Ethereal-users: Re: [Ethereal-users] Capturing FC Traffic

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From: Ian Schorr <ethereal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 17:24:27 -0500
I believe this is the box I was thinking of in my last email.

The trick in this case is to get the traffic TO the Port Analyzer properly. The problem here is that the PA only has a single receive line, and the only system that I'm aware of that will aggregate bi-directional FC traffic onto a single line is the MDS SPAN feature.

I suppose you *might* be able to use passive optical splitters, plus two of these boxes, then capture the two different streams with an Ethernet packet sniffer, but I'm not sure how passive the PA is. If it requires a login before capturing, for example, this won't work.

Ian

On Nov 4, 2004, at 4:42 PM, Alan Emery wrote:

Depending on the infrastructure, there may be another solution. For example, the Cisco MDS 9000 has a Port Analyzer Adapter that converts fiber channel frames received via a span port to a format that is readable by Ethereal. A good illustration of this is available on the Cisco site at the following URL. http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/ps4159/ps4358/ products_installation_and_configuration_guide09186a00801dea26.html

 Alan Emery
 ademery@xxxxxxxxxx

 <image.tiff>Guy Harris <gharris@xxxxxxxxx>




Guy Harris <gharris@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: ethereal-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx

11/04/2004 01:03 PM

Please respond to
 Ethereal user support

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To
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Ethereal user support <ethereal-users@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

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Subject
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Re: [Ethereal-users] Capturing FC Traffic

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> Are there plans for feature to capture FC/HBA Traffic through ethereal?

We don't really have firm plans for much of *anything* in Ethereal - and
 that particular feature depends more on code Ethereal uses, namely
 libpcap and the OS code that it would use, and we don't have control
 over that.

If support for that is added to any OSes that support Fibre Channel, so that libpcap could capture traffic received by and sent on an FC adapter
 on a machine, then we could make Ethereal capture that (although "we"
would include somebody with access to a machine running that OS and a FC
 adapter).

 > Can it be done right now w/ ethereal?

 No.

 > If not, what other options one has
 > to capture info from server side for FC traffic w/o buying expensive
 > Fabric Analyzer?

 I don't know.  There might not be any other options.

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