1 Introduction

Progress Flowmon provides customers with the necessary visibility into network performance and security. IT teams can leverage the Flowmon customizable dashboards, reporting, and alerting to gain real-time insights to address issues and threats in the environment.

The Progress LoadMaster delivers an exceptional, cost effective, and easy-to-use solution which delivers high availability to ensure an always-on application experience for Progress Flowmon.

1.1 Document Purpose

This document provides the recommended LoadMaster settings used when providing failover for Flowmon. The Progress Support team is available to provide solutions for scenarios not explicitly defined. The Support site can be found at: https://support.kemptechnologies.com.

For further information on the Progress Flowmon Collector including step-by-step guides describing how to deploy the Flowmon Collector, refer to the Flowmon Documentation page.

1.2 Intended Audience

This document is intended to be read by anyone who is interested in configuring the LoadMaster to optimize Flowmon deployments.

2 Template

Progress Kemp has developed a template containing our recommended settings for this workload. You can install this template to help create Virtual Services (VSs) because it automatically populates the settings. You can use the template to easily create the required VSs with the recommended settings. For some workloads, additional manual steps may be required such as assigning a certificate or applying port following. These steps are covered in the document, if needed.

You can remove templates after use and this will not affect deployed services. If needed, you can make changes to any of the VS settings after using the template.

Download released templates from the following page: LoadMaster Templates.

For more information and steps on how to import and use templates, refer to the Virtual Services and Templates, Feature Description.

3 Architecture

Progress Flowmon deployments can consist of two (2) Collectors behind a load balancer. This configuration provides high availability and automatic failover for flow data coming from network devices such as switches and routers to the Collector.

4 Configure the LoadMaster

Refer to the sections below for details on some recommended global settings.

4.1 Enable Subnet Originating Requests Globally

It is best practice to enable the Subnet Originating Requests option globally.

In a one-armed setup (where the Virtual Service and Real Servers are on the same network/subnet) Subnet Originating Requests is usually not needed. However, enabling Subnet Originating Requests should not affect the routing in a one-armed setup.

In a two-armed setup where the Virtual Service is on network/subnet A, for example, and the Real Servers are on network B, Subnet Originating Requests should be enabled on LoadMasters with firmware version 7.1-16 and above.

When Subnet Originating Requests is enabled, the Real Server sees traffic originating from 10.20.20.21 (LoadMaster eth1 address) and responds correctly in most scenarios.

With Subnet Originating Requests disabled, the Real Server sees traffic originating from 10.0.0.15 (LoadMaster Virtual Service address on eth0) and responds to eth0 which could cause asymmetric routing.

When Subnet Originating Requests is enabled globally, it is automatically enabled on all Virtual Services. If the Subnet Originating Requests option is disabled globally, you can choose whether to enable Subnet Originating Requests on a per-Virtual Service basis.

To enable Subnet Originating Requests globally, follow the steps below:

1. In the main menu of the LoadMaster User Interface (UI), go to System Configuration > Miscellaneous Options > Network Options.

2. Select the Subnet Originating Requests check box.

5 Virtual Services

This step-by-step setup of Virtual Services (VSs) leverages the Progress Kemp application template for Progress Flowmon. This template configures the Virtual Services to publish Flowmon using UDP.

The table in each section outlines the settings configured by the application template. You can use this information to manually configure Virtual Services or use the Progress Kemp LoadMaster Application Programming Interface (API) and automation tools.

5.1 Create the Progress Flowmon Collector – UDP Virtual Service

The following are the steps involved and the recommended settings to configure the Progress Flowmon Collector Virtual Service:

1. In the main menu of the LoadMaster User Interface (UI), go to Virtual Services > Add New.

2. Type a valid Virtual Address.

3. Select the Progress Flowmon Collector template in the Use Template drop-down list.

4. Click Add this Virtual Service.

5. Expand the Real Servers section.

6. Click Add New to add the Primary Collector.

7. Type the Real Server Address for the Primary Collector.

8. Ensure the Real Server Port is 3000.

9. For the Primary Collector, set the Weight to 1000.

10. Click Add This Real Server.

11. Click Add New to add the Standby Collector.

12. Type the Real Server Address for the Standby Collector.

13. Ensure the Real Server Port is 3000.

14. For the Standby Collector, set the Weight to 1.

15. Click Add This Real Server.

5.1.1 Progress Flowmon Collector UDP Virtual Service Recommended Settings (optional)

This table outlines the values set using the Progress Kemp application template. You can use the API settings with scripts and automation tools.

API Parameter	API Value	UI Field	UI Value
port	3000	Port	3000
prot	udp	Protocol	udp
VStype	gen	Service Type	Generic
Schedule	fixed	Scheduling Method	fixed weighting
Persist	none	Persistence Mode	None
CheckType	icmp	Real Server Check Method	ICMP Ping

Last Updated Date

This document was last updated on 01 March 2023.