Often these days, we’re asked for a general rule of thumb or guidelines that can help with calculating NetFlow Volume.  How much disk space should an average NetFlow Deployment consume. One of the biggest concerns is that exporting NetFlow (or one of its cousins) for Network Performance Analysis will have a drastic impact on the available bandwidth, CPU overhead on devices, or on the hard drives storing it. This is simply not true.

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We have added Cisco Catalyst 3850 Netflow support to the current release of Scrutinizer, NetFlow and sFlow Analyzer. This switch is no Catalyst 3750 as it offers both wired and wireless as well as native Netflow support without a 3KX module. The switch can enable multi-level QoS based on granular information such as SSID, client, radio, application and fair share policies for wireless, while Scrutinizer performs network traffic monitoring on all of these parameters for details.

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Finally, Cisco ASA NSEL details from a best at NetFlow reporting solution. NSEL allows for reporting on the non-traditional elements such as username, NAT, ACLs, etc. If you have not worked with technology before you may be pondering where all of this information comes from, and what it means. Today I will help clarify this for you by comparing Cisco’s event ID’s to syslogs. Read more »

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Mike Patterson (Plixer CEO and Founder) and I have been long time colleagues in the arena of NetFlow analysis. Over the years we’ve both watched as NetFlow has matured and gained increasing popularity and I’ve always admired Mike and his team’s energy and steadfast devotion to NetFlow technology. Read more »

Today I will show you how to configure PfSense NetFlow export on one of the more popular open source firewalls.

It is a great firewall that includes a long list of related features, as well as a package system that allows for further expandability. One of the many packages available is pfflowd, which converts OpenBSD PF status messages into Cisco NetFlow datagrams. This allows you export it to an external collector and gives historical reporting of your network activity. Read more »

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Let’s talk about NetFlow observation point in Cisco NetFlow capable devices, particularly the octetDeltaCount collection. Ingress and egress Netflow  are probably notions we are the most familiar with. However, what exactly is Ingress or Egress NetFlow? At what point were  bandwidth utilization values in my NetFlow report metered?

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What a year so far!

You know the old saying “Time flies when you’re having fun”? Here at Plixer, our developers are so freakishly passionate about creating the NetFlow architecture of the future, the years seem to pass us by like a blur.

The hard work is really paying off! Not only were we the first company to receive Cisco certification within the Systems Management technology category but, we are proud to announce that last week we won the 2011 Golden Bridge Award for NetFlow innovations!These industry and peer awards from Golden Bridge are the world’s premier business recognition program. This award is a huge accomplishment for such a passionate group of employees. To top it all off, Cisco sent us Medianet T-Shirts!

With Cisco predicting by 2013 91% of all network traffic will be voice/video streams, we’ve been spending a significant amount of time focusing on the development of the many new Cisco Medianet performance monitoring reports. Scrutinizer v9.0 is just around the corner, it will be exciting to get feedback on all of the new reports we have built for Cisco Smart Logging and Telemetry, Cisco TrustSec, Performance Routing, Performance Monitoring and of course all of the new SonicWALL IPFIX support.

What is MediaNet?
Medianet is an intelligent end-to-end network that combines video technologies in the business, home and service provider networks. More than just higher bandwidth, it optimizes video and rich media traffic. Our solution was the first to report on the new metrics Cisco imbedded into Flexible NetFlow templates. Network traffic analysis with the advanced filtering in our NetFlow Management solution is further proof that our software provides the very best in NetFlow reporting. Read more »

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You are an IT professional.  You know about NetFlow.  But do you need to know more?  Do you need to get a NetFlow solution in place?  Could you better serve your company with advanced knowledge of NetFlow from the industry leader in NetFlow collecting and reporting?  Do you want to get your hands on some fresh Maine lobster?

Then check out our upcoming FlowFest™ 2011: Advanced NetFlow Training™, a 3-day conference to learn what is possible with NetFlow technology.  Read more »

Plixer International is heading to London for next week’s Cisco Live 2011 tradeshow.  While I am personally not attending (and am only slightly bitter about it), I’m excited that Plixer will be able to showcase Scrutinizer 8.5, the most recent version of our NetFlow and sFlow analysis software suite.

Sponsored by Cisco Systems, Cisco Live is an annual communications conference for networkers, IT managers, developers, and service providers.  Our Product Manager and our International Sales Manager will occupy Booth E9 of the Cisco Live World of Solutions exhibition from February 1st through February 3rd. Read more »

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What do these two have in common?  For most people, probably nothing.

But here at Plixer International, the last business day before the Christmas holiday break, it has been customary to set up a game server with the Quake game on it.

Everyone brings some yummy food to share (brownies, meatballs, cheese & crackers, are some of the options), and for a few hours of the day, work takes a back seat to eating and gaming.

Personally, playing Quake isn’t my idea of a good time.  Chasing opponents down dark hallways shooting at them, screams and blood.  Not for me.

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