Port mirroring limit on SGE2010?

[gumbyguit]

I have been told there is a limit (8) on the number of source ports that can be mirrored to a given destination port. I can find no specifications or other documentation to corroborate this claim. Does anyone have any factual data to confirm or refute this claim?

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.

[Tom Watts · Accepted solution]

Hi Gumby,  it is correct, there is a limit up to 8. However, as you note, the documentation is scant, in fact the data sheet and admin guide does not say it.

A long time ago, we had a very controversial case, we had a customer very upset because he had an old SRW2048 switch. The old SRW did allow for ALL ports to be used for a SPAN. However, his switch died due to old age and he was given a SG300 switch. The SG300 supports up to 8 for the SPAN as well.

When the customer discovered this, he was quite unhappy... So I did an investigation to find out if any of our switches would behave like the old end of life/ end of sale switch in this regards. The answer was no, including for the SGE/SFE series models.

However, you can also monitor entire VLANs. So it shouldn't be too much of a problem to cover almost as much traffic as you desire.

-Tom
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[gumbyguit]

Tom,

          Thank you so much for your thorough response. To follow up on your VLAN reference. Are you saying that a VLAN could be created that consists of more than 8 ports and then mirroring could be configured to reflect the entire VLAN to a destination port? In case it matters, this question relates to recording VOIP phone calls via a span port.

Thanks again.

[Tom Watts]

You can monitor your entire vlan or a specific port. If you monitor the entire vlan it will capture all traffic for the vlan. For recording voice, may not be a very good idea to do the entire vlan since there wouldn't be a way to really differentiate the streams.

-Tom
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[gumbyguit]

Thanks again Tom. I browsed the SFE/SGE Administration Guide and didn't see a reference to monitoring VLANs. Can you point me to a resource that discusses how to implement what you are talking about?

Thanks in advance.

[Tom Watts]

When I go to work I'll set one up and post screen shots of limitation and capability. Honestly, if you're looking to buy this switch for voice, I wouldn't buy this model. Look in to the SG300 series, if you need stack look in to the SG500. It will be a much better purchase decision.

-Tom
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[Tom Watts]

Hi Gumby, as promised, here is a screen shot.

You are correct as well, the SFE/SGE series also does not support VLAN mirror. So it is strict limit to 8 ports and no flexibility. I would implore you to grab a SX300 or SX500 for much better feature set but also the SFE/SGE is eos/eol.

-Tom
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[gumbyguit]

Thanks again for your help in verifying the capabilities and for your insight on better products for the task at hand.

- GG