nProbe

nProbe

How to Balance (Mobile) Traffic Across Applications Using PF_RING
Traffic monitoring requires packets to be received and processed in a coherent matter. Some people are lucky enough to get all interesting packet on a single interface, but this is unfortunately not a common scenario anymore: The use of network taps split one full-duplex interface into two half-duplex interfaces each receiving a direction of the traffic. Standby interfaces, require traffic monitoring apps to surveil two interfaces, where traffic flows only on one interface at time. Asymmetric traffic (i.e. all protocols similar to HTTP where the traffic in one direction is …
nProbe

Running nProbe and ntopng on Ubiquity EdgeRouter Lite
On this blog we have already discussed on how to compile and run ntopng and nProbe on a BeagleBoard and Raspberry Pi. Now we explain (courtesy of  Shane Graham) how to achieve the same on a Ubiquity EdgeRouter Lite, a cheap yet powerful router. First, setup the proper Debian repository: configure set system package repository squeeze components 'main contrib non-free' set system package repository squeeze distribution squeeze set system package repository squeeze url http://http.us.debian.org/debian set system package repository squeeze-security components main set system package repository squeeze-security distribution squeeze/updates set system package repository …
nProbe

Using ntopng and nProbe on the BeagleBone (small is beautiful)
For years we enjoyed pushing the limits of our software products (our nBox recorder is able to handle multi-10Gbit interfaces for instance), but our roots are not there. All started in 2003 with this small PowerPC-based nBox where we have first integrated nProbe into it. Now after 10 years, it is time to rethink all this and try again. On the market there are several small and cheap platforms such as the Raspberry Pi, the BeagleBone Black and the EdgeMax that are ideal platforms for our apps. We have then decided …
nProbe

Why nProbe+JSON+ZMQ instead of native sFlow/NetFlow support in ntopng?
Both sFlow and NetFlow/IPFIX are the two leading network monitoring protocols used today on the market. They are two binary protocols encapsulated over UDP, with data flowing (mono-directional) from the probe (usually a physical network device or a software probe such as nProbe)  to the collector (a PC that receives traffic and handles is or dumps it on a database). This architecture has been used for decades, it still makes sense from the device point of view but not for the application (developer) point of view for many reasons: The …
nProbe

Tracking and Troubleshooting Mobile Phone Users (IMSI) using the MicroCloud
The microcloud is one of the fields where s used extensively by mobile network operators. The reasons are manyfold: Data aggregation facilities offered in realtime by the microcloud. Realtime user-to-tunnel mapping. User traffic-to-user correlation. Unfortunately when a mobile network is populated by million of active users (IMSI), troubleshooting a problem can be a problem. Tools such as wireshark that are used on fixed networks do not work because: The network is distributed, so there is not single sniffing point, but rather it is necessary to deploy our tools across the …
n2disk

Learning The ntop World of Apps
The main criticism to ntop is the lack of documentation. This is because we have to maintain many projects, have little time, and also because we prefer coding to documentation. We decided to fill this gap and give a positive answer to your requests: We have created the nBox GUI to enable you to use all our applications without the pain of compiling and configuring them. This is a free product that everyone can use to build their own measurement gear or just to start ntop using a web browser. …
n2disk

How to build yourself a nBox Probe and Packet Recorder
If you need a network probe or a packet recorder you have two options. Grab a turn-key nBox or built it yourself using our software. In the first case you will receive a optimised system, with the right motherboard/CPU/NIC for your monitoring tasks and all software preinstalled/configured. However if you want to build yourself your nBox (e.g. you can reuse an old/spare server or get a new one if you plan to address 10 Gbit monitoring) you can now do it. Below we will describe how to build it step by …
Announce

Introducing nBox 2.0 (aka how to use/configure ntop apps using a web GUI)
Years ago we decided to create the nBox appliance as turn-key solution for those that were not fans of the command line. Then we decided to rewrite the nBox GUI to make it simpler, more modern, and usable by all ntop users, to configure ntop, nProbe, n2disk, PF_RING and DNA.   In essence we have created a new web interface that can simplify your configurations, assist with complex things such as core affinity or DNA configuration, and let you focus on ntop applications rather than on their configuration. You can download …
nProbe

Monitoring Mobile Networks (2G, 3G, and LTE) using nProbe
Monitoring mobile networks traffic has been traditionally perceived by the telecommunications industry as something complex, costly, proprietary. This is unfortunately one of the few fields where the open-source movement  has not been able to spread much, where vendor lock-in is still the standard. Last year we visited the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to understand more about this world (btw, it’s a crazy expo as the  cheapest entry ticket costs 900$ and up), and the conclusion is that mobile terminals are pretty open thanks to Android, but the network is …
nProbe

Monitoring on the MicroCloud
When I started to develop ntop in 1998, it was clear to me that the network was a huge, volatile (or semi-persistent if you wish), constantly changing database. In ntop this database is implemented in memory, where for each received packet, ntop updates the hosts, protocols, sessions, packet size….. tables. The web interface is yet another way to view the database contents using a web interface. In order not to exhaust all the available resources (memory in primis), the ntop memory database periodically purges data that is no longer accessed …
nProbe

10 Gbit (Line Rate) NetFlow Traffic Analysis using nProbe and DNA
In the past couple of years, 10 Gbit networks are gradually replacing multi-1 Gbit links. Traffic analysis is also increasingly demanding as “legacy” NetFlow v5 flows are not enough to network administrators who want to know much more of their network than simple packets/bytes accounting. In order to satisfy these needs, we have added in the latest nProbe 6.9.x releases many new features including: Flow application detection (via nDPI) Network/application latency Support of encapsulations such as GTP/Mobile IP/GRE Various metrics for computing network user-experience Extension to plugins to provide even …
nProbe

Getting More Information On Your Network Performance
This week ntop will be present at the Open Source System Management Conference 2012, that will take place this Thursday in Bolzano, Italy, organized by our partner and sponsor Würth-Phoenix. We’ll give a speech about how to analyze network performance with our nProbe/ntop applications, as well how to characterize the applications generating traffic. In fact it is important not to do generic and aggregate metric monitoring, but to characterize flow-by-flow so that we can generate alerts per-application. During the event we’ll speak about future nProbe extensions that we’ll introduce later …

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