IPFIX (Internet Protocol Flow Information Export) is an IETF protocol that defines the standard of exporting flow information from an end device to a monitoring system. NSX supports IPFIX to export IP flow information to a collector.
You can enable IPFIX on:
- vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS)
- Distributed Firewall (DFW)
In the vSphere environment, vSphere Distributed Switch is the exporter and the collector is any monitoring tool available from any networking vendor.
The IPFIX standard specifies how IP flow information is presented and transferred from an exporter to a collector.
After you enable IPFIX on the vSphere Distributed Switch, it periodically sends messages to the collector tool. The contents of these messages are defined using the templates. For more information on templates, refer to IPFIX Templates.
