X Top
Introduction Copied
The Geneos X Top plugin monitors the top N producers of multicast traffic from a list of user-defined multicast groups, and displays statistics such as the data rate and packet rate.
The Netprobe host must be able to “listen” for the required multicast traffic (i.e. it should be on the same network segment as a host already subscribing to the required multicast data).
Views Copied
View Copied
The X Top plugin produces a single view, with one row per top multicast session.
Headline Legend
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| totalSenders | Total number of senders found matching the configured sessions. |
| overallSendRate | Sum of data rates for all found senders (including those not in the view). |
| overallPacketRate | Sum of packet rates for all found senders (including those not in the view). |
| topSendersTraffic | Percentage of traffic generated by the top sender. |
Table Legend
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| rank | The rank of the multicast sender - lower numbers indicate this source is sending more traffic. |
| hostname | The hostname of the multicast sender. |
| ipAddress | The IP address of the multicast sender. |
| dataRate | Data sent in Kb/s, averaged over the sample interval. |
| pktRate | Packets sent in Kb/s, averaged over the sample interval. |
| tmSinceLastPkt | Number of seconds since the last packet was received. |
| balance | Percentage of total traffic detected generated by this source. |
Plugin Configuration Copied
The X Top plugin listens to all multicast data received by a host, and matches the destination address and port with those configured by the user.
Plugin configuration is placed in the x-top configuration section.
var-recvInterfaces Copied
Specifies a comma-separated list of network interface names used to monitor multicast data.
On UNIX machines, interface names can be found using the command “ifconfig -a”. Example names are “eth0” or “ce0”.
On Windows machines, interface names can be listed by running Netprobe using the “-ifconfig” command-line option. A Windows interface name will look similar to the following:
\Device\NPF_{BDFE3EAC-0275-440A-923C-C9C4CE3B37F2}
Mandatory: Yes
sessions Copied
Specifies the list of (at least one) multicast sessions that this plugin will monitor.
Mandatory: Yes
sessions > session > var-name Copied
The name of the multicast session. Session names should be unique within each plugin instance.
Mandatory: Yes
sessions > session > connection Copied
Specifies the multicast address and port for the session - multicast packets received for this connection will be added to the monitoring statistics for this session.
Mandatory: Yes
var-showTop Copied
This parameter specifies the number of top senders to display in the view, which must be a positive integer of at least 1. Top senders are determined by comparing the data rate values. The view may show less than the configured number, if there are less senders than this value.
Mandatory: No
Default: 10
var-resolveIPAddress Copied
This setting takes a Boolean value, and specifies whether or not the IP address of a multicast sender will be resolved to a hostname.
Mandatory: No
Default: true
Permissions Copied
The plugin needs to open network devices, so you should run the Netprobe using root or administrator permission on Unix and Windows, respectively.
On Linux kernel versions 2.6.24 and higher, an alternative to running the Netprobe as root is by setting the CAP_NET_RAW and CAP_NET_ADMIN Linux capabilities on the Netprobe binary using the following command:
setcap cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin+eip <netprobe binary>
When running the Netprobe with set capabilities, the lib64/startup folder in the Netprobe directory should be in the ld.so trusted paths. Otherwise, the runtime libraries will not load properly. For guidance, see Run Netprobe under elevated privileges in Linux.
Third Party Libraries Copied
Windows: The Npcap packet capture library needs to be installed on the host. If Npcap is not installed using WinPcap API-compatible mode, then the Npcap installation directory must be added in the PATH environment variable or the DLL_PATH registry variable.
Unix: The shared library libpcap.so needs to be in the netprobe/lib64 directory. It is recommended to use libpcap.so version 1.0.0 or later.
Note: As the Netprobe needs to be run as root, the LD_LIBRARY_PATH is ignored for security reasons.