2-12 RMON ConfigurationWhen configuring RMON, go to these sections for information you are interested in:z Introduction to RMONz RMON Configurationz Displaying RMONz RMON Configuration ExampleIntroduction to RMONRemote Monitoring (RMON) is a kind of MIB defined by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It is animportant enhancement made to MIB II standards. RMON is mainly used to monitor the data trafficacross a network segment or even the entire network, and is currently a commonly used networkmanagement standard.An RMON system comprises of two parts: the network management station (NMS) and the agentsrunning on network devices. RMON agents operate on network monitors or network probes to collectand keep track of the statistics of the traffic across the network segments to which their ports connect,such as the total number of the packets on a network segment in a specific period of time and the totalnumber of packets successfully sent to a specific host.z RMON is fully based on SNMP architecture. It is compatible with the current SNMPimplementations.z RMON enables SNMP to monitor remote network devices more effectively and actively, thusproviding a satisfactory means of monitoring remote subnets.z With RMON implemented, the communication traffic between NMS and SNMP agents can bereduced, thus facilitating the management of large-scale internetworks.Working Mechanism of RMONRMON allows multiple monitors. It can collect data in the following two ways:z Using the dedicated RMON probes. When an RMON system operates in this way, the NMS directlyobtains management information from the RMON probes and controls the network resources. Inthis case, all information in the RMON MIB can be obtained.z Embedding RMON agents into network devices (such as routers, switches and hubs) directly tomake the latter capable of RMON probe functions. When an RMON system operates in this way,the NMS collects network management information by exchanging information with the SNMPagents using the basic SNMP commands. However, this way depends on device resources heavilyand an NMS operating in this way can only obtain the information about these four groups (insteadof all the information in the RMON MIB): alarm group, event group, history group, and statisticsgroup.A Switch 5500-EI implements RMON in the second way. With an RMON agent embedded in, A Switch5500-EI can serve as a network device with the RMON probe function. Through the RMON-capableSNMP agents running on the Ethernet switch, an NMS can obtain the information about the total traffic,
