IMC NTA supports OpenFlow ?

[FelicioGS]

The NTA administrator guide refer only to Cisco NetFlow v5 and sFlow, does anyone know if it support the OpenFlow of ProCurve 8200zl Series ?

TIA,

Felicio Santos.

[LindsayHill · Accepted solution]

OpenFlow and NetFlow/sFlow are completely different technologies, with completely different goals.

NetFlow/sFlow data is used to monitor traffic through a switch or router. The switch or router monitors traffic flowing through the device, looking at source/destination, protocol, application, etc., and summarises this information. It then sends it to a collector using NetFlow/sFlow. It is only used to send network information to a collection/analysis system. It does not work in the other direction - the collection server does not send anything to the switch or router.

OpenFlow is a new, standardised protocol for remotely controlling switch forwarding behaviours. An OpenFlow controller can use an API to tell a switch "Forward frames matching these characteristics out these ports, replicate these flows to this IDS, and drop these flows." This leads to some very interesting possibilities when you have centralised control of your network. e.g. right now if you want to put in an IDS, it needs to be able to handle all of your traffic, and all traffic must be directed to flow through it, possibly using network taps. With OpenFlow, you could choose certain flows to get forwarded to your IDS, leaving other flows to go through the network as per normal.

HP has said they will be releasing an OpenFlow controller later this year. I don't know what relationship it will have with iMC. If it were to be a module within IMC, it will not be part of the NTA module.

[FelicioGS]

Ugh! That hurts ! Sorry by the mess, probally a few more sleep hours on my last days could make me "see" the diferences beyond "SOMETHING/Flow" ! Anyway your precise explanation make me awake ! Thanks again !