NetFlow on 6509E

[BlueyVIII]

As part of our organisations implementation of Prime Infrastructure 2.2 I've been asked to implement Netflow on some SVI's on our Core 6509E (Sup2T with VSS). The P.I 2.2 User Guide recommends the following configuration to be added to the 6509E, however, I was wondering if adding this config is likely to have an adverse affect on the performance of the switch.

Ideally there's 6 VLAN's we need to gather NetFlow data from. The config the P.I 2.2 user guide recommends is below:-

flow record PrimeNFRec
  match ipv4 protocol
  match ipv4 source address
  match ipv4 destination address
  match transport source-port
  match transport destination-port
  collect counter bytes long
  collect counter packets long
!
!
flow exporter PrimeNFExp
  destination 172.18.54.93
  transport udp 9991
  option exporter-stats timeout 20
!
!
flow monitor PrimeNFMon
  record PrimeNFRec
  exporter PrimeNFExp
 
interface GigabitEthernet3/0/1
  ip flow monitor PrimeNFMon input

I intend too add 1 SVI at a time and monitor the performance of the 6509E. Any recommendation for the best way to monitor the performance/utilization before and after each SVI is added??

[Reza Sharifi]

You can use any network management application e.g SolarWinds to monitor the memory, CPU, link utilization and the overall health of the system before and after Netflow deployment. I like your idea of enabling it on one SVI one at a time and monitoring the system and if no issue do the next one.

HTH

[BlueyVIII]

Thanks Reza - Rather than using a piece of software to monitor how the 6509E is handling the NetFlow config I was wondering which would be the best IOS commands to use on the CLI as we're enabling NetFlow on each SVI?

If you think it would be better to use a 3rd party piece of software could you recommend any particular product, ideally something that is free to use.

Thanks.

[Reza Sharifi]

I really think it is easier and more intuitive if you use some sort of application. I know for sure SolarWinds monitors the CPU, memory, link utilization, bandwidth utilization, layer-2, layer-3, etc..  You maybe able to download a free 60 or 90 day trial version and use it.  This way, if you don't like it you don't have to buy it.

HTH