Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Configuring F5 BIG-IP

The latest TMOS 11.2.0 release includes an initial, partial (counters only), implementation of sFlow. The following steps enable export of interface counters and CPU/memory statistics:
  1. On the Main tab, click System > Performance > sFlow. The sFlow screen opens.
  2. Click Add. The New sFlow Receiver screen opens.
  3. In the Name field, type a name for the sFlow receiver.
  4. In the Address field, type the IPv4 or IPv6 address on which the sFlow receiver listens for UDP datagrams.
  5. Click Finished.
The article, Link utilization, describes some of the benefits of using sFlow to export performance counters. Fully implemented, sFlow delivers detailed visibility into L2-7 traffic. Additional information can be found on the F5 web site.

June 11, 2013 Update: TMOS 11.4.0 now includes comprehensive L2-7 support for sFlow, from packet sampling and interface counters to application response times, URLs and status codes. 

See Trying out sFlow for suggestions on getting started with sFlow monitoring and reporting.

4 comments:

  1. Hello Peter... Did you implement this? I'm using Solarwinds as my sFlow collector but not having any luck. I'm not sure if it's a Solarwinds problem or a F5 issue. Just curious what your setup is and if it's working as expected? Thanks...

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    1. The current F5 release only exports counter information (not flows). I don't believe that Solarwinds supports sFlow counters - you might want to try sFlowTrend and see if you get data.

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  2. HI Peter, Can you show me the steps to configure Slow trend?

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    1. Network traffic and interface counters should show up under the sFlowTrend Network tab. HTTP counters, top URLs etc. should appear under the Services tab. The free version of sFlowTrend has a limit of 5 devices, so you should use the Configure agents option to make sure you haven't exceeded the limit and to see which agents you are receiving data from.

      If you have additional questions, try http://groups.google.com/group/sflowtrend

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