System Requirements

Compute Resources

The resources required to collect, decode and process flow records is dependent on the type of record (Netflow, IPFIX or sFlow), and the specific contents of those records.

CPU Cores

The decoding and processing flow records is primarily a CPU-centric load. While there are various factors that will affect throughput, the following table provides guidance on the expected throughput per core on current server-class processors.

Flow Type	Flows/sec.
Netflow v5	3500-4000
Netflow v9	4500-5000
IPFIX	4500-5000
sFlow v5	3250-3750

:::note As mentioned, the above values are an approximate range of records per second. Depending on the specific content of flow records in a given environment, and the actually performance of the CPU, actual throughput may be less (or more) than the indicated range. :::

Memory

The collector will cache various pieces of information, such an Netflow v9 and IPFIX templates, DNS names, Interfaces names, and more. This cached data is held in memory. Memory usage is generally less than a 1-2GB. However environments which observe a high number of public IP addresses, for which Maxmind or RiskIQ enrichment options are enabled, will have higher memory requirements.

Recommended Kernel Tuning

The high volume of UDP packets experienced in many environments, combined with less than optimal default Linux kernel network parameters, can result in kernel buffer overflows and dropped packets. To minimize the chance of such data loss, especially during sudden peaks in packet volume, the Linux kernel network parameters should be modified as shown in the following examples.

:::tip The recommended settings should be added to a file in /etc/sysctl.d so that they are applied automatically when the system is booted. :::

For light to moderate ingest rates (less than 75000 flows per second):

net.core.netdev_max_backlog=4096
net.core.rmem_default=262144
net.core.rmem_max=67108864
net.ipv4.udp_rmem_min=131072
net.ipv4.udp_mem=2097152 4194304 8388608

For heavy ingest rates (more than 75000 flows per second):

net.core.netdev_max_backlog=8192
net.core.rmem_default=262144
net.core.rmem_max=134217728
net.ipv4.udp_rmem_min=131072
net.ipv4.udp_mem=4194304 8388608 16777216

Network Connectivity

Depending on the configured options, the ElastiFlow solution will require various TCP and UDP ports to receive flow records, retrieve data for enrichment and store data in the chosen data platform. Any host or network firewalls through which such traffic must pass, will need to be configured to allow communication on these ports.

:::note The UDP and TCP ports used by many systems is often configurable. The following tables of port numbers refer to the default ports. :::

Listening for Flow Data

The ElastiFlow Unified Flow Collector can be configured to listen for incoming flow record packets on one or more UDP ports. The default and other common ports are listed in the following table.

Protocol	Port	Direction	Description
UDP	9995	in	ElastiFlow default port
UDP	2055	in	Netflow standard port
UDP	4739	in	IPFIX standard port
UDP	6343	in	sFlow standard port
UDP	9996-9998	in	additional common ports

While a variety of ports can be used to listen for flow record packets, the specific ports which must allowed are those for which the collector is configured using EF_FLOW_SERVER_UDP_PORT.

Accessing Enrichment Data

The ElastiFlow Unified Flow Collector can enrich flow records with various additional information. Depending on the configured enrichment options, communication on the following ports must be allowed.

DNS

Required when EF_PROCESSOR_ENRICH_IPADDR_DNS_ENABLE is true.

Protocol	Port	Direction	Description
UDP	53	out	DNS

SNMP

Required when EF_PROCESSOR_ENRICH_NETIF_SNMP_ENABLE is true.

Protocol	Port	Direction	Description
UDP	161	out	Network interface attributes via SNMP

RiskIQ

Required when EF_PROCESSOR_ENRICH_IPADDR_RISKIQ_THREAT_ENABLE is true.

Protocol	Port	Direction	Description
TCP	443	out	RiskIQ ASN and Threat data
UDP	20000	out	RiskIQ ASN and Threat data

Storing Data

The ElastiFlow Unified Flow Collector supports sending the collected and processed flow records to a variety of data platforms. The ports used by each supported platform is provided in the following tables.

Elastic Stack

Required when EF_OUTPUT_ELASTICSEARCH_ENABLE is true.

Protocol	Port	Direction	Description
TCP	9200	out	Elasticsearch REST API
TCP	5601	out	Kibana UI and API

OpenSearch

Required when EF_OUTPUT_ELASTICSEARCH_ENABLE is true.

Protocol	Port	Direction	Description
TCP	9200	out	OpenSearch REST API
TCP	5601	out	OpenSearch Dashboards UI and API

:::note Currently the Elasticsearch output is used for storing data in both the Elasticsearch and OpenSearch. It is expected that the APIs of the applications will diverge over time. For this reason a dedicated OpenSearch-specific output will be available in a future release. :::

Splunk

Required when EF_OUTPUT_SPLUNK_ENABLE is true.

Protocol	Port	Direction	Description
TCP	8088	out	HTTP Event Collector (HEC)
TCP	8000	out	Splunk UI

Kafka

Required when EF_OUTPUT_KAFKA_ENABLE is true.

Protocol	Port	Direction	Description
TCP	9092	out	Kafka broker

Cribl

Required when EF_OUTPUT_CRIBL_ENABLE is true.

Protocol	Port	Direction	Description
TCP	8088	out	Cribl Worker