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flow-tools + fprobe-ulog vs. nfsen + nfdump + softflowd



>>>>> "IS" == Ivan Shmakov <oneingray@gmail.com> writes:
>>>>> "JM" == Jeroen Massar <jeroen@unfix.org> writes:

[...]

 IS> * `flow-tools' and `fprobe-ulog'; (use `nfdump' and `softflowd'
 IS> instead? oh well, `nfdump' depends on... `ttf-dejavu'! thanks to
 IS> the `librrd4' dependency);

 JM> If you require gratuit NetFlow something NFSen/NFdump is the best
 JM> you can get,

 IS> ?

 > $ apt-cache search nfsen 
 > $ 

	It has a home at [1], and an almost year and a half old ITP [2].

	JFTR: NfSen is not a substitute for either `flow-tools' or
	`fprobe-ulog', of which the latter is used to collect
	``netflows'' out of the passing data, while the former offers a
	daemon to collect netflows (`flow-capture'), along with a rich
	library of functions to process the collected data.

	    (Like: selecting all the flows collected every Friday,
	    between 12:00 and 15:59, from June, 1st through July, 15th;
	    with a simple Shell script!)

	As for the IPv6 support:

	* `softflowd' could probably be used instead `fprobe-ulog';

	  + note, however, that the init.d/ script used to start the
	    former in Debian (as of 0.9.8-1) doesn't allow multiple
	    `softflowd' instances to be started; (but wait, neither
	    `fprobe-ulog' init.d/ script does! congratulations, I've
	    just discovered a bug in my router's configuration...);

	  + also, the capture method used by `softflowd' (the libpcap
	    library) seems to me less efficient (w. r. t. the CPU usage)
	    than the one `fprobe-ulog' uses (-j ULOG, iptables(8));

	* `nfdump' could replace the `flow-capture' daemon of
	  `flow-tools', but is there a replacement for the `flow-tools'
	  data processing library?

	* as per the homepage [1], `nfsen' does the graphs and web
	  pages; these are of less interest to me at this moment.

[1] http://nfsen.sourceforge.net/
[2] http://bugs.debian.org/472666

[...]

-- 
FSF associate member #7257


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