Unobtrusive support for third-party traffic monitoring

Abstract

System utilization related to memory usage can be monitored by storing host memory usage information in the corresponding host physical memory. However, retrieving this information can be a high overhead operation because it involves engaging with the operating system of each host. Moreover, storing memory usage information in the host physical memories can pose a security risk if they also store privileged data. Network interfaces according to the present disclosure provide unobtrusive and secure support for monitoring of network and other system resources such as regions of memory within host physical memories. Implementations according to the present disclosure include a plurality of memory region counters stored on a network interface. Each memory region counter corresponds to one of the memory regions located in a physical memory of a host coupled to the network interface. Each of the counters includes a system utilization metric associated with its corresponding memory region.