Installation¶

There are several licensing levels of the FlowPro available. A valid production or evaluation license key is required with each install. A key can be obtained from Plixer Customer Support or a local reseller.

The steps below describe the process of installing hardware and virtual appliances.

Hardware Appliance¶

Once the hardware appliance is installed in a network rack, power it on and follow the steps below:

Using an SSH client, connect to the appliance with default IP address of 192.168.168.168/24, and remotely login using the username root and password flowpro. The hardware appliance will perform a quick setup and immediately reboot.

CentOS Linux 7 (Core)
Kernel 3.10.0-862.14.4.e17.x86_64 on an x86.64

localhost login: root
Password: _

Login to the hardware appliance again using the username root and password flowpro. Answer a few brief questions. The hardware appliance will reboot to apply the necessary settings.

*********************************
FlowPro Hardware Appliance
Initial Configuration
*********************************

What is the appliances static IP Address?
10.1.2.3
What is the appliances Netmask?
255.255.255.0
What is the appliances gateway?
10.1.1.1
What is the hostname for this appliance?
flowpro

What is the IP Address to your DNS?
This will allow the FlowPro to resolve IP addresses.

*Login to the hardware appliance again and answer a few brief questions*

Login to the hardware appliance command line with the flowpro username and password. Apply the license key by issuing the edit license command.
In the new window, beside license=, paste in the license key

FlowPro (TM) v18.12 [2018-11-02 19:27:01 -0400 (Fri, 02 Nov 2018)]
Copyright (C) 2012 - 2018 Plixer LLC. All rights reserved.
Need an IPFIX Collector? Download Scrutinizer at https://www.plixer.com

 Install Version : FlowPro (TM) v18.12.14.1235
      Machine ID : 6YZ6XEPT66H66636M95HU54D-1D4621169206AAF2
 License Version :
   Licensed Type :
 Licensed Status : Unlicensed
  Used Mon Ports : 0 of 1
      Expiration : 01/18/2038

 Standard Mode. Type 'edit license' to add a license key.


FLOWPRO> help license


+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[ List of Commands ]

 edit license
 show license

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
For more detail type 'help <command>' or '<command> ?'
Full PDF manual can be found at '/home/flowpro/files/flowpro.pdf'
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Press CTRL+X to save

The FlowPro interface(s) must be enabled next for the process that will run on the interface(s), using the enable command.

For example, if the FlowPro is licensed for FlowPro Defender, to activate mon1 for Defender monitoring, enter:

enable defender mon1

Other options for enabling the FlowPro interfaces include:

enable apm <interface> <apmMode>
enable flowpro <interface>

Virtual Appliance - ESX¶

The FlowPro Virtual Appliance (FVA) is packaged as an all-in-one virtual machine template known as an OVF template. For VMware deployments, ESX/ESXi 5.0 or higher is required. VMware Tools will be required to shut down the FVA through the VMware vSphere Client.

System Requirements

Component in Specifications

RAM 4GB

Disks 20GB

Processor 1 CPU 2 Core 2GHz+

Operating System ESXi5

Deploying the OVF Template

Connect to the ESX host using VMware vSphere, or vCenter.
Select File then Deploy OVF Template.
Select Deploy from File, browse to the OVF Template, and click Next.
Review the OVF template details and click Next.
Define the name of the FlowPro Virtual Appliance and click Next.
Select a datastore and click Next.
Select the disk format and click Next.
Select the Network Mapping and click Next.
Review the Virtual Settings and click Finish to import the OVF Template.
The virtual machine itself has both network adapters and eth1 (or mon1) is already in promiscuous mode. By default, it will start listening for traffic on the default virtual network, but it may not be the correct virtual network that needs to be monitored. If a user wants to monitor something different, they will have to set up a mirror port of a Virtual Distributed Switch or a mirror port using a physical NIC on the ESXi host.
Right click on the FlowPro virtual machine and power it on.
Navigate to the Console tab and login using the username root and password flowpro. The virtual appliance will perform a quick setup and immediately reboot.
Login to the virtual appliance again using the username root and password flowpro. Answer a few brief questions. The virtual appliance will reboot to apply the necessary settings.

*********************************
FlowPro Virtual Appliance
Initial Configuration
*********************************

What is the appliances static IP Address?
10.1.2.3
What is the appliances Netmask?
255.255.255.0
What is the appliances gateway?
10.1.1.1
What is the hostname for this appliance?
flowpro

What is the IP Address to your DNS?
This will allow the FlowPro to resolve IP addresses.

Login to the virtual appliance command line with the flowpro username and password. Apply the license key by issuing the edit license command.

FlowPro (TM) v18.12 [2018-11-02 19:27:01 -0400 (Fri, 02 Nov 2018)]
Copyright (C) 2012 - 2018 Plixer LLC. All rights reserved.
Need an IPFIX Collector? Download Scrutinizer at https://www.plixer.com

 Install Version : FlowPro (TM) v18.12.14.1235
      Machine ID : 6YZ6XEPT66H66636M95HU54D-1D4621169206AAF2
 License Version :
   Licensed Type :
 Licensed Status : Unlicensed
  Used Mon Ports : 0 of 1
      Expiration : 01/18/2038

 Standard Mode. Type 'edit license' to add a license key.


FLOWPRO> help license


+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[ List of Commands ]

 edit license
 show license

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
For more detail type 'help <command>' or '<command> ?'
Full PDF manual can be found at '/home/flowpro/files/flowpro.pdf'
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

In the new window, beside license=, paste in the license key.
Press CTRL+X to save

The FlowPro interface(s) must be enabled next for the process that will run on the interface(s), using the enable command.

For example, if the FlowPro is licensed for FlowPro Defender, to activate mon1 for Defender monitoring, enter:

enable defender mon1

Other options for enabling the FlowPro interfaces include:

enable apm <interface> <apmMode>
enable flowpro <interface>

Note

When adding additional monitoring interfaces to the virtual appliance, be sure the interfaces are named using the ‘monX’ naming convention for the FlowPro to recognize them as monitoring interfaces. ie. mon1, mon2, etc.

Installing VMware Tools¶

VMware Tools are not required for proper function of the virtual appliance. However, there are certain advantages to deploying it on each virtual appliance. See VMware’s documentation for more details.

VMware Tools are not installed by default because each version of ESX installs a different VMware Tools package. A script is included with the Virtual FlowPro to simplify the install process.

In the VMware vSphere Client, right click on the FlowPro virtual machine and select Guest then Install/Upgrade VMware Tools.
Login to the console of the FlowPro Virtual Appliance as the root user and run the command /home/flowpro/conf/vmwareToolsInstall.sh.

Upgrading the Virtual Machine Hardware Version¶

The FlowPro Virtual Appliance is built on Virtual Machine Hardware Version 8 to maintain backwards compatibility with ESXi 5.0 hypervisors. While the virtual machine is powered off, in vSphere (or vCenter) right click on the virtual machine and select Upgrade Virtual Hardware.

Virtual Machine - Hyper-V¶

System Requirements

Component Min Specifications

RAM 4GB

Disks 20GB

Processor 1 CPU 2 Core 2GHz+

Operating System MS Windows Server 2012

Importing a Virtual Machine¶

Download the latest Plixer FlowPro Appliance
Unzip the file on the Hyper-V server
Open Hyper-V Manager and select Import Virtual Machine
Specify the FlowPro Appliance System Folder
Select the Virtual Machine
Choose the import type
Go to Setting
Select the Network Adapter and assign it to the appropriate Virtual Switch. The FlowPro Appliance requires a mirrored port to be associated with mon1.

To set up a mirrored port, reference:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/networking/archive/2015/01/06/settingup-port-mirroring-to-capture-mirrored-traffic-on-a-hyper-v-virtualmachine.aspx
Expand the Network Adapter section, select Advanced Features, set the MAC Address to Static, enter in a unique MAC Address, and then press “OK”.
Start the Virtual Machine.
Right Click on the Virtual Machine and click Connect to login to the Plixer FlowPro Appliance using root/flowpro. The server will perform a quick setup and immediately reboot.

*********************************
FlowPro Virtual Appliance
Initial Configuration
*********************************

What is the appliances static IP Address?
10.1.2.3
What is the appliances Netmask?
255.255.255.0
What is the appliances gateway?
10.1.1.1
What is the hostname for this appliance?
flowpro

What is the IP Address to your DNS?
This will allow the FlowPro to resolve IP addresses.

Note

When adding additional monitoring interfaces to the virtual appliance, be sure the interfaces are named using the ‘monX’ naming convention for the FlowPro to recognize them as monitoring interfaces. ie. mon1, mon2, etc.

Adding Additional Interfaces¶

On the FlowPro appliance, the names of the monitoring interfaces are important. When adding additional interfaces to a virtual appliance, the interfaces must be renamed to something the FlowPro can recognize.

The FlowPro appliance comes with two interfaces by default.

The ‘mgmt’ interface is used for management.

The ‘mon1’ interface is the first, and by default, the only monitor interface.

When adding additional interfaces to the FlowPro appliance, follow this guide to rename the interfaces from the default ‘ethX’ to ‘monX’.

Important

It is always recommended to take a snapshot of the virtual machine before making any changes.

CentOS 7¶

This section outlines the process of adding and renaming a new interface for a FlowPro appliance running on CentOS 7. At least a minimal understanding of the CentOS 7 network interface naming is required.

Add a new interface in vmware¶

In vCenter, right click on the VM that the new interface will be added to and select ‘Edit Settings…’.
From the ‘Edit Settings…’ window, select ‘Add New Device’.
From the drop down menu, click on ‘Network Adapter’.

Restart the VM¶

Restarting the VM will make the OS see the newly added interface.

$ shutdown -r now

Correct the new interface’s name¶

Run these commands to put the mac address for the new interface into the correct ifcfg file.

Important

Before running the last command, verify the interface name is eth0 with the ‘ip addr’ command.

$ cp /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-mon1 /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-mon2
$ sed -i 's|mon1|mon2|g' /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-mon2
$ MAC=$(cat /sys/class/net/eth0/address); sed -i "s|HWADDR=.*|HWADDR=$MAC|g" /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-mon2

Restart the VM, again¶

Restart the VM so the new name takes effect.

$ shutdown -r now

After the reboot, verify the interface has the correct name.

$ ip addr