Owner's Manual

Chapter 8. Status Monitoring and Statistics | 229
NETGEAR 8800 User Manual
one global value for the entire switch. The switch software also allows you to set the
individual port sampling rates, so you can fine-tune the sFlow statistics gathering. Per the
RFC, sFlow sampling is done on ingress only.
You can enable sFlow and mirroring at the same time on the NETGEAR 8800.
There is no MIB support.
This section describes the following topics:
• Sampling Mechanisms on page 229
• Configuring sFlow on page 229
• Additional sFlow Configuration Options on page 231
• sFlow Configuration Example on page 232
• Displaying sFlow Information on page 233
Note: For information on licensing, see Appendix A, XCM8800 Software
Licenses.
Sampling Mechanisms
The NETGEAR 8800 switches support hardware-based sampling at a programmed interval.
With hardware-based sampling, the data path for a packet that traverses the switch does not
require processing by the CPU. Fast path packets are handled entirely by ASICs and are
forwarded at wire speed rate.
With software-based sampling, the data path for the packets is still fast path; however, the
switch copies all packets to the CPU for sampling (instead of only those that have been
marked for sampling). Software sampling requires intensive CPU processing.
Configuring sFlow
XCM8800 allows you to collect sFlow statistics on a per port basis. An agent, residing locally
on the switch, sends data to a collector that resides on another machine. You configure the
local agent, the address of the remote collector, and the ports of interest for sFlow statistics
gathering. You can also modify default values for how frequently on average a sample is
taken and the maximum number of samples allowed before throttling the sample gathering.
To configure sFlow on a switch, you must do the following tasks:
• Configure the local agent
• Configure the addresses of the remote collectors
• Enable sFlow globally on the switch
• Enable sFlow on the desired ports
Optionally, you may also change the default values of the following items: