Diagnosing Switch Problems Remote Monitoring (RMON)
OmniSwitch 6600 Family Network Configuration Guide April 2006 page 27-25
Remote Monitoring (RMON)
Remote Network Monitoring (RMON) is an SNMP protocol used to manage networks remotely. RMON
probes can be used to collect, interpret and forward statistical data about network traffic from designated
active ports in a LAN segment to an NMS (Network Management System) application for monitoring and
analysis without negatively impacting network performance. RMON software is fully integrated in the
Chassis Management software and works with the Ethernet software to acquire statistical information.
The following diagram illustrates how an External RMON Probe can be used with port mirroring to copy
RMON probe frames and Management frames to and from the mirroring and mirrored ports. Frames
received from an RMON probe attached to the mirroring port can be seen as being received by the
mirrored port. These frames from the mirroring port are marked as if they are received on the mirrored
port before being sent over the switch backplane to an NMS station. Therefore, management frames that
are destined for the RMON probe are first forwarded out the mirrored port. After being received on the
mirrored port, copies of the frames are mirrored out the mirroring port—the probe attached to the mirror-
ing port receives the management frames.
OmniSwitch 6648
OmniSwitch 6648
OmniSwitch 6648
OmniSwitch 6648
OmniSwitch
Mirrored Port Mirroring Port
NMS Workstation
RMON Probe
A. RMON probe frames sent from the mirroring port...
B. ...appear to come from the mirrored port
when the NMS Workstation receives them.
OmniSwitch
Mirrored Port Mirroring Port
NMS Workstation
RMON Probe
D. ...and port mirroring sends copies of the
Management frames to the mirroring port.
C. Management frames from the NMS Workstation are sent to the mirrored port....
Port Mirroring Using External RMON Probe