Shark Appliance Frequently Asked Questions
- What is a Shark Appliance?
- What can a Shark Appliance do?
- What is the Shark Distributed Monitoring System?
- What is Pilot Console?
- Does Pilot Console come with my Shark Appliance?
- There are multiple types of Shark Appliances, which one is best for my enterprise?
- What is the Shark Appliance SA-104?
- How is the Shark Appliance SA-104 configured?
- What is the Shark Appliance SA-208?
- How is the Shark Appliance SA-208 configured?
- Where do I put my Shark Appliance?
- What is the Shark Packet Recorder?
- How many Shark Appliances can I use with my Pilot Console?
The Shark Appliance is a purpose built packet capture appliance that has been optimized and tested running our Shark Appliance Software using the TurboCap™ GbE network capture boards.
The Shark Appliance includes the Shark Packet Recorder, a customized packet capture application for high fidelity, multi-gigabit per second network traffic recording. It is designed to provide full packet capture at GbE line speed with zero packet loss.
The Shark Distributed Monitoring System provides a complete enterprise-wide solution for increased network visibility through live traffic monitoring, full-line-rate data capture, real-time and historical traffic analysis, monitoring, and reporting from multiple locations.
Please read more about the SDMS at http://www.cacetech.com/products/sdms.html.
The Pilot Console is an enhanced version of CACE Pilot that seamlessly and securely interfaces with one or more Shark Appliances to display, drill down into, rewind, alert, and report on, network traffic captured by the Appliances.
Pilot Console is sold separately. Please read more about Pilot Console at http://www.cacetech.com/products/pilot_console.html
There are two turnkey Shark Appliances available, the SA-104 and SA-208. The best solution for your enterprise depends on your network data traffic and the amount of storage needed for real-time and retrospective analysis.
The Shark Appliance SA-104 is a rack-mount 1U server with 4 Terabytes storage. It arrives as a fully configured server that includes one 2-port TurboCap™ GbE board for network traffic capture.
The SA-104 runs our Shark Packet Recorder software on an optimized Fedora® 10.
| Form Factor | 1U |
| Processors | 2 x Intel Nehalem Quad Core E5520 2.26Ghz |
| Memory | 6GB |
| DVD-ROM | 1 |
| File system | 500GB (7200 rpm) |
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| Shark Packet Recorder Storage System | |
| RAID Controller | Hardware RAID level 0 (8-lane PCIe) |
| Storage | 4 x 1TB (SATAII, 7200 rpm) |
| Packet Capture | 1 x 2port TurboCap GbE board (4-lane PCIe) |
| Mgmt NICs | 2 built-in GbE copper ports |
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The Shark Appliance SA-208 is a rack-mount 2U server with 8 Terabytes storage. It arrives as a fully configured server that includes two TurboCap™ boards for network traffic capture.
The SA-108 runs our Shark Packet Recorder software on an optimized Fedora 10.
| Form Factor | 2U |
| Processors | 2 x Intel Nehalem Quad Core E5520 2.26Ghz |
| Memory | 12GB |
| DVD-ROM | 1 |
| File system | 500GB (7200 rpm) |
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| Shark Packet Recorder Storage System | |
| RAID Controller | Hardware RAID level 0 (8-lane PCIe) |
| Storage | 8 x 1TB (SATAII, 7200 rpm) |
| Packet Capture | 2 x 2port TurboCap GbE board (4-lane PCIe) |
| Mgmt NICs | 2 built-in GbE copper ports |
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Shark Appliances are designed for placement at strategic points throughout your network that provide access to your mission-critical data. You need to use taps or configure span ports at these locations to ensure you have the visibility necessary for global monitoring and troubleshooting.
The Shark Appliance includes a “dump-to-disk” facility called the Shark Packet Recorder which uses a new approach for dealing with high-speed and/or long-duration traffic capture scenarios. CACE Technologies’ Packet Recorder is based on an optimized packet data store that eliminates the need for file rotation schemes.