R211x-HP Flexfabric 11900 Network Management and Monitoring Configuration Guide

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Configuring sFlow
Sampled Flow (sFlow) is a traffic monitoring technology.
As shown in Figure 63, the sF
low system involves an sFlow agent embedded in a device and a remote
sFlow collector. The sFlow agent collects interface counter information and packet information and
encapsulates the sampled information in sFlow packets. When the sFlow packet buffer is full, or the
aging timer (fixed to 1 second) expires, the sFlow agent sends the packets in UDP datagrams to the
specified sFlow collector. The sFlow collector analyzes the information and displays the results. sFlow
provides good scalability to allow one sFlow collector to monitor multiple sFlow agents.
sFlow provides the following sampling mechanisms:
• Flow sampling—Obtains packet information.
• Counter sampling—Obtains interface counter information.
Figure 63 sFlow system
Protocols and standards
• RFC 3176, InMon Corporation's sFlow: A Method for Monitoring Traffic in Switched and Routed
Networks
• sFlow.org, sFlow Version 5
sFlow configuration task list
Tasks at a
g
lance
(Required.) Configuring the sFlow agent and sFlow collector information
Perform at least one of the following tasks:
• Configuring flow sampling
• Configuring counter sampling