Name: Enterasys b5
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Enterasys B5 CLI Reference 24-1

sFlow Configuration

ThischapterprovidesinformationaboutthecommandsusedtoconfigureandmonitorthesFlow

system.

Overview

sFlowisamethodformonitoringhigh‐speedswitchedandroutednetworks.sFlowtechnologyis

builtintonetworkequipmentandgivesvisibilityintonetworkactivity,enablingeffective

managementandcontrolofnetworkresources.

AnsFlowsolutionconsistsofansFlowAgent,embeddedinthenetworkdevicesuchasaswitch

or

router,andansFlowCollector.ThesFlowAgentusessamplingtechnologytocapturetraffic

statisticsfromthedeviceitismonitoringandimmediatelyforwardsthesampledtrafficstatistics

toansFlowCollectorforanalysisinsFlowdatagrams.

ThesFlowAgentusestwoformsofsampling—statisticalpacket‐basedsamplingofswitched

or

routedPacketFlows,andtime‐basedsamplingofcounters.

Version5ofsFlowisdescribedindetailinthedocumententitled“sFlowVersion5”availablefrom

sFlow. org(http://www.sflow.org).

Using sFlow in Your Network

TheadvantagesofusingsFlowinclude:

•sFlowmakesitpossibletomonitorportsofaswitch,withnoimpactonthedistributed

switchingperformance.(See“UsageNotes”onpage 24‐3formoreinformation.)

•sFlowrequiresverylittlememoryorCPUusage.Samplesarenotaggregatedintoaflow‐

tableonthe

switch—theyareforwardedimmediatelyoverthenetworktothesFlow

Collector.

•Thesystemistoleranttopacketlossinthenetwork.(Thestatisticalmodelmeanslossis

equivalenttoaslightchangeinthesamplingrate.)

•ThesFlowCollectorcanreceivedatafrommultipleswitches,providingareal‐time

synchronizedviewofthewholenetwork.

•ThesFlowCollectorcananalyzetrafficpatternsforwhateverprotocolsarefoundinthe

packetheaders(forexample,TCP/IP,IPX,Ethernet,AppleTalk).Thereisnoneedforthelayer

2switchtodecodeandunderstandallprotocols.

For information about... Refer to page...

Overview 24-1

Commands 24-4

Enterasys b5 User Manual

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