891b8ed467
throughout the source tree. Requested by: Grenville Armitage, Director of CAIA at Swinburne University of Technology MFC after: 3 days
759 lines
25 KiB
Groff
759 lines
25 KiB
Groff
.\"
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.\" Copyright (c) 2010 The FreeBSD Foundation
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.\" All rights reserved.
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.\"
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.\" Portions of this software were developed at the Centre for Advanced
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.\" Internet Architectures, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne,
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.\" Australia by Lawrence Stewart under sponsorship from the FreeBSD
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.\" Foundation.
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.\"
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.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
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.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
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.\" are met:
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.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
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.\" notice, this list of conditions, and the following disclaimer,
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.\" without modification, immediately at the beginning of the file.
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.\" 2. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products
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.\" derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
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.\"
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.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
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.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
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.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
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.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR
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.\" ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
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.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
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.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
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.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
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.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
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.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
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.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
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.\"
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.\" $FreeBSD$
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.\"
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.Dd November 12, 2010
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.Dt SIFTR 4
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.Os
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.Sh NAME
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.Nm SIFTR
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.Nd Statistical Information For TCP Research
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.Sh SYNOPSIS
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To load
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.Ns Nm
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as a module at run-time, run the following command as root:
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.Bd -literal -offset indent
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kldload siftr
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.Ed
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.Pp
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Alternatively, to load
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.Ns Nm
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as a module at boot time, add the following line into the
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.Xr loader.conf 5
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file:
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.Bd -literal -offset indent
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siftr_load="YES"
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.Ed
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.Sh DESCRIPTION
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.Nm
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.Ns ( Em S Ns tatistical
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.Em I Ns nformation
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.Em F Ns or
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.Em T Ns CP
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.Em R Ns esearch )
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is a kernel module that logs a range of statistics on active TCP connections to
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a log file.
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It provides the ability to make highly granular measurements of TCP connection
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state, aimed at system administrators, developers and researchers.
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.Ss Compile-time Configuration
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The default operation of
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.Nm
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is to capture IPv4 TCP/IP packets.
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.Nm
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can be configured to support IPv4 and IPv6 by uncommenting:
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.Bd -literal -offset indent
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CFLAGS+=-DSIFTR_IPV6
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.Ed
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.Pp
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in
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.Aq sys/modules/siftr/Makefile
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and recompiling.
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.Pp
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In the IPv4-only (default) mode, standard dotted decimal notation (e.g.
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"136.186.229.95") is used to format IPv4 addresses for logging.
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In IPv6 mode, standard dotted decimal notation is used to format IPv4 addresses,
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and standard colon-separated hex notation (see RFC 4291) is used to format IPv6
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addresses for logging. Note that SIFTR uses uncompressed notation to format IPv6
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addresses.
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For example, the address "fe80::20f:feff:fea2:531b" would be logged as
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"fe80:0:0:0:20f:feff:fea2:531b".
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.Ss Run-time Configuration
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.Nm
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|
utilises the
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.Xr sysctl 8
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interface to export its configuration variables to user-space.
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The following variables are available:
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va net.inet.siftr.enabled
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controls whether the module performs its
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measurements or not.
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By default, the value is set to 0, which means the module
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will not be taking any measurements.
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Having the module loaded with
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.Va net.inet.siftr.enabled
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set to 0 will have no impact on the performance of the network stack, as the
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packet filtering hooks are only inserted when
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.Va net.inet.siftr.enabled
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is set to 1.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va net.inet.siftr.ppl
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controls how many inbound/outbound packets for a given TCP connection will cause
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a log message to be generated for the connection.
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By default, the value is set to 1, which means the module will log a message for
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every packet of every TCP connection.
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The value can be set to any integer in the range [1,2^32], and can be changed at
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any time, even while the module is enabled.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va net.inet.siftr.logfile
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controls the path to the file that the module writes its log messages to.
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By default, the file /var/log/siftr.log is used.
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The path can be changed at any time, even while the module is enabled.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va net.inet.siftr.genhashes
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controls whether a hash is generated for each TCP packet seen by
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.Nm .
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By default, the value is set to 0, which means no hashes are generated.
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The hashes are useful to correlate which TCP packet triggered the generation of
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a particular log message, but calculating them adds additional computational
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overhead into the fast path.
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.El
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.Ss Log Format
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A typical
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.Nm
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log file will contain 3 different types of log message.
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All messages are written in plain ASCII text.
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.Pp
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Note: The
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.Qq \e
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present in the example log messages in this section indicates a
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line continuation and is not part of the actual log message
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.Pp
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The first type of log message is written to the file when the module is
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enabled and starts collecting data from the running kernel. The text below
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shows an example module enable log. The fields are tab delimited key-value
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pairs which describe some basic information about the system.
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.Bd -literal -offset indent
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enable_time_secs=1238556193 enable_time_usecs=462104 \\
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siftrver=1.2.2 hz=1000 tcp_rtt_scale=32 \\
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sysname=FreeBSD sysver=604000 ipmode=4
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.Ed
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.Pp
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Field descriptions are as follows:
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va enable_time_secs
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time at which the module was enabled, in seconds since the UNIX epoch.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va enable_time_usecs
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time at which the module was enabled, in microseconds since enable_time_secs.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va siftrver
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version of
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.Nm .
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va hz
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tick rate of the kernel in ticks per second.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va tcp_rtt_scale
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smoothed RTT estimate scaling factor
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va sysname
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operating system name
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va sysver
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operating system version
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va ipmode
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IP mode as defined at compile time.
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An ipmode of "4" means IPv6 is not supported and IP addresses are logged in
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regular dotted quad format.
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An ipmode of "6" means IPv6 is supported, and IP addresses are logged in dotted
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quad or hex format, as described in the
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.Qq Compile-time Configuration
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subsection.
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.El
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.Pp
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The second type of log message is written to the file when a data log message
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is generated.
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The text below shows an example data log triggered by an IPv4
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TCP/IP packet.
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The data is CSV formatted.
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.Bd -literal -offset indent
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o,0xbec491a5,1238556193.463551,172.16.7.28,22,172.16.2.5,55931, \\
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1073725440,172312,6144,66560,66608,8,1,4,1448,936,1,996,255, \\
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33304,208,66608,0,208,0
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.Ed
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.Pp
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Field descriptions are as follows:
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 1
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Direction of packet that triggered the log message.
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Either
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.Qq i
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for in, or
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.Qq o
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for out.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 2
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Hash of the packet that triggered the log message.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 3
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Time at which the packet that triggered the log message was processed by
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the
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.Xr pfil 9
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hook function, in seconds and microseconds since the UNIX epoch.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 4
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The IPv4 or IPv6 address of the local host, in dotted quad (IPv4 packet)
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or colon-separated hex (IPv6 packet) notation.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 5
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The TCP port that the local host is communicating via.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 6
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The IPv4 or IPv6 address of the foreign host, in dotted quad (IPv4 packet)
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or colon-separated hex (IPv6 packet) notation.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 7
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The TCP port that the foreign host is communicating via.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 8
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The slow start threshold for the flow, in bytes.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 9
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The current congestion window for the flow, in bytes.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 10
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The current bandwidth-controlled window for the flow, in bytes.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 11
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The current sending window for the flow, in bytes.
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The post scaled value is reported, except during the initial handshake (first
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few packets), during which time the unscaled value is reported.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 12
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The current receive window for the flow, in bytes.
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The post scaled value is always reported.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 13
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The current window scaling factor for the sending window.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 14
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The current window scaling factor for the receiving window.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 15
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The current state of the TCP finite state machine, as defined
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in
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.Aq Pa netinet/tcp_fsm.h .
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 16
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The maximum segment size for the flow, in bytes.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 17
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The current smoothed RTT estimate for the flow, in units of TCP_RTT_SCALE * HZ,
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where TCP_RTT_SCALE is a define found in tcp_var.h, and HZ is the kernel's tick
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timer.
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Divide by TCP_RTT_SCALE * HZ to get the RTT in secs. TCP_RTT_SCALE and HZ are
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reported in the enable log message.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 18
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SACK enabled indicator. 1 if SACK enabled, 0 otherwise.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 19
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The current state of the TCP flags for the flow.
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See
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.Aq Pa netinet/tcp_var.h
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for information about the various flags.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 20
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The current retransmission timeout length for the flow, in units of HZ, where HZ
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is the kernel's tick timer.
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Divide by HZ to get the timeout length in seconds. HZ is reported in the
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enable log message.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 21
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The current size of the socket send buffer in bytes.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 22
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The current number of bytes in the socket send buffer.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 23
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The current size of the socket receive buffer in bytes.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 24
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The current number of bytes in the socket receive buffer.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 25
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The current number of unacknowledged bytes in-flight.
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Bytes acknowledged via SACK are not excluded from this count.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va 26
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The current number of segments in the reassembly queue.
|
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.El
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.Pp
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The third type of log message is written to the file when the module is disabled
|
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and ceases collecting data from the running kernel.
|
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The text below shows an example module disable log.
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The fields are tab delimited key-value pairs which provide statistics about
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operations since the module was most recently enabled.
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.Bd -literal -offset indent
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disable_time_secs=1238556197 disable_time_usecs=933607 \\
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num_inbound_tcp_pkts=356 num_outbound_tcp_pkts=627 \\
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total_tcp_pkts=983 num_inbound_skipped_pkts_malloc=0 \\
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num_outbound_skipped_pkts_malloc=0 num_inbound_skipped_pkts_mtx=0 \\
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num_outbound_skipped_pkts_mtx=0 num_inbound_skipped_pkts_tcb=0 \\
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num_outbound_skipped_pkts_tcb=0 num_inbound_skipped_pkts_icb=0 \\
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num_outbound_skipped_pkts_icb=0 total_skipped_tcp_pkts=0 \\
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flow_list=172.16.7.28;22-172.16.2.5;55931,
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.Ed
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.Pp
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Field descriptions are as follows:
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va disable_time_secs
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|
Time at which the module was disabled, in seconds since the UNIX epoch.
|
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va disable_time_usecs
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|
Time at which the module was disabled, in microseconds since disable_time_secs.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va num_inbound_tcp_pkts
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Number of TCP packets that traversed up the network stack.
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This only includes inbound TCP packets during the periods when
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.Nm
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was enabled.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va num_outbound_tcp_pkts
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Number of TCP packets that traversed down the network stack.
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This only includes outbound TCP packets during the periods when
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.Nm
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was enabled.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va total_tcp_pkts
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The summation of num_inbound_tcp_pkts and num_outbound_tcp_pkts.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
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.It Va num_inbound_skipped_pkts_malloc
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Number of inbound packets that were not processed because of failed malloc() calls.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
|
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.It Va num_outbound_skipped_pkts_malloc
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Number of outbound packets that were not processed because of failed malloc() calls.
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.El
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
|
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.It Va num_inbound_skipped_pkts_mtx
|
|
Number of inbound packets that were not processed because of failure to add the
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packet to the packet processing queue.
|
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.El
|
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
|
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.It Va num_outbound_skipped_pkts_mtx
|
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Number of outbound packets that were not processed because of failure to add the
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packet to the packet processing queue.
|
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.El
|
|
.Bl -tag -offset indent
|
|
.It Va num_inbound_skipped_pkts_tcb
|
|
Number of inbound packets that were not processed because of failure to find the
|
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TCP control block associated with the packet.
|
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.El
|
|
.Bl -tag -offset indent
|
|
.It Va num_outbound_skipped_pkts_tcb
|
|
Number of outbound packets that were not processed because of failure to find
|
|
the TCP control block associated with the packet.
|
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.El
|
|
.Bl -tag -offset indent
|
|
.It Va num_inbound_skipped_pkts_icb
|
|
Number of inbound packets that were not processed because of failure to find the
|
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IP control block associated with the packet.
|
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.El
|
|
.Bl -tag -offset indent
|
|
.It Va num_outbound_skipped_pkts_icb
|
|
Number of outbound packets that were not processed because of failure to find
|
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the IP control block associated with the packet.
|
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.El
|
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.Bl -tag -offset indent
|
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.It Va total_skipped_tcp_pkts
|
|
The summation of all skipped packet counters.
|
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.El
|
|
.Bl -tag -offset indent
|
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.It Va flow_list
|
|
A CSV list of TCP flows that triggered data log messages to be generated since
|
|
the module was loaded.
|
|
Each flow entry in the CSV list is
|
|
formatted as
|
|
.Qq local_ip;local_port-foreign_ip;foreign_port .
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|
If there are no entries in the list (i.e. no data log messages were generated),
|
|
the value will be blank.
|
|
If there is at least one entry in the list, a trailing comma will always be
|
|
present.
|
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.El
|
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.Pp
|
|
The total number of data log messages found in the log file for a module
|
|
enable/disable cycle should equate to total_tcp_pkts - total_skipped_tcp_pkts.
|
|
.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
|
|
.Nm
|
|
hooks into the network stack using the
|
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.Xr pfil 9
|
|
interface.
|
|
In its current incarnation, it hooks into the AF_INET/AF_INET6 (IPv4/IPv6)
|
|
.Xr pfil 9
|
|
filtering points, which means it sees packets at the IP layer of the network
|
|
stack.
|
|
This means that TCP packets inbound to the stack are intercepted before
|
|
they have been processed by the TCP layer.
|
|
Packets outbound from the stack are intercepted after they have been processed
|
|
by the TCP layer.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
The diagram below illustrates how
|
|
.Nm
|
|
inserts itself into the stack.
|
|
.Bd -literal -offset indent
|
|
----------------------------------
|
|
Upper Layers
|
|
----------------------------------
|
|
^ |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| v
|
|
TCP in TCP out
|
|
----------------------------------
|
|
^ |
|
|
|________ _________|
|
|
| |
|
|
| v
|
|
---------
|
|
| SIFTR |
|
|
---------
|
|
^ |
|
|
________| |__________
|
|
| |
|
|
| v
|
|
IPv{4/6} in IPv{4/6} out
|
|
----------------------------------
|
|
^ |
|
|
| |
|
|
| v
|
|
Layer 2 in Layer 2 out
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|
----------------------------------
|
|
Physical Layer
|
|
----------------------------------
|
|
.Ed
|
|
.Pp
|
|
.Nm
|
|
uses the
|
|
.Xr alq 9
|
|
interface to manage writing data to disk.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
At first glance, you might mistakenly think that
|
|
.Nm
|
|
extracts information from
|
|
individual TCP packets.
|
|
This is not the case.
|
|
.Nm
|
|
uses TCP packet events (inbound and outbound) for each TCP flow originating from
|
|
the system to trigger a dump of the state of the TCP control block for that
|
|
flow.
|
|
With the PPL set to 1, we are in effect sampling each TCP flow's control block
|
|
state as frequently as flow packets enter/leave the system.
|
|
For example, setting PPL to 2 halves the sampling rate i.e. every second flow
|
|
packet (inbound OR outbound) causes a dump of the control block state.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
The distinction between interrogating individual packets vs interrogating the
|
|
control block is important, because
|
|
.Nm
|
|
does not remove the need for packet capturing tools like
|
|
.Xr tcpdump 1 .
|
|
.Nm
|
|
allows you to correlate and observe the cause-and-affect relationship between
|
|
what you see on the wire (captured using a tool like
|
|
.Xr tcpdump 1 Ns )
|
|
and changes in the TCP control block corresponding to the flow of interest.
|
|
It is therefore useful to use
|
|
.Nm
|
|
and a tool like
|
|
.Xr tcpdump 1
|
|
to gather the necessary data to piece together the complete picture.
|
|
Use of either tool on its own will not be able to provide all of the necessary
|
|
data.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
As a result of needing to interrogate the TCP control block, certain packets
|
|
during the lifecycle of a connection are unable to trigger a
|
|
.Nm
|
|
log message.
|
|
The initial handshake takes place without the existence of a control block and
|
|
the final ACK is exchanged when the connection is in the TIMEWAIT state.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
.Nm
|
|
was designed to minimise the delay introduced to packets traversing the network
|
|
stack.
|
|
This design called for a highly optimised and minimal hook function that
|
|
extracted the minimal details necessary whilst holding the packet up, and
|
|
passing these details to another thread for actual processing and logging.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
This multithreaded design does introduce some contention issues when accessing
|
|
the data structure shared between the threads of operation.
|
|
When the hook function tries to place details in the structure, it must first
|
|
acquire an exclusive lock.
|
|
Likewise, when the processing thread tries to read details from the structure,
|
|
it must also acquire an exclusive lock to do so.
|
|
If one thread holds the lock, the other must wait before it can obtain it.
|
|
This does introduce some additional bounded delay into the kernel's packet
|
|
processing code path.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
In some cases (e.g. low memory, connection termination), TCP packets that enter
|
|
the
|
|
.Nm
|
|
.Xr pfil 9
|
|
hook function will not trigger a log message to be generated.
|
|
.Nm
|
|
refers to this outcome as a
|
|
.Qq skipped packet .
|
|
Note that
|
|
.Nm
|
|
always ensures that packets are allowed to continue through the stack, even if
|
|
they could not successfully trigger a data log message.
|
|
.Nm
|
|
will therefore not introduce any packet loss for TCP/IP packets traversing the
|
|
network stack.
|
|
.Ss Important Behaviours
|
|
The behaviour of a log file path change whilst the module is enabled is as
|
|
follows:
|
|
.Bl -enum
|
|
.It
|
|
Attempt to open the new file path for writing.
|
|
If this fails, the path change will fail and the existing path will continue to
|
|
be used.
|
|
.It
|
|
Assuming the new path is valid and opened successfully:
|
|
.Bl -dash
|
|
.It
|
|
Flush all pending log messages to the old file path.
|
|
.It
|
|
Close the old file path.
|
|
.It
|
|
Switch the active log file pointer to point at the new file path.
|
|
.It
|
|
Commence logging to the new file.
|
|
.El
|
|
.El
|
|
.Pp
|
|
During the time between the flush of pending log messages to the old file and
|
|
commencing logging to the new file, new log messages will still be generated and
|
|
buffered.
|
|
As soon as the new file path is ready for writing, the accumulated log messages
|
|
will be written out to the file.
|
|
.Sh EXAMPLES
|
|
To enable the module's operations, run the following command as root:
|
|
sysctl net.inet.siftr.enabled=1
|
|
.Pp
|
|
To change the granularity of log messages such that 1 log message is
|
|
generated for every 10 TCP packets per connection, run the following
|
|
command as root:
|
|
sysctl net.inet.siftr.ppl=10
|
|
.Pp
|
|
To change the log file location to /tmp/siftr.log, run the following
|
|
command as root:
|
|
sysctl net.inet.siftr.logfile=/tmp/siftr.log
|
|
.Sh SEE ALSO
|
|
.Xr alq 9 ,
|
|
.Xr pfil 9
|
|
.Xr sysctl 8 ,
|
|
.Xr tcp 4 ,
|
|
.Xr tcpdump 1 ,
|
|
.Sh ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
|
|
Development of this software was made possible in part by grants from the
|
|
Cisco University Research Program Fund at Community Foundation Silicon Valley,
|
|
and the FreeBSD Foundation.
|
|
.Sh HISTORY
|
|
.Nm
|
|
first appeared in
|
|
.Fx 7.4
|
|
and
|
|
.Fx 8.2 .
|
|
.Pp
|
|
.Nm
|
|
was first released in 2007 by Lawrence Stewart and James Healy whilst working on
|
|
the NewTCP research project at Swinburne University of Technology's Centre for
|
|
Advanced Internet Architectures, Melbourne, Australia, which was made possible
|
|
in part by a grant from the Cisco University Research Program Fund at Community
|
|
Foundation Silicon Valley.
|
|
More details are available at:
|
|
.Pp
|
|
http://caia.swin.edu.au/urp/newtcp/
|
|
.Pp
|
|
Work on
|
|
.Nm
|
|
v1.2.x was sponsored by the FreeBSD Foundation as part of
|
|
the
|
|
.Qq Enhancing the FreeBSD TCP Implementation
|
|
project 2008-2009.
|
|
More details are available at:
|
|
.Pp
|
|
http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/
|
|
.Pp
|
|
http://caia.swin.edu.au/freebsd/etcp09/
|
|
.Sh AUTHORS
|
|
.An -nosplit
|
|
.Nm
|
|
was written by
|
|
.An Lawrence Stewart Aq lstewart@FreeBSD.org
|
|
and
|
|
.An James Healy Aq jimmy@deefa.com .
|
|
.Pp
|
|
This manual page was written by
|
|
.An Lawrence Stewart Aq lstewart@FreeBSD.org .
|
|
.Sh BUGS
|
|
Current known limitations and any relevant workarounds are outlined below:
|
|
.Bl -dash
|
|
.It
|
|
The internal queue used to pass information between the threads of operation is
|
|
currently unbounded.
|
|
This allows
|
|
.Nm
|
|
to cope with bursty network traffic, but sustained high packet-per-second
|
|
traffic can cause exhaustion of kernel memory if the processing thread cannot
|
|
keep up with the packet rate.
|
|
.It
|
|
If using
|
|
.Nm
|
|
on a machine that is also running other modules utilising the
|
|
.Xr pfil 9
|
|
framework e.g.
|
|
.Xr dummynet 4 ,
|
|
.Xr ipfw 8 ,
|
|
.Xr pf 4 Ns ,
|
|
the order in which you load the modules is important.
|
|
You should kldload the other modules first, as this will ensure TCP packets
|
|
undergo any necessary manipulations before
|
|
.Nm
|
|
.Qq sees
|
|
and processes them.
|
|
.It
|
|
There is a known, harmless lock order reversal warning between the
|
|
.Xr pfil 9
|
|
mutex and tcbinfo TCP lock reported by
|
|
.Xr witness 4
|
|
when
|
|
.Nm
|
|
is enabled in a kernel compiled with
|
|
.Xr witness 4
|
|
support.
|
|
.It
|
|
There is no way to filter which TCP flows you wish to capture data for.
|
|
Post processing is required to separate out data belonging to particular flows
|
|
of interest.
|
|
.It
|
|
The module does not detect deletion of the log file path.
|
|
New log messages will simply be lost if the log file being used by
|
|
.Nm
|
|
is deleted whilst the module is set to use the file.
|
|
Switching to a new log file using the
|
|
.Em net.inet.siftr.logfile
|
|
variable will create the new file and allow log messages to begin being written
|
|
to disk again.
|
|
The new log file path must differ from the path to the deleted file.
|
|
.It
|
|
The hash table used within the code is sized to hold 65536 flows. This is not a
|
|
hard limit, because chaining is used to handle collisions within the hash table
|
|
structure.
|
|
However, we suspect (based on analogies with other hash table performance data)
|
|
that the hash table look up performance (and therefore the module's packet
|
|
processing performance) will degrade in an exponential manner as the number of
|
|
unique flows handled in a module enable/disable cycle approaches and surpasses
|
|
65536.
|
|
.It
|
|
There is no garbage collection performed on the flow hash table.
|
|
The only way currently to flush it is to disable
|
|
.Nm .
|
|
.It
|
|
The PPL variable applies to packets that make it into the processing thread,
|
|
not total packets received in the hook function.
|
|
Packets are skipped before the PPL variable is applied, which means there may be
|
|
a slight discrepancy in the triggering of log messages.
|
|
For example, if PPL was set to 10, and the 8th packet since the last log message
|
|
is skipped, the 11th packet will actually trigger the log message to be
|
|
generated.
|
|
This is discussed in greater depth in CAIA technical report 070824A.
|
|
.It
|
|
At the time of writing, there was no simple way to hook into the TCP layer
|
|
to intercept packets.
|
|
.Nm Ap s
|
|
use of IP layer hook points means all IP
|
|
traffic will be processed by the
|
|
.Nm
|
|
.Xr pfil 9
|
|
hook function, which introduces minor, but nonetheless unnecessary packet delay
|
|
and processing overhead on the system for non-TCP packets as well.
|
|
Hooking in at the IP layer is also not ideal from the data gathering point of
|
|
view.
|
|
Packets traversing up the stack will be intercepted and cause a log message
|
|
generation BEFORE they have been processed by the TCP layer, which means we
|
|
cannot observe the cause-and-affect relationship between inbound events and the
|
|
corresponding TCP control block as precisely as could be.
|
|
Ideally,
|
|
.Nm
|
|
should intercept packets after they have been processed by the TCP layer i.e.
|
|
intercept packets coming up the stack after they have been processed by
|
|
tcp_input(), and intercept packets coming down the stack after they have been
|
|
processed by tcp_output().
|
|
The current code still gives satisfactory granularity though, as inbound events
|
|
tend to trigger outbound events, allowing the cause-and-effect to be observed
|
|
indirectly by capturing the state on outbound events as well.
|
|
.It
|
|
The
|
|
.Qq inflight bytes
|
|
value logged by
|
|
.Nm
|
|
does not take into account bytes that have been
|
|
.No SACK Ap ed
|
|
by the receiving host.
|
|
.It
|
|
Packet hash generation does not currently work for IPv6 based TCP packets.
|
|
.It
|
|
Compressed notation is not used for IPv6 address representation.
|
|
This consumes more bytes than is necessary in log output.
|
|
.El
|