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HowSolarWindsPacketAnalysisSensorsWork
SolarWindsprovidestwotypesofPacketAnalysisSensorstomonitorand
analyzeyournetworktraffic.
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PacketAnalysisSensorsforNetworks(networksensor)—collectand
analyzepacketdatathatflowthroughasingle,monitoredswitchforupto50
discreteapplicationspernode
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PacketAnalysisSensorforServers(serversensor)—collectandanalyze
packetdataofspecificapplicationsthatflowthroughasinglenode
Afterasensorisdeployedandconfigured,itcapturespacketsandanalyzesthem
tocalculateperformancemetricsforthemonitoredapplications.Anincluded
communicationagentallowsthesensortosendbacksampledpacketdatatothe
Orionserver,whichincludesvolume,transactions,applicationresponsetime,and
networkresponsetimeforeachapplicationonanode.Thepacketdataarethen
savedtotheOriondatabase.TheinformationisusedtopopulateyourQoE
dashboard.Youcanconfigurehowlongyouretainthepacketdatainthe
DatabaseSettingssectionofthePollingSettingsscreen.
NetworkPacketAnalysisSensor(NPAS)
YournetworkadministratormustcreateadedicatedSPAN,mirrorport,
orin-linetapmonitoronthephysicalorvirtualswitchbeforeyoucan
deployorconfigureanetworksensor.
Afteryoudeployandconfigurethenetworksensortothenodemonitoringthe
switch,thesensorcapturesallpacketsthatflowthroughtheswitchandquickly
categorizethepacketsbyapplication.
PacketsthatcorrespondtomonitoredapplicationsareanalyzedforQualityof
Experiencemetrics,suchasresponsetimesortrafficvolume.Dataarethensent
totheOrionserverusingtheSolarWindscommunicationagent.
ServerPacketAnalysisSensor(SPAS)
Aserversensor(SPAS)canmonitor:
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HowSolarWindsPacketAnalysisSensorsWork