VPP SPAN implementation {#span_doc}

This is a memo intended to contain documentation of the VPP SPAN implementation. Everything that is not directly obvious should come here.

Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN)

Port mirroring is used on a network switch to send a copy of network packets seen on one switch port to a network monitoring connection on another switch port. Can be used by network engineers or administrators to measure performnce, analyze and debug data or diagnose errors on a network.

RX traffic node

There is one static node to mirror incomming packets.

  • span-input: Creates a copy of incomming buffer due to incomming buffers can be reused internally.

Chaining: dpdk-input -> span-input ->

  • original buffer is sent to ethernet-input for processing
  • buffer copy is sent to interface-output

Configuration

SPAN supports the following CLI configuration commands:

Enable/Disable SPAN (CLI)

set interface span <if-name> [disable | destination <if-name>]

: mirrored interface name destination : monitoring interface name disable: delete mirroring

Enable/Disabl SPAN (API)

SPAN supports the following API configuration command: sw_interface_span_enable_disable src GigabitEthernet0/8/0 dst GigabitEthernet0/9/0 sw_interface_span_enable_disable src_sw_if_index 1 dst_sw_if_index 2

src/src_sw_if_index: mirrored interface name dst/dst_sw_if_index: monitoring interface name

Remove SPAN entry (API)

SPAN supports the following API configuration command: sw_interface_span_enable_disable src_sw_if_index 1 dst_sw_if_index 2 disable

src_sw_if_index: mirrored interface name dst_sw_if_index: monitoring interface name

Configuration example

Mirror all packets on interface GigabitEthernet0/10/0 to interface GigabitEthernet0/11/0.

Configure IPv4 addresses on mirrored interface: set interface ip address GigabitEthernet0/10/0 192.168.1.13/24 set interface state GigabitEthernet0/10/0 up

Configure IPv4 addresses on monitoring interface: set interface ip address GigabitEthernet0/11/0 192.168.2.13/24 set interface state GigabitEthernet0/11/0 up

Configure SPAN set span src GigabitEthernet0/10/0 dst GigabitEthernet0/11/0

Operational data

Active SPAN mirroring CLI show command: show interfaces span

Active SPAN mirroring API dump command: sw_interface_span_dump