Technical data

BMD00136, November 2009 207
APPENDIX A
Monitoring Ports
The port mirroring feature in the G8000 allows you to attach a sniffer to a monitoring port that is
configured to receive a copy of all packets that are forwarded from the mirrored port. The G8000
enables you to mirror port traffic for all layer 2 and layer 3. Port mirroring can be used as a
troubleshooting tool or to enhance the security of your network. For example, an IDS server can be
connected to the monitor port to detect intruders attacking the network.
As shown in Figure 32, port 13 is monitoring ingress traffic (traffic entering the switch) on port 2
and egress traffic (traffic leaving the switch) on port 12. You can attach a device to
port 13 to monitor the traffic on ports 2 and port 12.
Figure 32 Monitoring Ports
Figure 32 shows two mirrored ports monitored by a single port. Similarly, you can have a
single or groups of:
 one mirrored port to one monitored port
 more than two mirrored ports to one monitored port
The G8000 supports four monitor ports. The G8000 does not support a single port being
monitored by multiple ports.
Ingress and egress traffic is duplicated and sent to the monitor port after processing.
Monitor port
Mirrored ports
Ingress
Egress