NetFlow inputedit

This functionality is in beta and is subject to change. The design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features.

Use the netflow input to read NetFlow and IPFIX exported flows and options records over UDP.

This input supports NetFlow versions 1, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, as well as IPFIX. For NetFlow versions older than 9, fields are mapped automatically to NetFlow v9.

Example configuration:

filebeat.inputs:
- type: netflow
  max_message_size: 10KiB
  host: "0.0.0.0:2055"
  protocols: [ v5, v9, ipfix ]
  expiration_timeout: 30m
  queue_size: 8192
  custom_definitions:
  - path/to/fields.yml

Configuration optionsedit

The netflow input supports the following configuration options plus the Common options described later.

max_message_sizeedit

The maximum size of the message received over UDP. The default is 10KiB.

hostedit

The host and UDP port to listen on for event streams.

read_bufferedit

The size of the read buffer on the UDP socket.

protocolsedit

List of enabled protocols. Valid values are v1, v5, v6, v7, v8, v9 and ipfix.

expiration_timeoutedit

The time before an idle session or unused template is expired. Only applicable to v9 and IPFIX protocols. A value of zero disables expiration.

queue_sizeedit

The maximum number of packets that can be queued for processing. Use this setting to avoid packet-loss when dealing with occasional bursts of traffic.

custom_definitionsedit

A list of paths to field definitions YAML files. These allow to update the NetFlow/IPFIX fields with vendor extensions and to override existing fields.

The expected format is the same as used by Logstash’s NetFlow codec ipfix_definitions and netflow_definitions. {beatname} will detect which of the two formats is used.

NetFlow format example:

id:
- default length in bytes
- :name
id:
- :uintN or :intN: or :ip4_addr or :ip6_addr or :mac_addr or :string
- :name
id:
- :skip

Where id is the numeric field ID.

The IPFIX format similar, but grouped by Private Enterprise Number (PEN):

pen1:
  id:
  - :uintN or :ip4_addr or :ip6_addr or :mac_addr or :string
  - :name
  id:
  - :skip
pen2:
  id:
  - :octetarray
  - :name

Note that fields are shared between NetFlow V9 and IPFIX. Changes to IPFIX PEN zero are equivalent to changes to NetFlow fields.

Overriding the names and/or types of standard fields can prevent mapping of ECS fields to function properly.

Common optionsedit

The following configuration options are supported by all inputs.

enablededit

Use the enabled option to enable and disable inputs. By default, enabled is set to true.

tagsedit

A list of tags that Filebeat includes in the tags field of each published event. Tags make it easy to select specific events in Kibana or apply conditional filtering in Logstash. These tags will be appended to the list of tags specified in the general configuration.

Example:

filebeat.inputs:
- type: netflow
  . . .
  tags: ["json"]
fieldsedit

Optional fields that you can specify to add additional information to the output. For example, you might add fields that you can use for filtering log data. Fields can be scalar values, arrays, dictionaries, or any nested combination of these. By default, the fields that you specify here will be grouped under a fields sub-dictionary in the output document. To store the custom fields as top-level fields, set the fields_under_root option to true. If a duplicate field is declared in the general configuration, then its value will be overwritten by the value declared here.

filebeat.inputs:
- type: netflow
  . . .
  fields:
    app_id: query_engine_12
fields_under_rootedit

If this option is set to true, the custom fields are stored as top-level fields in the output document instead of being grouped under a fields sub-dictionary. If the custom field names conflict with other field names added by Filebeat, then the custom fields overwrite the other fields.

processorsedit

A list of processors to apply to the input data.

See Filter and enhance the exported data for information about specifying processors in your config.

pipelineedit

The Ingest Node pipeline ID to set for the events generated by this input.

The pipeline ID can also be configured in the Elasticsearch output, but this option usually results in simpler configuration files. If the pipeline is configured both in the input and output, the option from the input is used.