Tap On Individual Servers; Tap Before A Load Balancer - Network Critical SmartNA-X User Manual

14 | Introduction | SmartNA-X 1G/10G Modular
• On individual servers
• Before a load balancer
• After a load balancer
• Between an Internet router and a firewall

TAP on individual servers

You can place TAPs on individual servers for greater control when scheduling network outages, since there is no need to
take down all servers while the TAP is being deployed.
The following figure shows a configuration with three servers and three TAPs, one for each server. Each TAP is
connected to the AB ports of a SmartNA-X module (one module per server). If necessary, the resulting traffic streams can
be aggregated before sending to a network tool. A fully populated SmartNA-X device with four modules installed allows
up to four servers to be tapped (or more if C&D ports are used in TAP/failsafe mode).
Figure 3: TAPs placed on individual servers

TAP before a load balancer

You can place TAPs before a load balancer to monitor a group of servers with one TAP. In this location, you'll be able to
observe the IP addresses of individual requesters and have a better understanding of user traffic locations.
Note: Care must be taken when scheduling the TAP deployment, since all the servers on the segment will be
taken offline while the TAP is connected and configured.
A limitation of placing TAPs before a load balancer is that the balancer's IP address may take on the appearance of the
server providing the response to the requested information. If your preference is to follow which servers are responding to
the users request, you should place the TAP after the load balancer.
The following figure shows a configuration where a TAP is placed before a load balancer.
™ ©
SmartNA-X 1G/10G User Guide 1.4 2015 Network Critical Solutions Limited