VALIDATE ASPERA (Validate an Aspera FASP configuration)

Use this command to determine whether Aspera® Fast Adaptive Secure Protocol (FASP®) technology can be used to optimize data transfer in your system environment. Specifically, you can determine whether Aspera FASP technology would result in better network throughput than TCP/IP technology.

This command verifies the following additional items:

Whether the system environment is correctly configured to use Aspera FASP technology
Whether the required licenses for enabling Aspera FASP technology are installed

Aspera FASP technology is used to optimize data transfer for node replication or storage pool protection in a wide area network (WAN). However, you are not required to configure your system for node replication or storage pool protection to run the VALIDATE ASPERA command. If your system is configured for node replication or storage pool protection in a local environment, you can issue the command to evaluate whether the data can be successfully replicated to a remote server.

This command is available only on Linux x86_64 operating systems.

Before you issue the command, complete the following tasks:

Ensure that at least one server is defined in your system environment. Issue the PING SERVER command to ensure that you have connectivity to the defined server. For example, if the server is named VMRH6T, issue the following command:
```
ping server vmrh6t
```
To use the VALIDATE ASPERA command to determine the speed of network throughput, install 30-day evaluation licenses or full, unlimited licenses on the source and target servers. For example, install licenses on the source and target servers, VMRH6 and VMRH6T. For instructions about obtaining and installing licenses, see Determining whether Aspera FASP technology can optimize data transfer in your system environment.

To simulate an environment that uses multiple sessions, you can run several instances of the VALIDATE ASPERA command simultaneously. If you plan to run multiple sessions, you might want to limit the bandwidth of each network connection to ensure that sufficient bandwidth is available for all network connections. To limit the bandwidth, specify the FASPTARGETRATE server option as described in FASPTARGETRATE.

You can query the current transferred amount by issuing the QUERY PROCESS command:

query process

You can obtain the process number from the output of the QUERY PROCESS command. You can cancel the process by issuing the CANCEL PROCESS command and specifying the process number, for example:

cancel process 3

Privilege class

Any administrator can issue this command.

Syntax


>>-VALidate ASPera--+------------------------+------------------>
                    '---target_server_name---'   

                             .-Wait--=--No------.   
>--+----------------------+--+------------------+--------------><
   '-DURation--=--seconds-'  '-Wait--=--+-No--+-'   
                                        '-Yes-'

Parameters

target_server_name

Specifies a previously defined server. This parameter is optional. To specify this parameter, follow the guidelines:

To determine whether Aspera FASP can optimize a node replication process, specify a target server that is configured for node replication.
To determine whether Aspera FASP can optimize a storage pool protection process, specify a target server that is configured for storage pool protection.
To determine whether Aspera FASP can optimize data transfer to a remote server that is defined but not configured for storage pool protection or node replication, specify that target server.
If you do not specify a target server, the command output indicates whether the source server is correctly configured for Aspera FASP data transmission. The output also indicates whether a valid license for Aspera FASP is installed on the source server.

DURation

Specifies the allotted time, in seconds, for transferring data across the network to evaluate throughput. This parameter is optional. The default value is 120 seconds. You can specify a value in the range 120 - 3600000 seconds. The allotted time is divided between the Aspera FASP and TCPIP data transfers.

Wait

Specifies whether to wait for the server to complete the command processing. This parameter is optional. The default value is NO. You can specify one of the following values:

No: Specifies that the server processes the command in the background. You can continue with other tasks while the command is being processed. If you specify NO, the output messages are displayed in the activity log.
Yes: Specifies that the server processes the command in the foreground. The operation must complete processing before you can continue with other tasks. If you specify YES, the output messages are displayed in the administrative command-line client.
Restriction: You cannot specify WAIT=YES from the server console.

Example: Display information about the status of an Aspera FASP configuration

On the source server, run the VALIDATE ASPERA command. To ensure that messages are displayed in the administrative command-line client, specify WAIT=YES. See Field descriptions for field descriptions.

validate aspera wait=yes

ANR3836I Validation of the Aspera FASP connection from VMRH6 to localhost.
Amount transferred using FASP: 0 MB per second. Amount transferred using
TCP/IP: 0 MB per second. Latency: 0 microseconds. Status: OK. Days until
license expires: Never.

Example: Verify whether the required licenses are installed

On the source server, run the VALIDATE ASPERA command and specify the target replication server. To ensure that messages are displayed in the administrative command-line client, specify WAIT=YES. See Field descriptions for field descriptions.

validate aspera vmrh6t wait=yes

                                  
ANR0984I Process 8 for VALIDATE ASPERA started in the FOREGROUND at 09:35:21 AM.
ANR3672E The license file that is required to enable Aspera Fast Adaptive
Secure Protocol (FASP) technology was not found on the VMRH6 server.
ANR3836I Validation of the Aspera FASP connection from VMRH6 to localhost.
Amount transferred using FASP: 0 MB per second. Amount transferred using
TCP/IP: 0 MB per second. Latency: 0 microseconds. Status: Invalid
configuration. Days until license expires: Expired.
ANR0985I Process 8 for VALIDATE ASPERA running in the FOREGROUND completed with
completion state FAILURE at 09:35:21 AM.
ANR1893E Process 8 for VALIDATE ASPERA completed with a completion state of
FAILURE.

Field descriptions

Status

The status of the configuration. The following values are possible:

OK indicates that no issues are detected.
Invalid configuration indicates that a configuration file, license file, or Aspera FASP library file is missing.
License issue indicates that a license is missing, invalid, or expired.
Server failure indicates that all ports are in use, a network read/write error occurred, or the Aspera FASP log file is unwritable.
Invalid target configuration indicates that a configuration file, license file, or Aspera FASP library file is missing on the target server.
Failure on target server indicates that all ports are in use, a network read/write error occurred, or the Aspera FASP log file is unwritable.
License issue on target server indicates that a license is invalid or expired on the target server.
Unsupported operating system indicates that an operating system other than Linux x86_64 is installed on one or both servers.
Unknown indicates that an unexpected error occurred. To identify the error, review the log messages.

Days until license expires

The following values are possible:

Never indicates that a full, unlimited license is installed.
Today indicates that a 30-day evaluation license is installed and it expires today.
Expired indicates that a 30-day evaluation license is installed, but has expired.
Number indicates that a 30-day evaluation license is installed and will expire in the specified number of days.
License not found indicates that no license was found.

Amount transferred using TCP/IP

The speed of data transfer, in megabytes per second, using TCP/IP technology.

Amount transferred using FASP

The speed of data transfer, in megabytes per second, using Aspera FASP technology.

Latency

The latency of data transfer in microseconds.

Related commands

Table 1. Commands related to VALIDATE ASPERA
Command	Description
CANCEL SESSION	Cancels active sessions with the server.
DEFINE SERVER	Defines a server for server-to-server communications.
PING SERVER	Tests the connections between servers.
PROTECT STGPOOL	Protects a directory-container storage pool.
REPLICATE NODE	Replicates data in file spaces that belong to a client node.