GigaStream Traffic Distribution
GigaStream is a GigaVUE-OS fabric service that distributes network traffic across multiple monitoring tool ports. By grouping ports into a logical bundle and keeping related packets together, GigaStream helps teams scale traffic delivery to security and performance monitoring tools as network traffic grows.
What GigaStream Does
GigaStream groups multiple tool ports into a single logical destination. Traffic directed to that destination is shared across the member ports using configured hashing criteria. This helps monitoring capacity scale beyond a single tool port.
With appropriate hashing settings, packets belonging to the same session are sent to the same tool. This preserves the conversation context that security and performance monitoring tools need for analysis. Traffic distribution depends on the selected configuration, flow sizes, and available tool capacity.
Why GigaStream Matters
- Reduce the risk of tool oversubscription: Share traffic across multiple tool instances as monitoring demand grows. Distributing the workload helps reduce pressure on individual ports, while capacity planning remains essential for handling traffic peaks.
- Support security and performance analysis: Keep related packets together so monitoring tools can analyze network conversations with the session context they need.
- Combine traffic selection with load sharing: Use Flow Mapping to select traffic and direct it to a GigaStream destination. GigaStream then distributes that traffic across the ports in the bundle.
- Simplify tool port management: Treat a group of tool ports as one logical destination when configuring traffic delivery, making it easier to expand monitoring capacity within the visibility infrastructure.
GigaStream and Other GigaVUE-OS Fabric Services
GigaStream works alongside other GigaVUE-OS services within the Gigamon Deep Observability Pipeline:
- Flow Mapping: Selects, aggregates, replicates, and forwards traffic using configured map rules, including delivery to GigaStream destinations.
- Clustering: Allows multiple supported GigaVUE nodes to be managed as one logical unit and makes capabilities available across the cluster.
- Inline Bypass: Supports traffic bypass around inline security tools during failures or maintenance, according to the configured deployment and policies.
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Frequently Asked Questions
GigaStream is a traffic distribution and load-sharing service within GigaVUE-OS. It groups multiple ports into a logical bundle and distributes traffic across them. For monitoring deployments, GigaStream provides a single destination that shares traffic across multiple tool ports.
GigaStream shares traffic across multiple tool ports, helping a group of monitoring tools handle workloads beyond the capacity of one port. The resulting distribution depends on hashing settings and traffic patterns. Teams must still size the tool group for expected traffic volumes and peaks; load sharing does not guarantee that packet loss cannot occur.
Session-aware distribution keeps related packets on the same destination tool port when the appropriate hashing criteria are configured. For bidirectional sessions, using source and destination fields helps keep both directions of a conversation together. This provides useful context for security investigations and performance analysis.
Yes. Flow Mapping provides traffic selection, aggregation, and replication within GigaVUE-OS. Selected traffic can be directed to a GigaStream destination, where it is distributed across the member ports. Use these capabilities together to control which traffic reaches each tool group.
GigaStream provides port-bundle load sharing in GigaVUE-OS. GigaSMART Load Balancing distributes traffic processed by GigaSMART and offers additional options, including application-specific stateful balancing and hashing on supported inner packet headers. The appropriate choice depends on the required traffic processing, platform, and licenses. Learn more about GigaSMART Load Balancing.
Ports in a regular GigaStream must operate at the same speed and use compatible port types for the selected configuration. For requirements involving mixed-speed tool ports, evaluate the supported GigaSMART Load Balancing options.
GigaStream runs within GigaVUE-OS on supported platforms. Whether your deployment needs additional hardware depends on the installed appliances, available ports, software support, and required capacity. Confirm those requirements against your existing environment before deployment. For configuration details, see the GigaStream documentation.