Sflow Overview; Sflow Features Supported By The S9300&S9300E - Huawei S9300 Configuration Manual

S9300&S9300E Terabit Routing Switch
Configuration Guide - Network Management

11.1 sFlow Overview

This section describes sFlow concepts and process.
sFlow Concepts
Sampled Flow (sFlow) is a traffic monitoring technology that collects and analyzes traffic
statistics. An sFlow system involves a core sFlow collector and multiple sFlow agents embedded
in forwarding devices such as switches and routers. An sFlow agent obtains traffic statistics on
network devices using a sampling technique, encapsulates them into sFlow packets, and sends
sFlow packets to an sFlow collector for analysis. The sFlow collector generates graphs or reports,
helping network administrators to manage network traffic within the entire network.
As a traffic monitoring technique, sFlow has the following advantages:
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sFlow Process
As shown in
a remote sFlow collector. A switch often serves as an sFlow agent. The sFlow agent obtains
traffic statistics from an sFlow-enabled interface and encapsulates them into sFlow packets.
When an sFlow packet buffer overflows or an sFlow packet expires, the sFlow agent sends the
sFlow packets to the sFlow collector. The sFlow collector analyzes the sFlow packets and
displays the traffic statistics in a report.
Figure 11-1 sFlow system
11.2 sFlow Features Supported by the S9300&S9300E
This section describes the sFlow features supported by the S9300&S9300E.
Only the S9300 supports the sFlow.
Issue 01 (2012-03-15)
Accurately monitors traffic on 1000M or higher-speed networks.
Allows one sFlow collector to monitor multiple sFlow agents and has good scalability.
Saves costs by embedding the sFlow agent in the ASIC of a router or switch.
Figure 11-1, the sFlow system involves an sFlow agent embedded in a switch and
sFlow Agent
Flow
Ethernet
sampling
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Counter
sampling
Switch
NOTE
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IP UDP
sFlow Datagram
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11 sFlow Configuration
sFlow Collector
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