Fibre Channel Probe Appliance
Troubleshoot your SAN without leaving your desk

Fibre Channel Probe Appliance Overview With a Network Instruments Fibre Channel Probe Appliance, solve SAN issues as easily and seamlessly as you do your WAN, LAN, wireless, and gigabit networks. Fibre Channel probe appliances provide a direct link into the data stream, providing an independent, proven, and trusted view of network traffic. Deploy a Fibre Channel probe appliance to add SAN analysis, statistics, trending, and reporting capabilities to any Expert Observer or Observer Suite console.

With an industry-leading 24 GB memory buffer (maximum) and the Gen2 Capture Card, the Fibre Channel probe appliance is the ideal solution for ensuring complete and accurate captures on your SAN.

The Fibre Channel Probe Appliance includes a 64-bit core, maximizing SAN analysis with faster processing and larger capture buffers.

Industry-Leading Performance

• Ensure full-duplex, wire-speed capture on Fibre Channel links
• Capture large amounts without packet loss with a 24 GB buffer
• Monitor up to two full-duplex links independently or in aggregate
• Gain visibility into trunked links
• Localised data processing at the probe minimises network overhead

Real-Time Analysis

• Obtain SAN metrics in real time such as top communicating disk subsystems, protocol distribution, and error counts
• Solve issues immediately with a comprehensive Expert system
• Utilise network trending and reporting features such as comparison reports and web-based reporting

Transparency with an ntap™

• Insert and remove the probe without network disruption
• Acquire an independent view of SAN data flow
• Eliminate dependence on a SPAN or mirror port
• Ensure full-duplex, wire-speed passive analysis

Easy-to-Deploy

• 4U rack-mountable unit
• Fits seamlessly into the Network Instruments Distributed Network Analysis (NI-DNA™) architecture
• Reports back to the award-winning Observer Expert and Observer Suite console
• Configure as a local console for on-site analysis

Includes an ntap to Ensure Complete Full-Duplex Captures
The analyser's functionality includes full-duplex, wire-speed gigabit analysis for optical fiber networks. All configurations of the Fibre Channel Probe Appliance include an ntap that provides a copy of all Fibre Channel traffic to the analyser. The ntap splits the optical signal, providing one signal to the network and the other signal to the analyser. With an ntap, the network flow remains unaltered and uninterrupted.

For targeted analysis, the Fibre Channel Probe Appliance can also connect to ntaps that are permanently deployed on the network. Once an ntap is inserted into the Fibre Channel connection, the Fibre Channel probe can be attached or removed without interruption of the signal.

Utilise with Observer Expert and Observer Suite
The Fibre Channel Probe Appliance works with the award-winning Observer Expert and Observer Suite console to provide the most comprehensive packet-capture, decode, real-time statistics, expert analysis, network trending, and network reporting in the industry.

Observer features include:

• Nanosecond resolution for enterprise-level networks
• Graphical filter rule editor for creating complex filters effortlessly
• Over 550 protocol and countless sub-protocol decodes
• Over 570 Expert events to speed troubleshooting
• Triggers and Alarms for immediate alerts on activities or errors (See the Video)
• Application analysis statistics including response time and total/failed transactions for common applications such as SQL, MS Exchange, Oracle, Citrix, VoIP, and DNS

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