Installing The Gen2 Card's Sfp, Qsfp Or Xfp Interfaces; Supported Qsfp/Sfp/Sfp+ Media Types; Configuring Virtual Adapters On The Gen2 Card - Network Instruments GigaStor User Manual

Note:
All packets captured by the probe are time stamped immediately as it is seen by the capture card interface
and then passed to the capture buffer. This ensures the most accurate timestamp.

Installing the Gen2 card's SFP, QSFP or XFP interfaces

To connect the probe to a monitoring interface (TAP or SPAN/mirror) different from that shipped with the unit,
simply obtain the necessary SFP for your application, remove the installed SFPs, and insert the desired interface.
The SFPs can be hot-swapped, but you should disconnect any cables before changing the SFP modules. If your
Gen2 capture card is:
1 Gb, then only 1 Gb SFPs may be used. They can connect at 10 Mb, 100 Mb, or 1000 Mb (1Gb).
10 Gb, then only 10 Gb XFPs or SFP+ may be used. They only connect at 10 Gb and cannot be used with
40 Gb (multiplexed 10Gb). SFP+ may only be used if your Gen2 card supports it.
40 Gb, then QSFP may be used and only if your Gen2 card supports it.
As with any electronic components, you should follow electrostatic discharge precautions (i.e., use a grounding
strap or touch the chassis power supply before handling SFPs) to avoid damaging components. In addition,
you should be careful to avoid exposure to laser radiation from optical components by keeping the dust plugs
installed until you are ready to install cables.

Supported QSFP/SFP/SFP+ media types

Some products require an SFP module. These are the supported media types.
40 Gb QSFP Transceivers
40GBASE-SR4
10 Gb Ethernet SFP+ Transceivers
10GBASE-SR
10GBASE-LR
10GBASE-ER
1 Gb Ethernet SFP Transceivers
1000BASE-SX
1000BASE-LX
1000BASE-TX

Configuring virtual adapters on the Gen2 card

By default Observer recognizes a Gen2 capture card as a single adapter regardless of how many ports are
present. Sometimes this is desirable (as when monitoring a trunk that consists of multiple links), but for many
applications it is more convenient for Observer to recognize a subset of Gen2 ports as a single adapter. For
example, suppose you are deploying an 8-port Gen2 as follows:
Ports 1-4 are monitoring a collection of trunked links
The remaining ports are each connected to the SPAN (or mirror) port on a switch
In this scenario, it makes sense for Observer to view Ports 1-4 as a single data stream and to separate each of the
four remaining ports into separate data streams.
Virtual adapters are a convenient way to accomplish this separation in real time, rather than depending on filters
to sort through the traffic post-capture.
Installing the Gen2 card's SFP, QSFP or XFP interfaces | 77