topic Re: Enabling Netflow on cloud-based Wireless Controllers in Network Security

Enabling Netflow on cloud-based Wireless Controllers

latenaite2011 — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 22:21:14 GMT

Hey everyone,

Just wondering if anyone knows where to send the Netflow collector on a cloud-based wireless controller (such as Meraki for example). Would we send it to an on-premise Netflow collector? If it is on-premise, would the Netflow be encrypted and NAT is required to NAT the netflow collector IP from public to the private IP? Or would the netflow collect be in the cloud too (i.e., in Azure)? Just wondering how this would work.

I'm working a project to evaluate different cloud-based wireless controllers and just curios how and where the netflow traffic would be configured.

Thank you in advance!

Re: Enabling Netflow on cloud-based Wireless Controllers

yasodasanjel — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 22:23:25 GMT

When enabling Netflow on a cloud-based wireless controller, you typically send the Netflow data to a Netflow collector. Here's a simple explanation:

You can use an on-premise Netflow collector, and in this case, the Netflow traffic is not encrypted by default. If your Netflow collector is in a private network, you may need to configure NAT to translate the Netflow collector's public IP to its private IP for the traffic to reach it.
Alternatively, you can use a cloud-based Netflow collector, such as one hosted in Azure. In this scenario, the Netflow data would be sent to the cloud-based collector directly, and you wouldn't need to worry about NAT or encrypting the traffic because it remains in the cloud environment.

The choice between on-premise and cloud-based Netflow collectors depends on your specific network architecture and security requirements.

Re: Enabling Netflow on cloud-based Wireless Controllers

latenaite2011 — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 00:36:17 GMT

Thank you Yosadanjel for the explanation.

Follow up questions.

Say in the case of Meraki or Junipr Mist cloud controller for example, if
we send it on-premise, it probably wouldn't be good to send netflow data to
the Netflow collector on-premise as traffic would not be encrypted and
anything can sniff the Netflow data, even with NAT enable.

In the case of sending the Netflow collector in the cloud, how can one send
the traffic to the Netflow collector in Azure for a sample. How does
Meraki's controller (via the Dashboard) or Juniper Mist controller via
their own dashboard be able to talk to the Netflow collect via the Azure's
IP address?

Thank you!