Expand Your Monitoring Capabilities With SecurityProbe
Filed under: environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring, Security Monitoring
Security Monitoring and Environmental Monitoring all in one device. The securityProbe allows you to monitor temperature, monitor humidity, monitor airflow, monitor smoke, etc. It can also provide a security solution with dry contacts and motion detection with alarms.
Monitor Audio Streaming with NetFlow
A while ago I was looking at one of our internet connections, I was running our different NetFlow reports against our Enterasys switch when I noticed a domain ‘last.fm’ sending a steady stream of traffic into our company. Just from the domain name I knew right away that it was streaming audio. I wasn’t crushing our internet connection, but I became curious about who was doing all the listening.
Security Monitoring System
Our new security monitoring system is underway and I should have some pics and some specs on what we have installed. We have multiple security cameras attached to the security probe as well as some temperature sensors and humidity sensors.
Implementing IPFIX : NetFlow to IPFIX
Implementing IPFIX or converting from NetFlow to IPFIX really isn’t very difficult. There are a couple big reasons to do it:
- If you’re not Cisco and you want to export something unique, you take a chance on using an element ID that may not be in use by Cisco. I’ve seen 4 companies do this and later decide to convert to IPFIX. The other two companies have conflicts with Cisco.
- Variable length fields: If you want to export URLs with NetFlow (e.g. Citrix, nProbe, SonicWALL) you should use IPFIX as NetFlow makes no provisions for variable length fields.
IPFIX Consulting: Working with IPFIX Information Elements
From time to time we are contacted for NetFlow or IPFIX consulting. Our IPFIX collector team has seen it all and helping other NetFlow vendors keeps us on our toes.
One of the biggest things we encourage companies to do is to avoid NetFlow v9 for anything that isn’t EXACTLY like Cisco. If the vendor wants to export URLs or something unique that Cisco doesn’t export in NetFlow yet, we recommend using IPFIX.
Network Acceptable Use Policy: Legal Rights
The network acceptable use policy is an issue that has been discussed in just about every HR department. It’s a serious subject that must be dealt with as ignoring the issue can lead to internet abuse.
Being a NetFlow and IPFIX reporting company, we have plenty of customers addressing this issue almost on a daily basis. Some of the network acceptable use policy questions that come up include:
- What should this document contain?
- What warnings should be given out?
- Who should perform the monitoring?
- How will the traffic be monitored?
As many network administrators have learned, blocking sites often doesn’t work due to anonymous proxy sites and certain individuals (i.e. upper management) who request access to blocked sites. This blog will give you some great ideas that you can use to update your existing policy. Read more
How to Monitor Car Storage Environments
Filed under: environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring, Security Monitoring, temperature monitoring, water leak monitoring
As a car aficionado, I love the idea of storing precious vehicles in the harshest of winter months, especially in a state like Maine. If I had my dream car (ahem, BMW M5) I would certainly put it in a place I know would keep my car safe from any harm. The question is, “How does a storage facility keep my car safe?” What precautions would it take to make sure Annabelle is safe? (yes, I named my fictional car) Implementing environmental sensors will certainly make me feel safe. Read more
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DSCP or ToS in Flexible NetFlow Configurations
Filed under: environmental monitoring, General, IPFIX, nBox, NetFlow, NetFlow probes
Do you want to export ToS or DSCP in your Flexible NetFlow export? This is an interesting question and I’ll do my best to answer it. The NetFlow RFC 3954 makes reference to ToS as the 5th field and makes NO reference to DSCP. The IPFIX standard information elements outlined in RFC 5102 lists both ToS (5) and ipDiffServCodePoint (195). Why duplicate efforts, aren’t they the same thing? NO!
Why have Both?
ToS is an 8 bit field that includes DSCP which is a 6 bit field. This being said, I could not find a Flexible NetFlow document that would make reference to both however, I know Cisco sometimes supports both in the same export.
Be aware that Cisco NetFlow v5 and traditional NetFlow v9 only export ToS. I’m sure you are aware that FnF is an extension of NetFlow v9 and supports both ToS and / or DSCP depending on the implementation.
* Cisco NBAR (requires FnF) for example, it will export both ToS = ipClassOfService (5) and DSCP ipDiffServCodePoint (195). See below.
- Cisco nBar Exports ToS & DSCP
Preventing Disasters With Environmental Probes
Filed under: environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring, power monitoring, temperature monitoring, water leak monitoring
Environmental sensors prevent disasters. Have you ever been in a situation where you lose a server or all of your data center to something as silly as a water leak or a… lightening strike? Amazon has, sort of. On August 7th, Amazon experienced a temporary data center outage in their Dublin data center. They claimed that it was due to a lightening strike, but later admitted it was due to multiple internal technical faults, resulting from the lightening strike. Read more
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Data Center Power Consumption Grows Less
Filed under: Data Center, Notifications, power monitoring, SecurityProbes
Yesterday I stumbled upon an article that lifted my green-thumb environmental-loving spirit. It stated that the amount of power consumed by data centers around the world continues to grow…but not as much? I was intrigued so I continued reading.
According to a study in 2007 by Professor Jonathan Koomey of Stanford University found that due to the virtualization of servers power consumption should still increase. In his report in 2010 all data center power was consuming 1.7 to 2.2 percent of total electricity used in America as opposed to 1.1 to 1.5 worldwide. These numbers were far less than his original predictions in 2007. With these numbers I can believe we are going in the right direction but how do we keep this up? Read more
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