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Enabling Protocol Discovery

Finding Feature Information

Contents

Prerequisites for Enabling Protocol Discovery

Restrictions for Enabling Protocol Discovery

Information About Protocol Discovery

Protocol Discovery Overview

Interface Scalability

How to Enable Protocol Discovery

Enabling Protocol Discovery on an Interface

Reporting Protocol Discovery Statistics

Configuration Examples for Protocol Discovery

Example: Enabling Protocol Discovery on an Interface

Example: Reporting Protocol Discovery Statistics

Additional References

Related Documents

Standards

MIBs

Technical Assistance

Feature Information for Enabling Protocol Discovery


Enabling Protocol Discovery

First Published: April 4, 2006
Last Updated: March 31, 2011

Network-Based Application Recognition (NBAR) includes a feature called Protocol Discovery. Protocol discovery provides an easy way to discover the application protocol packets that are passing through an interface. When you configure NBAR, the first task is to enable protocol discovery.

This module contains concepts and tasks for enabling the Protocol Discovery feature.

Finding Feature Information

Your software release may not support all the features documented in this module. For the latest feature information and caveats, see the release notes for your platform and software release. To find information about the features documented in this module, and to see a list of the releases in which each feature is supported, see the "Feature Information for Enabling Protocol Discovery" section.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.

Contents

•Prerequisites for Enabling Protocol Discovery

•Information About Protocol Discovery

•How to Enable Protocol Discovery

•Configuration Examples for Protocol Discovery

•Additional References

•Feature Information for Enabling Protocol Discovery

Prerequisites for Enabling Protocol Discovery

Before enabling protocol discovery, read the information in the "Classifying Network Traffic Using NBAR" module.

Restrictions for Enabling Protocol Discovery

NBAR protocol discovery does not support the following:

•Asymmetric flows with stateful protocols.

Note In the NBAR context, asymmetric flows are the flows in which different packets of the flow go through different routers, for reasons such as load balancing implementation or asymmetric routing where packets flow through different routes to different directions.

•NBAR processing. By design, NBAR processing is temporarily disabled during the In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU). The following syslog message indicates restart of NBAR classification once ISSU is complete.

"%NBAR_HA-5-NBAR_INFO: NBAR sync DONE!"

•Multicast packet classification.

•Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)-labeled packets. NBAR classifies IP packets only. You can, however, use NBAR to classify IP traffic before the traffic is handed over to MPLS. Use the modular quality of service (QoS) CLI (MQC) to set the IP differentiated services code point (DSCP) field on the NBAR-classified packets and make MPLS map the DSCP setting to the MPLS experimental (EXP) setting inside the MPLS header.

•Non-IP traffic.

•Packets that originate from or that are destined to the router running NBAR.

NBAR is not supported on the following logical interfaces:

•Dialer interfaces

•Fast Etherchannel

•Interfaces where tunneling or encryption is used

•Multilink Point-to-Point Protocol (MLPPP)

•Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) VPN Routing and Forwarding (VRF)

•Port channel

•Tunneled interfaces (Generic Router Encapsulation [GRE], IP-IP, Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol [L2TP])

Note You cannot use NBAR to classify output traffic on a WAN link where tunneling or encryption is used. Therefore, you should configure NBAR on other interfaces of the router (such as a LAN link) to perform input classification before the traffic is switched to the WAN link.

Information About Protocol Discovery

•Protocol Discovery Overview

Protocol Discovery Overview

The Protocol Discovery feature of NBAR provides an easy way of discovering the application protocols passing through an interface so that appropriate QoS features can be applied.

NBAR determines which protocols and applications are currently running on your network. Protocol discovery provides an easy way of discovering the application protocols that are operating on an interface so that appropriate QoS features can be applied. With protocol discovery, you can discover any protocol traffic that is supported by NBAR and obtain statistics that are associated with that protocol.

Protocol discovery maintains the following per-protocol statistics for enabled interfaces:

•Total number of input packets and bytes

•Total number of output packets and bytes

•Input bit rates

•Output bit rates

These statistics can be used when you define classes and traffic policies (sometimes known as policy maps) for each traffic class. The traffic policies (policy maps) are used to apply specific QoS features and functionality to the traffic classes.

Interface Scalability

In Cisco IOS XE Release 2.4 and earlier releases, there is no limit on the number of interfaces on which protocol discovery can be enabled.

Table 1 provides the details of the protocol discovery supported interface and the release number.

Table 1 Release and Protocol Discovery Interface Support

Release
Number of Interfaces Supported with Protocol Discovery

Cisco IOS XE Release 2.5

128

Cisco IOS XE Release 2.6

256

Cisco IOS XE Release 2.7

32

Cisco IOS XE Release 3.2S

32

Cisco IOS XE Release 3.3S

32


In Cisco IOS XE Release 3.3S and later releases, NBAR supports the following classification:

•Static port-based classification and IP protocol-based classification for IPv6 packets.

•IPv4 and IPv6 classification for IPv4 and IPv6 VPN Routing and Forwarding (VRF) interfaces.

Note The NBAR Protocol Discovery MIB is not supported for the ip nbar protocol-discovery ipv4 and ip nbar protocol-discovery ipv6 commands.

How to Enable Protocol Discovery

•Enabling Protocol Discovery on an Interface (required)

•Reporting Protocol Discovery Statistics (optional)

Enabling Protocol Discovery on an Interface

Perform this task to enable protocol discovery on an interface.

SUMMARY STEPS

1. enable

2. configure terminal

3. interface type number [name-tag]

4. ip nbar protocol-discovery [ipv4 | ipv6]

5. end

DETAILED STEPS

 
Command or Action
Purpose

Step 1 

enable

Example:

Router> enable

Enables privileged EXEC mode.

•Enter your password if prompted.

Step 2 

configure terminal

Example:

Router# configure terminal

Enters global configuration mode.

Step 3 

interface type number [name-tag]

Example:

Router(config)# interface fastethernet1/1/1

Configures an interface type and enters interface configuration mode.

•Enter the interface type and the interface number.

Step 4 

ip nbar protocol-discovery [ipv4 | ipv6]

Example:

Router(config-if)# ip nbar protocol-discovery

Configures NBAR to discover traffic for all protocols that are known to NBAR on a particular interface.

•(Optional) Enter the ipv4 keyword to enable protocol discovery statistics collection for IPv4 packets, or enter the ipv6 keyword to enable protocol discovery statistics collection for IPv6 packets.

•Specifying either of these keywords enables the protocol discovery statistics collection for the specified IP version only. If neither keywords is specified, statistics collection is enabled for both IPv4 and IPv6.

•The no form of this command is not required to disable a keyword because the statistics collection is enabled for the specified keyword only.

Step 5 

end

Example:

Router(config-if)# end

(Optional) Exits interface configuration mode.

Reporting Protocol Discovery Statistics

Perform this task to display a report of the protocol discovery statistics per interface.

SUMMARY STEPS

1. enable

2. show policy-map interface type number

3. show ip nbar protocol-discovery [interface type number] [stats {byte-count | bit-rate | packet-count | max-bit-rate}] [protocol protocol-name | top-n number]

4. exit

DETAILED STEPS

 
Command or Action
Purpose

Step 1 

enable

Example:

Router> enable

Enables privileged EXEC mode.

•Enter your password if prompted.

Step 2 

show policy-map interface type number

Example:

Router# show policy-map interface FastEthernet 1/1/1

(Optional) Displays the packet and class statistics for all policy maps on the specified interface.

•Enter the interface type and interface number.

Step 3 

show ip nbar protocol-discovery [interface type number] [stats {byte-count | bit-rate | packet-count | max-bit-rate}] [protocol protocol-name | top-n number]

Example:

Router# show ip nbar protocol-discovery interface Fastethernet1/1/1

Displays the statistics gathered by the NBAR Protocol Discovery feature.

•(Optional) Enter keywords and arguments to fine-tune the statistics displayed. For more information on each of the keywords, refer to the show ip nbar protocol-discovery command in Cisco IOS Quality of Service Solutions Command Reference.

Step 4 

exit

Example:

Router# exit

(Optional) Exits privileged EXEC mode.

Configuration Examples for Protocol Discovery

•Example: Enabling Protocol Discovery on an Interface

•Example: Reporting Protocol Discovery Statistics

Example: Enabling Protocol Discovery on an Interface

In the following sample configuration, protocol discovery is enabled on Fast Ethernet interface 1/1/1:

Router> enable

Router# configure terminal

Router(config)# interface fastethernet1/1/1

Router(config-if)# ip nbar protocol-discovery

Router(config-if)# end


In the following sample configuration, protocol discovery is enabled on Fast Ethernet interface 1/1/2 for IPv6 packets:

Router> enable

Router# configure terminal

Router(config)# interface fastethernet1/1/2

Router(config-if)# ip nbar protocol-discovery ipv6

Router(config-if)# end


In the following sample configuration, protocol discovery is enabled on Fast Ethernet interface 1/1/2 for IPv6 packets. Later, the protocol discovery is enabled for IPv4 packets and this does not require the no form for the ipv6 keyword.

Router> enable

Router# configure terminal

Router(config)# interface fastethernet1/1/2

Router(config-if)# ip nbar protocol-discovery ipv6

Router(config-if)# ip nbar protocol-discovery ipv4

Router(config-if)# end


Example: Reporting Protocol Discovery Statistics

The following sample output from the show ip nbar protocol-discovery command displays the five most active protocols on the Fast Ethernet interface 2/0/1: 

Router# show ip nbar protocol-discovery top-n 5 


 FastEthernet2/0/1

                            Input                    Output                  

                            -----                    ------                  

  Protocol                  Packet Count             Packet Count            

                            Byte Count               Byte Count              

                            30sec Bit Rate (bps)     30sec Bit Rate (bps)    

                            30sec Max Bit Rate (bps) 30sec Max Bit Rate (bps)

--------------------------- ------------------------ ------------------------

   rtp                      3272685                  3272685                           

                            242050604                242050604                         

                            768000                   768000                            

                            2002000                  2002000                           

   gnutella                 513574                   513574                            

                            118779716                118779716                         

                            383000                   383000                            

                            987000                   987000                            

   ftp                      482183                   482183                            

                            37606237                 37606237                          

                            121000                   121000                            

                            312000                   312000                            

   http                     144709                   144709                            

                            32351383                 32351383                          

                            105000                   105000                            

                            269000                   269000                            

   netbios                  96606                    96606                             

                            10627650                 10627650                          

                            36000                    36000                             

                            88000                    88000                             

   unknown                  1724428                  1724428                           

                            534038683                534038683                         

                            2754000                  2754000                           

                            4405000                  4405000                           

   Total                    6298724                  6298724                           

                            989303872                989303872                         

                            4213000                  4213000                           

                            8177000                  8177000

Additional References

Related Documents

Related Topic
Document Title

Cisco IOS commands

Cisco IOS Master Commands List, All Releases

QoS commands: complete command syntax, command modes, command history, defaults, usage guidelines, and examples

Cisco IOS Quality of Service Solutions Command Reference

Concepts and information about NBAR

"Classifying Network Traffic Using NBAR" module

MQC

"Applying QoS Features Using the MQC" module


Standards

Standard
Title

No new or modified standards are supported, and support for existing standards has not been modified.

—


MIBs

MIB
MIBs Link

No new or modified MIBs are supported, and support for existing MIBs has not been modified.

To locate and download MIBs for selected platforms, Cisco software releases, and feature sets, use Cisco MIB Locator found at the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com/go/mibs


Technical Assistance

Description
Link

The Cisco Support and Documentation website provides online resources to download documentation, software, and tools. Use these resources to install and configure the software and to troubleshoot and resolve technical issues with Cisco products and technologies. Access to most tools on the Cisco Support and Documentation website requires a Cisco.com user ID and password.

http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/support/index.html


Feature Information for Enabling Protocol Discovery

Table 2 lists the features in this module and provides links to specific configuration information.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and software image support. Cisco Feature Navigator enables you to determine which software images support a specific software release, feature set, or platform. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.

Note Table 2 lists only the software release that introduced support for a given feature in a given software release train. Unless noted otherwise, subsequent releases of that software release train also support that feature.

Table 2 Feature Information for Enabling Protocol Discovery 

Feature Name
Releases
Feature Information

Protocol Discovery

Cisco IOS XE 2.1
Cisco IOS XE 3.3S

This feature was introduced on Cisco ASR 1000 Series Routers.

The following sections provide information about this feature:

•Information About Protocol Discovery

•How to Enable Protocol Discovery

The following commands were introduced: ip nbar protocol discovery, show ip nbar protocol discovery.


Cisco and the Cisco Logo are trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1005R)

Any Internet Protocol (IP) addresses used in this document are not intended to be actual addresses. Any examples, command display output, and figures included in the document are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any use of actual IP addresses in illustrative content is unintentional and coincidental.

© 2006-2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.