Quite a few of our customers use Kentik Detect to answer questions about how much traffic is being sent to and from the networks they are directly connected to (transit providers, private peers, public peers, Internet Exchanges, customers, etc.). To make this task a lot easier we have removed the need to use a Custom Dimension (more details on Custom Dimensions can be found in our KB article), and we’ve introduced a new feature called Provider Classification as part of our existing Interface Classification feature discussed above. This feature matches a string in the interface description and sets the provider name using one of two methods:

• Static: This method uses a static, plain-text provider name for interfaces that match. To use this configuration on an existing rule, click on the rule within Interface Classification and fill in the Provider text field in the Then pane. In the pictured example, we are matching on “IX” in our interfaces description and setting the provider for any of these interfaces to “cyrusone” (NOTE: provider names are converted to all lowercase to avoid duplications).

  

• Regular Expression (RegEx): For more complex matching and classification, we support RegEx Capture Group Notation. This method allows for matching using RegEx and extracting the provider name using the RegEx Capture Group Notation. In the pictured example, our group is extracting the word that comes after “TO-” and using that ($1 refers to the first group extracted) as our provider name.

  

If you need a refresher on RegEx Capture Group Notation check out this helpful guide. If you need help testing your RegEx syntax, check out this useful application.

Once you are happy with your RegEx configuration, click on the Test Rule button to see what is matching. You should get a list of Device Matches list the one pictured.

The rows with blue in the bar and a non-zero number in the blue background have interfaces that were matched by the tested rule. Click on one of those rows (e.g. pe1_ord1) and you can see what interfaces matched and what provider was pulled out of the interface description.

To exit this screen and return to your rule, click the X in the upper right-hand corner.

Once you are confident you have matched what you expected, click the Save button to return to the main Interface Classification Screen. Your updated rule will be displayed with the RegEx matching and Provider group:

For more information on Provider Classification, be sure to check out our KB  article.