TMCnews Featured Article

NetFlow Sets the Standard in Traffic Monitoring

By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Network monitoring is an important aspect of network management as it gives visibility into the inner workings of the network and can notify administrators if trouble is on the horizon. A valuable piece of network monitoring includes monitoring IP traffic, an activity that heavily relies upon NetFlow.

Software tools like those offered through NetFlow or through Citrix’s IPFIX can offer real-time visibility into the flow of traffic and can analyze and deliver reports regarding bandwidth and how it is being utilized, according to this Plixer blog post. 

NetFlow, a network protocol designed at Cisco (News - Alert) Systems, is used to capture information regarding IP traffic. While it is not the only product available for traffic monitoring on the market, it is the standard by which most enterprises monitor traffic. 

One competing application, AppFlow, is a popular solution for monitoring traffic for the Citrix desktop virtualization product. It delivers agentless traffic monitoring. Other products similar to NetFlow include sFlow for Allied Telesis, Cflowd for Alcatel-Lucent, NetStream for 3Com/HP, Jflow for Juniper Networks, and Rflow for Ericsson.

Formed in 1989, Citrix Systems (News - Alert), Inc. provides server and desktop virtualization to more than 200,000 companies throughout the world. The company has enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Microsoft (News - Alert) for more than 20 years. But, can the company match Cisco’s leadership with the NetFlow product?

Citrix, like Cisco, can deliver features such as exporting unique items in IPFIX (IP Flow Information Export). IPFIX is an alternative to NetFlow and is a product of the associated IETF working group. It was designed to fit universal standards of export for IP flow information from a variety of devices, including routers. Most of the devices are used in mediation systems, network management systems, and accounting/billing systems. 

IPFIX is different from NetFlow, however, in that it will allow the exporting of unique details that aren’t supported in NetFlow. Citrix is actually similar to NetFlow, but Citrix’s IPFIX is not yet compatible with VMware. 

Flexible NetFlow takes IP traffic information and sends it to a storage system, such as CA NetQoS (News - Alert) where it can be analyzed. Most network devices being made today support VMware vSphere 5, which is compatible with NetFlow v5. This pairing supports intrahost virtual machine traffic, and virtual machine to physical infrastructure traffic.

NetFlow’s popularity can be traced to its ability to deliver information in real-time to network management tools, information that was previously coming directly from the devices processing IP. This allows NetFlow greater visibility, which has inspired almost every large network vendor to jump on the NetFlow ship. Likewise, most networking performance monitoring vendors are on board, enjoying the benefits afforded with the NetFlow standard.


Edited by Jamie Epstein