Monitoring with a NI GigaStor › How a NI GigaStor Works as a Monitoring Device › Monitoring Device Considerations

Monitoring Device Considerations

When using a NI GigaStor as a monitoring device, keep in mind:

• Typically, a CA Technical Representative helps you mirror TCP traffic to a monitoring device.

  Note: For information about data acquisition best practices, see the Installation Guide.

• When configuring the management console to perform a packet capture investigation on a NI GigaStor, you do not need to specify:
  • The maximum file size. The maximum file size is not applicable because the NI GigaStor captures and stores all packets, so there is no capture file. The packet capture investigation creates a NI Observer Expert filter to display the packets you want.
  • The number of bytes per packet. The NI GigaStor captures the entire packet.
• To limit access to the potentially sensitive contents of the capture, grant a user permission to a passive probe instance on the NI GigaStor.
• A NI GigaStor automatically monitors matching application traffic based on the client networks, server subnets, and port exclusions that are defined on the management console.
• The GigaStor Connector does not store packet digest files, therefore, if the GigaStor Connector cannot communicate with its assigned CA Standard Monitor or CA Multi-Port Monitor, the management console reports missing data. However, the NI GigaStor constantly captures TCP packets and you can use NI Observer Expert to view the data on the NI GigaStor.
• The management console cannot monitor the performance of a Web application using the TCP-based performance data from the GigaStor Connector. The performance data from the GigaStor Connector does not include the HTTP header information required to determine the associated URL for a Web application.

  To enable the management console to monitor a Web application with a NI GigaStor appliance, define a Standard application to monitor all TCP-80 traffic, or use NI Observer Expert to monitor the Web application.