Intel 10/100 manual Monitoring traffic

C H A P T E R 2 Configuring and Managing the Switch

Monitoring traffic

Use monitoring commands to determine the traffic volume from specific ports or between ports. This information helps you determine the network’s traffic patterns so you can adjust your network topology for maximum efficiency.

Make sure you get a good statistical representation of your network. Take a reading when users log on in the morning and pull files from servers and another during breaks or when users log off at night—any time you think the network is experiencing heavy traffic. This gives you a baseline for comparison when problems arise on the network.

Statistics are generated for the current session. Reset counters by using the clr-cntcommand, warm-resetcommand, or by cycling the power.

In general, keep devices that talk primarily to each other on the same segment (remember, each port is an Ethernet segment). For example, if a high volume of traffic is forwarded from the CD server on port 4 to the payroll workgroup on port 3, but no other workgroups access the CD server, move the server to the hub on port 3 instead of the switch. This change may not be efficient, however, if users from the payroll, marketing, or finance workgroups also access the CD server.

Under heavy traffic loading conditions, the Console Manager may understate the Ethernet statistical counts. You can also use a protocol analyzer to monitor the segment the port is attached to. See step 8 on page 72 for configuration details.

Commands used

get-br-cnt <port> get-eth-cnt <port> get-colls-cnt <port>

Displays the packet statistics for a port.

Displays the Ethernet statistics for a port.

Displays the collision distribution counters for a port.

get-rmon-cnt <port> Displays the Ethernet RMON counters for a port.

get-sdist-cnt <port>

get-mgm-brcnt clr-cnt

Displays the packet size distribution counters for a port.

Displays the statistics for the SNMP agent.

Resets the Ethernet and bridging statistics.

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