XMC installation with Analytics

[mhawas]

Hi,
I am new to extreme technology, the client has installed XMC and asked me to configure Analytics.
Analytics engine has to be deployed and connected to XMC, i have the following questions:

• what is best way to deploy Analytics engine centrally in DC and receive flows from remote locations ? i saw that it is not recommended to stretch GRE tunnels on MPLS links is this still valid?
• does CoreFlow2 feature still only supported on Extreme S- and K-Series ?

kind regards,

[Zdeněk_Pala]

Hi.

There are two information "streams" from X440 (any ApplicationTelemetry enabled device):

• ACL mirror = the Analytics Engine will learn about each TCP session, each DNS request&response, each DHCP, each HTTP get&post&put, each HTTPs hello....
• sFlow = The Analytics Engine will learn about amount of traffic for those sessions

There is very limited outcome if you use sFlow. IMHO any sFlow only based analysis is almost useless:

• sampling so you do not have sample of the traffic you want
• you can not configure 100% sample rate (it is better to build second network)

To summarize it:

• When you use both ACL mirror and sFlow you are on very similar level with Telemetry to CoreFlow2 based Analytics.

Hope it helps, feel free to reach local Extreme team for more details...

[mhawas]

Thanks Zdenek for your reply !

You are right ,enabling jumbo frames and GRE through SP network is complex for my case as well (checked with DC team)
If i enable sFlow on X440 switches and let it report to Analytics engine (telemetry) in DC, would I need GRE tunnel as well ? does this option provide same application visibility as netFlow? restrictions? scalability?

kind regards

[Zdeněk_Pala]

Hi,

If you can place engine to the location then it is better (sometimes it is difficult to get Jumbo frames through the WAN link). but not every customer does have resources (CPU, Memory, rack space) in the branch...

CoreFlow2 is a ASIC processor available in S-series and K-series and PV-FC. However, the same approach is available on Extreme Wireless and on vSensor.

On EXOS, BOSS, VOSS, SLX platforms we have similar technology called Telemetry. You can feed the analytics engine from all platforms mentioned in this post.

Regards