QoS sensors

Between what nodes did you setup the QoS sensor?

Are the two probes in your local LAN?

The QOS sensors are on a local probe and remote probes that are on lans that are inside our network. They are not going over the internet but are going between various internal networks. I even set up 2 probes on the same subnet and I also get random periods of packet loss between 2 probes on the same subnet. I am assuming I should see no packet loss or at least not very often.

what is the scanning interval? If it is 1min please increase to e.g.5 min

Maybe add a ping sensor between the probes as well with a ping count of e.g. 50 and check if you see any packet loss for the ping sensor

I've just started myself with a QoS sensor and notice the same. With a default setup QoS Sensor I notice even 5 min intervals (on the 2 days Tab) in which 50% Packets Lost appears! This is between two sites connected through a MPLS connection of 20 Mbit.

Anyone else who has the same issues?

Is this for the hole day (constantly) or for certain times.

Did you already add a PING sensor with a ping count >1

I'm also seeing reports of 50% packet loss by the QOS sensor every 14-15 minutes on the nose (all the other values were 0%). The machines for server core and remote probe were connected to the same switch so there is nothing in the way between them.

Just to be sure, I ran smokeping against the remote probe machine for 45 minutes (100 pings per minute) and saw zero packet loss.

I believe that this is a bug with the QOS sensor.

I just started today with PRTG and QoS sensor and encountered the same problem i.e. random packet loss indication. I've also added a Ping sensor (count 50) and it does not indicate packet loss. Sensors are set to update every 60sec. What would cause the packet loss indication? This over an MPLS WAN. I find it hard to believe that we have real packet loss.

@svemuri: Please keep in mind that PINGs are using ICMP while the QoS sensor uses UDP, so both measurements can be completely different.

@jared, @svemuri: We will look into the potential problem!

Thanks for looking into it. I understand that Ping is ICMP. However, in our network, it has the lowest priority (QoS settings). UDP (between certain IP ranges) has highest priority (VOIP). So, If anything we should see packet loss on ICMP PING before we see it on UDP.

In my case, there are regular short spurs of 50% packet loss every 14-15 minutes that last about 8 seconds. However, with my initial testing, the core server and the remote probe were on Windows 7 virtual machines so that *may* be a possible reason for this oddity.

During another test using a QOS sensor between two physical (Win7) machines, I verified that this setup didn't manifest the spurs of packet loss. Without further analysis, my educated guess right now is that it may be a problem with a network buffer inside VMware Workstation when using Windows 7 VMs. I know that Windows 7 VMs have only recently started to be officially supported inside VMware workstation so all may not be fully kosher yet.

If you are able to replicate this oddity with your developer team, you may want to talk with VMware engineers to get to the root of the problem.

Hope this helps!!

I'm now seeing this issue between two physical machines on PRTG 8.1.2.1809. I'll be testing the 8.2.0.1897 release. It's apparently not VMware related and may be attributed to that bug that has been already identified above.