How the CA Standard Monitor Works

Monitoring with a CA Standard Monitor › How a CA Standard Monitor Works as a Monitoring Device › How the CA Standard Monitor Works

How the CA Standard Monitor Works

As shown in the following diagram, a CA Standard Monitor can receive and process performance data from several sources, including the:

Packets monitor feed, which receives IPv4-based TCP packets on the monitor NIC from a SPAN or mirror port, or from a network tap, processes the data through the CA Standard Monitor, calculates and sends response time statistics to the management console for display in reports. We recommend local SPAN from the host switch for best results.
GigaStor monitor feed, which receives packet digest files on the management NIC from a CA GigaStor, processes the IPv4-based TCP header information, and sends the response time statistics to the management console for display in reports.
Steelhead monitor feed, which receives IPv4 Steelhead-optimized packets from a Steelhead appliance.
WAN Opt monitor feed, which receives packet digest files from IPv4 Cisco WAE devices.

Based on the list of application ports, servers, and client networks you specify, the monitor creates response time statistics for all the matching server-application-network traffic it observes. The management console uses this information to automatically monitor the busiest TCP applications on each server. You can also define the applications you want to monitor and then load this configuration on the CA Standard Monitor.

The management console evaluates the response time metrics from all monitoring devices to assign the best monitor feed to each server, and to monitor the busiest TCP applications on each server.

If you want to configure a CA Standard Monitor to receive packet digests from a CA GigaStor, we recommend that you do not configure the monitor to simultaneously receive mirrored packets.

Shows how the CA GigaStor works as a monitoring device for CA Application Delivery Analysis.

Note that a Standalone management console receives mirrored TCP packets on its Packets monitor feed.

More information:

Managing Applications

How Monitor Feed Assignment Works