FAQ¶
Important
For additional questions or concerns, contact Plixer Technical Support.
Q) Can we use additional Plixer Replicators as failsafes against downtime and other issues?
A) Yes. For instructions on how to configure a secondary or backup Plixer Replicator appliance see the section on high availability configurations.
Q) Why is our Plixer Replicator still not receiving packets from our router even though I’ve configured it to send data to the correct IP address?
A) A firewall or access control list may be blocking traffic to the Plixer Replicator appliance. To verify that it can see traffic from a device, run snoop [NETWORK_DEVICE_IP] from the REPLICATOR> prompt.
Q) Can I create additional admin and/or user accounts for other users in our organization?
A) Each Plixer Replicator appliance currently only supports a single adminstrator account for the web interface. However, future updates to the product may add support for multiple local user accounts and roles.
Q) How long should it take for collectors to start receiving packets after I’ve configured an exporter to send flows to the Plixer Replicator appliance?
A) When a new exporter starts sending UDP packets to the Plixer Replicator appliance, it may take up to two minutes for the packets to be received by collectors.
Q) How do I find out if there are exporters not assigned to any profiles sending packets to the Plixer Replicator?
A) To view all currently unassigned exporters, select Exporters Not in a Profile in the View dropdown menu in the Exporters tab of the web interface or run exporters noprofile from the REPLICATOR> prompt.
Q) We have a closed network with no gateway. Why is our Plixer Replicator appliance dropping packets instead of replicating them?
A) The default behavior for the Plixer Replicator appliance is to drop all packets that come into an interface that the host has no route to. To change this, find the net.ipv4.all.rp_filter setting in the /etc/sysctl.conf file and change its value to 0.
Q) How do I configure a profile to allocate exporter flows across a distributed Plixer Scrutinizer cluster?
A) If you are using Plixer Scrutinizer’s distributed architecture to handle an extremely large number of flows and/or exporters, you can enable the Auto Replicate feature to have it manage Plixer Replicator profiles for its collectors and automatically assign exporter streams to them as they’re added. Additional information and instructions on how to set up Plixer Replicator integration can be found in the Plixer Scrutinizer documentation here.
Q) Do Plixer Replicator appliances support IPFIX?
A) Yes, IPFIX is supported.
Q) Can I convert syslog messages to IPFIX?
A) By default, the Plixer Replicator appliance replicates syslog messsages received from exporters and forwards them to their assigned collectors in the same format. To have syslogs automatically converted to IPFIX before being forwarded, run setting enable convertSyslog from the REPLICATOR> prompt.
Q) How do I send the syslog notifications and/or IPFIX metrics generated by the Plixer Replicator appliance to more than one collector?
A) To send the appliance’s syslog notifications and/or IPFIX metrics to multiple collectors, first configure the Plixer Replicator appliance to send the packets back to itself. After that, create a profile with the same appliance as an exporter and assign collectors as needed.
Note
Since there are separate settings for syslog notifications and IPFIX metrics, they will require separate profiles.
Q) Why am I receiving an error about a loop being created when I try to add a new exporter or collector?
A) A loop is created when a profile is configured in a way that incoming packets will be sent back to the source. This can happen when a collector is added to a profile with an inclusion policy that defines the same IP address as an exporter.
Q) Can a Profile have the same *in*/listening and *out*/sending port?
A) Yes. The Plixer Replicator will automatically verify updates to a profile’s settings to ensure that no loops are created when new exporters and/or collectors are added.
Q) How do I change the ``root`` user password on the Plixer Replicator appliance?
A) To change the root password, SSH to the appliance as the root user and issue the passwd command.
Q) How do I change the web interface ``admin`` user password on the Plixer Replicator appliance?
A) To change the password for the web interface admin user, SSH to the appliance as the replicator user and run password webui from the REPLICATOR> prompt.
Q) How do I change the hostname and IP address of the Plixer Replicator appliance?
A) To change the hostname and IP address of the appliance, log in as the root user, and then run /home/replicator/conf/sethostname.sh. Alternatively, system change can be run from the REPLICATOR> prompt.
Q) In a multi-network/traditional high availability configuration, how often does the secondary appliance poll the primary to check if it’s available?
A) The polling interval is controlled by the Update Interval setting on the Settings tab/page of the web interface and can be set anywhere between 30 to 60 seconds.
Q) How often is the database of the primary appliance synced to the secondary, in a multi-network/traditional high availability configuration?
A) The secondary appliance checks the primary for changes every 5 minutes. If changes are detected, the secondary appliance’s configuration is updated.
Q) Does the Plixer Replicator appliance support giant packets?
A) Jumbo frame sizes up to 65534 bytes are supported by the Plixer Replicator appliance. To take advantage of this, interfaces must be configured to support the maximum packet size expected for replication. Fragmented packets are not supported, and the appliance will not attempt to fragment packets, even if the do not fragment bit (DF) bit is not set.