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Configuring sFlow
sFlow is a traffic monitoring technology.
As shown in
, the sFlow 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 performs the following
actions:
•
Encapsulates the sFlow packets in the UDP datagrams.
•
Sends the UDP datagrams to the specified sFlow collector.
The sFlow collector analyzes the information and displays the results. One sFlow collector can
monitor multiple sFlow agents.
sFlow provides the following sampling mechanisms:
•
Flow sampling
—Obtains packet information.
•
Counter sampling
—Obtains interface counter information.
Figure 80 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
Configuration restrictions and guidelines
When you configure sFlow in an EVPN network, you must specify the source IP address of sFlow
packets by using the
sflow source
command. For information about EVPN, see
EVPN
Configuration Guide
.
sFlow configuration task list
Tasks at a glance
Configuring the sFlow agent and sFlow collector information
Device
sFlow collector
Ethernet
header
UDP
header
sFlow Datagram
IP
header
Flow
sampling
Counter
sampling
sFlow agent