Patent ID: 9680728
Date: 2017-06-13
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method for monitoring data associated with a virtual computing environment, comprising: receiving, at a client-side tunnel component in a server device executing a virtual computing environment, virtually-originated data intended for a first destination, the virtually-originated data originating from at least one virtual server executing in the virtual computing environment on the server device, wherein the first destination is different from a tap device, said virtually-originated data originated from a virtual server in said virtual computing environment and transmitted in the form of data packets; encapsulating, at the client-side tunnel component, said virtually-originated data using a tunneling protocol, forming encapsulated traffic; transmitting, at the client-side tunnel component, said encapsulated traffic to the tap device, wherein said tap device decapsulates said encapsulated traffic to recover a version of said virtually-originated data and forwards said version of said virtually-originated data to a monitoring device, wherein said tap device forwards at least some of said virtually-originated data to the first destination in response to a monitoring determination; using a policy engine to analyze said virtually-originated data, said virtually-originated data is encapsulated only when said virtually-originated data fits criteria to be forwarded to one of said tap device and said monitoring device; receiving other data; determining, using said policy engine, whether said other data fits said criteria to be forwarded to said one of said tap device and said monitoring device; and transmitting said other data onward without encapsulating said other data using said tunneling protocol when said other data does not fit said criteria to be forwarded to said one of said tap device and said monitoring device.