This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
IP SLA sends a probe on a schedule and records delay or loss. The generator drafts a stanza. It does not configure a router and it does not send the probe. The target has to be a host you administer, or a responder you were explicitly given. A documentation address is replaced or the line is deleted.
One probe. A frequency that is a flood is a frequency you slow down. Do not use the probe to map a network you do not administer. The alert that would fire is a later ticket.
Do not apply the stanza during the reading.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing during the writing of the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the device named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the device, then decide.
Rollback is the file or the revision you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Name the source router you administer.
- Name a target you administer.
- Draft one probe.
- Delete a foreign target.
- Do not apply it.
- Stop.
Mistakes that outlive the command
IP SLA Explained goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- A target you do not run.
- A frequency that floods.
- Applying the stanza.
- Using the probe to map a foreign network.
- A documentation address left in the draft.
Decisions to write down
One decision for IP SLA Explained: Source and target are yours. The rate is modest. Nothing was applied. No foreign map was made. And one probe is the scope.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The source is written. The target is written. The type of probe is written. No foreign address remains. And the stanza was not applied. If one of those fails, stop.
Before you leave the device
IP SLA Explained ends when the hostname on the device matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong box. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong box is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the device and does not know which interface is the uplink. You delete a line that names a device, a zone, or a prefix you did not write down.
0.0.0.0/0 is not kept because a sample included it. A source you can say is the source you keep. 192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. They belong in the note. They are not prefixes you type onto a production device because they appeared in a draft.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, a community string, or a pre-shared key you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the store.
One change is the window. A VLAN and a routing protocol and a VPN do not share it. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next feature waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied config produces a device nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the device name and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the device alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not a permission to touch a network you do not administer. The pillar guide owns the wider design. This page owns one lab proof.
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