F5 Logo MyF5
Search
  1. MyF5 Home
  2. External Monitoring of BIG-IP Systems: Implementations
  3. Configuring Remote High-Speed Logging of CGNAT Processes
Manual Chapter : Configuring Remote High-Speed Logging of CGNAT Processes

Applies To:

Show Versions Show Versions

BIG-IP APM

  • 14.1.5, 14.1.4, 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0, 14.0.1, 14.0.0

BIG-IP Analytics

  • 14.1.5, 14.1.4, 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0, 14.0.1, 14.0.0

BIG-IP LTM

  • 14.1.5, 14.1.4, 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0, 14.0.1, 14.0.0

BIG-IP PEM

  • 14.1.5, 14.1.4, 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0, 14.0.1, 14.0.0

BIG-IP AFM

  • 14.1.5, 14.1.4, 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0, 14.0.1, 14.0.0

BIG-IP DNS

  • 14.1.5, 14.1.4, 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0, 14.0.1, 14.0.0

BIG-IP ASM

  • 14.1.5, 14.1.4, 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0, 14.0.1, 14.0.0
Manual Chapter

Configuring Remote High-Speed Logging of CGNAT Processes

Overview: Configuring remote high-speed 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 high-speed log servers.
This illustration shows the association of the configuration objects for remote high-speed logging of CGNAT processes.
Association of remote high-speed logging configuration objects
Associations between CGNAT remote high-speed logging configuration objects

Task summary

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

About the configuration objects of high-speed logging

When configuring remote high-speed logging (HSL) of CGNAT processes, it is helpful to understand the objects you need to create and why, as described here:
Object
Reason
Applies to
Pool of remote log servers
Create a pool of remote log servers to which the BIG-IP® system can send log messages.
Creating a pool of remote logging servers.
Destination (formatted)
Create log destination to format the logs in the required format and forward the logs to a remote high-speed log destination.
Creating a formatted remote high-speed 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 a 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.

Creating a pool of remote logging servers

Before creating a pool of log servers, gather the IP addresses of the servers that you want to include in the pool. Ensure that the remote log servers are configured to listen to and receive log messages from the BIG-IP system.
Create a pool of remote log servers to which the BIG-IP system can send 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 remote logging server that you want to include in the pool:
    1. Type an IP address in the
      Address
       field, or select a node address from the
      Node List
      .
    2. Type a service number in the
      Service Port
       field, or select a service name from the list.
      Typical remote logging servers require port
      514
      .
    3. Click
      Add
      .
  5. Click
    Finished
    .

Creating a remote high-speed log destination

Before creating a remote high-speed log destination, ensure that at least one pool of remote log servers exists on the BIG-IP system.
Create a log destination of the
Remote High-Speed Log
 type to specify that log messages are sent to a pool of remote log servers.
  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
    Remote High-Speed Log
    .
    If you use log servers such as Remote Syslog, Splunk, or ArcSight, which require data be sent to the servers in a specific format, you must create an additional log destination of the required type, and associate it with a log destination of the
    Remote High-Speed Log
     type. With this configuration, the BIG-IP system can send data to the servers in the required format.
    The BIG-IP system is configured to send an unformatted string of text to the log servers.
  5. From the
    Pool Name
     list, select the pool of remote log servers to which you want the BIG-IP system to send log messages.
  6. From the
    Protocol
     list, select the protocol used by the high-speed logging pool members.
  7. Click
    Finished
    .

Creating a formatted remote high-speed log destination

Ensure that at least one remote high-speed log destination exists on the BIG-IP system.
Create a formatted logging destination to specify that log messages are sent to a pool of remote log servers, such as Remote Syslog, Splunk, or IPFIX servers.
  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 a formatted logging destination, such as
    Remote Syslog
    ,
    Splunk
    , or
    IPFIX
    .
    The Splunk format is a predefined format of key value pairs.
    The BIG-IP system is configured to send a formatted string of text to the log servers.
  5. If you selected
    Remote Syslog
    , then from the
    Syslog Format
     list select a format for the logs, and then from the
    High-Speed Log Destination
     list, select the destination that points to a pool of remote Syslog servers to which you want the BIG-IP system to send log messages.
    For logs coming from Access Policy Manager (APM), only the BSD Syslog format is supported.
  6. If you selected
    Splunk
     or
    IPFIX
    , then from the
    Forward To
     list, select the destination that points to a pool of high-speed log servers to which you want the BIG-IP system to send log messages.
  7. 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.
Contact Support Contact Support

Have a Question?

Support and Sales >

About F5

Education

F5 Sites

Support Tasks




©2023 F5, Inc. All rights reserved.


Trademarks Policies Privacy California Privacy Do Not Sell My Personal Information