Question

A number of security devices can be placed at appropriate places in the network architecture to address certain level of security. In reference to this context, explain how a switch can be configured to monitor traffic flowing along its ports.

Answer 1

The SPAN feature available in Switches can be used to monitor the traffic flowing along its ports.

SPAN monitors traffic flow through Fibre channel port which when in SD port mode can allow monitoring of SPAN traffic while Fibre channel analyser attached to it.

To monitor traffic flow using ports:

Step 1. First, The SD port should be configured on the switch.

Step 2. Attaching the configured SD port to a particular SPAN session.

Step 3. Start Monitoring traffic flow by adding source interface to the session.