Technical Summary
This document presents a list of tests for implementers of IP Flow
Information Export (IPFIX) compliant Exporting Processes and
Collecting Processes. This document specifies guidelines for a
series of tests that can be run on the IPFIX Exporting Process and
Collecting Process in order to probe the conformity and robustness of
the IPFIX protocol implementations. These tests cover all important
functions, in order to gain a level of confidence in the IPFIX
implementation. Therefore they allow the implementer to perform
interoperability or plug tests with other IPFIX Exporting Processes
and Collecting Processes.
Working Group Summary
The IPFIX Working Group is in consensus in favor of publcihing this
document. Like the 'IPFIX Implementation Guidelines' document, this
document draws on experience gained from IPFIX interopability events.
It will be useful to implementors who need to enusre that their IPFIX
implementations really do work correctly.
Document Quality
The document is based on experience gained at interoperability
events. It was extensively reviewed within the IPFIX Working Group, and
in the PSAMP WG. Dan Romascanu reviewed the document as AD. Joel
Halpern reviewed for GenART and his extensive comments were used to
generate the final version of the document.
Personnel
Nevil Brownlee is the PROTO shepherd. Dan Romascanu is the shepherding
AD.
RFC Editor Note
RFC Editor, please make the following changes:
1) add to section 1 (before 1.1) the following text:
NEW:
The tests can be executed in a testbed environment or on a live
network.
However, care should be taken regarding the "stress/load test"
and the "temporary network disconnect", as they might impact
other systems in the network. We recommend that these specific tests
should be executed only in a testbed environment.
2)
In section 3.1.1
OLD:
The transmitted data might be observed on-line with an appropriate
packet sniffing tool, such as Wireshark (www.wireshark.org).
NEW:
The transmitted data might be observed on-line with an appropriate
packet sniffing tool.
3) in section 3.4.1:
OLD:
The tester must check and if necessary improve the software so that
the Templates and the associated Data Records are correctly received
and decoded by the Collecting Process.
NEW:
The tester must check that
the Templates and the associated Data Records are correctly received
and decoded by the Collecting Process.
4) In Section 3.7.1:
OLD
The tester must configure consistent forward (A, AAAA) and reverse
(PTR) DNS records for each host in the test on a DNS server used by
the hosts for name resolution.
NEW
The tester must configure consistent forward (A, AAAA)
DNS records for each host in the test on a DNS server used by
the hosts for name resolution. Note that there is no need to
configure reverse (PTR) DNS records for the hosts, as no part
of the protocol uses reverse lookups.