SPAN performance impact on Catalyst 6500 series

[samuel.shen]

Hi All

I have a question about using the SPAN on C6500 to analyze the packets on our backbone.

I found a document(id:10570) in the TAC, it describe considering the hardware architecture, no performance impact on the switch.

But when I asked a Cisco engineer, he suggest me to buy a line card NAM-1/NAM-2 to monitor the packets on the backbone, otherwise, it could has perfomance impact on my backbone.

So I'm confused about what's the truth about this issue,

Is anyone willing to give me a advice?

Thanks a lot!

Below is the information about the NAM line card:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/modules/ps2706/ps5025/index.html

[glen.grant]

We have used NAM's in our network and have determined them to be overpriced and slow performing and generally not worth the money . I don't think I would worry about performance on a 6500 unless you are spanning multiple full vlans at the same time . Use span and someone elses probe and sniffer package to collect the data you are looking for .