Probe Networking Setup

This is a quick guide set-up taking you through the network set-up on the Probe's wizard interface.

You can access this menu by connecting to your probe in several ways:

• Through SSH via IP
• via Serial cable (speed 115200) - How to connect via serial console cable
• via VGA cable to a monitor and a keyboard/mouse (for SF200 probe only)

Once you have connected up, login and enter in your credentials. By default, admin will be the username and the password would be left blank. Navigate to Networking and then press enter and follow the guide below to suit your needs.

Overview
Default Networking settings
(brX) Bridge: What is it?
What does (MON) mean on an interface or bridge?
Network connectivity test
How to set-up a Static IP
How to set-up DHCP
Will probes assign itself a VLAN tag automatically
How to apply Proxy Server settings on the probe
When I see address 0.0.0.0 listed under Settings > Probes - what does that mean?
How do virtual probes support multiple bridges?
What limitations are there to using a virtual probe?

Default Networking settings:
Below are the default network settings for various Sinefa Probes. 

SF150:
eth0(MGMT)
br1(lan1, wan1)(DHCP)(MON) - Ethernet bypass

SF200:
br1(lan1,wan1)(DHCP)(MON) - Ethernet bypass
br2(lan2,wan2)(MON) - Ethernet bypass

SF801:
br1(lan1,wan1)(DHCP)(MON) - Ethernet bypass
br2(lan2,wan2)(MON) - Ethernet bypass
br3(lan3,wan3)(MON) - Ethernet bypass

Virtual:
eth0(DHCP)
ethX(MON)

-----
(MON) - Monitoring enabled
(DHCP) - DHCP enabled
brX - Bridge. Two interfaces are being bridged and traffic flows from one to the other. Used for in-line deployments and shaping. 

(brX) Bridge: What is it?
A Bridge is 2 NICs that have been combined to create one "extended" NIC. In this instance, you have a WAN interface and a LAN interface. The WAN interface collects all throughput traffic that it forwards to the LAN interface which then forwards the monitoring information onto the Sinefa cloud to be analysed for the reports in the portal to be compiled. Only 2 NICs can be bridged at any time. Only bridges are capable of shaping. 

What does (MON) mean on an interface or bridge?

When you see (MON) next to an interface, that means that interface has been activated to monitor traffic. Analysis (metadata) of that traffic is then sent to the cloud for reporting/live stream data that's available on the Sinefa portal.  Each interface/bridge that has MON enabled will create a Source on the UI and can be visualised separately.

Network connectivity test
When you connect up to a probe, you will see there's an option to run a Network Connectivity Test. What this does is checks to see if DNS is configured and that it can reach portal.sinefa.com via ICMP and HTTPS. This would be advised to be your first step in troubleshooting any probe connection issues before going further.

How to set-up a Static IP
Generally this is set-up if DHCP is unavailable on your network PLEASE NOTE: Do not complete this step while connecting to your probe remotely via SSH - this will need to be completed through a serial cable, connected monitor or SSH from the local network (same subnet). 

1. Log into your probe then go into Networking and select Configure IP Address
2. Select the bridge that you would like to apply a static IP to, in this case we will be applying it to br1
3. Select Static IP
4. Add in the IP address and the Subnet Prefix required then select Ok
5. Another pop-up box will appear to confirm the changes, select Yes and now the details entered before should be applied.
6. Navigate back to the Networking Menu and select Configure Gateway
7. Enter in your default gateway details and select OK
8. Go back into the Networking Menu and select Configure DNS
9. Fill out your DNS server details required and then press OK

How to set-up DHCP

1. Go into the Networking Menu and select Configure IP Address
2. Select the bridge you want to apply DHCP to, in this case it will be br1
3. Select DHCP
4. You will then be prompted to confirm - select Yes

 5. DHCP should now be enabled on that bridge on your probe

Will probes assign itself a VLAN tag automatically?
By default, a probe's NIC will not assign itself a VLAN tag. When you set-up a probe in-line on a network that have multiple VLANs configured, it will assign itself an IP address but will not be able to communicate outside of the local network. There are 2 ways to combat this:

• Set-up the physical probe as per your normal in-line deployment, but then plug in the Management NIC into the switch (applicable to both the SF-150 and SF-801). You will then need to set a static IP address, default gateway and DNS server on the management NIC for the probe to be able to communicate outside of the network.
• Configure a VLAN tag on the bridge connected as covered here

How to apply Proxy Server settings on the probe
If you have your probe set-up in-line with a proxy server, you will need to configure settings on the probe to allow for traffic throughput

1. Go into the Networking Menu and select Proxy Settings
2. Enter in the Proxy hostname/IP address, the port required for access on that proxy server and a username and password that has been set-up for the probe. Select OK
3. You will be asked to confirm Proxy settings - select Yes

When I see address 0.0.0.0 listed under Settings > Probes - what does that mean?
What this means is that the probe has been assigned more than 1 IP address. As the probe only requires 1 IP address to be able to communicate to portal.sinefa.com for reporting purposes, we would recommend that you either disable DHCP on all bridges minus 1 of them (for probes with multiple bridges) or keep a static IP address assigned to the management NIC and disable DHCP on the bridge (forr the probes with a bridge(s) and a management NIC). Once this is complete, refresh the Sinefa UI and you will then see that this update with the IP address of the probe.

How do virtual probes support multiple bridges?
You can add multiple bridges to set-up your aggregates when required.

Say you have the eth0 and eth1 interfaces bridged and then you have eth2 and eth3 as stand-alone interfaces. Under the Networking Menu > Configure Bridges, you will be able to add a bridge and then select eth2 and eth3. Generally, this set-up is created for those with load-balanced routers and creates a secondary source within the Sinefa Portal.

There are no limitations on how many bridges and ethernet interfaces you can configure within a Virtual Probe.

What limitations are there to using a virtual probe?

There are no deployment limitations for virtual probes. Virtual probes do not have ethernet bypass so when deployed in-line, consideration needs to be given on how to deal with an in-line virtual instance. The hardware used for these probes must have enough capacity to deal with the traffic that Sinefa needs to monitor. For virtual deployments beyond 1Gbps per probe, please contact us.

See Also
Pre-Installation Checklist
Probe Quick Start Guides (Hardware & Virtual)
How to configure SPAN or Port Mirroring on a Cisco Router/Switch
Which TCP & UDP ports do I need to open up?
How to set-up Network Quality Scoring (NQS)