3.14. Port Mirroring
Port mirroring copies layer 3 network traffic on a given logical network and host to a virtual interface on a virtual machine. This virtual machine can be used for network debugging and tuning, intrusion detection, and monitoring the behavior of other virtual machines on the same host and logical network.
The only traffic copied is internal to one logical network on one host. There is no increase on traffic on the network external to the host; however a virtual machine with port mirroring enabled uses more host CPU and RAM than other virtual machines.
Port mirroring is enabled or disabled in the vNIC profiles of logical networks, and has the following limitations:
- Hot plugging vNICs with a profile that has port mirroring enabled is not supported.
- Port mirroring cannot be altered when the vNIC profile is attached to a virtual machine.
Given the above limitations, it is recommended that you enable port mirroring on an additional, dedicated vNIC profile.
Important
Enabling port mirroring reduces the privacy of other network users.
