VMWARE VSPHERE 6.

7: OPTIMIZE AND SCALE

Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

Document Version: 2020-01-02

Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc.

www.netdevgroup.com

NETLAB Academy Edition, NETLAB Professional Edition, and NETLAB+ are registered trademarks of Network Development Group, Inc.

VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc.

Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 3
Objectives............................................................................................................................ 3
Lab Topology....................................................................................................................... 4
Lab Settings ......................................................................................................................... 5
1 Prepare to Capture Mirrored Network Traffic............................................................ 6
2 Configure Port Mirroring on the Distributed Switch. ............................................... 14
3 Verify That Port Mirroring Is Capturing Traffic ......................................................... 21
4 Restore the Distributed Switch Configuration.......................................................... 22

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Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

Introduction

In this lab, you will configure port mirroring on a Distributed Switch and capture traffic.

Objectives

 Prepare to capture mirrored network traffic

 Configure port mirroring on the Distributed Switch
 Verify that port mirroring is capturing traffic
 Restore the Distributed Switch configuration

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Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

Lab Topology

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Lab Settings

The information in the table below will be needed in order to complete the lab. The
task sections below provide details on the use of this information.

Virtual Machine IP Address Account Password

sa-esxi-01 eth0: 172.20.10.51 root Train1ng$

sa-esxi-02 eth0: 172.20.10.52 root Train1ng$

sa-esxi-03 eth0: 172.20.10.53 root Train1ng$

sa-aio eth0: 172.20.10.10 sysadmin vmware123

sa-student eth0: 172.20.10.80 sysadmin vmware123

sa-vcsa eth0: 172.20.10.94 [email protected] vmware123

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Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

1 Prepare to Capture Mirrored Network Traffic

In this task, you will use the Linux01 virtual machine to capture and monitor mirrored
traffic.

1. Launch the sa-student virtual machine to access the graphical login screen.
2. Log in as sysadmin using the password vmware123.

3. Launch the Mozilla Firefox web browser by either clicking on the icon shortcut
found on the bottom toolbar or by navigating to Start Menu > Internet > Firefox
Web Browser.

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Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

4. Notice the homepage is automatically configured to load the URL address of the
VMware vCenter Server Appliance (sa-vcsa virtual machine). Click on the Launch
vSphere Client (HTML5) button to launch the HTML5-based vSphere client.

If you cannot successfully load the VMware Getting Started webpage,

then please wait an additional 3-4 minutes and refresh the page to
continue. During this time, the vCSA is still booting up and requires
extra time to initialize.

5. In the User name text field, type [email protected] and in the Password text
field, type vmware123. Click on Login.

You may ignore the “browser-OS combination” warning message

presented on the VMware vCenter Single Sign-On page and continue
moving forward with the lab.

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6. In the navigator pane, click on the Hosts and Clusters tab and expand the
Datacenter object.

7. Expand sa-esxi-01.vclass.local host object.

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Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

8. Right-click on Linux01 and select Power > Power On.

9. Right-click on Linux01 and select Open Remote Console.

It is strongly advised to only utilize the remote console option and not
the web console as problems may arise when attempting to open a
virtual machine’s console through the web console.

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Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

10. When Linux01 is booted up, log in as root with the password VMware1!.

11. In the Linux01 console, enter tcpdump -nn icmp at the command prompt and press
the Enter key.

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Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

12. Switch back to the vSphere Client tab, leaving Linux01 running.

13. Right-click on Linux02 and select Power > Power On.

14. Right-click Linux02 and click on Open Remote Console.

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Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

It is strongly advised to only utilize the remote console option and not
the web console as problems may arise when attempting to open a
virtual machine’s console through the web console.

15. Wait until Linux02 is fully booted up, then log in as root with the password VMware1!.

16. At the Linux02 command prompt, enter ping 172.20.10.10 and press the Enter key.

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Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

17. Switch back to the Linux01 window. You will need to press Ctrl+Alt to release the
mouse control from the remote console.

18. If the Linux01 console is black, press any key to see the output. Notice no traffic has
been captured.

19. Press Ctrl+Alt to release the mouse control from the remote console and then
switch back to the vSphere Client tab.

20. Leave vSphere Client open to continue with the next task.

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Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

2 Configure Port Mirroring on the Distributed Switch.

In this task, you will configure port mirroring on the Distributed Switch.

1. Select Networking from the Menu drop-down menu.

2. Expand the Datacenter and select dvs-Lab.

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3. Right-click dvs-Lab and select Settings > Export Configuration.

4. In the Export Configuration window, make sure the Distributed switch and all port
groups checkbox is selected and click OK.

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5. In the Firefox download dialog box, select Save File and click OK.

6. With dvs-Lab selected, click the Configure tab in the right pane and select Port
Mirroring on the left.

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Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

7. Click the New button.

8. In the Add Port Mirroring Session window, at the Select session type step, leave
Distributed Port Mirroring checked and click Next.

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Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

9. On the Edit properties step, select Enabled for Status and Allowed for the Normal
I/O on destination ports drop-down menus and click Next.

10. On the Select sources step, click the Select distributed ports to add to this port
mirroring session icon.

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Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

11. Select Linux02 and click OK.

12. Click Next to move to the next step.

13. On the Select Destinations step, click the Select distributed ports to add to this port
mirroring session icon.

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Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

14. In the Select Ports window, select Linux01 and click OK.

15. Click Next to continue to the next step.

16. Click Finish on the Ready to Complete step.

17. Leave vSphere Client open to continue with the next task.

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Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

3 Verify That Port Mirroring Is Capturing Traffic

In this task, you will verify that port mirroring is capturing traffic.

1. Switch to the Linux01 window.

2. If there is a blank screen, put your pointer on the console of Linux01, click, then
press any key to see the output. You should see ICMP echo requests and replies.

3. Switch to the vSphere Client tab.

4. Leave vSphere Client open to continue with the next task.

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Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

4 Restore the Distributed Switch Configuration

In this task, you will restore the Distributed Switch configuration.

1. Right-click dvs-Lab and select Settings > Restore Configuration.

2. On the Restore switch configuration window, select Browse.

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3. In the File Upload window, select the Downloads folder, then select backup.zip and
click the Open button.

4. Leave Restore distributed switch and all port groups checked and click Next.

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Lab 2: Using Port Mirroring

5. On the Ready to complete step, click Finish.

6. Verify the restore was successful by selecting dvs-Lab, Configure, Port Mirroring,
and the port mirroring session is gone.

7. The lab is now complete; you may end the reservation.

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