Switches

TrafficDirector uses two types of RMON support to monitor switches: mini-RMON and optional roving RMON. TrafficDirector uses mini-RMON to continuously monitor all switch ports, and roving RMON to bring full RMON2 or Enhanced RMON analysis to a selected port when needed. In this way, a single SwitchProbe can provide complete monitoring and analysis of all ports on a selected switch.

TrafficDirector also lets you monitor critical interswitch links using dedicated high speed probes. You can connect high-speed media agents, such as the Fast Ethernet and FDDI SwitchProbes, directly to switch trunk and server ports to provide full RMON proactive monitoring of the high traffic volume on these critical links. TrafficDirector then aggregates the data from mini-RMON, roving RMON, and any dedicated probes you have defined into a consolidated monitoring and diagnostic environment supporting switch and virtual LAN (VLAN) traffic.

In many ways, a switch is similar to an agent group because TrafficDirector treats each port as an agent, letting you monitor each switch port as you would any other probe interface. For example, you can install domains on ports, set multiple alarms on specific ports, and scope switch port displays. You can also launch additional TrafficDirector tools for a more detailed analysis of traffic on a selected switch port.

Mini-RMON

TrafficDirector uses mini-RMON to continuously monitor all ports on a switch. Mini-RMON consists of the RMON domain with only statistics, history, events, and alarms enabled. This provides TrafficDirector with enough information to flag a problem. You can then rove to the suspect switch port for more detailed analysis. Mini-RMON support can be embedded in the switch, or provided as proxy RMON, using the Proxy RMON collection feature available in Ethernet SwitchProbes.

Mini-RMON lets TrafficDirector view each switch port as an RMON agent. This is especially important in dealing with microsegmented switched LANs. Without mini-RMON, on a switch with 100 ports you would have to set up and configure one agent for every port to continuously monitor all switch ports. With mini-RMON support, whether embedded in the switch or provided as proxy RMON by an external probe, TrafficDirector can monitor all switch ports simultaneously using a single probe.

Embedded Mini-RMON

Mini-RMON embeds only the essential RMON groups--statistics, history, events, and alarms--on each switch port and skips groups with high resource requirements. When monitoring a switch with embedded RMON on each port, TrafficDirector can poll the switch directly for RMON information in the same way that it polls an agent.

Mini-RMON embedded in switches lets TrafficDirector continuously monitor all ports on the switch while minimizing the performance impact associated with embedding complete RMON on each port. Mini-RMON provides vital statistics and alarms that can signal the TrafficDirector software when a more detailed analysis is needed. TrafficDirector can then use an external roving RMON agent to bring full RMON or RMON2 analysis to the suspect port.

Proxy RMON

The Proxy RMON Collector, available on Ethernet and dual Ethernet SwitchProbes, lets you monitor switches that do not have embedded RMON as if they had embedded mini-RMON on each switch port. Proxy RMON uses an external SwitchProbe to map the private MIBs of a switch to the mini-RMON statistics group from which it derives the other three mini-RMON groups: history, events, and alarms. TrafficDirector then polls the probe (or proxy agent) for this mini-RMON information. You can monitor switch port traffic in terms of mini-RMON values.

Adding a New Switch to TrafficDirector

Before you can monitor a switch, you must add it to TrafficDirector. You add a switch to TrafficDirector in the same way and for the same reason you add an agent--so that TrafficDirector will recognize it. You define any proxy, roving, or dedicated agents you are using to monitor the switch and its associated traffic.

Whenever you launch a TrafficDirector application for the switch, the display will include all switch ports, as well as any proxy, roving, and dedicated agents included in the switch definition.

Before you add a switch to TrafficDirector, make sure of the following:

• The switch and any agents you want to include in the switch definition are attached to your network and are operational.

• The agent you want to use as a proxy agent, roving agent, or both has been added to TrafficDirector and is displayed in the Agents list box in the TrafficDirector main window.

• If you are using a proxy or roving agent to monitor the switch, you have connected the probe to the switch.

Adding a Switch

When you add a switch to TrafficDirector, you must specify the type of switch you want to monitor. Based on your selection, you can use mini-RMON, proxy RMON, or roving RMON to monitor the switch. Table 6-1 lists the switch models currently supported by TrafficDirector and the RMON support for each.

Table  6-1: Supported Switch Models

Switch	Full RMON	Mini-RMON	Proxy RMON	Roving RMON
Catalyst 1200	X
Catalyst 1600		X		X
Catalyst 1700			X	X
Catalyst 1800		X		X
Catalyst 1900		X		X
Catalyst 1912		X		X
Catalyst 2100			X	X
Catalyst 2800			X	X
Catalyst 2820		X		X
Catalyst 2900		X		X
Catalyst 2926		X		X
Catalyst 3000		X		X
Catalyst 3100		X		X
Catalyst 3200		X		X
Catalyst 3900		X		X
Catalyst 5000		X		X
Catalyst 5002		X		X
Catalyst 5500		X		X
Catalyst 5505		X		X
Generic		X

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Note You can select Generic if the switch you want to add is not supported. To add a switch as Generic, the switch must support MIB II and mini-RMON. If you select Generic, there will be no support for roving and no port naming.

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When you have added the switch, you can monitor network traffic for any ports on the switch, as well as any roving or dedicated agents associated with that switch.

To add a supported switch to TrafficDirector, take the following steps:

Step 1 Launch Configuration Manager, if you have not already done so. See Chapter 4, "Configuration Manager."

Step 2 Select the Switch radio button.

Step 3 Click Add.

The Add Switch window opens (Figure 6-1).

Figure 6-1: Add Switch Window

Enter the following information in the appropriate fields:

Switch Name	A name for the switch you want to add. Can be up to 15 alphanumeric characters and is case sensitive. You can use dashes and underscores.
IP Address	The IP address for the switch. Must be a valid IP address consisting of numbers separated by decimal points. If you are setting up a proxy agent for the switch, you must specify the proxy agent in the Roving field.
Switch Type	The type of switch you are adding.
Read Community	The Read Community string for the switch. The default is public.
Write Community	The Write Community string for the switch. The default is public.
Retries	The number of times TrafficDirector tries to reach the switch if it gets no response. The value must be an integer and be equal to 1 or greater. The default is 2.
Timeout	The length of time, in seconds, that TrafficDirector waits before retrying an SNMP request. The value must be an integer and be greater than or equal to 1. The default is 5.
Roving	The name of a roving or proxy agent if supported by the switch. Select the button to the right of the field, then select the name of the agent from the Agent List box and click OK.
Analyzer Port	The switch port to which the roving or proxy agent is physically connected. On some switch models, this includes a slot/port number, for example, 2/8 (slot 2, port 8). On other models, it includes just the port number, for example, 8 (port 8).

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Note Perform Step 4 through Step 7 to define up to four agents as dedicated (you are using these specified agents to monitor trunk and server critical links).

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Step 5 Click the box to the right of the Dedicated Agent field.

The Agent List window opens.

Step 6 Select a dedicated agent from the Agent List window, then click OK.

The agent name is displayed in the Dedicated Agent field.

Step 7 Define the agent as a server or trunk probe by clicking the drop-down menu to the right of the Agent1 field and selecting Trunk or Server from the pull-down list box. The default is Trunk. This lets you tailor your display to include only dedicated trunk or server probes monitoring critical links.

Step 8 In the Properties File field, enter the name of the shared properties file with the configuration that you want to install on the agent. The default properties contain the default configuration that the probe boots up with.

Step 9 On a Windows platform, you must always use the Configure Report Servers application to define the SQL server that is logging the agent as a remote server, even if the SQL database resides on the same system as the management station. Then enter the name of the SQL server you defined in the SQL Server field when you add the switch if you want to generate reports based on the information collected by the agent.

Step 10 Do one of the following:

• Click Apply to add the switch to TrafficDirector without exiting the Add Switch window.

• Click OK to add the switch to TrafficDirector and return to the Configuration Manager main window.

• Click Cancel to exit the Add Switch window without adding the switch to TrafficDirector.

If you selected OK or Apply, the name and IP address of the newly added switch is displayed in the Configuration Manager main window. You will also see all switch ports of the selected switch in the bottom left list box in the Configuration Manager main window.

Step 11 Select the switch, then click Test to confirm that the new switch (agent) is reachable. See Chapter 16, "Testing the Operational Status of an Agent."

Automatically Learning Switch Ports

The configuration file that contains the port definitions is called the switch name and the .swp extension. For example, the configuration file for the nycatswitch switch is nycatswitch.swp.

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Note For TrafficDirector to learn the ports on a switch, you must first add the switch definition. See "Adding a Switch."

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To have TrafficDirector learn switch ports, take the following steps:

Step 1 Launch Configuration Manager, if you have not already done so. See Chapter 4, "Configuration Manager."

Step 2 Select the Switch radio button.

Step 3 Select the switch for which you want TrafficDirector to learn port information.

Step 4 Click Learn to the right of the switch list box.

In the status bar of the Configuration Manager main window (bottom left corner), you will see two messages: "Learning ports..." and "Switch ports learned successfully for <switchname>."

When TrafficDirector has learned the ports for the specified switch, you can monitor traffic and perform other diagnostic functions. This can be done once you have added the switch.

Roving for Full RMON2 and Enhanced RMON

Roving refers to how TrafficDirector can direct full RMON2 and Enhanced RMON analysis to any switch port you select. You must rove to a selected switch port whenever you want to launch a TrafficDirector application or tool against a switch port that requires any RMON groups beyond mini-RMON statistics, history, alarms, and events, or when you want to install additional domains beyond the RMON domain. A switch supports roving when it meets the following requirements.

• There is an analyzer (SPAN) port, or a port that is not transmitting network traffic that you can designate as an analyzer port.

• The switch supports mirroring, or the ability to direct a copy of traffic from a selected switch port to the analyzer port where the roving probe can view that traffic.

Roving involves connecting a SwitchProbe to a SPAN port on the switch, then "mirroring" traffic from a selected switch port to that analyzer port. When you rove to a selected switch port, a copy of that switch port traffic is directed to the SPAN port where the probe is attached. The probe then examines this traffic as if it were receiving the packets directly. Although the SPAN port is a static, physical connection to the probe, you can use Configuration Manager to dynamically rove any switch port, thereby mirroring traffic from that switch port to the SPAN port. When you physically connect the roving agent to the switch, you must add the agent to TrafficDirector just as you would any other agent. You then select the agent as the roving agent when you add the switch to TrafficDirector.

If you have configured a switch with a roving agent, you can then select any application for a switch port, and TrafficDirector will automatically rove the probe to that port.

When TrafficDirector detects a problem on a port using mini-RMON, additional data is often needed to resolve the problem, including extensive data captures and network layer host and conversation lists. You can then use roving to bring the full RMON2 or Enterprise RMON power of a SwitchProbe to the suspect port for detailed monitoring and analysis.

For example, you are using Traffic Monitor to monitor a switch and notice an unusually high amount of traffic on port 12. You can use Configuration Manager to rove to port 12, install a number of domains, and launch a variety of TrafficDirector applications to find the reasons for the extra traffic.

Roving Switch Ports for RMON2 and Enterprise RMON

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Note To use the TrafficDirector roving feature, the switch must support roving and you must define a roving agent for the switch.

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To rove to a specific switch port, take the following steps:

Step 1 Launch Configuration Manager, if you have not already done so. See Chapter 4, "Configuration Manager."

Step 2 Select the Switch radio button.

Step 3 Select the switch you want to rove from the switch list box.

All switch ports for the selected switch are displayed in the lower switch port list box (Figure 6-2).

Figure 6-2: Switch Port List Box

Step 4 Select the switch port to which you want to rove.

Step 5 Click Rove to the right of the switch port list box.

A dialog box opens indicating the currently roved port and asking for confirmation to continue roving.

Step 6 Do one of the following:

• Click Yes to continue the roving process and rove to the new port.

If you clicked Yes, a dialog box prompts you to reinitialize the counters for the new roving port (Figure 6-3).

• Click No to quit roving and retain the existing roving port.

Figure 6-3: Counter Reinitialization Dialog Box

Step 7 Do one of the following:

• Click Yes to set all statistical counters to zero.

• Click No to continue tracking statistics from where the counters left off for the last roved port. This lets you collect aggregate statistics for all ports you rove.

The agent roves to the selected switch port. You can now monitor the selected port with the power of a SwitchProbe.

Editing the Switch Definition

To edit a switch definition, take the following steps:

Step 1 Launch Configuration Manager, if you have not already done so. See Chapter 4, "Configuration Manager."

Step 2 Select the Switch radio button.

Step 3 Select the switch you want to edit from the switch list box.

Step 4 Click Edit to the right of the switch list box.

The Edit Switch window opens. This window is the same as the Add Switch window except that the switch definition is already provided.

Step 5 Edit the switch. See "Adding a Switch."

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Note You cannot change the switch name.

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Click OK to save the modified definition, or click Cancel to close the window without saving your changes.

The modified agent switch is displayed in the Configuration Manager main window.

Deleting the Switch Definition

When you remove a switch from the network, or no longer need to monitor it, you can delete it from TrafficDirector. To delete a switch, take the following steps:

Step 1 Launch Configuration Manager if you have not already done so. See Chapter 4, "Configuration Manager."

Step 2 Select the Switch radio button.

Step 3 Select the switch you want to delete from the switch list box.

Step 4 Click Delete to the right of the switch list box.

The Delete Switch confirmation window opens.

Step 5 To delete the specified switch definition, click Yes. To keep the specified switch definition and cancel the delete function, click No.