Michael,

> What do you do with duplicate flows?
> 
> Example: Traffic destined for client xxx.xxx.xxx.1 comes in via Router

> B (Internet Feed), which is then routed to client who is connected to 
> Router A - Both Router A + Router B will have a flow for this traffic,

> so there is a chance of double billing?

I have experienced the problem too, and have read the replies with some
dismay. Not all of us have such control over where we can get our flow
feed from. Ideally I want to be able to add any routers' data into my
collection system without having to worry about the correct filter
required to ensure I don't get duplicates.  [Deduping was one of the
best features of 3Com's Traffix application which I still long for].

As a work-around I have written a perl script to hack the output of
"flow-export -f2 -m0x383069". [Attached]. Its slow, CPU intensive,
doesn't output in flow-file format and worst of all is bugged.  One of
the main gotchas with this relates to the variable export frequencies.
Our MSFCs export flows at 30s and 7200s at 300sec. So If 1.2.3.4 sends
to 5.6.7.8 300KB over from 270 secs for 90 secs you could receive these
records:

MSFC  says:
        At 270secs  1.2.3.4 to 5.6.7.8 sent 100KB 
        At 300secs  1.2.3.4 to 5.6.7.8 sent 100KB 
        At 330secs  1.2.3.4 to 5.6.7.8 sent 100KB 

While the 7200 says
        At 270secs  1.2.3.4 to 5.6.7.8 sent 300KB

My code will say that 
        At 0-300secs   1.2.3.4 to 5.6.7.8 sent 300KB  = max(100,300)
witness = 7200 
        At 300-600secs 1.2.3.4 to 5.6.7.8 sent 200KB  = max(0,200)
witness = MSFC 

I've contemplated many tweaks to this (eg pro rata the traffic across
interval boundaries etc), but it's all fudging and relies too heavily on
the syncing of our routers' time stamps.  

Hopefully writing this will inspire me to write something better.... 

Cheers,

Alistair








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Attachment: fxdedup.pl
Description: fxdedup.pl

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