How does nagios check_traf work?

Question

linux

Who can explain how the check_traf plugin works in nagios? I added to the monitoring check the uplink traffic of the switch, the problem is that the losses on this switch are about 7 percent for 3700 packets, I ping with 1470 packets. At this moment, the download graph shows 80 megabits of the channel load. the channel itself is 100 megabits. In this regard, such a big loss? and what to do if so? expand the channel?

Answer 1

All checkers count the average value over a certain period of time (second/10/minute, etc.), so in peaks, traffic can clog the entire channel. If we are talking about a switch, and not a router, then most likely the extra packets will simply be dropped, especially if we have traffic with 1G-100M-1G transitions. In this case, unambiguously expand the channel.