/*
* Argus Software
* Copyright (c) 2000-2008 QoSient, LLC
* All rights reserved.
*
* QOSIENT, LLC DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS
* SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
* FITNESS, IN NO EVENT SHALL QOSIENT, LLC BE LIABLE FOR ANY
* SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER
* RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF
* CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN
* CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
*
*/
Argus How To File
1. How do I join the Argus mailing list?
2. How do I report bugs?
3. How do I compile Argus?
4. How do I install Argus?
5. How do I configure Argus?
6. How do I run Argus?
7. How do you run argus on your systems?
8. How do I audit my web servers?
9. How do I audit the traffic between my corporate network and my ISP?
10. How do I do things with argus data.
1. How do I join the Argus mailing list?
Send "subscribe argus" in the body of a piece of mail
to majordomo@lists.andrew.cmu.edu
2. How do I report bugs?
Use the tool ./bin/argusbug to send your bug report
to the argus mailing list. Argusbug will present you
with a bug reporting form, that includes some system
information. If you are unhappy providing the information
supplied by Argusbug, you are free to delete it.
Send any comments/fixes/opinions/whatever to the
mailing list. Someone will send a reply.
3. How do I compile Argus?
Building specifics for argus are described in the ./INSTALL file.
The quick method is:
% ./configure
% make
4. How do I install Argus?
Detail installation instructions are in the ./INSTALL file.
But the fast an easy way is to:
make install
5. How do I configure Argus?
For most uses, Argus will require only a few simple
configuration variable set to do work. For the
custom minded, Argus supports a large number of options.
Argus is generally configured using the .argusrc file that
is normally found in $ARGUSHOME. The variables that are
set by this file can be overriden by the use of command
line switches or an alternative configuration file
that is specified using the "-F configfile" option.
See ./example/.argusrc for a description of options and
their default settings. This sample file sets most of
the common options.
6. How do I run Argus?
Argus is run either as a persistant daemon, reading live
packets from a network interface, or as a program,
reading packets from a packet capture file. The default,
i.e. when it is run without any configuration, is to run
as a daemon.
The only real question to answer is where do you want
argus to send its output. The basic options are to write
to a file, or to offer remote access via a socket, or both.
Most installations will run configure argus to write its
output to a file. To do this, run argus as:
# argus -w outputfile
This will cause Argus to run as a daemon, reading packets
from the first available network interface, and writing
its output to an outputfile.
If you intend to remotely attach to this argus, you'll need to
tell argus what port to put a listen down on. The default
port for clients is port 561. We recommend using this port
number.
# argus -P 561 -w outputfile
In order to configure argus to read packets from a packet
capture file, use the "-r" option.
% argus -r ./packetfile
Argus has a large number of options, which can be set
through an .argusrc file, the use of command line options,
or through a separate configuration file that is specifed
at run time. These options are designed to specify things
like, what type of information Argus should capture, how
often it should generate output records, whether it should
put the network interface in promiscuous mode when run,
should it create a pid file, etc... The complete list is
described int the argus.8 man page.
7. How do you run argus on your systems?
argus -e `hostname` -P 561 -U128 -mRS 30 -w $ARGUSHOME/argus.out
8. How do I audit my web servers?
Argus can be deployed either on the network using a tapping
strategy that captures all the packets destined to and from
the target web server, or Argus can be deployed on the web
server itself. In any case, if the desire is to measure
web performance itself, Argus should be deployed as close
to the server as physically possible.
Deploying Argus on the server itself is my preferred
strategy as it solves some basic problems with monitoring
multi-interface load balanced servers. Some sites will
be concerned with the cycles used by Argus and stability
issues, but for the majority of servers in use in the
Internet today, this will be the right strategy, as it
is the least expensive.
+-----------+ +-----------+
| +-+ | | +-+ |
| | | | | | | +------
| | | +-------+ | | |
| | | | | | | +------
| +-+ | | +-+ |
+-----------+ +-----------+
Web Back End Web Front End
with resident with resident
Argus Argus
Figure 1.
When off server deployment is indicated, Argus can be
deployed any where in the network where there is access
to packets of interest. Usually using a switch or
hub that is inline with the target packet data is the
way to go.
+-----------+ Switch
| | Hub
| | +---+
| +-----+ +-------
| | +-+-+
| | |
+-----------+ |
Web Server +---+---+
| Argus |
+-------+
Figure 2.
There are situations where the effects of load balancers
will want to be monitored. In this case, multiple Argi
can be deployed to monitor pre and post load balanced
flow data.
Switch Switch
+-------+ Hub +-------+ Hub
| | +---+ | | +---+
| +-----+ +------+ +------+ +------
| | +-+-+ | | +-+-+
+-------+ | +-------+ |
Web Server | Load Balancer |
+---+---+ +---+---+
| Argus | | Argus |
+-------+ +-------+
Figure 3.
9. How do I audit the traffic between my corporate network and my ISP?
The trick here is to deploy Argus such that it can see
all the packets between the corp network and the Internet.
In many networks there is a network ethernet DMZ. This is the
ideal location to place Argus, a common link that is physically
accessible that can have complete cover over all the packets.
This is especially true when there are multiple ISP links being
used by the corporation.
A Switch or a Hub can be used to tap into the DMZ so that
the Argus host can see the full duplex channel between the
two routers, as shown below.
Switch +-----------+
+------+ Hub | +------- ISP
| | +-----+ | |
corp ------+ +----+ +----+ Router +------- ISP
| | +--+--+ | |
+------+ | | +------- ISP
router | +-----------+
+---+---+
| Argus |
+-------+
Figure 4.
If you can't insert a switch or a hub into the link as
shown in Figure 4, then you've got a bit of a puzzle.
In some cases you can configure your router to "port steer"
or port copy the packets that you are interested in to a
common monitoring port. When a switch or hub cannot be
installed on the DMZ link, this would be the next likely
strategy.
+-----------+ B
| +------- ISP
A | Router | C
Corp -----+ Switch +------- ISP
| | D
| +------- ISP
+-----+-----+
| E
+---+---+
| Argus |
+-------+
If the router/switch can be configured to copy both
incoming and outgoing packets from Interface A to
Interface E, then the problem is solved, as this
will get all the packets (assuming you don't support
routing between interfaces B, C or D).
Interface E should have the bandwidth needed to handle
the full load of the traffic. In our example above,
If interface A is a 10 Mbps ethernet link, interface
E should be a 100Mpbs interface, so that it can handle
the 20 Mbps of total load interface A can support.
If the device does not support full duplex port copy,
then a strategy that copies all the incoming interfaces
of the router/switch to a common monitor interface will
also get all the packets.
If none of the above is possible, then ~here are WAN
probe taps available that will support packet capture
from ISP links. These are pretty expensive, sometimes
more than the entire cost of the Argus probe itself,
but they are available.
10. How do I do things with argus data.
Get the argus-clients distribution that match the highest
argus data source version, and then get started ;o)
http://qosient.com/argus
