Problem

I was looking for an alternative to NProbe as a NetFlow Probe/Agent for a CentOS as NProbe is not free and i wanted somehing that i could run as a Probe only and in deamon mode.  After looking at various options, I settled on SoftFlowD as an alternative and thought that I would share with the community how exactly I did it.  It works like a dream for me so enjoy!!!

Installing SoftFlowD as a TCP Flow Based Probe

The following is a description of how we can install a TCP Flow based probe to capture the data going in and out of a Centos Linux server and to export this in NetFlow Version 5 format to a collector for further analysis.

First of ak, we need to ensure that we have a few utilities installed on the server to satisfy the dependencies.

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# yum install libtool automake autoconf python-devel

libpcap-devel

Once these are installed, then let’s get a copy of the softflowd compressed source files:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# cd /root

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]#wget http://softflowd.googlecode.com/files/softflowd-0.9.9.tar.gz

--2013-09-30 11:17:13--  http://softflowd.googlecode.com/files/softflowd-0.9.9.tar.gz

Resolving softflowd.googlecode.com... 173.194.70.82, 2a00:1450:4001:c02::52

Connecting to softflowd.googlecode.com|173.194.70.82|:80... connected.

HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK

Length: 91939 (90K) [application/x-gzip]

Saving to: âsoftflowd-0.9.9.tar.gzâ

100%[======================================>] 91,939      --.-K/s   in 0.1s

2013-09-30 11:17:13 (673 KB/s) - âsoftflowd-0.9.9.tar.gzâ

Now let’s decompress them:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# tar -zxvf softflowd-0.9.9.tar.gz

softflowd-0.9.9

softflowd-0.9.9/softflowctl.8

softflowd-0.9.9/.hg_archival.txt

softflowd-0.9.9/.cvsignore

softflowd-0.9.9/.hgtags

softflowd-0.9.9/LICENSE

softflowd-0.9.9/Makefile.in

softflowd-0.9.9/README

softflowd-0.9.9/TODO

softflowd-0.9.9/aclocal.m4

softflowd-0.9.9/closefrom.c

softflowd-0.9.9/collector.pl

softflowd-0.9.9/common.h

softflowd-0.9.9/configure.ac

softflowd-0.9.9/convtime.c

softflowd-0.9.9/convtime.h

softflowd-0.9.9/daemon.c

softflowd-0.9.9/freelist.c

softflowd-0.9.9/freelist.h

softflowd-0.9.9/install-sh

softflowd-0.9.9/log.c

softflowd-0.9.9/log.h

softflowd-0.9.9/mkinstalldirs

softflowd-0.9.9/netflow1.c

softflowd-0.9.9/netflow5.c

softflowd-0.9.9/netflow9.c

softflowd-0.9.9/softflowd.sysconfig

softflowd-0.9.9/softflowctl.c

softflowd-0.9.9/softflowd.8

softflowd-0.9.9/softflowd.c

softflowd-0.9.9/softflowd.h

softflowd-0.9.9/softflowd.init

softflowd-0.9.9/softflowd.spec

softflowd-0.9.9/strlcat.c

softflowd-0.9.9/strlcpy.c

softflowd-0.9.9/sys-tree.h

softflowd-0.9.9/treetype.h

softflowd-0.9.9/configure

softflowd-0.9.9/config.h.in

Now that we have uncompressed the files, let’s change to the relevant directory and then run the configuration script that checks whether you have the relevant programs dependencies such as gcc in place and where those binaries are on your system:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# cd softflowd-0.9.9

[root@wbcphpxy01 softflowd-0.9.9]# ./configure

checking for gcc... gcc

checking whether the C compiler works... yes

checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out

checking for suffix of executables...

checking whether we are cross compiling... no

checking for suffix of object files... o

checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes

checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes

checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed

checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c

checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E

checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep

checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E

checking for ANSI C header files... yes

checking for sys/types.h... yes

checking for sys/stat.h... yes

checking for stdlib.h... yes

checking for string.h... yes

checking for memory.h... yes

checking for strings.h... yes

checking for inttypes.h... yes

checking for stdint.h... yes

checking for unistd.h... yes

checking net/bpf.h usability... no

checking net/bpf.h presence... no

checking for net/bpf.h... no

checking pcap.h usability... yes

checking pcap.h presence... yes

checking for pcap.h... yes

checking pcap-bpf.h usability... yes

checking pcap-bpf.h presence... yes

checking for pcap-bpf.h... yes

checking for struct sockaddr.sa_len... no

checking for struct ip6_ext.ip6e_nxt... yes

checking for library containing daemon... none required

checking for library containing gethostbyname... none required

checking for library containing socket... none required

checking for pcap_open_live in -lpcap... yes

checking for closefrom... no

checking for daemon... yes

checking for setresuid... yes

checking for setreuid... yes

checking for setresgid... yes

checking for setgid... yes

checking for strlcpy... no

checking for strlcat... no

checking for u_int64_t... yes

checking for int64_t... yes

checking for uint64_t... yes

checking for u_int32_t... yes

checking for int32_t... yes

checking for uint32_t... yes

checking for u_int16_t... yes

checking for int16_t... yes

checking for uint16_t... yes

checking for u_int8_t... yes

checking for int8_t... yes

checking for uint8_t... yes

checking size of char... 1

checking size of short int... 2

checking size of int... 4

checking size of long int... 4

checking size of long long int... 8

configure: creating ./config.status

1. config.status: creating Makefile
2. config.status: WARNING:  'Makefile.in' seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
3. config.status: creating config.h

Now we need to run the make utility to build a binary executable ready to install, which is customised to your environment:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 softflowd-0.9.9]# make

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o softflowd.o softflowd.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o log.o log.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o netflow1.o netflow1.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o netflow5.o netflow5.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o netflow9.o netflow9.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o freelist.o freelist.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o convtime.o convtime.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o strlcpy.o strlcpy.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o strlcat.o strlcat.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o closefrom.o closefrom.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o daemon.o daemon.c

gcc  -o softflowd softflowd.o log.o netflow1.o netflow5.o netflow9.o freelist.o convtime.o strlcpy.o strlcat.o closefrom.o daemon.o -lpcap

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o softflowctl.o softflowctl.c

gcc  -o softflowctl softflowctl.o convtime.o strlcpy.o strlcat.o closefrom.o daemon.o -lpcap

Now that we have a binary ready for installing, we just need to install the application on your system:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 softflowd-0.9.9]# make install

[ -d /usr/local/sbin ] || \./mkinstalldirs /usr/local/sbin

[ -d /usr/local/share/man/man8 ] || \./mkinstalldirs /usr/local/share/man/man8

/usr/bin/install -c -m 0755 -s softflowd /usr/local/sbin/softflowd

/usr/bin/install -c -m 0755 -s softflowctl /usr/local/sbin/softflowctl

/usr/bin/install -c -m 0644 softflowd.8 /usr/local/share/man/man8/softflowd.8

/usr/bin/install -c -m 0644 softflowctl.8 /usr/local/share/man/man8/softflowctl.8

[root@wbcphpxy01 softflowd-0.9.9]#

Now that we have a working copy of softflowd on the system, we can review the help file for the application by typing the following:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# softflowd -h

-i or -r option not specified.

Usage: softflowd [options] [bpf_program]

This is softflowd version 0.9.9. Valid commandline options:

  -i [idx:]interface Specify interface to listen on

  -r pcap_file       Specify packet capture file to read

  -t timeout=time    Specify named timeout

  -m max_flows       Specify maximum number of flows to track (default 8192)

  -n host:port       Send Cisco NetFlow(tm)-compatible packets to host:port

  -p pidfile         Record pid in specified file

                     (default: /var/run/softflowd.pid)

  -c pidfile         Location of control socket

                     (default: /var/run/softflowd.ctl)

  -v 1|5|9           NetFlow export packet version

  -L hoplimit        Set TTL/hoplimit for export datagrams

  -T full|proto|ip   Set flow tracking level (default: full)

  -6                 Track IPv6 flows, regardless of whether selected

                     NetFlow export protocol supports it

  -d                 Don't daemonise (run in foreground)

  -D                 Debug mode: foreground + verbosity + track v6 flows

  -s sampling_rate   Specify periodical sampling rate (denominator)

  -h                 Display this help

Now, we should be able to run the software in Debug mode in the foreground using the following command to ensure that we see the relevant messages (especially error messages):-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# softflowd -D -v 5 -i eth0 -n 10.20.30.15:2055 -T full

Using eth0 (idx: 0)

softflowd v0.9.9 starting data collection

Exporting flows to [10.20.30.15]:iop

ADD FLOW seq:1 [10.170.1.201]:1335 <> [10.170.5.251]:22 proto:6

ADD FLOW seq:2 [10.140.42.250]:58374 <> [239.255.255.250]:1900 proto:17

ADD FLOW seq:3 [10.170.5.101]:0 <> [224.0.0.252]:0 proto:2

ADD FLOW seq:4 [10.170.5.101]:0 <> [239.255.255.250]:0 proto:2

...

In the above example, the following explains each of the switches I have used:-

-D                                           Debug mode, which bring this to the foreground

-v 5                                         Version 5 of Netflow

-i eth0                                   The Interface number

-n 10.20.30.15:2055         The target host IP address and port number of the collector/analyser

-T full                                     All protocols

Now running this is Debug mode is useful if you want to make sure that is working but it more useful to have this running in the background so the way we do that is to remove the –D statement in the option like such and you will just see the command prompt come back:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# softflowd -v 5 -i eth0 -n 10.20.30.15:2055 -T full

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]#

You can still see that the flows are being “recorded” and that they are being exported in NetFlow version 5 and set to in this case 10.20.30.15 using destination port 2055.  This is done using a utility such as TCPDUMP:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# tcpdump -n –v dst port 2055

listening on eth0, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 65535 bytes

14:14:01.426775 IP 10.170.5.251.35829 > 10.20.30.15.iop: UDP, length 312

14:15:01.185508 IP 10.170.5.251.35829 > 10.20.30.15.iop: UDP, length 408

14:16:01.944233 IP 10.170.5.251.35829 > 10.20.30.15.iop: UDP, length 168

Now all this is fine, but it really only becomes useful if we can stop/start and restart the application like a service and have this enabled after the server has had a reboot.  To do this we edit a file called /etc/init.d/softflowd and empty the following contents into the file and save it:-

#! /bin/bash

#

# chkconfig: 2345 80 30

# description: SoftFlow Deamon Service

### BEGIN INIT INFO

# Provides: SOFTFLOWD

# Short-Description: Start/Stop/Restart SOFTFLOWD TCP Flow Probe

### END INIT INFO

#

# SOFTFLOWD This init.d script is used to start SOFTFLOWD.

#

SOFTFLOWD=/usr/local/sbin/softflowd

VERSION="5"

INTERFACE="eth0"

COLLECTOR="10.20.30.15"

CPORT="2055"

PID_FILE="/var/run/softflowd.pid"

OPTIONS="-v ${VERSION} -i ${INTERFACE} -n ${COLLECTOR}:${CPORT} -T full -p ${PID_FILE}"

start_SOFTFLOWD() {

${SOFTFLOWD} ${OPTIONS} > /dev/null &

return 1

}

stop_SOFTFLOWD() {

if [ -f ${PID_FILE} ]; then

kill `cat ${PID_FILE}` 2>1 /dev/null

\rm ${PID_FILE}

fi

}

########

case "$1" in

start)

echo -n "Starting SOFTFLOWD"

start_SOFTFLOWD;

echo " Done."

;;

stop)

echo -n "Stopping SOFTFLOWD"

stop_SOFTFLOWD;

echo " Done."

;;

restart)

echo -n "Restarting SOFTFLOWD"

stop_SOFTFLOWD;

sleep 1

start_SOFTFLOWD;

echo " Done."

;;

*)

echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/SOFTFLOWD {start|stop|restart}"

exit 1

esac

exit 0

After saving the file, we need to change the file permissions to:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# chmod 755 /etc/init.d/softflowd

Now let’s make the script a loadable initialisation script as part of the “service <application name> start” function by adding this with the chkconfig command:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# chkconfig --add softflowd

If you need to remove the script from being initiated at boot up as a service, then issue the following:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# chkconfig --remove softflowd

Finally, let’s start the service:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# service softflowd start

Start SOFTFLOWD Done.

Due to our VRF design and SFLOW limitations on the Cisco Nexus 9000 switches, I need to send Sflow datagrams to NTA from a different source address than the managment address NPM uses to poll the switch. NTA sees the traffic, but lists the source as "unknown" since the IP address is different. Any ideas?

After the software install and running for few days. We have power fail, after reboot, I cannot access the Orion Web console, erroe message pop up "there was no endpoint listening at net.tcp://cpputil:17777/orion/core/businesslayer". I check with all required service were up and running. (UTIL is the collerctor/server)

I've been asked by our Security team for reporting on our internet connections.  They want who's going where and for what content.

First, I would think that a report like this should already be available.  It seems like a no-brainer to me 

However, the canned web console reports don't have the ability to filter to specific interfaces, and Report Writer doesn't have any NetFlow data sources.  I find this ridiculous at best, and aggravating at worst.

What's the point of having all the NetFlow data if I can't report on it?

Has anybody else faced this situation?

We just installed a Cisco ASR 1002, The old net flow commands used in our 3845 do not work. Has anyone set configuration to export Top-Talkers?

Thanks

Where would be the best place to enable and configure Netflow to monitor WAN connections?

I have 3750 core switch which seems not to support Netflow.  So what would be the solution in this case for NTA users???

We are successfully using NTA 4.1.0 with other data sources and have now configured our Cisco 5508 Wireless Controllers to export NetFlow to NTA and are seeing the following error:

The WCS controllers are running software version 7.6.120.0

Is there any solution to this or do I need to make a feature request to support NetFlow in NTA from Cisco Wireless

Due to our VRF design and SFLOW limitations on the Cisco Nexus 9000 switches, I need to send Sflow datagrams to NTA from a different source address than the managment address NPM uses to poll the switch. NTA sees the traffic, but lists the source as "unknown" since the IP address is different. Any ideas?

I've been asked by our Security team for reporting on our internet connections.  They want who's going where and for what content.

First, I would think that a report like this should already be available.  It seems like a no-brainer to me 

However, the canned web console reports don't have the ability to filter to specific interfaces, and Report Writer doesn't have any NetFlow data sources.  I find this ridiculous at best, and aggravating at worst.

What's the point of having all the NetFlow data if I can't report on it?

Has anybody else faced this situation?

All,

I'm trying to setup netflow to monitor our Cisco 2960s switches.  They are layer 2 switches and Solarwinds tech support suggested I look at nprobe application to, but they don't support it or know how it should be configured. Any help would be appreciated or if you know of any other software that will work with getting the information to netflow.  Thanks.

I'd like to be able to create an IP group and have exclusions in the IP range. The only way I see to do this today is have two ranges in the group and not include teh IP's you want to exclude.

I'd like to be able to create a group based on subnet and have the ability to exclude some IP's in the subnet.

Anyone else looking to do this?

Hi Thwackers,

I understand NTA 4.4 requires MS SQL 2016 SP1 or later (for FSDB) , but then whats the sizing of it ? Is it same as Orion DB ?

Sorry i forgot to mention this -> We would like to keep this separate from Orion DB and hence we would be installing it on a separate server?

NTA 4.4 System Requirements - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help and Support

I did check the above link, but then it doesn't actually talk about that, the only thing that i could find on this link is "Orion DB requirement" and account add on for NTA

How about CPU , Hard drive and Memory for NTA MS SQL 2016 SP1 ?

We just installed a Cisco ASR 1002, The old net flow commands used in our 3845 do not work. Has anyone set configuration to export Top-Talkers?

Thanks

Problem

I was looking for an alternative to NProbe as a NetFlow Probe/Agent for a CentOS as NProbe is not free and i wanted somehing that i could run as a Probe only and in deamon mode.  After looking at various options, I settled on SoftFlowD as an alternative and thought that I would share with the community how exactly I did it.  It works like a dream for me so enjoy!!!

Installing SoftFlowD as a TCP Flow Based Probe

The following is a description of how we can install a TCP Flow based probe to capture the data going in and out of a Centos Linux server and to export this in NetFlow Version 5 format to a collector for further analysis.

First of ak, we need to ensure that we have a few utilities installed on the server to satisfy the dependencies.

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# yum install libtool automake autoconf python-devel

libpcap-devel

Once these are installed, then let’s get a copy of the softflowd compressed source files:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# cd /root

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]#wget http://softflowd.googlecode.com/files/softflowd-0.9.9.tar.gz

--2013-09-30 11:17:13--  http://softflowd.googlecode.com/files/softflowd-0.9.9.tar.gz

Resolving softflowd.googlecode.com... 173.194.70.82, 2a00:1450:4001:c02::52

Connecting to softflowd.googlecode.com|173.194.70.82|:80... connected.

HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK

Length: 91939 (90K) [application/x-gzip]

Saving to: âsoftflowd-0.9.9.tar.gzâ

100%[======================================>] 91,939      --.-K/s   in 0.1s

2013-09-30 11:17:13 (673 KB/s) - âsoftflowd-0.9.9.tar.gzâ

Now let’s decompress them:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# tar -zxvf softflowd-0.9.9.tar.gz

softflowd-0.9.9

softflowd-0.9.9/softflowctl.8

softflowd-0.9.9/.hg_archival.txt

softflowd-0.9.9/.cvsignore

softflowd-0.9.9/.hgtags

softflowd-0.9.9/LICENSE

softflowd-0.9.9/Makefile.in

softflowd-0.9.9/README

softflowd-0.9.9/TODO

softflowd-0.9.9/aclocal.m4

softflowd-0.9.9/closefrom.c

softflowd-0.9.9/collector.pl

softflowd-0.9.9/common.h

softflowd-0.9.9/configure.ac

softflowd-0.9.9/convtime.c

softflowd-0.9.9/convtime.h

softflowd-0.9.9/daemon.c

softflowd-0.9.9/freelist.c

softflowd-0.9.9/freelist.h

softflowd-0.9.9/install-sh

softflowd-0.9.9/log.c

softflowd-0.9.9/log.h

softflowd-0.9.9/mkinstalldirs

softflowd-0.9.9/netflow1.c

softflowd-0.9.9/netflow5.c

softflowd-0.9.9/netflow9.c

softflowd-0.9.9/softflowd.sysconfig

softflowd-0.9.9/softflowctl.c

softflowd-0.9.9/softflowd.8

softflowd-0.9.9/softflowd.c

softflowd-0.9.9/softflowd.h

softflowd-0.9.9/softflowd.init

softflowd-0.9.9/softflowd.spec

softflowd-0.9.9/strlcat.c

softflowd-0.9.9/strlcpy.c

softflowd-0.9.9/sys-tree.h

softflowd-0.9.9/treetype.h

softflowd-0.9.9/configure

softflowd-0.9.9/config.h.in

Now that we have uncompressed the files, let’s change to the relevant directory and then run the configuration script that checks whether you have the relevant programs dependencies such as gcc in place and where those binaries are on your system:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# cd softflowd-0.9.9

[root@wbcphpxy01 softflowd-0.9.9]# ./configure

checking for gcc... gcc

checking whether the C compiler works... yes

checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out

checking for suffix of executables...

checking whether we are cross compiling... no

checking for suffix of object files... o

checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes

checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes

checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed

checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c

checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E

checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep

checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E

checking for ANSI C header files... yes

checking for sys/types.h... yes

checking for sys/stat.h... yes

checking for stdlib.h... yes

checking for string.h... yes

checking for memory.h... yes

checking for strings.h... yes

checking for inttypes.h... yes

checking for stdint.h... yes

checking for unistd.h... yes

checking net/bpf.h usability... no

checking net/bpf.h presence... no

checking for net/bpf.h... no

checking pcap.h usability... yes

checking pcap.h presence... yes

checking for pcap.h... yes

checking pcap-bpf.h usability... yes

checking pcap-bpf.h presence... yes

checking for pcap-bpf.h... yes

checking for struct sockaddr.sa_len... no

checking for struct ip6_ext.ip6e_nxt... yes

checking for library containing daemon... none required

checking for library containing gethostbyname... none required

checking for library containing socket... none required

checking for pcap_open_live in -lpcap... yes

checking for closefrom... no

checking for daemon... yes

checking for setresuid... yes

checking for setreuid... yes

checking for setresgid... yes

checking for setgid... yes

checking for strlcpy... no

checking for strlcat... no

checking for u_int64_t... yes

checking for int64_t... yes

checking for uint64_t... yes

checking for u_int32_t... yes

checking for int32_t... yes

checking for uint32_t... yes

checking for u_int16_t... yes

checking for int16_t... yes

checking for uint16_t... yes

checking for u_int8_t... yes

checking for int8_t... yes

checking for uint8_t... yes

checking size of char... 1

checking size of short int... 2

checking size of int... 4

checking size of long int... 4

checking size of long long int... 8

configure: creating ./config.status

1. config.status: creating Makefile
2. config.status: WARNING:  'Makefile.in' seems to ignore the --datarootdir setting
3. config.status: creating config.h

Now we need to run the make utility to build a binary executable ready to install, which is customised to your environment:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 softflowd-0.9.9]# make

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o softflowd.o softflowd.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o log.o log.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o netflow1.o netflow1.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o netflow5.o netflow5.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o netflow9.o netflow9.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o freelist.o freelist.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o convtime.o convtime.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o strlcpy.o strlcpy.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o strlcat.o strlcat.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o closefrom.o closefrom.c

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o daemon.o daemon.c

gcc  -o softflowd softflowd.o log.o netflow1.o netflow5.o netflow9.o freelist.o convtime.o strlcpy.o strlcat.o closefrom.o daemon.o -lpcap

gcc -g -O2 -DFLOW_SPLAY          -DEXPIRY_RB             -I.   -c -o softflowctl.o softflowctl.c

gcc  -o softflowctl softflowctl.o convtime.o strlcpy.o strlcat.o closefrom.o daemon.o -lpcap

Now that we have a binary ready for installing, we just need to install the application on your system:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 softflowd-0.9.9]# make install

[ -d /usr/local/sbin ] || \./mkinstalldirs /usr/local/sbin

[ -d /usr/local/share/man/man8 ] || \./mkinstalldirs /usr/local/share/man/man8

/usr/bin/install -c -m 0755 -s softflowd /usr/local/sbin/softflowd

/usr/bin/install -c -m 0755 -s softflowctl /usr/local/sbin/softflowctl

/usr/bin/install -c -m 0644 softflowd.8 /usr/local/share/man/man8/softflowd.8

/usr/bin/install -c -m 0644 softflowctl.8 /usr/local/share/man/man8/softflowctl.8

[root@wbcphpxy01 softflowd-0.9.9]#

Now that we have a working copy of softflowd on the system, we can review the help file for the application by typing the following:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# softflowd -h

-i or -r option not specified.

Usage: softflowd [options] [bpf_program]

This is softflowd version 0.9.9. Valid commandline options:

  -i [idx:]interface Specify interface to listen on

  -r pcap_file       Specify packet capture file to read

  -t timeout=time    Specify named timeout

  -m max_flows       Specify maximum number of flows to track (default 8192)

  -n host:port       Send Cisco NetFlow(tm)-compatible packets to host:port

  -p pidfile         Record pid in specified file

                     (default: /var/run/softflowd.pid)

  -c pidfile         Location of control socket

                     (default: /var/run/softflowd.ctl)

  -v 1|5|9           NetFlow export packet version

  -L hoplimit        Set TTL/hoplimit for export datagrams

  -T full|proto|ip   Set flow tracking level (default: full)

  -6                 Track IPv6 flows, regardless of whether selected

                     NetFlow export protocol supports it

  -d                 Don't daemonise (run in foreground)

  -D                 Debug mode: foreground + verbosity + track v6 flows

  -s sampling_rate   Specify periodical sampling rate (denominator)

  -h                 Display this help

Now, we should be able to run the software in Debug mode in the foreground using the following command to ensure that we see the relevant messages (especially error messages):-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# softflowd -D -v 5 -i eth0 -n 10.20.30.15:2055 -T full

Using eth0 (idx: 0)

softflowd v0.9.9 starting data collection

Exporting flows to [10.20.30.15]:iop

ADD FLOW seq:1 [10.170.1.201]:1335 <> [10.170.5.251]:22 proto:6

ADD FLOW seq:2 [10.140.42.250]:58374 <> [239.255.255.250]:1900 proto:17

ADD FLOW seq:3 [10.170.5.101]:0 <> [224.0.0.252]:0 proto:2

ADD FLOW seq:4 [10.170.5.101]:0 <> [239.255.255.250]:0 proto:2

...

In the above example, the following explains each of the switches I have used:-

-D                                           Debug mode, which bring this to the foreground

-v 5                                         Version 5 of Netflow

-i eth0                                   The Interface number

-n 10.20.30.15:2055         The target host IP address and port number of the collector/analyser

-T full                                     All protocols

Now running this is Debug mode is useful if you want to make sure that is working but it more useful to have this running in the background so the way we do that is to remove the –D statement in the option like such and you will just see the command prompt come back:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# softflowd -v 5 -i eth0 -n 10.20.30.15:2055 -T full

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]#

You can still see that the flows are being “recorded” and that they are being exported in NetFlow version 5 and set to in this case 10.20.30.15 using destination port 2055.  This is done using a utility such as TCPDUMP:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# tcpdump -n –v dst port 2055

listening on eth0, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 65535 bytes

14:14:01.426775 IP 10.170.5.251.35829 > 10.20.30.15.iop: UDP, length 312

14:15:01.185508 IP 10.170.5.251.35829 > 10.20.30.15.iop: UDP, length 408

14:16:01.944233 IP 10.170.5.251.35829 > 10.20.30.15.iop: UDP, length 168

Now all this is fine, but it really only becomes useful if we can stop/start and restart the application like a service and have this enabled after the server has had a reboot.  To do this we edit a file called /etc/init.d/softflowd and empty the following contents into the file and save it:-

#! /bin/bash

#

# chkconfig: 2345 80 30

# description: SoftFlow Deamon Service

### BEGIN INIT INFO

# Provides: SOFTFLOWD

# Short-Description: Start/Stop/Restart SOFTFLOWD TCP Flow Probe

### END INIT INFO

#

# SOFTFLOWD This init.d script is used to start SOFTFLOWD.

#

SOFTFLOWD=/usr/local/sbin/softflowd

VERSION="5"

INTERFACE="eth0"

COLLECTOR="10.20.30.15"

CPORT="2055"

PID_FILE="/var/run/softflowd.pid"

OPTIONS="-v ${VERSION} -i ${INTERFACE} -n ${COLLECTOR}:${CPORT} -T full -p ${PID_FILE}"

start_SOFTFLOWD() {

${SOFTFLOWD} ${OPTIONS} > /dev/null &

return 1

}

stop_SOFTFLOWD() {

if [ -f ${PID_FILE} ]; then

kill `cat ${PID_FILE}` 2>1 /dev/null

\rm ${PID_FILE}

fi

}

########

case "$1" in

start)

echo -n "Starting SOFTFLOWD"

start_SOFTFLOWD;

echo " Done."

;;

stop)

echo -n "Stopping SOFTFLOWD"

stop_SOFTFLOWD;

echo " Done."

;;

restart)

echo -n "Restarting SOFTFLOWD"

stop_SOFTFLOWD;

sleep 1

start_SOFTFLOWD;

echo " Done."

;;

*)

echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/SOFTFLOWD {start|stop|restart}"

exit 1

esac

exit 0

After saving the file, we need to change the file permissions to:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# chmod 755 /etc/init.d/softflowd

Now let’s make the script a loadable initialisation script as part of the “service <application name> start” function by adding this with the chkconfig command:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# chkconfig --add softflowd

If you need to remove the script from being initiated at boot up as a service, then issue the following:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# chkconfig --remove softflowd

Finally, let’s start the service:-

[root@wbcphpxy01 ~]# service softflowd start

Start SOFTFLOWD Done.

All,

I'm trying to setup netflow to monitor our Cisco 2960s switches.  They are layer 2 switches and Solarwinds tech support suggested I look at nprobe application to, but they don't support it or know how it should be configured. Any help would be appreciated or if you know of any other software that will work with getting the information to netflow.  Thanks.

This is the error I am getting from on My Dashboards > Settings > All Settings > NTA Settings:

When I click on “View Details”, I get this screen:

So, not sure really where to start, have gone into the Customer Success Center and use “Netflow Collector Services” in the search window.

Link #1 - NetFlow collector services - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help and Support

Did not help as I am unable to get past the Netflow Collector Services.

Link #2 - NetFlow Collector Services resource

NetFlow Collector Services resource - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help and Support

Did not help with a resolution.

Link #3 - Solarwinds Data Collector Processor and Solarwinds Netflow service Will not restart

Solarwinds Data Collector Processor and Solarwinds Netflow service Will not restart - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help an…

Did not help as I know my SQL Server is online.  So just to make sure I checked the following:

My Dashboards > Settings > All Settings > Polling Engines>

Core Orion Server – Last Database Sync – 5 Seconds ago

APE #1 (BEL) – Last Database Sync – 22 seconds ago

APE #2 (CLA) – Last Database Sync – 10 seconds ago

APE #3 (GOR) – Last Database Sync – 4 seconds ago

APE #4 (SHA) – Last Database Sync – 3 Seconds ago

Well the databases are good, but let me check the services to make sure everything is running.

My Dashboards > Settings > All Settings > Orion Service Manager ((Awesome Feature!!!)

So, I noticed that there were some differences in what services were running on some APE’s than others.  I logged into #2 and here it what it said:

1 - Netflow appears to be installed:

Thinking the Application was installed, I should have the service there as well:

No service available.  Huh!

Course of Action for Resolution. 

1. Run the Configuration Wizard on the APE.

Other screens and windows truncated…..

No NETFLOW SERVICE

2.  Repair the NTA Application

Opened up Control Panel > Programs and Features > Right Click on Solarwinds Orion Netflow Analyzer 4.2 > Repair

Now, I get to have a discussion with System Engineers to get appropriate access to the server.

{{{{  Pending Resolution for Issue above }}}}

3.  Uninstall NTA Application and Install NTA Application

4.  Uninstall all Solarwinds Software from APE and launch Orion-Installer

5.  Repair NTA Storage Server Software

6.  Repiar NTA Orion Core Server Software

I looked through several of these links in hopes for find some more information. 

NTA 4.x installation FAQ - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help and Support

We just installed a Cisco ASR 1002, The old net flow commands used in our 3845 do not work. Has anyone set configuration to export Top-Talkers?

Thanks

Hi everyone, The User Experience (UX) team is interested in hearing about your newbie experience with NTA. What did you buy NTA to do? Are you doing those things in the product, or not? What's working for you? What's not? What's confusing? Take us on a guided tour over WebEx and get 3,000 thwack points for sharing your environment and your feedback! You can email me at kellie.mecham@solarwinds.com to learn more, or PM me on THWACK. 

The User Experience (UX) team is expanding our "show me how you use it" program for NTA to learn more about why you bought NTA, the value you're currently getting out of it, and where you'd like to see the product go in the future.  Take us on a tour of how you use the product over a WebEx by emailing kellie.mecham@solarwinds.com directly with some dates and times that work for you, and when we talk to you, you'll receive 3000 THWACK points!

All,

I'm trying to setup netflow to monitor our Cisco 2960s switches.  They are layer 2 switches and Solarwinds tech support suggested I look at nprobe application to, but they don't support it or know how it should be configured. Any help would be appreciated or if you know of any other software that will work with getting the information to netflow.  Thanks.