Configurations

ntopng provides the ability to backup its configuration, in order to be able to restore it in case of system failures and reinstallations, or to clone it to other systems requiring the very same configuration (e.g. in a cluster or in a high-availability deployment), saving a lot of time for manually copying all the settings.

Through the web GUI it is possible to export selected configurations, including:

  • SNMP configuration

  • Active Monitoring configuration

  • Checks configuration

  • Alerts Endpoints and Recipients

  • All Pools (this will also include all the previous items, as this depends on them)

or export the entire ntopng configuration, which includes Users and Preferences in addition to all the above items. In both cases, a small JSON file containing the configuration is generated.

It is also possible to import back a configuration which as been exported before, providing the JSON file. The configuration items contained in the imported configuration will be added to those already present in the current ntopng configuration (e.g. endpoint already configured in ntopng, if any, will not be deleted when importing additional endpoints).

Resetting the configuration to factory defaults is also possible. This is also useful when importing a configuration and preserving the old one is not required nor wanted (e.g. when adding a set of recipients and endpoints without preserving those already present).

All this is available from the Settings -> Configurations menu, as shown in the below picture.

Manage Configurations Page

The Manage Configurations Page

Every night, ntopng automatically creates a backup of the whole application configuration. No backup is created if the configuration didn’t change since the previous day. Currently the last 7 backups are stored and older ones are automatically discarded. You can download a backup using the Download menu under the Actions colums. This backup can be restored using the Import button on the main configuration page.

Manage Configurations Backup Page

The Configurations Backup Page

Pool Import via CSV

In addition to the standard JSON format, pools can also be imported using a CSV file. Each line of the CSV file defines a single pool member assignment using the following format:

<ip_or_mac><separator><pool_name>

The supported separators are: space, comma (,), and semicolon (;). The following are all equivalent and valid:

192.168.1.2/32@10 myPool
192.168.1.2/32@10,myPool
192.168.1.2/32@10;myPool

IP addresses must be specified in CIDR notation with an optional VLAN tag:

x.y.z.k/p@v

where p is the prefix length (e.g. 32 for a single host) and v is the VLAN ID. The VLAN tag is optional: if omitted, VLAN 0 is assumed. The following two entries are therefore equivalent:

192.168.1.1/32;myPool
192.168.1.1/32@0;myPool

MAC addresses must be specified in the standard colon-separated hex format:

AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF;myPool

Empty lines and lines starting with # are ignored and can be used as comments. Multiple members can be assigned to the same pool by repeating the pool name across different lines. Members belonging to different pools can be mixed freely in the same file.

Import/Export via API

Configuration can also be imported and exported programmatically via API. Following is an example that uses the REST API to export and then import the global ntopng configuration.

To export the global ntopng configuration in a local JSON file all_config.json from an host office, user admin (identified with password admin) can call the following endpoint

$ curl -u admin:admin1 "http://office:3000/lua/rest/v2/export/all/config.lua?download=1" > all_config.json

To import the configuration, the contents of all_config.json must be POST-ed as the value of a string JSON to the following endpoint:

$ curl -uadmin:admin1 -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" --data-urlencode "JSON=`cat all_config.json`" "http://office:3000/lua/rest/v2/import/all/config.lua"

A successful POST is confirmed by the following message:

{"rc":0,"rc_str":"OK","rc_str_hr":"Success","rsp":[]}

A restart of ntopng is required after the import of the global configuration.