Here I will discuss the minimum configuration required to enable sFlow for HP Comware (v5.2) network devices which supports it. First thing is to check if sFlow is supported by the HP Comware network device. Below is the output for the command "display sflow" on a HP MSR 3020 Router.
<TEST-ROUTE-MSR-3040>display sflow
sFlow Version: 5
sFlow Global Information:
Agent IP:192.168.0.128(Auto)
Source Address:
Collector Information:
ID IP Port Aging Size Description
1 6343 0 1400
2 6343 0 1400
3 6343 0 1400
4 6343 0 1400
5 6343 0 1400
6 6343 0 1400
7 6343 0 1400
8 6343 0 1400
9 6343 0 1400
10 6343 0 1400
sFlow Port Information:
Interface CID Interval(s) FID MaxHLen Rate Mode Status
As you can see, this router supports sFlow with default settings such as sFlow version 5 and the sFlow agent IP address (192.168.0.128). This configuration can support 10 sFlow collectors with default UDP/port 6343. Collectors are hosts which receive/process and/or analyze sFlow data.
In this test router, we configured sFlow with a collector IP 10.0.0.251 and sflow collection on the interface G0/0. Below are the minimal configuration.
In this test router, we configured sFlow with a collector IP 10.0.0.251 and sflow collection on the interface G0/0. Below are the minimal configuration.
# Reconfigure the sFlow agent IP (optional)
sflow agent ip 192.168.0.128
# Add a sFlow collector (required)
sflow collector 1 ip 10.0.0.251 description testprobe
# Configure sFlow collection on the desired interface (required)
interface GigabitEthernet0/0
# Assigned sFlow collection (required)
sflow flow collector 1
# Configure sFlow sampling rate (required)
sflow sampling-rate 1000
Once sFlow is configured, we will its final configuration.
<TEST-ROUTE-MSR-3040>display sflow
sFlow Version: 5
sFlow Global Information:
Agent IP:192.168.0.128(Auto)
Source Address:
Collector Information:
ID IP Port Aging Size Description
1 10.0.0.251 6343 N/A 1400 testprobe
2 6343 0 1400
3 6343 0 1400
4 6343 0 1400
5 6343 0 1400
6 6343 0 1400
7 6343 0 1400
8 6343 0 1400
9 6343 0 1400
10 6343 0 1400
sFlow Port Information:
Interface CID Interval(s) FID MaxHLen Rate Mode Status
GE0/0 0 0 1 128 1000 Determine Active
We can see in detail the sFlow configuration particularly the collector IP address and its assigned interface.
Finally, we will verify if we are receiving sFlow traffic on the collector. Here I have a tcpdump packet capture on Linux host which is our sFlow collection.
Finally, we will verify if we are receiving sFlow traffic on the collector. Here I have a tcpdump packet capture on Linux host which is our sFlow collection.
# tcpdump -n port 6343
tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on eth0, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 65535 bytes
09:22:41.948626 IP 172.23.0.150.2884 > 10.67.224.200.6343: sFlowv5, IPv4 agent 172.23.0.131, agent-id 4, length 900
09:22:42.948623 IP 172.23.0.150.2884 > 10.67.224.200.6343: sFlowv5, IPv4 agent 172.23.0.131, agent-id 3, length 716
09:22:43.948645 IP 172.23.0.150.2884 > 10.67.224.200.6343: sFlowv5, IPv4 agent 172.23.0.131, agent-id 3, length 716
09:22:44.948628 IP 172.23.0.150.2884 > 10.67.224.200.6343: sFlowv5, IPv4 agent 172.23.0.131, agent-id 2, length 464
09:22:45.948694 IP 172.23.0.150.2884 > 10.67.224.200.6343: sFlowv5, IPv4 agent 172.23.0.131, agent-id 4, length 968
09:22:46.949122 IP 172.23.0.150.2884 > 10.67.224.200.6343: sFlowv5, IPv4 agent 172.23.0.131, agent-id 2, length 464
09:22:47.948743 IP 172.23.0.150.2884 > 10.67.224.200.6343: sFlowv5, IPv4 agent 172.23.0.131, agent-id 5, length 1152
09:22:48.948847 IP 172.23.0.150.2884 > 10.67.224.200.6343: sFlowv5, IPv4 agent 172.23.0.131, agent-id 3, length 716
09:22:49.948663 IP 172.23.0.150.2884 > 10.67.224.200.6343: sFlowv5, IPv4 agent 172.23.0.131, agent-id 3, length 716
09:22:50.948892 IP 172.23.0.150.2884 > 10.67.224.200.6343: sFlowv5, IPv4 agent 172.23.0.131, agent-id 5, length 1160
09:22:51.518601 IP 172.23.0.150.2884 > 10.67.224.200.6343: sFlowv5, IPv4 agent 172.23.0.131, agent-id 5, length 1152
09:22:51.948628 IP 172.23.0.150.2884 > 10.67.224.200.6343: sFlowv5, IPv4 agent 172.23.0.131, agent-id 2, length 532
12 packets captured
12 packets received by filter
0 packets dropped by kernel
For more details and options in configuring sFlow with HP Comware, kindy refer to this link from H3C.