68 | GigaStor™ (pub. 25.Apr.2014)
Figure 14: Windows protected memory, user memory, and reserved memory
Whether using protected memory or reserved memory, Observer uses the RAM to store data for things such as
(and creates a section within the RAM dedicated to):
Packet capture
Statistics queue buffer
Collected statistical memory
Network packets seen by Observer are passed to both the packet capture memory and to the statistics queue
buffer. After a packet is processed by the statistics queue buffer, the statistical information is passed to the
statistical memory. All packets in both the packet capture memory and the statistical queue buffer stay in
memory until the buffer is full and the oldest packets are replaced by newer packets (using FIFO).
shows what options in Observer control the size of various portions of memory.
Figure 15: How to resize various memory options
Packet capture buffer and statistics buffer
There are two kinds of buffers that a probe uses to store data in real-time: capture buffers and statistical buffers.
The capture buffer stores the raw data captured from the network while the statistical buffer stores data entries
that are snapshots of a given statistical data point.
