Port mirroring – Allied Telesis Rapier Switch User Manual

Page 36

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36

Rapier Switch Software Reference

Software Release 2.5.1

C613-02025-00 REV B

Port Mirroring

Port mirroring allows traffic being received and transmitted on a switch port to
be sent to another switch port, the mirror port, usually for the purposes of
capturing the data with a protocol analyser. This mirror port is the only switch
port which belongs to no VLANs, and therefore does not participate in any
other switching. Before the mirror port can be set, it must be removed from all
VLANs except the default VLAN. The port cannot be part of a trunk group.

To set the mirror port (and remove it from the default VLAN) use the
command:

SET SWITCH MIRROR={NONE|port}

If another port was previously set as the mirror port, this command returns the previous
mirror port to the default VLAN as an untagged port. Return this port to any VLANs
to which it should belong, using the ADD VLAN PORT command, or set it as a tagged
port using the SET VLAN PORT command if required.

Either traffic received on a port or traffic transmitted by the port, or both, can
be mirrored. This setting and the source port(s) from which traffic is sent to the
mirror port are specified using the command:

SET SWITCH PORT={port-list|ALL} MIRROR={NONE|RX|TX|BOTH}

Mirroring four or more ports may significantly reduce switch performance.

The MIRROR parameter specifies the role of these port(s) as a source of mirror
traffic. If NONE is specified, no traffic received or sent on these port(s) will be
mirrored. If RX is specified, all traffic received on these port(s) will be mirrored.
If TX is specified, all traffic transmitted on these port(s) will be mirrored. If
BOTH is specified, all traffic received and transmitted will be mirrored. Traffic
will actually only be mirrored if there is a mirror port defined and if mirroring
is enabled. The default is NONE.

To send packets that match particular criteria to the mirror port, first create a
classifier or classifiers using the command:

CREATE CLASSIFIER

Then create a hardware filter with the ACTION parameter set to
SENDMIRROR, using the command:

ADD SWITCH HWFILTER CLASSIFIER=classifier-list

ACTION=SENDMIRROR

By default mirroring is disabled, no mirror port is set, and no source ports are
set to be mirrored. Mirroring can only be enabled after the switch mirror port
has been set to a valid port. If mirroring has been enabled but the switch mirror
port is set to NONE, then mirroring will be disabled. Mirroring is enabled and
disabled using the commands:

ENABLE SWITCH MIRROR

DISABLE SWITCH MIRROR

The SHOW SWITCH PORT and SHOW SWITCH commands display the
switch and port mirroring settings.

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