Enable NetFlow on a Cisco equipment

For SmartReport can create reports of protocol distribution and of flow matrix based on Netflow information collected by your Cisco routers and switches, it is necessary to enable the NetFlow protocol on these equipments. The NetFlow protocol send to a header (in this case SmartReport) information of level 3 and 4 (IP addresses, ports TCP / UDP) of IP traffic routed to your equipment. In the remainder of this document, we explain how to enable this protocol on your Cisco equipment.

Connect you on your Cisco equipment

You can connect you on the terminal of your Cisco switch via Telnet, SSH, or simply via the console cable. Depending on your configuration, you may be asked for a login and a password.

Enter in “enable” mode

To change the configuration of Cisco equipment, you must be in privileged mode “enable”. To enter mode “enable”, simply type the enable command, then enter the password that you will be asked.

Enter in “configuration” mode

To configure your Cisco equipment, you must be in mode “configuration”. Simply enter the command:

configure terminal                                                                          

Select interface on which enable NetFlow

To select an interface, use this command:

interface                                                                                   

Enable NetFlow protocol

Then, you enable the NetFlow protocol with the following command:

ip route-cache flow                                                                          

Choose Netflow version used

SmartReport analyse NetFlow frames for all versions currently available (the last being the 9). However, depending on the type of equipment, version to use will be different. To avoid these problems, we recommend using version 5 which can be enabled for all Cisco equipment. Then enter the following command:

ip flow-export version 5                                                                      

Choose destination address of frames

Now you need to configure your router to send NetFlow frames to your SmartReport. To do this, type this command:

ip flow-export destination

The SmartReport port to retrieve NetFlow frames is port number 9995

To enable NetFlow on other interfaces

To SmartReport monitor other interfaces, repeat all steps after having selected another network interface.