Remote Monitoring

Remote Monitoring (RMON) is a standard monitoring specification that enables various network monitors and console systems to exchange network-monitoring data. RMON provides network administrators with more freedom in selecting network-monitoring probes and consoles with features that meet their particular networking needs. This chapter provides a brief overview of the RMON specification, focusing on RMON groups.

The RMON specification defines a set of statistics and functions that can be exchanged between RMON-compliant console managers and network probes. As such, RMON provides network administrators with comprehensive network-fault diagnosis, planning, and performance-tuning information.

RMON was defined by the user community with the help of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It became a proposed standard in 1992 as RFC 1271 (for Ethernet). RMON then became a draft standard in 1995 as RFC 1757, effectively obsoleting RFC 1271.

Figure 55-1 illustrates an RMON probe capable of monitoring an Ethernet segment and transmitting statistical information back to an RMON-compliant console.