3Com 1100 - Manual (Page 206)

206 C HAPTER 10: RMON
Benefits of RMON Using the RMON features of your Switch has three main advantages:
■
It improves your efficiency
Using RMON probes allows you to remain at one workstation and
collect information from widely dispersed LAN segments or VLANs.
This means that the time taken to reach a problem site, set up
equipment, and begin collecting information is largely eliminated.
■
It allows you to manage your network in a more proactive
manner
If they are configured correctly, RMON probes deliver information
before problems occur. This means that you can take action before
they affect users. In addition, probes record the behavior of your
network, so that you can analyze the causes of problems.
■
It reduces the load on the network and the management
workstation
Traditional network management involves a management workstation
polling network devices at regular intervals to gather statistics and
identify problems or trends. As network sizes and traffic levels grow,
this approach places a strain on the management workstation and
also generates large amounts of traffic.
An RMON probe, however, autonomously looks at the network on
behalf of the management workstation without affecting the
characteristics and performance of the network. The probe reports by
exception, which means that it only informs the management
workstation when the network has entered an abnormal state.