RACLUSTER(1)

📦
version 5.0.2+git20250321.41f65e2 · 2 versions
, in debian trixie, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

🦋 RACLUSTER(1) — the aggregate argus data files glow-up 🦋

okay so bestie, welcome to racluster, a General Commands Manual icon from the argus fam. she reads argus data and she CLUSTERS it. no cap. let's get into it 💅

✨ NAME ✨

racluster — aggregate argus(8) data files. periodt.

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

racluster [-f conf] [-m agr(s)] [-M mode(s)] [-P procnum] [raoptions]
[-- filter-expression]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So like, Racluster reads argus data from an argus-data source, and then it clusters/merges the records based on the flow key criteria — either the ones you put on the command line, or the ones living in a racluster configuration file — and then it outputs a valid argus-stream. literally that's the whole gig. this tool is primarily used for data mining, data management and report generation. main character energy fr fr 🫶

The default action? merge status records from the same flow and argus probe. and the way that gives you huge data reduction with limited loss of flow information in some cases… iconic. 😭✨

Racluster also lets you modify the flow model key, either with the "-m" option or in the racluster.conf file, so records can be clustered based on any number of attributes. that unlocks some genuinely important reports, like:

  • MPLS LSP usage statistics
  • DiffServe flow marking policy verification
  • VLAN group behavior
  • IP distance related measurements
  • routing loop detection
  • traceroute path data recovery
  • complex availability/reachability reports

…to name just a few useful applications. lowkey obsessed with the range 💜

Please see racluster.conf.5 for detailed information regarding racluster configuration. go read her, she's important 🎀

👑 OPTIONS 👑

Racluster, like all ra based clients, supports a number of ra options — including filtering of input argus records through a terminating filter expression, and the ability to specify the output style, format and contents for printing data. See ra(1) for a complete description of ra options. the racluster(1) specific options are these babies:

  • -f racluster.conf — Specify an aggregation definition configuration. see racluster.conf.5 🗂️
  • -m aggregation object — set the aggregation object. the supported aggregation objects are:
    • none — do not merge records (results in no aggregation).
    • all — merge all records into a single record.
    • srcid — argus source identifier.
    • smac — source mac(ether) addr.
    • dmac — destination mac(ether) addr.
    • soui — oui portion of the source mac(ether) addr.
    • doui — oui portion of the destination mac(ether) addr.
    • smpls — source mpls label.
    • dmpls — destination label addr.
    • svlan — source vlan label.
    • dvlan — destination vlan addr.
    • saddr/[l|m] — source IP addr/[cidr len | m.a.s.k].
    • daddr/[l|m] — destination IP addr/[cidr len | m.a.s.k].
    • matrix/l — sorted src and dst IP addr/cidr len.
    • proto — transaction protocol.
    • sport — source port number. Implies use of 'proto'.
    • dport — destination port number. Implies use of 'proto'.
    • stos — source TOS byte value.
    • dtos — destination TOS byte value.
    • sttl — src -> dst TTL value.
    • dttl — dst -> src TTL value.
    • stcpb — src -> dst TCP base sequence number.
    • dtcpb — dst -> src TCP base sequence number.
    • inode[/l|m]] — intermediate node IP addr/[cidr len | m.a.s.k], source of ICMP mapped events.
    • sco — source ARIN country code, if present.
    • dco — destination ARIN country code, if present.
    • sas — source node origin AS number, if available.
    • das — destination node origin AS number, if available.
    • ias — intermediate node origin AS number, if available.
  • -M modes — set the modes. the supported modes are:
    • correct — Attempt to correct the direction of flows by also searching the reverse flow key, if a match isn't found in the cache. This mode is on by default when using the default full 5-tuple flow key definitions.
    • nocorrect — Turn off flow correction for direction. This mode is used by default if the flow key has been changed.
    • norep — Do not generate an aggregate statistic for each flow. This is used primarily when the output represents a single object. Primarily used when merging status records to generate single flows that represent single transactions.
    • rmon — Generate data suitable for producing RMON types of metrics.
    • ind — Process each input file independantly, so that after the end of each inputfile, racluster flushes its output.
    • replace — Replace each inputfile contents, with the aggregated output. The initial file compression status is maintained
  • -P<procnum> — Specify the number of processors to use for aggregation. Default is 1. ⚡
  • -V — Verbose operation, printing a line of output for each input file processed. Very useful when using the ra() -R option. 👀

🌈 INVOCATION 🌈

sample invocation number one 🍓

A sample invocation of racluster(1). This call reads argus(8) data from inputfile and aggregates the TCP protocol based argus(8) data. By default, racluster(1) merges using the standard 5-tuple flow key. This method is used to merge multiple status records into a single flow record per transaction. the way it collapses five whole rows into one?? ate 💅

% ra -r argus.tcp.2012.02.13.12.20.00
    StartTime      Dur Trans      Flgs  Proto        SrcAddr  Sport   Dir        DstAddr  Dport  TotPkts State
 12:23:07.268    0.997     1  e i         tcp   192.168.0.68.59016     ->  208.59.201.75.http        298   CON
 12:23:08.294    1.000     1  e           tcp   192.168.0.68.59016     ->  208.59.201.75.http        111   CON
 12:23:09.294    0.991     1  e d         tcp   192.168.0.68.59016     ->  208.59.201.75.http        637   CON
 12:23:10.331    0.330     1  e           tcp   192.168.0.68.59016     ->  208.59.201.75.http         89   CON
 12:23:32.183    0.010     1  e           tcp   192.168.0.68.59016     ->  208.59.201.75.http          3   FIN

% racluster -r argus.tcp.2012.02.13.12.20.00
    StartTime      Dur Trans      Flgs  Proto        SrcAddr  Sport   Dir        DstAddr  Dport  TotPkts State
 12:23:07.268   24.925     5  e d         tcp   192.168.0.68.59016     ->  208.59.201.75.http       1138   FIN

sample invocation number two 🦋

A sample invocation of racluster(1). This call reads argus(8) data from inputfile and aggregates the TCP protocol based argus(8) data, based on the source and destination address matrix and the protocol. It reports the metrics as a percent of the total. percentages?? she's doing MATH 💜

% racluster -r argus.2012.02.13.17.20.00 -m saddr/16 daddr proto -% \
       -s stime dur trans proto saddr dir daddr pkts state - tcp and port https

    StartTime      Dur   pTrans  Proto        SrcAddr  Dir        DstAddr  pTotPkts State
 17:49:54.225    8.101   33.333    tcp 192.168.0.0/16   ->   17.154.66.18    23.372   FIN
 17:48:42.607  179.761   13.333    tcp 192.168.0.0/16   ->  17.172.224.25    31.052   FIN
 17:50:01.113    0.803    6.667    tcp 192.168.0.0/16   -> 17.250.248.161     5.676   FIN
 17:49:54.525    1.153    6.667    tcp 192.168.0.0/16   ->  64.12.173.137     5.509   FIN
 17:50:35.411  101.133   26.667    tcp 192.168.0.0/16   ->  184.28.150.87    19.199   RST
 17:49:56.061   73.415    6.667    tcp 192.168.0.0/16   ->   205.188.8.47    11.018   RST
 17:49:55.677    0.434    6.667    tcp 192.168.0.0/16   -> 205.188.101.10     4.174   FIN

Copyright (c) 2000-2024 QoSient. All rights reserved.

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

racluster.conf(5), ra(1), rarc(5), argus(8),

💀 FILES 💀

(no entries here bestie — she left it blank, and we respect that 🙈)

🌸 AUTHORS 🌸

Carter Bullard (carter@qosient.com). 🫶

🙈 BUGS 🙈

(also blank. suspicious? maybe. iconic? absolutely. 😭)

and that's the whole page, bestie!! this was racluster 5.0.0, dated 07 October 2023, from the General Commands Manual, and yes — the header literally says RACLUSTER(1) at the top and RACLUSTER(1) at the bottom, because symmetry is a vibe. mwah 💖✨🎀🦋

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