Introduction

MikroTik Traffic-Flow is a system that provides statistical information about packets that pass through the router. Besides network monitoring and accounting, system administrators can identify various problems that may occur in the network. With help of Traffic-Flow, it is possible to analyze and optimize the overall network performance. As Traffic-Flow is compatible with Cisco NetFlow, it can be used with various utilities which are designed for Cisco's NetFlow.

Traffic Flow can process only that traffic which is processed by the router CPU, thus HW offloaded traffic will not be seen in Traffic Flow flows (for example, HW offloaded bridged traffic).

Traffic-Flow supports the following NetFlow formats:

  • version 1 - This is the original format used by NetFlow. It provides basic information about IP packets flowing through a router but lacks support for advanced features such as different types of protocols and Type of Service (ToS).
  • version 5 - An enhancement over Version 1, this format supports additional features such as Type of Service (ToS), TCP flags, and autonomous system numbers. In addition to version 1, version 5 can include BGP AS and flow sequence number information. Currently, RouterOS does not include BGP AS numbers.
  • version 9 - This version introduces a template-based export format, which allows for extensibility and support for new record types beyond what previous versions could handle. It can export data based on a defined template and is capable of exporting both IPv4 and IPv6 flow information.
  • IPFIX - Standardized by the IETF, this protocol is based on NetFlow Version 9. It expands the capabilities further, allowing for more customizable and flexible flow records. IPFIX supports new technologies that were not addressed by NetFlow, like multicast.

General

Sub-menu: /ip traffic-flow

This section lists the configuration properties of Traffic-Flow.

PropertyDescription
interfaces (string | all; Default: all)Names of those interfaces will be used to gather statistics for traffic-flow. To specify more than one interface, separate them with a comma.
cache-entries (128k | 16k | 1k | 256k | 2k | ... ; Default: 4k)Number of flows which can be in router's memory simultaneously.
active-flow-timeout (time; Default: 30m)Maximum life-time of a flow.
inactive-flow-timeout (time; Default: 15s)How long to keep the flow active, if it is idle. If a connection does not see any packet within this timeout, then traffic-flow will send a packet out as a new flow. If this timeout is too small it can create a significant amount of flows and overflow the buffer.
packet-sampling (no | yes; Default: no)Enable or disable packet sampling feature.
sampling-interval (integer; Default: 0)The number of packets that are consecutively sampled.
sampling-space (integer; Default: 0)

The number of packets that are consecutively omitted.

info

Packet sampling is available in RouterOS v7.

In the following example:

/ip/traffic-flow/set packet-sampling=yes sampling-interval=2222 sampling-space=1111

2222 packet consecutive packets will be sampled and then 1111 will be omitted. Then the sampling cycle repeats in such a manner.

Targets

Sub-menu: /ip traffic-flow target

With Traffic-Flow targets we specify those hosts which will gather the Traffic-Flow information from the router.

PropertyDescription
src-address (IP ; Default: )IP address used as source when sending Traffic-Flow statistics
dst- address (IP; Default: )IP address of the host which receives Traffic-Flow statistic packets from the router.
Port (Port; Default:2055)Port (UDP) of the host which receives Traffic-Flow statistic packets from the router.
v9-template-refresh (integer; Default: 20)Number of packets after which the template is sent to the receiving host (only for NetFlow version 9 and IPFIX)
v9-template-timeout (time; Default: )After how long to send the template, if it has not been sent. (only for NetFlow version 9 and IPFIX)
version (1 | 5 | 9 | IPFIX; Default: )Which version format of NetFlow to use

IPFIX

Sub-menu:  /ip traffic-flow ipfix

Allows to customize flow records


PropertyDescription
bytesTotal number of bytes processed in the flow.
ip-total-lenghtLength of the IP packet in bytes.
src-addressThe source IP address of the flow.
dst-addressThe destination IP address of the flow.
ipv6-flow-labelLabel field from an IPv6 header, used to classify flows.
src-address-maskNetwork mask for the source address, useful in summarizing data.
dst-address-maskNetwork mask for the destination address.
is-multicastIndicates whether the flow is a multicast flow.
src-mac-addressSource MAC address.
dst-mac-addressDestination MAC address.
last-forwardedTimestamp of the last packet forwarded in a flow.
src-portSource port number.
dst-portDestination port number.
nat-dst-addressTranslated destination IP address by NAT.
sys-init-timeSystem initialization time, can be used for timing analysis.
first-forwardedTimestamp of the first packet forwarded in a flow.
nat-dst-portTranslated destination port number by NAT.
tcp-ack-numAcknowledgment number in a TCP connection.
gatewayIP address of the gateway through which the flow was routed.
nat-events
Events related to Network Address Translation for the flow.
tcp-flags
Flags from the TCP header (e.g., SYN, ACK).
icmp-code
ICMP code for error messaging and operational information.
nat-src-address
Translated source IP address by NAT.
icmp-type
Type of ICMP message, important for diagnostic messages.
nat-src-port
Translated source port number by NAT.
tcp-seq-num
Sequence number in a TCP connection.
tcp-window-size
Window size in a TCP connection, indicating the scale of received data buffering.
igmp-type
Type of Internet Group Management Protocol operation.
out-interface
Interface through which packets of the flow are sent out.
in-interface
Interface through which packets of the flow are received.
packetsNumber of packets processed in the flow.
ip-header-length
Length of the IP header.
protocolProtocol number (e.g., TCP, UDP, ICMP).
tosType of Service field in the IP header, indicating priority and handling of the packet.
ttlTime To Live for the packet, decremented by each router to prevent infinite loops.
udp-lengthLength of the UDP payload.


Notes

By looking at the packet flow diagram you can see that traffic flow is at the end of the input, forward, and output chain stack. It means that traffic flow will count only traffic that reaches one of those chains.

For example, you set up a mirror port on a switch, connect the mirror port to a router, and set traffic flow to count mirrored packets. Unfortunately, such a setup will not work, because mirrored packets are dropped before they reach the input chain.

Other interfaces will appear in the report if traffic is passing through them and the monitoring interface.

Examples

This example shows how to configure Traffic-Flow on a router

Enable Traffic-Flow on the router:

[admin@MikroTik] ip traffic-flow> set enabled=yes
[admin@MikroTik] ip traffic-flow> print
                enabled: yes
             interfaces: all
          cache-entries: 1k
    active-flow-timeout: 30m
  inactive-flow-timeout: 15s
[admin@MikroTik] ip traffic-flow>


Specify the IP address and port of the host, which will receive Traffic-Flow packets:

[admin@MikroTik] ip traffic-flow target> add dst-address=192.168.0.2 port=2055 version=9
[admin@MikroTik] ip traffic-flow target> print
Flags: X - disabled 
 #   SRC-ADDRESS       DST-ADDRESS        PORT     VERSION
 0   0.0.0.0           192.168.0.2        2055     9  
[admin@MikroTik] ip traffic-flow target>

Now the router starts to send packets with Traffic-Flow information.


Note

To use ntop-ng with MikroTik you need to use Nprobe, which is paid software.

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