[sdnog] Cacti software with IPv6

[Daniel Shaw]

Hi Sara!

Well this depends more on the routers/switches you are monitoring than
on Cacti actually.

The short answer is, probably, in most cases, no: Cacti would not
easily separate out ipv4 from ipv6. But in some cases, yes. :-)

To expand: As you know Cacti monitors and graphs based on SNMP. This
means that if whatever you are monitoring can provide counters in SNMP
that are separate for IPv4 and IPv6, then Cacti can work with that
separately too.
But, if the device only provides Cacti with total traffic through an
interface that does not separate out IP versions, then Cacti cannot
either. Cacti doesn't have any "view" of the actual packets. It just
provides a way to generate graphs and stats from SNMP counter data.

So. What are the cases where Cacti could do this:
1. Apparently certain Cisco routers with certain IOS version do
provide SNMP counters that are per IP version. [1]
2. If your IPv6 and IPv4 traffic are on different interfaces, then
it's easy of course. For example, if you use a tunnel to get IPv6,
then that's IPv6 only. And for IPv4 you subtract the v6 from the total
traffic on the v4 only interface. You mention specifically the same
interface though, so this probably doesn't help you.
3. Possibly some non-Cisco devices maybe also offer separation in
SNMP. I don't know for certain, you'd need to research.

Lastly, what are your other options? I can think of two alternatives:
1. Use NetFLOW rather than SNMP. You can google examples of
configuring netflow exports from routers. And then look at the Nfsen
and Nfdump software to process and graph the netflow data [2]

2. Use something completely different that understands layer3 and
above. There are various Linux/Unix applications for various kinds of
traffic monitoring. Online searching will turn up a bunch. But, how do
you get the traffic from a router measured on a Unix server or VM?
Well what you do is configure what's called a span port or a mirror
port on a core switch where all your traffic would pass through.
Again, just search around for more info on span/mirror ports and how
to set them up on different vendor's switches. You connect this
special port to a 2nd interface on your monitoring server/VM and then
you can use just about any packet inspection app to monitor just about
anything in terms of traffic.

Hope that helps,
Daniel


References:
[1] http://forums.cacti.net/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=53055 and
http://tools.cisco.com/Support/SNMP/do/BrowseOID.do?local=en&translate=Translate&objectInput=1.3.6.1.2.1.4.31.3.1

[2] http://nfdump.sourceforge.net/ and http://nfsen.sourceforge.net/
and also https://nsrc.org/workshops/2015/afnog-nme/wiki/Agenda (the
last has presentations and tutorials on nfsen)


2015-06-11 10:37 GMT+04:00 Sara Alamin <sara.alamin at sudren.edu.sd>:
> Hi all,
>
> I want to ask about cacti monitoring software with IPv6 .
>
> I use cacti to measure my network traffic [http://www.cacti.net]
>
> I run IPv4 and IPv6 and I want to use the Cacti to monitor IPv4 traffic and
> IPv6 traffic separately in the same interface.
>
> Can I do that with Cacti software? if not ,there is any other software to do
> that ?
>
>
> Thanks
>
> --Sara Alamin--
>
>
>
>
>
>
> السلام عليكم
>
> اريد ان اسال عن برانامج المراقية (الكاكتى) مع بروتوكول الانترنت الاصدارة
> السادسة
>
> انا استخدم برنامج الكاكتى لمراقبة حجم البيانات فى لشبكة http://www.cacti.net
>
> الان وبعد تفعيل بروتوكول الانترنت الاصدارة السادسة أريد ان اعرف كيف يمكن ضبط
> برنامج الكاكتى لمراقبة حجم البيانات لكلا  من
>
> ipv4 and IPv6    لكن بشكل منفصل  لنفس الجهاز
>
> اى اريد رسم مخطط يوضح حجم البيانات باستخدام الاصدارة الرابعة  ومخطط منفصل
> اخر  لنفس الجهاز  يوضح حجم البيانات باستخدام الاصدارة السادسة
>
> هل يمكن عمل ذلك باستخدام الكاكتى أو هنالك برامج اخرى ؟
>
>
> شكرا
>
> -- سارة الامين--
>