To set up netflow on a Cisco router (in our case a Cisco 3750 with IOS 12.2) we need to tell it where to send the netflow data to. In the example below the destination (172.17.1.1) should have a netflow listener or capture running on udp port 9696.

• Router#enable
• Router#configure terminal
• Router(config)#ip flow-export
  
• Router(config-if)#version 5
• Router(config)#ip flow-export destination 172.17.1.1 9696

Next we have to set up each interface for which we want the netflow data from. In the case where the interface is not part of a defined VLAN

• Router(config)#interface GigabitEthernet1/0/1
• Router(config-if)#ip route-cache flow
• Router(config-if)#ip flow ingress

In the case of VLANs and trunking the set up is slightly different (just to confuse myself I put in all the gory details). First we define the interface/port that we are interested in.

• Router(config-if)#interface GigabitEthernet1/0/2
• Router(config-if)# description a VLANed interface
• Router(config-if)# switchport access vlan 2
• Router(config-if)# switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
• Router(config-if)# switchport trunk native vlan 2
• Router(config-if)# switchport mode trunk
• Router(config-if)# speed 1000
• Router(config-if)# duplex full

Then we define the VLAN interface

• Router(config-if)#interface Vlan2
• Router(config-if)# description a VLAN for our interface
• Router(config-if)# ip address 172.17.1.2 255.255.255.0
• Router(config-if)# ip flow ingress
• Router(config-if)# ip route-cache flow
  

Exit from the configure mode and then do:

• Router(config-if)#show ip flow export

You should get something like:

Flow export v5 is enabled for main cache
Exporting flows to 172.17.1.1 (6969)
Exporting using source IP address 172.17.1..249
Version 5 flow records
853478 flows exported in 66526 udp datagrams
0 flows failed due to lack of export packet
0 export packets were sent up to process level

Other useful commands are:

• Router(config-if)#show ip flow interface
• Router(config-if)#show ip cache flow

NMS Inventory - for quite a while I have been meaning to document an NMS (Network Management System) which is currently running at a clients site.

The base operating system is currently FreeBSD 6.1 with a whole lot of useful tools as well as SMS alerting system. The base install includes Apache 1.3 (good old reliable stuff!), MySQL 5.1, Perl and PHP.

In the following pages I will attempt to describe several of the packages which I find very useful, such as:
- cacti
- NeDi (Network Discovery tools)
- netflow tools

.....