Users Guide

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sFlow
The Dell Networking Operating System (OS) supports sFlow version 5.
Overview
sFlow is a standard-based sampling technology embedded within switches and routers which is used to monitor network trac.
It is designed to provide trac monitoring for high-speed networks with many switches and routers. sFlow uses two types of
sampling:
• Statistical packet-based sampling of switched or routed packet ows.
• Time-based sampling of interface counters.
The sFlow monitoring system consists of an sFlow agent (embedded in the switch/router) and an sFlow collector. The sFlow agent
resides anywhere within the path of the packet and combines the ow samples and interface counters into sFlow datagrams and
forwards them to the sFlow collector at regular intervals. The datagrams consist of information on, but not limited to, packet header,
ingress and egress interfaces, sampling parameters, and interface counters.
Application-specic integrated circuits (ASICs) typically complete packet sampling. sFlow collector analyses the sFlow datagrams
received from dierent devices and produces a network-wide view of trac ows.
Figure 126. sFlow Trac Monitoring System
sFlow
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