Passive Monitor

rvtrace is a passive monitor. It neither uses nor interferes with Rendezvous daemon processes. rvtrace does not add any packet traffic to the network.

rvtrace does not require a Rendezvous daemon for its operation. Instead, it collects network packets using the pcap facility.

Performance Effects

Warning 

Although rvtrace is a passive monitor, it opens the network device in promiscuous mode, which consumes CPU and network resources on its host computer (in proportion to total network traffic). Running rvtrace on the same computer as any Rendezvous daemon (rvd or routing daemon) indirectly affects the operation of the local daemon by consuming these resources. Running rvd and rvtrace together on the same computer changes the timing and loading profiles of the host computer.

Avoid this situation whenever possible. Instead, run rvtrace on a computer that is otherwise free of Rendezvous activity.

We further recommend that rvtrace run on a computer that is fast enough to process every Ethernet packet that appears at its network interface.