Specifications
Why Would I Use Port Mirroring in My Network?
May 04, 2011 Page 2 of 15
•Many‐to‐many
Dependingonyournetwork,portsthatyoucanconfiguretoparticipateinmirroringinclude
physicalports,virtualports—includingLinkAggregationGroup(LAG)andhostports—VLAN
interfaces,andintrusiondetectionportsthataremembersofaLAG.Formoreinformation,refer
to“OverviewofPortMirroringConfigurationsonEnterasys
Switches”onpage4.
Youcanuseportmirroringforanalyzingbi‐directionaltrafficandensuringconnectivitybetween,
forexample,adepartmentalswitchanditshighspeeduplinktoyourbackboneswitchasshown
inFigure 1.
Figure 1 Using Port Mirroring to Monitor a Departmental Switch
Thisone‐to‐oneconfigurationwouldallowyoutocapturetrafficinboth
directionstothe
backboneuplinkport.Inthisexample,youwouldsetaportmirrorbetweendepartmentalswitch
port4.1(source)andthedestinationport4.2connectedtothetrafficprobe.
Youcanalsouseportmirroring,forexample,tomonitorincomingtraffictoyourbackboneswitch
asshowninFigure 2
.