NFO Installation Guide
Installation Guide
Intended Audience
This information is intended for anyone who wants to install, configure, or maintain NetFlow Optimizer (NFO). The information is written for experienced Linux or Windows system administrators who are familiar with virtual machine technology and data center operations.
Before You Install NFO
Pre-Installation Checklist
You can install NetFlow Optimizer on premises (Linux or Windows server) or in your cloud environments (AWS, Azure, Oracle OCI, or Google GCP). Please be sure to have the following before you begin the installation of the NetFlow Optimizer software:
- You have Amazon Web Services (AWS) environment for AWS installations. See steps in Setting Up with Amazon EC2
- You have to login as root for Linux and administrator for Windows installations and updates
- License – A license is required before you can begin using NetFlow Optimizer software. Please register at https://www.netflowlogic.com/free-trial/ to get your FREE evaluation license or contact sales@netflowlogic.com
Sizing Host for NFO Deployment
This the minimum specifications for a production NFO deployment (Virtual machine or physical server):
- 2 CPU at 2Ghz or greater speed per core
- 8GB RAM
- 20GB disk space
When you plan for hardware or virtual machine size, consider the following guidelines (Linux):
| Option | Number of VMs or Hosts | NetFlow Ingest Rate | CPU | Memory | DCI (*) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 200 | 2,000 flows/sec | 2 | 8GB | 30 |
| Medium | 2,000 | 20,000 flows/sec | 4 | 16GB | 30 |
| Large (**) | 5,000 | 50,000 flows/sec | 8 | 32GB | 60 |
| Extra Large (**) | 10,000+ | 100,000+ flows/sec | 16 | 64GB+ | 180+ |
(*) Data Collection Interval - flow consolidation time interval, configurable in NFO Modules
(**) For Large and Extra Large deplyments you need to change server.cfg parameters. Please contact support@netflowlogic.com for details.
Supported Platforms
NFO is distributed as Amazon Machine Image (AMI), as RPM or TAR.GZ for Linux, or as EXE for Windows.
You can install the NetFlow Optimizer software on a platform with the following specifications.
| Specification | Details |
|---|---|
| AWS EC2 Image | RHEL 8 |
| Linux | Linux kernel 2.17+ on OSes which support systemd:
OSes which support OpenRC:
|
| Windows | Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022 |
Supported Browsers
You can use one of the following browsers to connect to the NFO Web user interface.
- Mozilla Firefox 38.0 and up
- Safari 6.0, 7.0
- Google Chrome 34.0 and 43.0 and up
- IE10, IE11, and MS Edge
Required Network Ports
The following network ports must be accessible.
| Port | Description |
|---|---|
| 8443/TCP | NetFlow Optimizer GUI |
| 9995/UDP | NetFlow/IPFIX Ingestion (plus all ports for ingestion as necessary) |
| 161/UDP and 162/UDP | SNMP polling and SNMP traps |
| 9001/TCP | Configuration Data Base, port is opened on loopback interface 127.0.0.1 |
| 20047/TCP and 20048/TCP | NetFlow Optimizer internal services, ports are opened on loopback interface 127.0.0.1 |
| 20047/UDP and 20048/UDP | NetFlow Optimizer outputs for Kafka, OpenSearch, etc., ports are opened on four loopback interfaces 127.17.0.1 - 127.17.0.4 |
To change ports 20047/20048 perform the following after you install NFO:
Add or change the following lines in /opt/flowintegrator/server/etc/server.cfg
CONTROLLER_PORT 20047
CONFIG_PORT 20048
Restart NFO and Tomcat after applying these changes as follows:
- Stop NFO using GUI
- Restart Tomcat using one of the following commands:
/etc/init.d/tomcat_nfo restartorservice tomcat_nfo restart - Start NFO using GUI