Configuring a Beacon Server
Prior to configuration, a Beacon server must be installed in your environment. See StifleR Beacon installation for more information.
Assigning a Beacon to Network Groups
Beacons are assigned within the StifleR Dashboard. Assignments can be made at any topology level; StifleR resolves the best beacon for each network group by walking the hierarchy:
Network group → Location → Area → Default
The most specific assignment wins. Assign beacons as close as possible to the groups they should measure for the most representative results.
Default beacon
Marking a beacon as Default makes it the fallback for any network group that has no explicit assignment at the network group, location, or area level. A default beacon is not required if all groups have direct assignments.
Measurement Priority
When a beacon is assigned, you can choose how the measurement result is applied:
Beacon measure priority
StifleR adjusts the throttle target automatically based on new measurements
Template priority
Measurement results are recorded but the template's fixed values are used for throttling; beacon data is ignored
Triggering Measurements
Scheduled (automatic)
Measurements run automatically on a configurable schedule. Every 30 minutes the StifleR Service scans all network groups and queues those that are due. A group is due when it has not been measured within the configured measurement interval (default: 6 days).
Manual (ad-hoc)
Open the relevant network group in the dashboard and click Measure now in the Bandwidth and throttling settings section. Results appear in the Beacons table within seconds. Ad-hoc measurements take priority over the scheduled queue.
Server Configuration Settings
Open the Config Editor for the StifleR Server.
Bandwidth Settings
Maximum bandwidth measurement interval in seconds
518400 (6 days)
How long to wait before re-measuring a network group. Set to 3600 for hourly measurements.
Maximum bandwidth poll interval between subnets in seconds
10
Delay between polling cycles inside the measurement loop.
Bandwidth Tuning
See note
Beacon measurement must be enabled here. See Bandwidth Tuning.
Infrastructure Settings
Heartbeat rate online threshold for infrastructure service in seconds
30
A beacon is considered offline if its last heartbeat is older than this value.
Both levels required. Beacon measurement must be enabled in the server-level Bandwidth Tuning setting and in each network group's own Bandwidth Tuning setting. If either is missing, the group is silently skipped.
Beacon Configuration Settings
Open the Config Editor for the StifleR Beacon.
Infrastructure
StifleR Server
(required)
Full URL to the StifleR Server API
Heartbeat frequency for beacon in seconds
30
How often the beacon sends its heartbeat and measurement counters to the server
Beacon preferred FQDN
(optional)
Override the hostname the server advertises to clients. Useful when the beacon's DNS name differs from its system hostname.
Binding
Port for binding
5201
iPerf3 listen port
Port for ping
5200
FastPing (TCP latency) listen port
IP address for binding
(auto)
Leave blank to use the interface that connects to the StifleR Server. Set explicitly if the beacon is multihomed and you need to control which address clients connect to.
Prefer IPv4 over IPv6
true
When the beacon has both address families, prefer IPv4
How to Configure Hourly Measurements
Open the Config Editor for the StifleR Server.
Under Bandwidth Settings, set Maximum bandwidth measurement interval in seconds to
3600.Confirm that beacon measurement is enabled in Bandwidth Tuning at the server level.
In the dashboard, confirm each target network group also has beacon measurement enabled in its own Bandwidth Tuning field.
Restart the StifleR Service.
Troubleshooting
No measurements running at all
Beacon measurement not enabled at server level: Open the Config Editor and confirm beacon measurement is enabled in the server-level Bandwidth Tuning settings.
Beacon measurement not enabled on the network group: Each network group has its own Bandwidth Tuning field. Both the server and the group must have beacon measurement enabled. This is the most common cause of measurements appearing configured but never running.
No beacon assigned: The network group (or its parent location/area) must have a beacon assigned. Groups with no reachable beacon are silently skipped.
Beacon offline: The beacon must have sent a heartbeat within the configured threshold (default 30 seconds) to be considered online.
Client capability not enabled: The bandwidth measurement capability must be enabled in the client's feature set. This is on by default for Standard-tier and above licensing.
Measurements less frequent than expected
Check the Maximum bandwidth measurement interval setting. The default is 6 days.
The service scans for eligible groups every 30 minutes. Even with a 1-hour interval configured, measurements may lag up to 30 minutes past their due time.
Each network group tracks its own last measurement date. Verify it is being updated by checking the group in the dashboard.
Measurements failing
Firewall: TCP 5200 and TCP 5201 must be open inbound on the beacon from all client subnets being measured.
iPerf3 not running: Check beacon event logs. The beacon restarts iPerf3 automatically if it stops, but a persistent failure (for example a port conflict) will appear in the logs.
DNS resolution: The client resolves the beacon's hostname before connecting. If DNS fails, it falls back to the registered IP address.
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