Introduction
This link describes the recent features of the Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) that have been implemented. The SPAN feature, which is sometimes called port mirroring or port monitoring, selects network traffic for analysis by a network analyzer. The network analyzer can be a Cisco SwitchProbe device or other Remote Monitoring (RMON) probe. Previously, SPAN was a relatively basic feature on the Cisco Catalyst Series switches. However, the latest releases of the Catalyst OS (CatOS) introduced great enhancements and many new possibilities that are now available to the user. This link is not intended to be an alternate configuration guide for the SPAN feature. This link answers the most common questions about SPAN, such as:
- What is SPAN and how do you configure it?
- What are the different features available (especially multiple, simultaneous SPAN sessions), and what software level is necessary in order to run them?
- Does SPAN affect switch performance?