216 CHAPTER 18: MANAGING DEVICE DIAGNOSTICS
Configuring Port Mirroring
You can mirror traffic from one or more source ports to a target port for
real-time analysis. You can then attach a logic analyzer or RMON probe to
the target port and study the traffic crossing the source port in a
completely unobtrusive manner.
Port mirroring monitors and mirrors network traffic by forwarding copies
of incoming and outgoing packets from one or more ports to a
monitoring port. Port mirroring can be used as a diagnostic tool as well as
a debugging feature. Port mirroring also enables monitoring of switch
performance.
Network administrators can configure port mirroring by selecting one or
more ports from which to copy transmit or receive packets, and another
port to which the packets are copied.
Port mirroring is not supported for trunk ports.
This section contains the following topics:
■Defining Port Mirroring
■Removing Port Mirroring