Exporting NetFlow with softflowd

softflowd is a NetFlow collector that can be deployed on pfSense® software.

Installing softflowd

There is a package available under System > Packages on the Available Packages tab. Find it in the list, click fa-plus at the end of its row, and confirm the installation.

Configuring and Launching softflowd

Softflowd works similar to pfflowd.

Once the package has been installed, visit Services > softflowd to configure the service.

  • Interface: Ctrl-click to select all of the interfaces from which NetFlow data should be gathered

  • Host: The target NetFlow server which will receive flow data

  • Port: The port on the Host which is listening for NetFlow data

  • Max Flows: The number of flows to track before older flows expire

  • NetFlow Version: The desired version of the NetFlow protocol. See NetFlow Versions on Wikipedia for more information.

Controlling softflowd from the Command Line

To view statistics about the running softflowd process, run the following command, replacing em0 with the actual network interface to query:

: softflowctl -c /var/run/softflowd.em0.ctl statistics

To expire all flows and force an update to be sent to the netflow server, run the following command, replacing em0 with the actual network interface to control:

: softflowctl -c /var/run/softflowd.em0.ctl expire-all

Known issues

See also

You can find a list of known issues with this package on the pfSense bug tracker.

Package Support

This package is currently supported by Netgate Global Support to those with an active support subscription.