Product guide

The Monitoring ports on M-2750 fail-close; thus, if the Sensor is deployed in-line, a hardware failure
results in network downtime. Fail-open operation for the Monitoring ports requires the use of the
optional external Bypass Switch provided in the Kit.
With the Bypass Switch in place, normal Sensor operation supplies power to the switch through a
control cable. While the Sensor is operating, the switch is "on" and routes all traffic directly through
the Sensor. When the Sensor fails, the switch automatically shifts to a bypass state: in-line traffic
continues to flow through the network link, but is no longer routed through the Sensor. Once the
Sensor resumes normal operation, the switch returns to the "on" state, once again enabling in-line
monitoring.
Note that Sensor outage breaks the link connecting the devices on either side of the Sensor for a brief
moment and requires the renegotiation of the network link between the two peer devices connected to
the Sensor. Depending on the network equipment, this disruption introduced by the renegotiation of the
link layer between the two peer devices may range from a couple of seconds to more than a minute
with certain vendors' devices.
A very brief link disruption may also occur while the links between the Sensor and each of the peer
devices are renegotiated to place the Sensor back in in-line mode. This outage, again, varies depending
on the device, and can range from a few seconds to more than a minute.
Installation and troubleshooting instructions for the Kit can be found in the Guide that accompanies
the kit. For example, for more information on the Optical kit, see the standard Gigabit Optical
Fail-Open Bypass Kit Guide.
4
Attaching cables to the Sensor
About the fail-open hardware
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McAfee
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Network Security Platform M-2750 Sensor Product Guide