Disadvantages and Problems
Network taps require additional hardware, so are not as cheap as technologies that use capabilities that are built-in to the network. They are easier to manage and normally provide more data than some network devices though.
Network taps can require channel bonding on monitoring devices to get around the problem with full-duplex discussed above. Vendors usually refer to this as aggregation as well.
Putting a network tap into place will disrupt the network being monitored for a short time. It's better than taking a network down multiple times to deploy a monitoring tool though. Establishing good guidelines for placement of network taps is recommended procedure.
Monitoring large networks using network taps can require a lot of monitoring devices. High end networking devices often allow ports to be enabled as mirror ports which is a software network tap. While any free port can be configured as a mirror port, software taps require configuration and place load on the network devices.
Even fully passive network taps introduce new points of failure into the network. There are several ways that taps can cause problems and this should be considered when creating a tap architecture. Consider non-powered taps for optical-only environments or throwing star network tap for copper 100BT. This allows you to modify the intelligent aggregation taps that may be in use and avoids any complications when upgrading from 100 megabit to gigabit to 10 gigabit. Redundant power supplies are highly recommended.
Read more about this topic: Network Tap
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