Using ntop tools on VyOS

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VyOS  is a popular open-source router and firewall platform based on Linux, and some of our users asked us to support it natively. This post explains you how to achieve that in a few simple steps.

Prerequisites

As VyOS is based on Debian Linux, the easiest solution is to install precompiled Debian packages or compile it from source.

In order to do this you need to configure the Debian repositories that on VyOS are empty. You need (as root) to edit /etc/apt/sources.list and store on it something like this:


deb http://mi.mirror.garr.it/mirrors/debian/ jessie main
deb-src http://mi.mirror.garr.it/mirrors/debian/ jessie main
deb http://archive.debian.org/debian jessie-backports main
deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main
deb http://mi.mirror.garr.it/mirrors/debian/ jessie-updates main
deb-src http://mi.mirror.garr.it/mirrors/debian/ jessie-updates main

As of today, we are using VyOS 1.2.x that is based on Debian 8 (jessie). For different VyOS versions you might need to use a different Debian version that you can find out running the following command

root@vyos:/home/vyos# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Debian
Description:	Debian GNU/Linux 8.11 (jessie)
Release:	8.11
Codename:	jessie

Furthermore please make sure you use the best mirror for your country (in this example we used the Italian Debian mirror).

You are now ready to do

apt-get update

and your VyOS installation will now look like a Debian box where you can install your favorite packages.

How to install ntopng

As this point you have two options. You can:

Installing Additional Packages

If you decided to use binary packages, you can also install additional ntop packages such as nProbe that can turn your VyOS router installation in a full fledged nDPI-based NetFlow/IPFIX probe or remote probe for a ntopng installation running on a remote server.

Enjoy!