Remote Port Mirroring Configuration 231
Remote Port Mirroring Configuration
Remote port mirroring does not require the source and destination ports to be on
the same device. The source and destination ports can be located on multiple
devices across the network. Therefore, administrators can monitor the traffic on
remote devices conveniently.
A special VLAN, called remote-probe VLAN, is needed to implement remote port
mirroring. All mirrored packets are sent from the reflector port of the source
switch to the monitor port (destination port) of the destination switch through the
remote-probe VLAN, so that you can monitor packets received on and sent from
the source switch on the destination switch. Figure 68 illustrates the
implementation of remote port mirroring.
Figure68 Remote port mirroring application
Switches involved in remote port mirroring play one of the following three roles:
■Source switch: The monitored port resident switch. It copies traffic to the
reflector port, which then transmits the traffic to an intermediate switch or the
destination switch through the remote-probe VLAN.
■Intermediate switch: Switches between the source switch and the destination
switch on the network. An intermediate switch forwards mirrored traffic to the
next intermediate switch or the destination switch through the remote-probe
VLAN. No intermediate switch is present if the source switch and the
destination switch are directly connected to each other.
■Destination switch: The remote mirroring destination port resident switch. It
forwards mirrored traffic received from the remote-probe VLAN to the
monitoring device through the destination port.
Reflector PortSource Port Trunk Port Destination Po rt
Remote-probe VLAN
Intermediate Switch
Source
Switch Destination
Switch