src/crates/netflow-plugin/integrations/ipfix.md
Plugin: netflow-plugin Module: ipfix
Collect network flow records from IPFIX (NetFlow v10) exporters. IPFIX extends NetFlow v9 with variable-length fields, vendor-specific information elements, and template withdrawal. Each record exposes the same core fields as NetFlow plus any additional IEs the exporter provides.
For full documentation including vendor configuration examples (Cisco, Juniper, Arista), biflow handling, sampling caveats, and verification steps, see the Network Flows Overview.
The plugin uses the same configurable UDP listener set as NetFlow. IPFIX messages are identified by version number 10 and decoded using cached templates. Decoded records are enriched and appended to disk-backed journal tiers.
This integration is supported on all platforms.
This integration runs as a single instance per Netdata Agent.
The stock configuration enables the plugin and listens on the configured UDP ports.
Operational limits are driven by sustained flow records/s, exporter batching, template churn, cardinality, retention, storage speed, and enrichment. On modern hardware with fast storage, plan around 50k-100k sustained flow records/s per well-provisioned agent for the full raw + rollup pipeline, provided the underlying disks can sustain the required journal write activity; use distributed agents for larger deployments.
Disabled until exporters send traffic. Once active, CPU and disk I/O scale with flow-record rate, template volume, and cardinality; size retention and storage from observed flow records/s.
A router, switch, or firewall configured to export IPFIX datagrams to the Netdata agent's UDP listener.
IPFIX shares the same netflow.yaml configuration file as NetFlow and sFlow.
Enable IPFIX via the protocols.ipfix option.
| Option | Description | Default | Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| listener.listen | UDP listener endpoints for NetFlow/IPFIX and sFlow datagrams. YAML accepts either a scalar endpoint or a list of endpoints; CLI accepts repeated --netflow-listen flags or comma-delimited values. | 0.0.0.0:2055, 0.0.0.0:6343 | no |
| protocols.ipfix | Enable IPFIX decoding. | yes | no |
| protocols.sampling_cache_max_entries | Maximum learned NetFlow v9/IPFIX sampling-rate entries across all exporter streams. Must be positive. | 100000 | no |
| protocols.sampling_cache_max_entries_per_stream | Maximum learned sampling-rate entries for one exporter stream. Must be positive; values above the global limit are clamped. | 65536 | no |
| journal.journal_dir | Directory for journal files (relative to NETDATA_CACHE_DIR). | flows | no |
| journal.tiers.<tier>.size_of_journal_files | Per-tier retained-artifact budget for journal data and finalized per-journal facet sidecars. Replace <tier> with raw, minute_1, minute_5, or hour_1. The protected active journal can temporarily exceed the budget. Set to null for time-only retention. | 10GB | no |
| journal.tiers.<tier>.duration_of_journal_files | Per-tier maximum age. Replace <tier> with raw, minute_1, minute_5, or hour_1. The default null disables time-based eviction; set a duration to add an age cap. | null | no |
The configuration file name for this integration is netflow.yaml.
You can edit the configuration file using the edit-config script from the
Netdata config directory.
cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config netflow.yaml
Listen for IPFIX records on the common NetFlow/IPFIX port.
enabled: true
listener:
listen: "0.0.0.0:2055"
protocols:
v5: false
v7: false
v9: false
ipfix: true
sflow: false
See Troubleshooting for
the full diagnostic recipe. Use netflow.input_packets for UDP arrival,
netflow.protocol_packets for v5/v7/v9/IPFIX/sFlow identification, and
netflow.decoder_exceptions for parse failures. For v9/IPFIX, watch the
missing-template dimensions on netflow.flow_sets; Data Sets arriving before
their templates cannot be decoded. See also
Validation and Data Quality.