Brocade Network Advisor SAN + IP User Manual v12.1.0 - Manual (Page 1628)

1582 Brocade Network Advisor SAN + IP User Manual
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Overview
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• Direction. The direction is implicitly defined source device to destination device. All flows
except learning flows, can also be bidirectional. You cannot define bidirectional flows with the
Generator feature enabled as flows are always from source to destination.
Flow provisioning and monitoring
Flow Vision has two components:
• Flow provisioning
• Flow monitoring
Before monitoring a flow, you must define criteria that uniquely identify the flow. A flow definition
includes basic criteria such as a flow name, source identifier (SID), destination identifier (DID),
ingress port, egress port and flow direction. You can create new flow definitions and create
definitions from existing definitions using Add Flow Definition dialog box.
You can also enable the following traffic-related features in the flow definition:
• Flow Generator
This feature simulates and generates traffic for the specified flows. Flow Generator can create
and activate multiple custom flows in the fabric, and then identify potential traffic problems
using standard traffic monitoring tools while the simulated traffic is flowing. Sub features
include default frame generation and custom frame generation (with different frame sizes and
patterns).
The Flow Generator allows you to produce data to verify the following:
- Hardware - ASIC, backplane, cable (ISL), SFP
- Connectivity - Routing, ACL
- Performance - Throughput, TI, QoS
- Configuration - With VWWN, you can verify the exact device connectivity and configuration.
For more detailed information on this application, refer to “Flow Generator” on page 1606.
• Flow Monitor
This feature monitors the network’s traffic pattern and provides statistics for the defined
flow(s). Sub features include frame and SCSI statistics.
For more detailed information on this application, refer to “Flow Monitor” on page 1605.
• Flow Mirror
This feature allows you to select a traffic pattern and mirror this traffic to the CPU, enabling
debugging that does not disturb the existing connections. You can also use this to listen or
snoop on traffic passing through a port. Flow Mirror supports the following functions:
- Sending mirrored frames to the CPU.
- Mirroring frames in Layer 2 fabric.
- Mirroring frames on F_Ports.
For more detailed information on this application, refer to “Flow Mirror” on page 1604.
For more information on the Flow Vision features, including limitations and prerequisites, refer to
“Flow Vision features” on page 1604.