Configuring sFlow
sFlow is a traffic monitoring technology.
As shown in Figure 90, the sFlow system involves an sFlow agent embedded in a device and a remote sFlow collector. The sFlow agent collects interface counter information and packet information and encapsulates the sampled information in sFlow packets. When the sFlow packet buffer is full, or the aging timer (fixed to 1 second) expires, the sFlow agent performs the following actions:
Encapsulates the sFlow packets in the UDP datagrams.
Sends the UDP datagrams to the specified sFlow collector.
The sFlow collector analyzes the information and displays the results. One sFlow collector can monitor multiple sFlow agents.
sFlow provides the following sampling mechanisms:
Flow sampling—Obtains packet information.
Counter sampling—Obtains interface counter information.
Figure 90: sFlow system
