Specifications

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Catalyst 4500 Series Switch Cisco IOS Command Reference—Release IOS XE 3.3.0XO(15.1(1)XO)
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Chapter 2 Cisco IOS Commands for the Catalyst 4500 Series Switches
monitor capture file location buffer-size
monitor captur e file locati on buffer-size
To specify the capture destination, use the monitor capture command. To remove the details, use the
no form of this command.
monitor capture name [[file location filename [buffer-size <1-100 >] [ring <2-10>] [size
<1-100>]] | [buffe r [circular] size <1-100>]]
]no monitor capture name [file | buffer]
Syntax Description
Defaults T he default buffer size is one MB.
Command Modes Privileged EXE C mode
Usage Guidelines T he capture destination can be a file in storage disk or a memory buffer. This command specifies the
parameters related to packet storage.
The file option specifies that the packets must be stored to a file. To reduce or avoid any loss in packet
capture, you can use the buffe r-s iz e option. The capture and store operations require more CPU, limiting
the capture throughput.
You can increase the th roughput by trigge ring lock-step mode, wherein the packets are first captured in
the buffer. Within this mode, the “duration” parameter defines the capture duration. Once the buffer is
full or the duration closes, the buffer is written to the file, greatly increasing the capture throughput. The
lock-step mode is automatically triggered by specifying the buffer size to 32MB or higher.
The size of the capture file can be limited with the size option. The file location must one of the
following:
• Inte rnal bootflash (boo tflash: )
• External flash (slot0: )
• US B (usb0: )
Do not specify any other devices.
The destination file can be a ring of files rather than a sin gle file. The ring option specifies the number
of files in the ring whereas size specifies the total size of all the files. In ring file mode, when the file
size limit has reached, it accommodates space for new packets by removing the oldest file.
file location filename Specifies filename of location.
buffer-size <1-100> Specifies bufer size in MB.
ring <2-10> Specifies number of files.
size <1-100> Specifies the file size.
buffer [circular] size <1-100> Specifies that the capture destination is a buffer. By default, the
mode is linear.
The keyword circular sets the buffer mode to circular.
The keyword size specifies the buffer size.