ipfixcol2-fds-output(7)

Name
ipfixcol2-fds-output - Flow Data Storage (output plugin)

Description

The plugin converts and stores IPFIX Data Records into FDS file format. The file is based on IPFIX, therefore, it provides highly-effective way for long-term storage and stores complete flow records (including all Enterprise-specific fields, biflow, etc.) together with identification of the flow exporters who exported these records.

All data are stored into flat files, which are automatically rotated and renamed every N minutes (by default 5 minutes).
        Warning: The plugin is still under development and some incompatible
        changes in file format may be introduced!

Example configuration

            <output>
                <name>FDS output</name>
                <plugin>fds</plugin>
                <params>
                    <storagePath>/tmp/ipfixcol2/fds/</storagePath>
                    <compression>none</compression>
                    <dumpInterval>
                        <timeWindow>300</timeWindow>
                        <align>yes</align>
                    </dumpInterval>
                    <outputSelection>
                        <element>iana:octetDeltaCount</element>
                        <element>iana@reverse:octetDeltaCount@reverse</element>
                        <element>iana:packetDeltaCount</element>
                        <element>iana@reverse:packetDeltaCount@reverse</element>
                        <element>iana:destinationIPv4Address</element>
                        <element>iana:destinationIPv6Address</element>
                        <element>iana:sourceIPv4Address</element>
                        <element>iana:sourceIPv6Address</element>
                        <element>iana:destinationTransportPort</element>
                        <element>iana:sourceTransportPort</element>
                        <element>iana:protocolIdentifier</element>
                        <element>cesnet:quicSNI</element>
                        <element>cesnet:TLSSNI</element>
                    </outputSelection>
                </params>
            </output>

Parameters

    storagePath
        The path element specifies the storage directory for data files. Keep on mind that the path must exist in your system. Otherwise, no files are stored. All files will be stored based on the configuration using the following template: <storagePath>/YYYY/MM/DD/flows.<ts>.fds where YYYY/MM/DD means year/month/day and <ts> represents a UTC timestamp in format YYMMDDhhmmss.

    compression
        Data compression helps to significantly reduce size of output files. Following compression algorithms are available:

        none
            Compression disabled [default]

        lz4 LZ4 compression (very fast, slightly worse compression ration)

        zstd
            ZSTD compression (slightly slower, good compression ration)

    dumpInterval
        Configuration of output files rotation.

        timeWindow
            Specifies time interval in seconds to rotate files i.e. close the current file and create a new one. [default: 300]

        align
            Align file rotation with next N minute interval. For example, if enabled and window size is 5 minutes long, files will be created at 0, 5, 10, etc. [values: yes/no, default: yes]

    outputSelection
        Select only a subset of fields that will be saved in output. A list of IPFIX elements is provided. Any fields of an element that are not a part of this list will be skipped and not included in the resulting FDS output file. Note that when [default: all fields]

        element
            The identifier of the IPFIX element in the form of SCOPE_NAME:ELEMENT_NAME, for example iana:sourceIPv4Address. SCOPE_NAME: prefix can be omitted in case of "iana:". Note: Reverse elements use the following naming pattern iana@reverse:sourceIPv4Address@reverse

    asyncIO
        Allows to use asynchronous I/O for writing to the file. Usually when parts of the file are being written, the process is blocked on synchronous I/O and waits for the operation to complete. However, asynchronous I/O allows the plugin to simultaneously write to file and process flow records, which significantly improves overall performance. (Note: a pool of service threads shared among instances of FDS plugin might be created). [values: true/false, default: true]

Author
Lukáš Huták (lukas.hutak@cesnet.cz)

Copyright
Copyright © 2019 CESNET, z.s.p.o.