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SFlow

Network packet standard

Network packet standard

sFlow, short for "sampled flow", is an industry standard for packet export at Layer 2 of the OSI model. sFlow was originally developed by InMon Corp. It provides a means for exporting truncated packets, together with interface counters for the purpose of network monitoring. Maintenance of the protocol is performed by the sFlow.org consortium,{{cite web

Operation

sFlow uses mandatory sampling to achieve scalability{{cite web

An sFlow system consists of multiple devices performing two types of sampling: random sampling of packets{{cite web

Flow samples

Based on a defined sampling rate, an average of 1 out of n packets/operations is randomly sampled. This type of sampling does not provide a 100% accurate result, but it does provide a result with quantifiable accuracy.{{cite web

Counter samples

A polling interval defines how often the network device sends interface counters. sFlow counter sampling is more efficient than SNMP polling when monitoring a large number of interfaces.{{cite web

sFlow datagrams

The sampled data is sent as a UDP packet to the specified host and port. The official port number for sFlow is port 6343.{{cite web

The UDP payload contains the sFlow datagram. Each datagram provides information about the sFlow version, the originating device’s IP address, a sequence number, the number of samples it contains and one or more flow and/or counter samples.

sFlow versions

VersionCommentv1v2v3v4v5
Initial version
(Unknown)
Adds support for *extended_url* information.{{cite IETFtitle = InMon Corporation's sFlow: A Method for Monitoring Traffic in Switched and Routed Networksrfc = 3176sectionname = sFlow Datagram Formatlast1 = Phaalfirst1 = Peterlast2 = Panchen
Adds support BGP communities.
Several protocol enhancements.{{cite weburl = http://sflow.org/sflow_version_5.txttitle = sFlow Version 5publisher = sFlow.orgaccessdate = 2014-06-20

References

References

  1. "InMon: SFlow".
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