Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is not merely a protocol—it’s the backbone of the...
3.1 Inventory
The Inventory section accumulates information about all types of network devices being used in NFA and assigns them meaningful names. Devices must be assigned to locations/sites to further enhance NFA’s grouping and filtering capabilities.
3.1.1 Adding Devices #
To add a new device, go to Management > Inventory. Click the “ADD DEVICE” button in the top right corner. A dialog box will appear and ask to provide the following information: Device Name, Device Description, Device Type, and Exporter IP.
Specify if you’d like to override the flow sampling rate for the device you are adding. Define and set up the data origin (Flow, BGP, or the Internal Database) priority for a distinct set of attributes. Click “NEXT STEP” to proceed.
Select an existing location for your device from the dropdown menu or choose to “Create New Location”. Proceed to the “NEXT STEP”
Enabling BGP data export from the device you are about to add is optional.
First, configure an iBGP or eBGP session between NFA and your router(s).
Next, fill out both OUR AS and PEER AS fields under the BGP settings tab for eBGP. With eBGP, the route-reflector does not need to be configured, and the router side just needs to be set up as though it’s a transit customer. If OUR AS field is left blank, an iBGP session will be established.
The BGP SESSION control is set to ON by default.
NFA allows you to use the BGP data from another device that is already set to peer with NFA. For this to happen, select the corresponding radio button and an existing device from the dropdown list. Proceed to the “NEXT STEP”
Feel free to indicate a list of upstream/downstream ASNs specific to your network. The user-defined upstream/downstream lists can be set for each device individually or per a particular location.
Provide optional SNMP details for NFA to be able to poll any device that supports MIB-II (a standard MIB), get interface names and descriptions, and monitor bandwidth usage on each interface.Both SNMPv2c and SNMPv3 can be defined. Since SNMPv3 supports authentication and encryption, we recommend using this version when possible. Once set up, interface names and descriptions will appear as the “narrow by” options in NFA’s Data Explorer section.
3.1.2 Managing Devices #
All devices added to NFA are listed under Management > Inventory. Devices are grouped by location. Small icons next to Flow, BGP and/or SNMP indicate their state. Click a small arrow next to the device name to see the additional information such as the Exporter IP, Sample rate, Flow type and Flow rate or turn ON/OFF the BGP session or SNMP.
All devices exporting data to the system but not yet registered by admins are automatically placed under the default “Unregistered” category. These can be named, edited and registered as per your requirements.
3.1.3 Deleting Devices #
To delete a device you’ll need to deactivate it first. Click the OFF switch for a particular device. Next, click the delete icon. A dialog box will appear asking you to confirm the deletion.
