82583, ICH8..ICH10, PCH..PCH2)
igb (82575, 82576, 82580, I210, I211, I350, I354, DH89xx)
ixgbe (82598, 82599, X540, X550)

Session Border Controller Supported Versions

Table 1-8 lists supported Session Border Controller (SBC) versions.

Table 1-8 Supported Session Border Controller Versions

Product	Versions
Enterprise Session Border Controller (E-SBC)	ECZ800 ECZ750 ECZ740 ECZ730
Session Border Controller (SBC)	SCZ800 SCZ750 SCZ740 SCZ730

Hardware Requirements for Demonstration Systems

For development or demonstrations systems with little network traffic, Table 1-9 lists the minimum requirements to install any of the Session Monitor machine types.

Table 1-9 Hardware Requirements for Demonstration Systems

Component	Minimum Requirement
Processor	2.6 GHz Intel Xeon processor, 64-bit with 8 processing threads
Memory	8 GB RAM
Disk Space	80 GB storage on a hardware RAID controller
Ports	2 Ethernet ports

Hardware Requirements for Production Systems

For production systems, Oracle recommends to complete a sizing exercise together with your Oracle Customer Support. Higher performance hardware may be required, for example, in cases with:

High levels of monitored traffic
High numbers of concurrent users
High volumes of historical information

On the Mediation Engine machines, Oracle recommends using a RAID-10 array for the operating system and the database. A separate RAID-5 array is recommended for storing long-term data.

Session Monitor Virtualization Support

This section describes the software and hardware requirements for Session Monitor virtualization.

Hypervisor Support

The following hypervisors are supported:

Oracle VM version 3.4
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.x/6.x
Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)

Virtual Machine Requirements

Table 1-10 lists the minimum requirements for the virtual machines.

Table 1-10 Hardware Requirements for Virtual Machines

Component	Requirement
Processor	8 vCPUs
Memory	8GB RAM
Disk Space	80GB
NIC Card	1Gbps vNIC

In virtualized Mediation Engines, 50,000 concurrent calls (1 SIP leg per call) have been tested successfully.

Host Machine Requirements

The physical machine that hosts the virtual machines should contain at a minimum the hardware resources that are required to host all the virtual machines, in addition to the hardware that is required for the hypervisor.

Network Monitoring Modes

Session Monitor probes can use two modes of monitoring network mode:

mmpcap: The mmpcap mode is based on the libpcap Packet Capture Library similar to tcpdump, using the Kernel's Packet Socket Interface. The network interface is set to promiscuous mode.
Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK): DPDK is a set of data plane libraries and network interface controller drivers for fast packet processing. In this mode, the network interface is no longer accessible by the Kernel. You can find more information regarding the DPDK libraries in the website, http://dpdk.org/.

By default, the installer enables the mmpcap mode which is recommended for small to medium installations (for up to 1400K pps depending on server capabilities). For higher network traffic solutions, you may choose to enable DPDK mode for better performance. For more information on DPDK, see "Installing and Configuring DPDK for Session Monitor".

Note:

The above number is only for reference. The actual decision on when to use DPDK depends on many factors. For consulting regarding this decision, Oracle recommends to complete a sizing exercise together with your Oracle sales engineer.