Top Pairs Monitor (10064 / 20064)

Description

This Module reports top Host Pairs network conversations. In contrast to Module 10067 which reports consolidated unidirectional flows, this Module stitches client-server request-response flows, reporting bytes and packets server-to-client and client-to-server in separate fields.

Server destination port: Source port of client hosts is not reported, and ignored while consolidating client-server communications. Destination port of server hosts is reported. The Module determines which host is a client and which is a server as follows: a server sends more traffic (bytes) than a client. This logic can be overridden by specifying the list in “List of known server destination port numbers” parameter.

Deduplication: optionally the Module can report host pairs only from authoritative router/switch. Authoritative network device is determined as follows. The Module sums up bytes, packets, and connections between two hosts over data collection interval (parameter, default = 30 sec), reported by each flow exporter. An exporter with most connections (flows) for each host pair is considered authoritative, and host pair conversations reported by all other exporters are discarded.

Parameters

Parameter Name	Description	Comments
Data Collection Interval, sec	Module logic execution interval	min = 5 sec, max = 600 sec, default = 30 sec
N - number of reported host pairs	The number of top host pairs reported per NetFlow exporter	min = 0, max = 100000, default = 50, (0 indicates all hosts are reported)
List of known server destination port numbers	List of server destination ports to be used to determine which host is a client and which is a server. If the list is empty, the server is the one sending more traffic than receiving	e.g. 53, 80, 443
Enable(1) or disable (0) reporting flow denied events	If set to 1, enable reporting firewall denied flows. If set to 0, firewall denied flows are not reported	default = 1
Enable(1) or disable (0) reporting by server port	If set to 1, enable traffic reporting by destination port. If set to 0, dest_port field will be omitted	default = 1
Enable(1) or disable (0) reporting by authoritative exporters only	If set to 1, the Module reports host pairs only from authoritative exporters	default = 0
Enable(1) or disable (0) multiplying by sampling rate	If set to 1, when *flow is sampled (e.g. sFlow, sampled NetFlow/IPFIX), the sampling rate is used to multiply bytes and packets to report total traffic as statistical approximation	default = 0
Default sampler rate	If sampling information is not available, use this rate to multiply bytes and packets to report total traffic as statistical approximation	default = 1

Input

NetFlow v5, v9, IPFIX, Cisco ASA NSEL, Palo Alto Networks NetFlow v9, sFlow.

Required NetFlow fields

Information Element (IE)	IE id	IE size, B	Description
IPv4
sourceIPv4Address	8	4	The IPv4 source address in the IP packet header
destinationIPv4Address	12	4	The IPv4 destination address in the IP packet header
IPv6
sourceIPv6Address	27	16	The IPv6 source address in the IP packet header
destinationIPv6Address	28	16	The IPv6 destination address in the IP packet header

Syslog/JSON Message Fields

Key	Field Description	Comments
nfc_id	Message type identifier	"nfc_id=20064"
exp_ip	NetFlow exporter IPv4 address	IPv4 address
protocol 1	Transport Protocol (TCP = 6, UDP = 17)	number
dest_ip	Server IP address	IPv4 address
dest_ip6	Server IPv6 address	IPv6 address
dest_host 2	Server host name	string, included when FQDN is on
dest_port 3	Server port number	number
src_ip	Client IP address	IPv4 address
src_ip6	Client IPv6 address	IPv6 address
src_host 2	Client host name	string, included when FQDN is on
packets_in	Packets from client to server	number
bytes_in	Layer 3 bytes from client to server	number
packets_out	Packets from server to client	number
bytes_out	Layer 3 bytes from server to client	number
bytes	Layer 3 bytes in both directions	number
flow_count	Number of flows	number
action 4	Flow action	string, The action is determined from IPFIX element 233 - firewallEvent and NFv9 / IPFIX element 89 - forwardingStatus
percent_of_total	Percent of Total (bytes) (Client + Server)	decimal, e.g. 25.444% is 25.444
[flow_smpl_id]	Flow Sampler ID	number
t_int	Observation time interval, msec	number

¹ Protocol field is optional. It is reported only if there is a corresponding field in NetFlow.
² Host name field is optional and included only if FQDN Service is enabled
³ Server destination port is optional
⁴ Action is reported as follows:

• action=blocked for firewallEvent 0 (ignored), 2 (deleted), and 3 (denied)
• action=allowed for firewallEvent 1 (created), 4 (alert), and 5 (update)
• action=unknown for forwardingStatus 00
• action=forwarded for forwardingStatus 01
• action=dropped for forwardingStatus 10
• action=consumed for forwardingStatus 11