Learn more about activating a Broker VM with a NetflFlow Collector applet.
Notice
Ingesting records from external sources requires a Cortex XDR Pro per GB license.
To receive NetFlow flow records from an external source, you must first set up the NetFlow Collector applet on a Broker VM within your network. NetFlow versions 5, 9, and IPFIX are supported.
To increase the log ingestion rate, you can add additional CPUs to the Broker VM. The NetFlow Collector listens for flow records on specific ports either from any, or from specific IP addresses.
After the NetFlow Collector is activated, the NetFlow Exporter sends flow records to the NetFlow Collector, which receives, stores, and pre-processes that data for later analysis.
Select → → → .
Do one of the following:
On the Brokers tab, find the Broker VM, and in the APPS column, left-click → .
On the Clusters tab, find the Broker VM, and in the APPS column, left-click → .
Click +Add New.
Configure your NetFlow Collector.
Field
Description
Source Network
Specify the IP address or a Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) of the source network device that sends the flow records to Cortex XDR . Leave the field empty to receive data from any device on the specified port (default). If you do not specify an IP address or a CIDR, Cortex XDR can receive data from any source IP address or CIDR that transmits via the specified port. If IP addresses overlap in multiple rows in the Source Network field, such as 10.0.0.10 in the first row and 10.0.0.0/24 in the second row, the NetFlow Collector captures the IP address in the first row.
Vendor and Product
Specify a particular vendor and product to be associated with each dataset entry or leave the default IP Flow setting.
The Vendor and Product values are used to define the name of your Cortex Query Language (XQL) dataset
<Vendor>_<Product>_raw. If you do not define a vendor or product, Cortex XDR uses the default values with the resulting dataset nameip_flow_ip_flow_raw. Consider changing the default values in order to uniquely identify the source network device.After each configuration, select
to save your changes and then select Done to update the NetFlow Collector with your settings.(Optional) Make additional changes to the NetFlow Collector data sources.
You can make additional changes to the Port by right-clicking the applicable UDP port and selecting the following:
Edit: To change the UDP Port, Source Network, Vendor, or Product defined.
Remove: To delete a Port.
You can make additional changes to the Source Network by right-clicking on the Source Network value.
Note
The options available change, according to the set Source Network value.
Option
Description
Edit
To change the UDP Port, Source Network, Vendor, or Product defined.
Remove
To delete a Port.
Copy entire row
To copy the Source Network, Product, and Vendor information.
Open IP View
To view network operations and to view any open incidents on this IP within a defined period. This option is only available when the Source Network value is a specific IP address or CIDR.
Open in Quick Launcher
To search for information using the Quick Launcher shortcut . This option is only available when the Source Network value is a specific IP address or CIDR.
To prioritize the order of the NetFlow formats listed for the configured data source, drag and drop the rows to change their order.
Activate the NetFlow collector applet.
After successful activation, the APPS field displays NetFlow with a green dot indicating a successful connection.
(Optional) To view NetFlow Collector metrics, left-click the NetFlow connection in the APPS field for your Broker VM.
Cortex XDR displays the following information:
Option
Description
Connectivity Status
Whether the applet is connected to Cortex XDR.
Logs Received and Logs Sent
Number of logs that the applet received and sent per second over the last 24 hours. If there are more logs received than sent, this can indicate a connectivity issue.
Resources
Displays the amount of CPU, Memory, and Disk space the applet uses.
Manage the NetFlow Collector.
After you activate the NetFlow Collector, you can make additional changes. To modify a configuration, left-click the NetFlow connection in the APPS column to display the NetFlow Collector settings, and select:
Configure to redefine the NetFlow Collector configurations.
Deactivate to disable the NetFlow Collector.