sFlow

Synopsis

Creates an sFlow collector that accepts flow sampling data over UDP connections. Supports high-volume collection with multiple workers.

For details, see Appendix.

Schema

- id: <numeric>
  name: <string>
  description: <string>
  type: sflow
  tags: <string[]>
  pipelines: <pipeline[]>
  status: <boolean>
  properties:
    address: <string>
    port: <numeric>
    workers: <numeric>
    reuse: <boolean>

Configuration

The following fields are used to define the device:

Device

Field	Required	Default	Description
`id`	Y		Unique identifier
`name`	Y		Device name
`description`	N	-	Optional description
`type`	Y		Must be `sflow`
`tags`	N	-	Optional tags
`pipelines`	N	-	Optional pre-processor pipelines
`status`	N	`true`	Enable/disable the device

Connection

Field	Required	Default	Description
`address`	N	`"0.0.0.0"`	Listen address
`port`	N	`6343`	Listen port
`workers`	N	CPU count	Number of worker goroutines
`reuse`	N	`false`	Enable socket address reuse

Details

NetFlow, sFlow, and IPFIX devices share a common flow collection backend (backend/module/listener/flow/). The thin per-protocol controller sets the flow type and default port.

When reuse is enabled, the collector automatically scales to use multiple worker processes based on available CPU cores. Each worker maintains its own UDP listener, processes flows independently, and writes to a dedicated queue file.

The collector supports interface-counter sampling, packet-flow sampling, application identification, port-based protocol mapping, flow-state tracking, and statistical aggregation.

Examples

The following are commonly used configuration types.

Basic

Creating a simple sFlow collector on the default port...

devices:
  - id: 1
    name: basic_sflow
    type: sflow
    properties:
      port: 6343

High-Volume

Optimizing for high flow volumes using multiple workers...

devices:
  - id: 2
    name: performant_sflow
    type: sflow
    properties:
      address: "0.0.0.0"
      port: 6343
      reuse: true
      workers: 4

warning

All sFlow agents must be configured to send to the same collector port.

Application Protocols

The collector supports application-based identification, TCP port mapping, and UDP port mapping. The definition files for these respectively are placed in three locations under <vm_root>:

/user/definitions/app-definitions-{device-id}.csv (device-specific)
/user/definitions/app-definitions.csv (user-defined)
/package/definitions/app-definitions.csv (system defaults)
/user/definitions/tcp-definitions-{device-id}.csv (device-specific)
/user/definitions/tcp-definitions.csv (user-defined)
/package/definitions/tcp-definitions.csv (system defaults)
/user/definitions/udp-definitions-{device-id}.csv (device-specific)
/user/definitions/udp-definitions.csv (user-defined)
/package/definitions/udp-definitions.csv (system defaults):::warning

Definition files must be in CSV format with exactly two columns per row. :::

The contents of these files are:

app-definitions.csv:

SSH,Secure Shell
RDP,Remote Desktop
HTTP,Web Browsing
HTTPS,Secure Web

tcp-definitions.csv:

22,SSH
3389,RDP
80,HTTP
443,HTTPS

udp-definitions.csv:

53,DNS
67,DHCP
123,NTP
161,SNMP

note

The collector will fall back on the system defaults if the custom definition files are not found.

sFlow collector with application identification enabled...

devices:
  - id: 3
    name: app_aware_sflow
    type: sflow
    properties:
      port: 6343
      reuse: true

Synopsis​

Schema​

Configuration​

Device​

Connection​

Details​

Examples​

Basic​

High-Volume​

Application Protocols​