Ixia introduced its Packet Capture Module (PCM), the newest addition to its Visibility Architecture, which provides network engineers with the ability to capture and quickly analyze packets associated with service outages and establish root cause.
Designed to take advantage of the single plane of glass user interface (UI), the packet capture and decode capabilities enable users to troubleshoot performance, security and availability problems. This combination results in a faster mean time to resolution (MTTR) when problems occur.
The PCM is a 48 x 10GE interface card designed for Ixia’s NTO 7300 network packet broker. The PCM enables users to capture traffic manually or to specify a trigger event for network recording, and its circular buffering window automatically retains a configurable amount of packets that both precede and follow any trigger point. The captured files are then stored on the chassis and can be opened on the user’s PC using a third party decoder, or securely transferred to an external location. The UI also offers a built-in decoder allowing users to quickly view and recognize network problems and events without exiting Ixia’s user interface.
“Users expect more from their network every day. Being able to identify and resolve network availability problems is critical to ensuring user quality of experience,” said Scott Register, Senior Director of Product Management for Ixia. “Ixia’s new Packet Capture Module provides network engineers with the ability to quickly capture and evaluate symptomatic traffic for a faster mean time to resolution.”
Key Features:
- Packet capture capability at full 40 GbE line rate with built-in decode functionality.
- Total storage capacity of up to 84GB.
- Individual capture capacity of up to 14 GB.
- Sliding sampling window is buffered to capture pre-event information.
- Onboard and off-board PCAP storage options.
- Feature enabled by drag and drop in the NTO GUI
- Role-based access to packet capture is automatically assigned.
- Packet captures can be initiated manually, via API, or event triggered.
- Extensive list of trigger fields including MAC address, VLAN, Ethernet type, IP address, MPLS label, IP Protocol, TCP control and Layer 4 port.
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