Installation

Overview of Components and Dependencies

Requirements

Nfsight has two components: a back-end script written in Perl, and a front-end interface written in PHP/MySQL.

The back-end script is a module for the Nfsen application. You can find more information about Nfsen at:

 http://nfsen.sourceforge.net

Before proceeding to the installation, make sure to install the following dependencies:

• For the back-end:
  • Nfsen (latest stable version)
  • MySQL server
  • Perl DBI with support for MySQL
• For the front-end:
  • Web server and PHP compiled with support for MySQL
  • MySQL server
  • Nfdump (available at http://nfdump.sf.net)
  • UNIX environment (cat, grep, sort, head)
  • (optional) PicViz (http://www.wallinfire.net/picviz/)

Installation Procedure

To install the back-end, copy nfsight.pm to your Nfsen back-end plugin directory (e.g., /var/nfsen/plugins/)
and create a new folder called "nfsight" inside this directory (e.g., "mkdir /var/nfsen/plugins/nfsight")

Make sure that Nfsen has read and write access to this directory.

You will also have to update the configuration of Nfsen according to instructions provided during the installation of the front-end.

To install the front-end, extract everything from the Nfsight tarball to your web server directory (e.g., /var/www/nfsight/)

Make sure that your web server has read and write access to this directory.

Create a database for Nfsight in your MySQL server.

Open a browser and navigate to the front-end folder to start the installer script:

http://<host>/<nfsight folder>/installer.php

Follow the instructions to setup the different parameters required by Nfsight, including the credentials to access to the MySQL database.

This user should have the privilege to create and delete tables in the Nfsight database.

When the installer script completes, it will write a new file config.php in the front-end folder and give you the back-end configuration parameters that you need to paste in Nfsen configuration (e.g., /var/nfsen/etc/nfsen.conf).

Restart Nfsen to initiate the back-end script. For example:

/var/nfsen/bin/nfsen stop
/var/nfsen/bin/nfsen start

Install the hourly cronjob required by Nfsight to periodically update the database:

06 * * * *  wget --no-check-certificate -q -O - http://management:aggregate@<host>/<nfsight folder>/aggregate.php

You can now open your browser to Nfsight and login using the account specified during the installation process.

Troubleshooting

Here is a procedure to troubleshoot Nfsight if no data is collected or the front-end remains empty.

1. Verify that the back-end script is running properly by looking at the logs from syslog: sudo grep -i nfsight /var/log/syslog
2. If no error is reported, check in the back-end data directory (e.g., /var/nfsen/plugin/nfsight/) if biflow and service files are created and non-empty. If no data is recorded in this file, check the parameters of the back-end (e.g., in /var/nfsen/etc/nfsen.conf) to make sure that the parameters "network" and "print_<int|ext>_<client|server|...>" are correct. You can also check that Nfsen processes flow correctly and that flow files in your live profile are not empty.
3. If the back-end works properly and records biflow and service data, log in to your MySQL server and check in the nfsight database that the table server_discovery exists and is not empty. If you detect an issue, check the front-end parameters in config.php within the front-end directory
4. If you cannot find the root cause of your issue, contact the developer or submit a ticket

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[Anonymous]

i guess this is an old project, but by any chance anything in the works to make nfsight compatible php 7 and the mysqli connectors and fucntion instead of mysql from php 5 ?

[Anonymous]