# Monitoring Switched Networks

Reality # 1 - Majority of switch ports actively support "lightweight" RMON (primary functionality is segment level history like frames, bytes, & errors

Reality # 2 - Due to resource and performance limitations, full RMON is typically restricted to being active on one port at a time.

Reality # 3 - Conversation steering will provide economic analysis for those ports that require advanced monitoring capabilities (ie RMON2)

Reality # 4 - Servers are typically connected to 100MB switch ports (largely due to price/performance), therefore server based analysis is addressed with fast ethernet probe.

Reality # 5 - End2End traffic can be best acquired at points of high data aggregation, like a FDDI backbone or gateway LAN.

Reality #6 - Measuring response through the switched fabric requires a measurement agent on the clients, many of which are migrating to NT

Switched network environments require a hybrid monitoring approach different from that applied to shared media

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