You can configure IPFIX profiles for switches, also known as segments.

Flow-based network monitoring enable network administrators to gain insight into traffic traversing a network.

Procedure

  1. From your browser, log in with admin privileges to an NSX Manager at https://<nsx-manager-ip-address>.
  2. Select Plan & Troubleshoot > IPFIX.
  3. Click the Switch IPFIX Profiles tab.
  4. Click Add Switch IPFIX Profile.
  5. Enter the following details:
    Setting Description
    Name and Description Enter a name and optionally a description.
    Note: If you want to create a global profile, name the profile Global. A global profile cannot be edited or deleted from the UI, but you can do so using NSX-T Data Center APIs.
    Active Timeout (seconds) The length of time after which a flow times out, even if more packets associated with the flow are received. Default is 300.
    Idle Timeout (seconds) The length of time after which a flow times out, if no more packets associated with the flow are received (ESXi only, KVM times out all flows based on the active timeout). Default is 300.
    Packet Sampling Probability (%) The percentage of packets that will be sampled (approximately). Increasing this setting can have a performance impact on the hypervisors and collectors. If all hypervisors are sending more IPFIX packets to the collector, the collector might not be able to collect all packets. Setting the probability at the default value of 0.1% keeps the performance impact low.
    Collector Configuration Select a collector from the drop-down menu .
    Applied To Select a category: Segment, Segment Port, or Groups. The IPFIX profile is applied to the selected object.
    Priority This parameter resolves conflicts when multiple profiles apply. The IPFIX exporter uses the profile with the highest priority only. A lower value means a higher priority.
    Max Flows The maximum flows cached on a bridge (KVM only, not configurable on ESXi). Default is 16384.
    Observation Domain ID The observation domain ID identifies which observation domain the network flows originate from. Enter 0 to indicate no specific observation domain.
    Export Overlay Flow This parameter defines whether to sample and export the overlay flows on uplink and tunnel ports. Both the vNIC flow and overlay flow are included in the sample. The default is enabled. When disabled, only vNIC flows are sampled and exported.
    Tags Enter a tag to make searching easier.
  6. Click Save and then Yes to continue configuring the profile.
  7. Click Applied To to apply the profile to objects.
    Select one or more of the objects.
  8. Click Save.