Operation Manual – sFlowH3C S5500-EI Series Ethernet Switches Chapter 1 sFlow Configuration1-1Chapter 1 sFlow ConfigurationWhen configuring sFlow, go to these sections for information you are interested in:z sFlow Overviewz Configuring sFlowz Displaying sFlowz sFlow Configuration Examplez Troubleshooting sFlow Configuration1.1 sFlow Overview1.1.1 Introduction to sFlowBased on packet sampling, Sampled Flow (sFlow) is a traffic monitoring technologymainly used to collect and analyze traffic statistics.sFlow has the following two sampling mechanisms:z Packet-based sampling: Samples one packet out of a specified number of packetsfrom an sFlow enabled port.z Time-based sampling: Samples interface statistics at a specified interval from ansFlow enabled port.The sFlow system involves an sFlow agent embedded in a device and a remote sFlowcollector. The sFlow agent collects traffic from the sFlow enabled ports, encapsulatesthe information into sFlow packets, and sends the packets to the sFlow collector. ThesFlow collector analyzes the sFlow packets and displays the results.As a traffic monitoring technology, sFlow has the following advantages:z Supports traffic monitoring on Gigabit and higher-speed networks.z Provides scalability with one sFlow collector monitoring multiple or more sFlowagents.z Implements the low-cost sFlow agent.Note:Currently, only the sFlow agent function is supported on S5500-EI Series EthernetSwitches.
