FlowMonitor - an accounting module for FlowScan
by Johan Andersen <johan@columbia.edu>
May 2003


SYNOPSIS

To execute FlowMonitor properly, type:

	flowscan FlowMonitor

OVERVIEW:

FlowMonitor.pm is a module for the FlowScan utility, written by Dave Plonka
(http://net.doit.wisc.edu/~plonka/FlowScan/). FlowMonitor keeps track of a
network quota, expressed as bytes consumed per unit time, for a block of IP
addresses under your control. This quota can apply to transmitted bytes,
received bytes, or the total of the two. IP addresses found to be violating
this policy are written to a file.

INSTALLATION AND EXECUTION:

To use FlowMonitor as written, you will need a working DBD module that
interfaces to a database. In that database, there should be a table called
iplogs, created like:

create table iplogs ( ipaddr varchar(16),
		      bytes number(16),
		      starttime date,
		      constraint iplogs_ct unique(ipaddr) );

Make sure that the user flowscan will be running as has permission to write
to this table.

Follow the instructions for installing FlowScan
(http://net.doit.wisc.edu/~plonka/FlowScan/INSTALL.html). Put FlowMonitor.cf
and FlowMonitor.pm into the $flowscan_home/bin directory. Add FlowMonitor
the Report statement in flowscan.cf. Configure your FlowMonitor.cf according
to the perldoc documentation. At this point you should be able to start
flowscan and have FlowMonitor begin gathering usage data.

KNOWN ISSUES:

The code is currently working in production on an OC-3's worth of data using
an Oracle database with no known bugs. However, there are some clean-ups and
features that would be nice... :)

Note that the SQL in this module has only been tested on MySQL and
Oracle. If you are running a different database, you may have to do some
hacking to make it work.

MAILLING LISTS:

While primarily concerned with CUFlow (another FlowScan module), the mailing
list cuflow-users@columbia.edu is a good way to get support for this
module. 

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https://www1.columbia.edu/sec/bboard/mj/cuflow-users/

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