Configuring sites

In a network managed by IBM® Sametime® Bandwidth Manager, sites are configured with properties whose settings help determine the bandwidth used for audio and video calls.

Before you begin

Before creating and configuring a site, it is recommended that you create a model of your physical network topology. The network topology model should include all the sites on your enterprise network, and the links between them. This model will help you to create and configure individual sites in terms of their interactions with other sites. For more information, see Modeling your network topology.

Procedure

  1. On the server hosting the Bandwidth Manager, open the IBM WebSphere® Application Server Integrated Solutions Console and log in as the WebSphere administrator.
  2. Click Sametime System Console > Servers > Bandwidth Manager.
  3. Click the Sites tab.
  4. Click the Configuration tab.
  5. Click New to create a new site.

    Click Edit to modify site information, or Delete to remove a site from bandwidth management.

  6. Provide values for the site's properties on the Configuration page.
    Table 1. Site propertiesEach site has a set of associated properties that you can define.
    Property Description
    Enable Select to enable the site. Administrators can define the status of site as enabled or disabled. The default status for a site is disabled. This default status allows an administrator to configure all the attributes of a site before putting it into operation. Later, the disabled status can be used to allow troubleshooting or configuration changes during operational hours. When a site is in a disabled state, no calls are initiated, terminated, or routed through the site. All future calls will be prevented when the site is disabled, but existing calls will continue as normal.
    Set as the default site Select to make this the default site. The default site handles endpoints that don't fit within the IP ranges of any modeled site.
    Name Enter a name for the site. Site names can be up to 64 Unicode characters in length, including uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, spaces, and symbols.
    Region Enter a name for the site's region. Region names can be up to 64 Unicode characters in length, including uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, spaces, and symbols. The region, country, and city values for a site can be used later as filters to specify groups of sites, providing a built-in organization to simplify site administration.
    Country Enter a name for the site's country. Country names can be up to 64 Unicode characters in length, including uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, spaces, and symbols. The region, country, and city values for a site can be used later as filters to specify groups of sites, providing a built-in organization to simplify site administration.
    City Enter a name for the site's city. City names can be up to 64 Unicode characters in length, including uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, spaces, and symbols. The region, country, and city values for a site can be used later as filters to specify groups of sites, providing a built-in organization to simplify site administration.
    Category Use this field denote a custom category to help identify the site; for example branch office, region HQ, or corporate HQ. Later, this can be used to create your own groupings of sites to simplify administration.
    Site type Select one of the following types of sites: Regular, Cloud, or VPN. For more information, see Site types.
    IP ranges Specify one or more IP addresses, or ranges of addresses, for the site. Click Add to add the specified IP address(es).

    There are three ways to specify an IP range value:

    • Adding a single IP address, such as 192.168.0.1.
    • Adding a range by specifying a starting IP address and ending IP address separated by a hyphen, as in 192.168.0.2-192.168.0.10.
    • Adding a range by specifying an entry such as 192.168.0.1/N, where N is the number of bits that identify the network. This notation is referred to as CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing).

    To remove IP addresses from the site, select them in the list by clicking them and then click Remove. For more information, see IP ranges.
    Maximum bandwidth Define the maximum bandwidth available for calls to or from this site in Kbps or select Unlimited.

    This setting is optional; the default value is unlimited. If specified, whenever the bandwidth utilized equals or exceeds the specified value, then future calls are prevented until the current bandwidth used is less than the specified maximum bandwidth.
    Peak utilization The default peak utilization controls how much bandwidth is available to the site during heavy usage periods. The default value is 100%; type an integer between 0 and 100 to modify the available percentage.

    This setting is optional; use it when you want the bandwidth available on the site during periods of heavy usage to be less than the normal maximum bandwidth to ensure that bandwidth is available to as many users as possible.
    Reflector If a reflector or a Network Address Translator is available, select this option.
    Links A link is the connection between this site and a destination. The links table lists the links for this site and the properties for those links that require bandwidth monitoring. Click the name of a link to open the configuration page for configuring the link's properties. For more information, see Links to other sites.
  7. Click OK.
  8. Update the master configuration by clicking the Save link in the "Messages" box at the beginning of the page.