sFlow Improvements For Visibility

We have identified a way for customers who run the sFlow protocol to achieve the benefits and visibility offered by Hybrid Maps and other portions of the product. sFlow sends Kentik per-flow byte counts attributed to physical interfaces, while most network operators configure IP addressing logical sub-interfaces. This leads to a disjointed experience in Kentik as our mapping services draw connections between devices based on the interface ID, where we find IP addresses configured. The queries needed to understand the data flowing between the devices rely upon a completely different interface ID.

To support this situation, users must supply a manual mapping of interface IDs to VLAN interface IDs. We have developed example code on how this can be automated using Juniper devices interface and VLAN names. Before running the code, the user will also need to configure the device using the new “Advanced sFlow” device type. Once the device has been modified, and a map supplied, the user can make use of three new dimensions:

• Source Physical Interface and Destination Physical Interface — the original physical interface index sent via sFlow. This is useful for filtering and grouping by the physical interface. It is also helpful for auditing the remapping correctness.
• VLAN Rewrite Occurred — the number of interface rewrites that occurred for this record. This is useful troubleshooting.

Layer 2 Support on Hybrid Maps

A new selector is available on the Hybrid Network Maps to select how Kentik draws connections between devices. Users can now choose to draw connections using layer 2, layer 3 or both.

Layer 2 connectivity requires that users run the LLDP protocol and allow Kentik to poll this data over SNMP. We will then find matches that only exist at layer 2.

Layer 3 connectivity was supported previously. Device adjacencies are determined by finding IP addresses that share a subnet smaller than a /24. We create matches for site-to-site adjacencies with the following connectivity types: Backbone, Data Center Interconnect and Device Aggregation. For device adjacencies in the site layouts, connections are displayed between devices sharing a subnet as long as the connectivity type is not configured as “Host.”

This metadata is also visible on the interface admin page:

New Onboarding Options

We are continuing to improve onboarding options to give customers and prospects more flexibility in learning about and evaluating Kentik. We now have separate paths for customers interested in flow, synthetics or a guided demo mode. The options will appear clearly on the revised onboarding page.

We have started to add guided, in-product demos of real-world use cases. We are starting with two different situation demos: 1. Troubleshoot VPN Issues or 2: Manage Network Costs. We expect to add an expanding list of use case situations over time.