Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series - About Wireshark

CHAPTER
56-1
Software Configuration Guide—Release IOS XE 3.3.0SG and IOS 15.1(1)SG
OL-25340-01
56
Configuring Wireshark
Note Wireshark is only supported on Supervisor Engine 7-E, Supervisor Engine 7L-E, and
Catalyst 4500X-32.
Beginning with Cisco IOS Release XE 3.3.0SG in the IP Base and Enterprise Services feature sets, the
Catalyst 4500 series switch supports Wireshark, a packet analyzer program, formerly known as Ethereal,
which supports multiple protocols and presents information in a text-based user interface.
This chapter includes these sections:
• About Wireshark, page 56-1
• Feature Interactions, page 56-6
• Configuring Wireshark, page 56-7
• Guidelines and Restrictions, page 56-10
• Monitoring Wireshark, page 56-13
• Usage Examples for Wireshark, page 56-17
Note For complete syntax and usage information for the switch commands used in this chapter, first look at
the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Switch Command Reference and related publications at this location:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps4324/index.html
If the command is not found in the Catalyst 4500 Series Switch Command Reference, it will be found in
the larger Cisco IOS library. Refer to the Cisco IOS Command Reference and related publications at this
location:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6350/index.html
About Wireshark
To understand what happens inside a network requires the ability to capture and analyze traffic. Prior to
Cisco IOS Release XE 3.3.0SG, the Catalyst 4500 series switch offered only two features to address this
need: SPAN and debug platform packet. Both are limited. SPAN is ideal for capturing packets, but can
only deliver them by forwarding them to some specified local or remote destination; it provides no local