NetFlow is a feature that was introduced on Cisco routers around 1996 that provides the ability to collect IP network traffic as it enters or exits an interface. By analyzing the data provided by NetFlow, a network administrator can determine things such as the source and destination traffic, class of service, and the causes of congestion. A typical flow monitoring setup (using NetFlow) consists of three main components:
Flow exporter: aggregates packets into flows and exports flow records towards one or more flow collectors. Flow collector: responsible for reception, storage and pre-processing of flow data received from a flow exporter. Analysis application: analyzes received flow data in the context of intrusion detection or traffic profiling, for example.
Protocol description
Routers and switches that support NetFlow can collect IP traffic statistics on all interfaces where NetFlow is enabled, and later export those statistics as NetFlow records toward at least one NetFlow collector—typically a server that does the actual traffic analysis.
Network flows
Cisco standard NetFlow version 5 defines a flow as a unidirectional sequence of packets that all share seven values which define a unique key for the flow: Ingress interface (SNMP ifIndex) Source IP address Destination IP address IP protocol number Source port for UDP or TCP, 0 for other protocols Destination port for UDP or TCP, type and code for ICMP, or 0 for other protocols IP Type of Service
Note that the Egress interface, IP Nexthop or BGP Nexthops are not part of the key, and may not be accurate if the route changes before the expiration of the flow, or if load-balancing is done per-packet.
This definition of flows is also used for IPv6, and a similar definition is used for MPLS and Ethernet flows.
Advanced NetFlow or IPFIX implementations like Cisco Flexible NetFlow allow user-defined flow keys.
A typical output of a NetFlow command line tool (nfdump in this case) when printing the stored flows may look as follows:
Date flow start Duration Proto Src IP Addr:Port Dst IP Addr:Port Packets Bytes Flows 2010-09-01 00:00:00.459 0.000 UDP 127.0.0.1:24920 -> 192.168.0.1:22126 1 46 1 2010-09-01 00:00:00.363 0.000 UDP 192.168.0.1:22126 -> 127.0.0.1:24920 1 80 1
Export of records
The router will output a flow record when it determines that the flow is finished. It does this by flow aging: when the router sees new traffic for an existing flow it resets the aging counter. Also, TCP session termination in a TCP flow causes the router to expire the flow. Routers can also be configured to output a flow record at a fixed interval even if the flow is still ongoing.
Packet transport protocol
NetFlow records are traditionally exported using User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and collected using a NetFlow collector. The IP address of the NetFlow collector and the destination UDP port must be configured on the sending router. A common value is UDP port 2055, but other values like 9555 or 9995, 9025, 9026 etc. can also be used.
For efficiency reasons, the router traditionally does not keep track of flow records already exported, so if a NetFlow packet is dropped due to network congestion or packet corruption, all contained records are lost forever. The UDP protocol does not inform the router of the loss so it can send the packets again. This can be a real problem, especially with NetFlow v8 or v9 that can aggregate a lot of packets or flows into a single record. A single UDP packet loss can cause a huge impact on the statistics of some flows.
That is why some modern implementations of NetFlow use the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) to export packets so as to provide some protection against packet loss, and make sure that NetFlow v9 templates are received before any related record is exported. Note that TCP would not be suitable for NetFlow because a strict ordering of packets would cause excessive buffering and delays.
The problem with SCTP is that it requires interaction between each NetFlow collector and each router exporting NetFlow. There may be performance limitations if a router has to deal with many NetFlow collectors, and a NetFlow collector has to deal with many routers, especially when some of them are unavailable due to failure or maintenance.
SCTP may not be efficient if NetFlow must be exported toward several independent collectors, some of which may be test servers that can go down at any moment. UDP allows simple replication of NetFlow packets using Network taps or L2 or L3 Mirroring. Simple stateless equipment can also filter or change the destination address of NetFlow UDP packets if necessary. Since NetFlow export almost only use network backbone links, packet loss will often be negligible. If it happens, it will mostly be on the link between the network and the NetFlow collectors.
Packet headers
All NetFlow packets begin with version-dependent header, that contains at least these fields: Version number (v1, v5, v7, v8, v9) Sequence number to detect loss and duplication Timestamps at the moment of export, as system uptime or absolute time. Number of records (v5 or v8) or list of templates and records (v9)
Records
A NetFlow record can contain a wide variety of information about the traffic in a given flow.
NetFlow version 5 (one of the most commonly used versions, followed by version 9) contains the following: Input interface index used by SNMP (ifIndex in IF-MIB). Output interface index or zero if the packet is dropped. Timestamps for the flow start and finish time, in milliseconds since the last boot. Number of bytes and packets observed in the flow Layer 3 headers: Source & destination IP addresses ICMP Type and Code. IP protocol Type of Service (ToS) value Source and destination port numbers for TCP, UDP, SCTP For TCP flows, the union of all TCP flags observed over the life of the flow. Layer 3 Routing information: IP address of the immediate next-hop (not the BGP nexthop) along the route to the destination Source & destination IP masks (prefix lengths in the CIDR notation)
For ICMP flows, the Source Port is zero, and the Destination Port number field codes ICMP message Type and Code (port = ICMP-Type * 256 + ICMP-Code) .
The source and destination Autonomous System (AS) number fields can report the destination AS (last AS of AS-Path) or the immediate neighbor AS (first AS of AS-Path) depending on the router configuration. But the AS number will be zero if the feature is not supported, the route is unknown or not announced by BGP, or the AS is the local AS. There is no explicit way to distinguish between these cases.
NetFlow version 9 can include all of these fields and can optionally include additional information such as Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) labels and IPv6 addresses and ports,
By analyzing flow data, a picture of traffic flow and traffic volume in a network can be built. The NetFlow record format has evolved over time, hence the inclusion of version numbers. Cisco maintains details of the different version numbers and the layout of the packets for each version.
Interfaces
NetFlow is usually enabled on a per-interface basis to limit load on the router components involved in NetFlow, or to limit the amount of NetFlow records exported.
NetFlow usually captures all packets received by an ingress IP interface, but some NetFlow implementations use IP filters to decide if a packet can be observed by NetFlow.
Some NetFlow implementations also allow the observation of packets on the egress IP interface, but this must be used with care: all flows from any ingress interface with NetFlow enabled to any interface with NetFlow enabled could be counted twice.
Sampled NetFlow
Standard NetFlow was designed to process all IP packets on an interface. But in some environments, e.g. on Internet backbones, that was too costly, due to the extra processing required for each packet, and large number of simultaneous flows.
So Cisco introduced sampled NetFlow on Cisco 12000, and that is now used in all high-end routers that implement NetFlow.
Only one packet out of n is processed, where n, the sampling rate, is determined by the router configuration.
The exact selection process depends on the implementation: One packet every n packet, in Deterministic NetFlow, as used on Cisco's 12000. One packet randomly selected in an interval of n packet, in Random Sampled NetFlow, used on modern Cisco routers.
Some implementations have more complex methods to sample packets, like per-flow sampling on Cisco Catalysts.
The sampling rate is often the same for all interfaces, but can be adjusted per interface for some routers. When Sampled NetFlow is used, the NetFlow records must be adjusted for the effect of sampling - traffic volumes, in particular, are now an estimate rather than the actual measured flow volume.
The sampling rate is indicated in a header field of NetFlow version 5 (same sampling rate for all interfaces) or in option records of NetFlow version 9 (sampling rate per interface)
Versions
VersionCommentv1First implementation, now obsolete, and restricted to IPv4 (without IP mask and AS Numbers).v2Cisco internal version, never released.v3Cisco internal version, never released.v4Cisco internal version, never released.v5Most common version, available (as of 2009) on many routers from different brands, but restricted to IPv4 flows.v6No longer supported by Cisco. Encapsulation information (?).v7Like version 5 with a source router field. Used (only?) on Cisco Catalyst switches.v8Several aggregation form, but only for information that is already present in version 5 recordsv9Template Based, available (as of 2009) on some recent routers. Mostly used to report flows like IPv6, MPLS, or even plain IPv4 with BGP nexthop.v10Used for identifying IPFIX. Although IPFIX is heavily based on NetFlow, v10 does not have anything to do with NetFlow.
NetFlow and IPFIX
NetFlow was initially implemented by Cisco, and described in an "informational" document that was not on the standards track: RFC 3954 – Cisco Systems NetFlow Services Export Version 9. The NetFlow protocol itself has been superseded by Internet Protocol Flow Information eXport (IPFIX). Based on the NetFlow Version 9 implementation, IPFIX is on the IETF standards track with RFC 5101 (obsoleted by RFC 7011), RFC 5102 (obsoleted by RFC 7012), etc. which were published in 2008.
Equivalents
Many vendors other than Cisco provide similar network flow monitoring technology. NetFlow may be a prevalent name in the area of flow monitoring, because of Cisco dominant market share in the networking industry. NetFlow is thought to be a Cisco trademark (even though as of March 2012 it is not listed in Cisco Trademarks): Argus - Audit Record Generation and Utilization System Jflow or cflowd for Juniper Networks NetStream for 3Com/HP NetStream for Huawei Technologies Cflowd for Nokia Rflow for Ericsson AppFlow Citrix sFlow vendors include: Alaxala, Alcatel Lucent, Allied Telesis, Arista Networks, Brocade, Cisco, Dell, D-Link, Enterasys, Extreme, F5 BIG-IP, Fortinet, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, Huawei, IBM, Juniper, LG-Ericsson, Mellanox, MRV, NEC, Netgear, Proxim Wireless, Quanta Computer, Vyatta, Telesoft, ZTE and ZyXEL
Also flow-tools collection of software allows to process and manage NetFlow exports from Cisco and Juniper routers.
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