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acsuser
New Member
March 24, 2015
Solved

Port mirroring

  • March 24, 2015
  • 13 replies
  • 63176 views

Hi I am looking for a Fortigate with port mirroring functionality and i cant find any information about what models can do this, can the 60d do this or do i need to look for a bigger appliance? 

 

Thanks

    Best answer by neonbit

    The Fotinet Feature/Platform Matrix shows which devices have hardware switches:

     

    http://docs.fortinet.com/d/fortigate-fortios-5.6-feature-platform-matrix

     

    13 replies

    Adrian_Buckley_FTNT
    Staff
    Staff
    March 24, 2015

    That feature requires a Hardware switch and 5.2+ firmware. So any model that has a hardware switch (not a software based switch) can do port span.

    I think there was some 5.0.x experimentation with allowing the feature on software switches.  However, when you think about that it's pretty easy to see why it could fail fairly spectacularly when under load.

     

    Some of the lower end models (like the 60D) have a built in switch, but the internal controls are done via software.  Larger devices (like the 100D) have packet control of the switch handled through hardware.  I'm not sure about devices in between like the 90D but I'm fairly sure those are software.  So you probably need a 100D or larger device, with a built in switch.

     

     

    Shawn_W
    New Member
    March 24, 2015

    From the FortiOS CLI reference, under system > switch-interface:

    config system switch-interface
    edit <group_name>
    set member <iflist>
    set span {enable | disable}
    set span-dest-port <portnum>
    set span-direction {rx | tx | both}
    set span-source-port <portlist>
    set type {hub | switch | hardware-switch}
    set vdom <vdom_name>
    end
    acsuser
    acsuserAuthor
    New Member
    March 24, 2015

    Thanks Shawn, what appliance range is this for?

     

    Shawn W wrote:

    From the FortiOS CLI reference, under system > switch-interface:

    config system switch-interface
    edit <group_name>
    set member <iflist>
    set span {enable | disable}
    set span-dest-port <portnum>
    set span-direction {rx | tx | both}
    set span-source-port <portlist>
    set type {hub | switch | hardware-switch}
    set vdom <vdom_name>
    end

    Shawn_W
    New Member
    March 24, 2015

    I am not certain.  I found this in the FortiOS CLI Reference for FortiOS 5.0

    Adrian_Buckley_FTNT
    Staff
    Staff
    March 24, 2015

    As i mentioned 5.0 allowed this for software switches as well.  That's a bad idea since high CPU levels cause dropped packets. 

    5.2+ won't allow the feature to be used on a device with a software switch, so if you don't get the right device you might wind up not being able to upgrade.

    emnoc
    New Member
    March 25, 2015

    Take Adrian advice.

     

    The cmds do exist even on the lower end models which is misleading btw ( 5.2.x ), and it will not allow you to select any ports after the enabling  span.

     

    Also with the  span activity it's against "real ports" vrs  virtual interfaces. So keep this in mind if you have  vlan-interface, tunnels,etc....

     

    As far as CPU impact even the larger chassis has shown a slight uptick in CPU usage from my experience.

     

     

     

    acsuser
    acsuserAuthor
    New Member
    March 25, 2015

    OK then i think a separate aggregation tap is required!

     

    emnoc wrote:

    Take Adrian advice.

     

    The cmds do exist even on the lower end models which is misleading btw ( 5.2.x ), and it will not allow you to select any ports after the enabling  span.

     

    Also with the  span activity it's against "real ports" vrs  virtual interfaces. So keep this in mind if you have  vlan-interface, tunnels,etc....

     

    As far as CPU impact even the larger chassis has shown a slight uptick in CPU usage from my experience.

     

     

     

    Lionel_Orishane
    New Member
    April 17, 2016

    Hi Experts,

     

    I'm considering a scenario to SPAN traffic on the FortiGate, then have it sent to an attached pcap analyzer application (like Deep Discovery Inspector appliance) to analyze the packet for deeper visibility.

     

    Kindly advise with your expertise. 

     

    Regards,

    Lionel

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