Viavi Apex Enterprise G3-APEX-ENT-32T, User Manual

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Chapter 4: About Probe Instances
Introducing Probes
Discover the basics of probes, probe instances and what type is right for you, and
how probes work with switches.
As a network administrator, when something goes wrong on your network,
seeing what is happening on the wire can quickly lead you to a solution. Use
this guide to assist you with choosing, deploying, configuring, and using your
probes. The probes, along with Observer Analyzer software, let you see all traffic
on the network to which it is connected. To monitor multiple networks from a
single analyzer, probes must be installed at every point where network visibility
is required.
Probes collect and report network traffic and statistics (usually from a switch)
to an Observer. This enables you to detect and anticipate problems on both
local and remote portions of the network. Probes gain insight and visibility
into every part of the network, access remote networks as easily as local
networks, eliminate the time and expense of traveling to remote sites, and speed
troubleshooting.
A
probe is a hardware device on your network running VIAVI probe instance
software. Each hardware probe has at least one probe instance that captures
packets from your network to analyze. The probe hardware device could be an
appliance purchased from VIAVI or you could install the probe software on your
own hardware.
The probe can be located on the same system as the analyzer (every Observer
includes a “local probe”), or the probe can communicate with remote analyzers
over TCP/IP.