Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Network Infrastructure,  Xsan

Configure sFlows on a Brocade 8470

sFlow is an industry standard that allows network equipment with the appropriate agents to send data to sFlow collectors, which then analyze network traffic. You can install sFlow on routers, switches, and even put agents on servers to monitor traffic. Brocade (along with most other switch manufacturers) supports sFlow.

Before you do anything log into the switch and check the current flow configuration:

show sFlow

To configure, log into the switch and use the the int command to access an interface. From within the interface, use the following command:

sflow forwarding

Then exit the interface using the very difficult to remember exit command:

exit

Repeat the enablement of forwarding for any other necessary interfaces. Next, we’ll configure a few globals that would be true across all interfaces. The first is the destination address, done using the destination verb followed by the IP and then the port (I’m using the default 6343 port for sFlow):

sflow destination 192.168.210.87 6343

Set the sample rate:

sflow sample 512

Set the polling interval:

sflow polling-interval 30

Finally, enable sFlow:

sflow enable