Cisco Cisco Prime Infrastructure 3.0 White Paper
© 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
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NetFlow
NetFlow is an embedded instrumentation within Cisco IOS Software to characterize network operation. Visibility
into the network is an indispensable tool for IT professionals. NetFlow gives network managers a detailed view of
application flows on the network. Cisco Prime Infrastructure supports Traditional NetFlow (TNF) as well as Flexible
NetFlow (FNF). A summarized view of what versions of NetFlow exist, their support, and their implied usage in
Cisco Prime Infrastructure can be seen in the following two tables.
Flow Record
Type
Type
NetFlow
Version
Version
Cisco Prime Infrastructure
Support
Support
Template to Use
Technologies Used By
Traditional
NetFlow (TNF)
NetFlow (TNF)
Cisco
(v5)
(v5)
Yes
There is no template for this,
but one can be created
but one can be created
● Network traffic stats
Flexible
NetFlow (FNF)
NetFlow (FNF)
RFC 3954
(v9)
(v9)
Yes
Collecting Traffic Statistics
under OOTB (Out of the box)
Folder
under OOTB (Out of the box)
Folder
● PerfMon
● Performance Agent (PA)
● Performance Agent (PA)
IPFIX
RFC 5101
RFC 5102
(v10)
RFC 5102
(v10)
Yes
AVC Template uses IPFIX
● IPFIX is a protocol developed by the IETF
working group. The IETF Working group
used NetFlow v9 as the basis for IPFIX
used NetFlow v9 as the basis for IPFIX
The following table shows further breakdown of NetFlow, and how NetFlow data is used for application visibility.
Features
Description
Export Format Support
Template to Be Used
Suggested Use
TNF
Basic NetFlow records
Version 5
Custom template needs to
be created
be created
Old platform that does not support Flexible
NetFlow or IPFIX yet
NetFlow or IPFIX yet
FNF
Flexible, extensible flow
records. Report application
from NBAR2
records. Report application
from NBAR2
Version 9
(IPFIX)
(IPFIX)
Traffic Statistics under
OOTB Folder
OOTB Folder
● For newer platforms such as
◦
ISR G2
◦
ASR 1000
● Report application visibility
PA
Application Response
Time (ART)
Time (ART)
Version 9
(IPFIX)
(IPFIX)
Need to develop
● ART
● Transaction time
● Per application latency
● Response time
● Transaction time
● Per application latency
● Response time
(Available only on ISR G2)
PerfMon
Media Performance
Version 9
(IPFIX)
(IPFIX)
PerfMon template under
OOTB Folder
OOTB Folder
● Voice/video performance
● Jitter
● Packet loss
● Jitter
● Packet loss
Check out the AVC Solution Guide for more detailed use cases on where and how to use AVC.
The solution guide can be found at