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Port Mirroring
Port Mirroring
On chassis-based or standalone switches, you can set up port mirroring sessions between Ethernet ports
within the same switch.
All Ethernet ports support port mirroring. When port mirroring is enabled, the active "mirrored" port
transmits and receives network traffic normally, and the "mirroring" port receives a copy of all transmit
and receive traffic to the active port. You can connect an RMON probe or network analysis device to the
mirroring port to see an exact duplication of traffic on the mirrored port without disrupting network traffic
to and from the mirrored port.
Port mirroring runs in the Chassis Management software and is supported for Ethernet ports. In addition,
the switch supports "N-to-1" port mirroring, where up to 128 source ports can be mirrored to a single
destination port.
Note the following restriction when configuring a port mirroring session:
•
Two (2) port mirroring sessions are supported per standalone chassis-based switch.
•
You can configure maximum two sessions (any combination) on the same NI module regardless of
type (C48,U48, or X32).
What Ports Can Be Mirrored?
Mirroring between any similar ports and between any SFP to any other SFP port is supported.
How Port Mirroring Works
When a frame is received on a mirrored port, it is copied and sent to the mirroring port. The received
frame is actually transmitted twice across the switch backplane–once for normal bridging and then again to
the mirroring port.
When a frame is transmitted by the mirrored port, a copy of the frame is made, tagged with the mirroring
port as the destination, and sent back over the switch backplane to the mirroring port. The diagram below
illustrates the data flow between the mirrored and mirroring ports.
page 26-14
OmniSwitch AOS Release 7 Network Configuration Guide
Diagnosing Switch Problems
March 2011
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