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.
For a detailed list and descriptions of the channels that this sensor can show, see section Channel List.
▪Dutch: IPFIX
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▪Simplified Chinese: IPFIX
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▪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.
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.
Click the Settings tab of a sensor to change its settings.
Setting |
Description |
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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.
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Parent Tags |
Shows tags that the sensor inherits from its parent device, parent group, and parent probe.
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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.
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 ( |
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.
Setting |
Description |
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Setting |
Description |
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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 ( ▪Yes ( ▪Detail (
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For detailed information, see section Filter Rules.
Setting |
Description |
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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. |
Setting |
Description |
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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.
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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. |
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 |
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Primary Toplist |
Define which Toplist is the primary Toplist of the sensor: ▪Top Talkers ▪Top Connections ▪Top Protocols ▪[Any custom Toplists you add]
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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.
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.
For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window.
For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Access Rights.
For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Channel Unit Configuration.
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.
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 |
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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 |
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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). |
Which channels the sensor actually shows might depend on the target device, the available components, and the sensor setup.
Channel |
Description |
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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 |
The internet mail traffic (Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)) in bytes per second |
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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
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Various |
The traffic from various other sources in bytes per second |
WWW |
The traffic from the web (HTTP, HTTPS) in bytes per second |
KNOWLEDGE BASE
What is the Active Flow Timeout in flow sensors?
▪https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/66485
What security features does PRTG include?
▪https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/61108
How can I change the default groups and channels for flow and Packet Sniffer sensors?
▪https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/60203
PAESSLER TOOLS
NetFlow Tester