In many organizations, IPFIX is helping network administrators manage network performance by giving them insight into the wireless traffic traversing their networks. Today’s networks support a mix of guests, employees, and vendors. Without classifying and prioritizing business-critical applications on the network, employees risk losing productivity and response time.
As the need for wireless network visibility on both traffic management and security levels increases, we find that more and more vendors like Avaya, with their controller, are supporting some kind of flow technology like NetFlow or IPFIX.
This blog will to focus on the Avaya Wireless 8100 IPFIX configuration procedure.
Think about how this additional network visibility would help.
Imagine a user downloads or uploads a huge amount of traffic over the wireless network, thereby adversely affecting the performance of other users. If that user happens to upload/download inconsequential data while other users are trying to access business-critical applications, their productivity will plummet. Using flow exports, the network administrator can see exactly who and how much data they are transferring.
Configuring IPFIX on an Avaya 8100 Wireless controller is very easy using CLI. Log into the Avaya Wireless controller and enter Global Configuration mode.
At the (config)# prompt enter:
ip ipfix enable to enable IPFIX.
Set up the export function by entering the following command to configure the IPFIX collector:
ip ipfix collector <unit_number> <collector_ip_address>
Where:
unit_number = the unit number of the collector.
Currently supports up to two collectors, so the values 1 or 2 are valid.
collector_ip_address = the server IP address of the collector.
By default the flow data is exported to the collector using UDP port 9995.
The following command configures unit specific IPFIX parameters with recommended settings:
ip ipfix slot <unit_number> aging-interval 60 export-interval 15 exporter-enable template-refresh-interval 300 template-refresh-packets 10000
Command line options:
unit_number = the unit number of the collector specified in the ip ipfix collector set up.
aging_interval = Active Timeout interval. This value is in seconds from 0 to 2147400.
export_interval = Inactive Timeout interval. This interval has a value in seconds from 10 to 3600.
template_refresh_interval = How often are the templates exported. This value is in seconds from 300 to 3600.
template_refresh_packets = this value is the number of packets from 10000 – 100000.
The last step is to enable IPFIX on the interfaces.
Enter Interface Configuration mode.
At the (config-if)# prompt enter:
ip ipfix enable command to enable IPFIX on the interface.
Finally, use the ip ipfix port <port_list> command to enable IPFIX on the interfaces.
Where:
port-list = Single or comma-separated list of ports.
That is it, configuration complete!
There are many challenges IT managers face on a daily basis. As the proliferation of user devices and the growth in business, personal, and collaborative applications continue to grow exponentially, these challenges only make the job of an IT manager harder.
Efficient traffic management requires usable and relevant information from all points on the network. Collecting Flows from your Avaya 8100 wireless controllers will provide additional network observation points, and an efficient means to identify inappropriate behavior, problems, and discrepancies. In addition, the ability to drill down to particular traffic specifics make security forensics and incident response using flows an invaluable tool for charting the health of your network.
Do you have the visibility into your wireless infrastructure that you need? Contact our support team if you want to learn more or need help with configurations.
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