Device and Sensor Setup > Sensor Settings

PRTG Manual: IPFIX Sensor

The IPFIX sensor receives traffic data from an Internet Protocol Flow Information Export (IPFIX) compatible device and shows traffic by type. This sensor has several filter options to divide traffic into different channels.

Make sure that the target device supports IPFIX if you want to use this sensor.

IPFIX Sensor

For a detailed list and descriptions of the channels that this sensor can show, see section Channel List.

Sensor in Other Languages

▪Dutch: IPFIX

▪French: IPFIX

▪German: IPFIX

▪Japanese: IPFIX

▪Portuguese: IPFIX

▪Russian: IPFIX

▪Simplified Chinese: IPFIX

▪Spanish: IPFIX

Remarks

▪This sensor has a very high performance impact. Use it with care. We recommend that you use no more than 50 sensors of this sensor type on each probe.

▪You must enable IPFIX export on the device for this sensor to work. The device must send the flow data stream to the IP address of the probe system.

▪This sensor does not officially support more than 50 channels. Depending on the data used with this sensor, you might exceed the maximum number of supported channels. In this case, PRTG tries to display all channels. Be aware, however, that you experience limited usability and performance.

▪You cannot use this sensor in cluster mode. You can only set it up on a local probe or a remote probe but not on a cluster probe.

▪This sensor only supports the IPv4 protocol.

▪For a general introduction to the technology behind flow monitoring, see section Monitoring Bandwidth via Flows.

▪See the Knowledge Base: What is the Active Flow Timeout in flow sensors?

You cannot add this sensor to the hosted probe of a PRTG Hosted Monitor instance. If you want to use this sensor, add it to a remote probe device.

Add Sensor

The Add Sensor dialog appears when you manually add a new sensor to a device. It only shows the settings that are required to create the sensor. You can change nearly all settings on the sensor's Settings tab after creation.

Basic Sensor Settings

Click the Settings tab of a sensor to change its settings.

Basic Sensor Settings

Setting	Description
Sensor Name	Enter a name to identify the sensor. By default, PRTG shows this name in the device tree, as well as in alarms, logs, notifications, reports, maps, libraries, and tickets. If the name contains angle brackets (<>), PRTG replaces them with braces ({}) for security reasons. For more information, see the Knowledge Base: What security features does PRTG include?
Parent Tags	Shows tags that the sensor inherits from its parent device, parent group, and parent probe. This setting is for your information only. You cannot change it.
Tags	Enter one or more tags. Confirm each tag with the Spacebar key, a comma, or the Enter key. You can use tags to group objects and use tag-filtered views later on. Tags are not case-sensitive. Tags are automatically inherited. It is not possible to enter tags with a leading plus (+) or minus (-) sign, nor tags with parentheses (()) or angle brackets (<>). For performance reasons, it can take some minutes until you can filter for new tags that you added. The sensor has the following default tags that are automatically predefined in the sensor's settings when you add the sensor: ▪bandwidthsensor ▪netflowsensor
Priority	Select a priority for the sensor. This setting determines the position of the sensor in lists. The highest priority is at the top of a list. Choose from the lowest priority () to the highest priority ().

Usually, a sensor connects to the IP Address/DNS Name of the parent device. See the device settings for details. For some sensors, you can explicitly define the monitoring target in the sensor settings.

IPFIX Specific Settings

Setting	Description
Receive Packets on UDP Port	Enter the UDP port number on which PRTG receives the flow packets. It must match the UDP port number in the IPFIX export options of the hardware router device. Enter an integer.
Sender IP Address	Enter the IP address of the sending device that you want to receive the IPFIX data from. Enter an IP address to only receive data from a specific device or leave the field empty to receive data from any device on the UDP port.
Receive Packets on IP Address	Select the IP addresses on which PRTG listens to IPFIX packets. The list of IP addresses is specific to your setup. To select an IP address, enable a check box in front of the respective line. The IP address that you select must match the IP address in the IPFIX export options of the hardware router device. You can also select all items or cancel the selection by using the check box in the table header.
Active Flow Timeout (Minutes)	Enter a time span in minutes after which the sensor must receive new flow data. If the timeout elapses and the sensor receives no new data during this time, it shows the Unknown status. Enter an integer. The maximum timeout is 60 minutes. We recommend that you set the timeout one minute longer than the timeout in the hardware router device. If you set this value too low, flow information might be lost. For more details, see the Knowledge Base: What is the Active Flow Timeout in flow sensors?
Sampling Mode	Define if you want to use the sampling mode: ▪Off: Use the standard flow. ▪On: Use the sampling mode and specify the Sampling Rate below. This setting must match the setting in the xFlow exporter.
Sampling Rate	This setting is only visible if you select On above. Enter a number that matches the sampling rate in the exporting device. If the number is different, monitoring results will be incorrect. Enter an integer.
Stream Data Handling	Define what PRTG does with the stream and packet data: ▪Discard stream data (recommended): Do not store the stream and packet data. ▪Store stream data only for the 'Other' channel: Only store stream and packet data that is not otherwise filtered and is therefore accounted to the default Other channel. PRTG stores this data in the \StreamLog subfolder of the PRTG data directory on the probe system. The file name is Streams Sensor [ID] (1).csv. This setting is for debugging purposes. PRTG overwrites this file with each scanning interval. ▪Store all stream data: Store all stream and packet data. This setting is for debugging purposes. PRTG overwrites this file with each scanning interval. Use with caution. If you enable this setting, it can create huge data files. We recommend that you only use this setting for a short time.

Channel Configuration

Setting	Description
Channel Selection	Define the categories that the sensor accounts the traffic to: ▪Web: Internet web traffic. ▪File Transfer: Traffic from FTP. ▪Mail: Internet mail traffic. ▪Chat: Traffic from chat and instant messaging. ▪Remote Control: Traffic from remote control applications such as RDP, SSH, Telnet, and VNC. ▪Infrastructure: Traffic from network services such as DHCP, DNS, Ident, ICMP, and SNMP. ▪NetBIOS: Traffic from NetBIOS communication. ▪Citrix: Traffic from Citrix applications. ▪Other Protocols: Traffic from various other protocols via UDP and TCP. For each group, you can select how many channels the sensor uses, that is, how detailed the sensor divides the traffic. For each group, choose from: ▪No (): Do not account traffic of this group in its own channel. The sensor accounts all traffic of this group to the default channel named Other. ▪Yes (): Count all traffic of this group and summarize it in one channel. ▪Detail (): Count all traffic of this group and further divide it into different channels. The traffic appears in several channels that you can see in the Content column. Extensive use of this option can cause load problems on the probe system. We recommend that you set specific, well-chosen filters for the data that you really want to analyze. You can change the default configuration for groups and channels. For details, see the Knowledge Base: How can I change the default groups and channels for flow and Packet Sniffer sensors?

Setting

Description

Channel Selection

Define the categories that the sensor accounts the traffic to:

▪Web: Internet web traffic.

▪File Transfer: Traffic from FTP.

▪Mail: Internet mail traffic.

▪Chat: Traffic from chat and instant messaging.

▪Remote Control: Traffic from remote control applications such as RDP, SSH, Telnet, and VNC.

▪Infrastructure: Traffic from network services such as DHCP, DNS, Ident, ICMP, and SNMP.

▪NetBIOS: Traffic from NetBIOS communication.

▪Citrix: Traffic from Citrix applications.

▪Other Protocols: Traffic from various other protocols via UDP and TCP.

For each group, you can select how many channels the sensor uses, that is, how detailed the sensor divides the traffic. For each group, choose from:

▪No (): Do not account traffic of this group in its own channel. The sensor accounts all traffic of this group to the default channel named Other.

▪Yes (): Count all traffic of this group and summarize it in one channel.

▪Detail (): Count all traffic of this group and further divide it into different channels. The traffic appears in several channels that you can see in the Content column.
Extensive use of this option can cause load problems on the probe system. We recommend that you set specific, well-chosen filters for the data that you really want to analyze.

You can change the default configuration for groups and channels. For details, see the Knowledge Base: How can I change the default groups and channels for flow and Packet Sniffer sensors?

Filtering

For detailed information, see section Filter Rules.

Filtering

Setting	Description
Include Filter	Define if you want to filter any traffic. If you leave this field empty, the sensor includes all traffic. To include specific traffic only, define filters using a special syntax.
Exclude Filter	First, the sensor considers the filters in Include Filter. From this subset, you can explicitly exclude traffic, using the same syntax.

Sensor Display

Setting	Description
Primary Channel	Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, the last value of the primary channel is always displayed below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor. You can set a different primary channel later by clicking below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.
Graph Type	Define how different channels are shown for this sensor: ▪Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel. ▪Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic. You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).
Stack Unit	This setting is only visible if you enable Stack channels on top of each other as Graph Type. Select a unit from the list. All channels with this unit are stacked on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.

Setting

Description

Primary Channel

Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, the last value of the primary channel is always displayed below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor.

You can set a different primary channel later by clicking below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.

Graph Type

Define how different channels are shown for this sensor:

▪Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel.

▪Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic.
You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).

Stack Unit

This setting is only visible if you enable Stack channels on top of each other as Graph Type. Select a unit from the list. All channels with this unit are stacked on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.

Primary Toplist

Setting	Description
Primary Toplist	Define which Toplist is the primary Toplist of the sensor: ▪Top Talkers ▪Top Connections ▪Top Protocols ▪[Any custom Toplists you add] PRTG shows the primary Toplist in maps when you add a Toplist object.

Setting

Description

Primary Toplist

Define which Toplist is the primary Toplist of the sensor:

▪Top Talkers

▪Top Connections

▪Top Protocols

▪[Any custom Toplists you add]

PRTG shows the primary Toplist in maps when you add a Toplist object.

Inherited Settings

By default, all of these settings are inherited from objects that are higher in the hierarchy. We recommend that you change them centrally in the root group settings if necessary. To change a setting for this object only, click under the corresponding setting name to disable the inheritance and to display its options.

For more information, see section Inheritance of Settings.

Scanning Interval

For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Scanning Interval.

Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window

You cannot interrupt the inheritance for schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. The corresponding settings from the parent objects are always active. However, you can define additional schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. They are active at the same time as the parent objects' settings.

Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window

For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window.

Access Rights

For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Access Rights.

Channel Unit Configuration

For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Channel Unit Configuration.

Toplists

For all Flow (NetFlow, jFlow, sFlow, IPFIX) and Packet Sniffer sensors, Toplists are available on the sensor's Overview tab. Using Toplists, you can review traffic data for small time periods in great detail.

For more information, see section Toplists.

Filter Rules

The following filter rules apply to all Flow (NetFlow, jFlow, sFlow, IPFIX) and Packet Sniffer sensors.

For more information, see section Filter Rules for Flow, IPFIX, and Packet Sniffer Sensors.

Field	Possible Filter Values
IP	IP address or DNS name
Port	Any number
SourceIP	IP address or DNS name
SourcePort	Any number
DestinationIP	IP address or DNS name
DestinationPort	Any number
Protocol	Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), any number
ToS	Type of Service (ToS): any number
DSCP	Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP): any number

The following filter rules apply to IPFIX sensors only.

Field	Possible Filter Values
Interface	Any number
ASI	Any number
InboundInterface	Any number
OutboundInterface	Any number
SenderIP	IP address of the sending device. Use this if you have several devices that send flow data on the same port, and you want to divide the traffic of each device into a different channel. Possible values: IP address or DNS name
SourceASI	Any number
DestinationASI	Any number
MAC	Physical address
SourceMAC	Physical address
DestinationMAC	Physical address
Mask	Mask values represent subnet masks in the form of a single number (number of contiguous bits).
DestinationMask	Mask values represent subnet masks in the form of a single number (number of contiguous bits).
NextHop	IP address or DNS name
VLAN	VLAN values represent a VLAN identifier (any number).
SourceVLAN	VLAN values represent a VLAN identifier (any number).
DestinationVLAN	VLAN values represent a VLAN identifier (any number).

Channel List

Which channels the sensor actually shows might depend on the target device, the available components, and the sensor setup.

Channel	Description
Chat	The traffic from chat and instant messaging (Internet Relay Chat (IRC), AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)) in bytes per second
Citrix	The traffic from Citrix applications in bytes per second
Downtime	In the channel table on the Overview tab, this channel never shows any values. PRTG uses this channel in graphs and reports to show the amount of time in which the sensor was in the Down status
FTP/P2P	The traffic from file transfer (File Transfer Protocol (FTP)/Peer-to-Peer (P2P)) in bytes per second
Infrastructure	The traffic from network services (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Domain Name System (DNS), Ident, Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)) in bytes per second
Mail	The internet mail traffic (Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)) in bytes per second
NetBIOS	The traffic from NetBIOS communication in bytes per second
Other	The traffic from various other protocols (User Datagram Protocol (UDP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)) in bytes per second
Remote Control	The traffic from remote control applications (Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), Secure Shell (SSH), Telnet, Virtual Network Computing (VNC)) in bytes per second
Total	The total traffic in bytes per second This channel is the primary channel by default.
Various	The traffic from various other sources in bytes per second
WWW	The traffic from the web (HTTP, HTTPS) in bytes per second