Monitoring the network

[badro]

we have in our orgniztion 40 HP4000 switches scatered around the compus and one hp9304 switching router as the core switch I would like to install softwre to monitor the network so what is the best loction to connect the tool. Is there any point to configure port miroring in this case.
thanks

[Matt Hobbs]

Hi badro,

Give ProCurve Manager Plus a try. You can use the evaluation version for 30 days.

http://www.hp.com/rnd/software/network_management.htm

You don't need to configure port mirroring for this to work, it will go out and discover your network devices as long as the right snmp community name has been set.

[Sergej Gurenko]

If you want to connect sniffer (appliance or PC software) to you network you need to find a right place. The place is depends on what do you want to sniff/troubleshoot. If you want to troubleshot internet connections SPAN you Internet VLAN/ports. If you want to sniff/troubleshoot client to server farm communications SPAN somewhere near servers. If you want to troubleshoot remote switch SPAN uplink port (on the remote switch) or port on the 9304. If you have totally flat structure and want to evaluate broadcast and other scrap traffic - it is does not matter where to connect sniffer.

If you want to monitor switch port utilization use PCM+ (it is adwised earlier)

SPAN - Cisco term Switch Port Analyzer == Port miroring