RFC 3176 (rfc3176) - Page 1 of 31

InMon Corporation's sFlow: A Method for Monitoring Traffic in Switched and Routed Networks

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Network Working Group                                           P. Phaal
Request for Comments: 3176                                    S. Panchen
Category: Informational                                         N. McKee
                                                             InMon Corp.
                                                          September 2001


     InMon Corporation's sFlow: A Method for Monitoring Traffic in
                      Switched and Routed Networks

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This memo defines InMon Coporation's sFlow system.  sFlow is a
   technology for monitoring traffic in data networks containing
   switches and routers.  In particular, it defines the sampling
   mechanisms implemented in an sFlow Agent for monitoring traffic, the
   sFlow MIB for controlling the sFlow Agent, and the format of sample
   data used by the sFlow Agent when forwarding data to a central data
   collector.

Table of Contents

   1.  Overview .....................................................  2
   2.  Sampling Mechanisms ..........................................  2
       2.1 Sampling of Switched Flows ...............................  3
           2.1.1 Distributed Switching ..............................  4
           2.1.2 Random Number Generation ...........................  4
       2.2 Sampling of Network Interface Statistics .................  4
   3.  sFlow MIB ....................................................  5
       3.1 The SNMP Management Framework ............................  5
       3.2 Definitions ..............................................  6
   4.  sFlow Datagram Format ........................................ 14
   5.  Security Considerations ...................................... 25
       5.1 Control .................................................. 26
       5.2 Transport ................................................ 26
       5.3 Confidentiality .......................................... 26
   6.  References ................................................... 27
   7.  Authors' Addresses ........................................... 29



Phaal, et al.                Informational
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