Cloud Probe deployment use cases

The Cloud Probe captures web traffic passing through the network and sends information to the Real User Collector so the BMC Real End User Experience Monitoring Software Edition can monitor applications that are deployed on premises, or in a public cloud environment, such as Amazon EC2, a private data center, or a hybrid deployment.

The Cloud Probe's deployment in your system depends on several factors. The placement is determined by where the traffic is visible to the Cloud Probe, and how the Cloud Probe connects to the Real User Collector. By design, a Cloud Probe sends data to only one Collector, but a Collector can receive data from several Cloud Probes. You must plan the placement of the Cloud Probes and the recipient Collectors so that you know which Collector instance connects to each Cloud Probe.

You can also install a Cloud Probe directly onto a Linux or Windows operating system to provide passive real end-user monitoring capabilities in environments where network taps or spanning ports are not accessible.

The following examples describe the typical deployment methods in which a Cloud Probe, or several Cloud Probes, can be connected to a Real User Collector.

Cloud Probe on a dedicated system

The Cloud Probe is installed on a dedicated Windows or Linux computer. The Cloud Probe captures the web traffic through a network tap or an appliance that supports a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnel.

Cloud Probe deployment with a network tap

You can install the Cloud Probe on a dedicated Windows or Linux computer. As shown in the following illustration, this deployment uses a network tap to capture the traffic.

With a network tap, the Promiscuous Mode must be enabled so that the Cloud Probe can capture all of the traffic that passes through the network. If the Promiscuous Mode is disabled, the Cloud Probe only captures the traffic going in or out of the system on which it is hosted.

For additional information about using a Cloud Probe with a tapping point, see Traffic-capture-and-tapping-points-for-BMC-Real-End-User-Experience-Monitoring-Software-Edition.

Network tap deployment option for the Cloud Probe

cp_dedSystem.vsd.png

Note

Promiscuous mode traffic capture is not possible with a Hyper-V host because the Virtual Switch (vSwitch) will not forward packets to a virtual machine unless it has the machine's MAC address as a destination.

To deploy a Real User Collector on Hyper-V host, you must use a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnel to encapsulate and carry the traffic.

Cloud Probe deployment with a GRE tunnel

The Cloud Probe captures mirrored traffic through a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnel. The GRE tunneling protocol encapsulates a wide variety of network layer protocols inside a virtual point-to-point link over an Internet Protocol network.

This deployment is useful when the Cloud Probe cannot be connected directly to a tap or a mirror port of a network appliance. If your network appliance supports functioning as a GRE source, the Cloud Probe can run on a remote dedicated system and deliver mirrored traffic encapsulated over IP protocol.

GRE tunnel deployment option for the Cloud Probe

Cloud Probe on a load balancer

It is possible to use a load balancer as a tap point by installing the Cloud Probe on the system that provides the load-balancing operations for the application. It is not necessary to enable the Promiscuous Mode/Accept with this deployment.

To install the Cloud Probe on a load-balancing system:

You must have access to install the Cloud Probe on the load balancer.
The load balancer must use an operating system supported by the Cloud Probe.

Load balancer deployment option for the Cloud Probe

Cloud Probe on a web server

You can install the Cloud Probe on your web servers. This approach requires resources from the web server. If you adopt this deployment option:

You must install the Real User Cloud Probe on each web server
You do not need to enable the Promiscuous Mode/Accept with this deployment

Web server deployment option for the Cloud Probe

For information on preparing the network interface card (NIC) for traffic capture, see Setting-up-the-monitored-NIC-for-the-Cloud-Probe-in-a-Linux-system.