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  3. Configuring CGNAT IPFIX Logging
Manual Chapter : Configuring CGNAT IPFIX Logging

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Manual Chapter

Configuring CGNAT IPFIX Logging

Overview: Configuring IPFIX logging for CGNAT

You can configure the BIG-IP® system to log information about carrier grade network address translation (CGNAT) processes and send the log messages to remote IPFIX collectors.
IPFIX is a set of IETF standards described in RFCs 5101 and 5102. The BIG-IP system supports logging of CGNAT translation events over the IPFIX protocol. IPFIX logs are raw, binary-encoded strings with their fields and field lengths defined by IPFIX templates.
IPFIX collectors
 are external devices that can receive IPFIX templates, and use them to interpret IPFIX logs.

Task summary

Perform these tasks to configure IPFIX logging of CGNAT processes on the BIG-IP system.
Enabling IPFIX logging impacts BIG-IP system performance.

About the configuration objects of IPFIX logging

The configuration process involves creating and connecting the following configuration objects.
Object
Reason
Applies to
Pool of IPFIX collectors
Create a pool of remote log servers to which the BIG-IP® system can send log messages.
Assembling a pool of IPFIX collectors.
Destination
Create a log destination to format the logs in IPFIX templates, and forward the logs to the IPFIX collectors.
Creating an IPFIX log destination.
Publisher
Create a log publisher to send logs to a set of specified log destinations.
Creating a publisher.
Logging Profile (optional)
Create a logging profile to configure logging options for various large scale NAT (LSN) events. The options apply to all HSL destinations.
Creating an LSN logging profile.
LSN pool
Associate an LSN pool with a logging profile and log publisher in order to log messages about the traffic that uses the pool.
Configuring an LSN pool.

Assembling a pool of IPFIX collectors

Before creating a pool of IPFIX collectors, gather the IP addresses of the collectors that you want to include in the pool. Ensure that the remote IPFIX collectors are configured to listen to and receive log messages from the BIG-IP system.
You can create a pool of IPFIX collectors to which the system can send IPFIX log messages.
  1. On the Main tab, click
    Local Traffic
    Pools
    .
    The Pool List screen opens.
  2. Click
    Create
    .
    The New Pool screen opens.
  3. In the
    Name
     field, type a unique name for the pool.
  4. Using the
    New Members
     setting, add the IP address for each IPFIX collector that you want to include in the pool:
    1. Type the collector's IP address in the
      Address
       field, or select a node address from the
      Node List
      .
    2. Type a port number in the
      Service Port
       field.
      By default, IPFIX collectors listen on UDP or TCP port
      4739
       and Netflow V9 devices listen on port
      2055
      , though the port is configurable at each collector.
    3. Click
      Add
      .
  5. Click
    Finished
    .

Creating an IPFIX log destination

A log destination of the
IPFIX
 type specifies that log messages are sent to a pool of IPFIX collectors. Use these steps to create a log destination for IPFIX collectors.
  1. On the Main tab, click
    System
    Logs
    Configuration
    Log Destinations
    .
    The Log Destinations screen opens.
  2. Click
    Create
    .
  3. In the
    Name
     field, type a unique, identifiable name for this destination.
  4. From the
    Type
     list, select
    IPFIX
    .
  5. From the
    Protocol
     list, select
    IPFIX
     or
    Netflow V9
    , depending on the type of collectors you have in the pool.
  6. From the
    Pool Name
     list, select an LTM pool of IPFIX collectors.
  7. From the
    Transport Profile
     list, select
    TCP
    ,
    UDP
    , or any customized profile derived from TCP or UDP.
  8. The
    Template Retransmit Interval
     is the time between transmissions of IPFIX templates to the pool of collectors. The BIG-IP system only retransmits its templates if the
    Transport Profile
     is a
    UDP
     profile.
    An
    IPFIX template
     defines the field types and byte lengths of the binary IPFIX log messages. The logging destination sends the template for a given log type (for example, NAT44 logs or customized logs from an iRule) before sending any of those logs, so that the IPFIX collector can read the logs of that type. The logging destination assigns a template ID to each template, and places the template ID into each log that uses that template.
    The log destination periodically retransmits all of its IPFIX templates over a UDP connection. The retransmissions are helpful for UDP connections, which are lossy.
  9. The
    Template Delete Delay
     is the time that the BIG-IP device should pause between deleting an obsolete template and re-using its template ID. This feature is helpful for systems that can create custom IPFIX templates with iRules.
  10. The
    Server SSL Profile
     applies Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) to TCP connections. You can only choose an SSL profile if the
    Transport Profile
     is a
    TCP
     profile. Choose an SSL profile that is appropriate for the IPFIX collectors' SSL/TLS configuration.
    SSL or TLS requires extra processing and therefore slows the connection, so we only recommend this for sites where the connections to the IPFIX collectors have a potential security risk.
  11. Click
    Finished
    .

Creating a publisher

Ensure that at least one destination associated with a pool of remote log servers exists on the BIG-IP system.
Create a publisher to specify where the BIG-IP system sends log messages for specific resources.
  1. On the Main tab, click
    System
    Logs
    Configuration
    Log Publishers
    .
    The Log Publishers screen opens.
  2. Click
    Create
    .
  3. In the
    Name
     field, type a unique, identifiable name for this publisher.
  4. For the
    Destinations
     setting, select a destination from the
    Available
     list, and move the destination to the
    Selected
     list.
    If you are using a formatted destination, select the destination that matches your log servers, such as Remote Syslog, Splunk, or IPFIX.
    If you configure a log publisher to use multiple logging destinations, then, by default, all logging destinations must be available in order to log to each destination. Unless all logging destinations are available, no logging can occur. If you want to log to the available logging destinations when one or more destinations become unavailable, you must set the
    logpublisher.atomic
     db key to
    false
    . If all the remote high-speed log (HSL) destinations are down (unavailable), setting the
    logpublisher.atomic
     db key to
    false
     will not work to allow the logs to be written to local-syslog. The
    logpublisher.atomic
     db key has no effect on local-syslog.
  5. Click
    Finished
    .

Creating an LSN logging profile

You can create an LSN logging profile to allow you to configure logging options for various LSN events that apply to high-speed logging destinations.
For configuring remote high-speed logging of CGNAT processes on the BIG-IP system, these steps are optional.
  1. On the Main tab, click
    Carrier Grade NAT
    Logging Profiles
    LSN
    .
    The LSN logging profiles screen opens.
  2. Click
    Create
    .
    The New LSN Logging Profile screen opens.
  3. In the
    Name
     field, type a unique name for the logging profile.
  4. From the
    Parent Profile
     list, select a profile from which the new profile inherits properties.
  5. For the Log Settings area, select the
    Custom
     check box.
  6. For the Log Settings area, select
    Enabled
     for the following settings, as necessary.
    Setting
    Description
    CSV Format
    Generates log entries in comma-separated-values (CSV) format.
    Start Outbound Session
    Generates event log entries at the start of a translation event for an LSN client.
    End Outbound Session
    Generates event log entries at the end of a translation event for an LSN client.
    Start Inbound Session
    Generates event log entries at the start of an incoming connection event for a translated endpoint.
    End Inbound Session
    Generates event log entries at the end of an incoming connection event for a translated endpoint.
    Quota Exceeded
    Generates event log entries when an LSN client exceeds allocated resources.
    Errors
    Generates event log entries when LSN translation errors occur.
    Subscriber ID
    Allows for subscriber ID logging.
    Enabling the
    CSV
     check box affects splunk logs because IP addresses are shown as
    ip,port,rtdom
     instead of
    ip%rtdom:port
    . Do not mix log types and only use standard syslog formats.
  7. Click
    Finished
    .

Configuring an LSN pool

You can associate an LSN pool with a log publisher and logging profile that the BIG-IP system uses to send log messages to a specified destination.
  1. On the Main tab, click
    Carrier Grade NAT
    LSN Pools
    LSN Pool List
    .
    The LSN Pool List screen opens.
  2. Select an LSN pool from the list.
    The configuration screen for the pool opens.
  3. From the
    Log Publisher
     list, select the log publisher the BIG-IP system uses to send log messages to a specified destination.
    If you configure a log publisher to use multiple logging destinations, then, by default, all logging destinations must be available in order to log to each destination. Unless all logging destinations are available, no logging can occur. If you want to log to the available logging destinations when one or more destinations become unavailable, you must set the
    logpublisher.atomic
     db key to
    false
    . If all the remote high-speed log (HSL) destinations are down (unavailable), setting the
    logpublisher.atomic
     db key to
    false
     will not work to allow the logs to be written to local-syslog. The
    logpublisher.atomic
     db key has no effect on local-syslog.
  4. Optional: From the
    Logging Profile
     list, select the logging profile the BIG-IP system uses to configure logging options for various LSN events.
  5. Click
    Finished
    .
You now have an LSN pool for which the BIG-IP system logs messages using the specified logging profile.
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