System requirements for a NetFlow collector are a lot higher than the average program. While I am still the “new guy” in support I am already seeing some trends here at Plixer. The majority of cases I have been working with involve servers that seem to run slow despite being on top of the line equipment. Nearly every time this issue comes up it is caused by an improper hard disk configuration.

One of the most overlooked NetFlow Collector System Requirements that write heavy database servers have is disk IOPS (Input/output Operations per Second). You have to remember that a spinning disk is very limited on how many writes it can make at any given time, and if the collector cannot write to the disk fast enough it can cause a lot of problems.  This has been the root cause of a lot of slow NetFlow collectors.

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Are you wishing you had a ‘NetFlow for Dummies’ book to help you figure out how to configure NetFlow on your corporate network? If the answer is “yes” I have some great news… you can save your money.

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What do network performance analysis and snowmobiling have in common?

Nothing, unless you are attending FlowFest™ 2012.

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?

FlowFest™ 2012 – Advanced NetFlow Training course, is a 2-day conference to learn what is possible with the NetFlow technology.

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Vyatta NetFlow has been improved in some of the latest VC 6.x releases. I worked on a NetFlow reporting issue with a VC 6.0 user in the past trying to figure out why his NetFlow Analyzer was not showing the expected amount of traffic. We used Wireshark and found that a large number of flow packets were being exported without flow data, therefore were useless and discarded by the collector. Since he upgraded to VC 6.2, he was able to see all his traffic. Vyatta now supports MAC addresses, as seen in the image below! Read more »

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The Cisco Catalyst 4500E is one of the latest kids on the block, so the age old question in our world is, “How do you configure NetFlow on this?”
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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 »

In this day of companies downsizing and more employees working from home to cut office space costs, voice and video traffic over the internet is becoming more prevalent and also critical that it the quality is reliable.

We have several employees who work out of their homes and in an effort to maintain acceptable voice quality, we have configured QoS on their routers.

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Are you interested in learning more about Cisco NetFlow collection?  We have two upcoming webinars available.  Each webcast will cover a variety of topics to get you the information you need.

We’ll discuss reporting on Top Domains to find out who is hitting them (such as MySpace, Ebay, and others).  Learn how to use NetFlow to pinpoint latency of applications, servers, and end systems.  Discuss what open source NetFlow software is appropriate for your business, or when to move from open source to an enterprise class NetFlow Analysis Solution. Read more »

As indicated in this excerpt from the NetworkWorld article on Obama and IPv6, we have reached a critical stage in IPv4 internet address usage.

“IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses and can support 4.3 billion devices connected directly to the Internet. IPv6, on the other hand, uses 128-bit addresses and supports a virtually unlimited number of devices — 2 to the 128th power.

About 94.5% of IPv4 address space has been allocated as of Sept. 3, 2010, according to the American Registry for Internet Numbers, which delegates blocks of IPv4 and IPv6 addresses to carriers and enterprises in North America. Experts say IPv4 addresses could run out as early as December but will certainly be gone by the end of 2011.”

It’s quite clear this is an urgent issue to address.  But it also raises other issues.
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Are you looking for more information from your NetFlow reports?  Such as MAC Address and Cisco NBAR information?

Flexible NetFlow can provide that information for you.  So the next question is, “How do I configure FnF on my router?“.

And here are a couple of great resources to assist with configuring Flexible NetFlow:

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