NTOPNG(8)

NAME
ntopng - display top network users

SYNOPSIS
ntopng [filename]

or

ntopng [-i <interface|pcap>] [-d <data_directory>] [-t <install_directory>] [-n <mode>] [-e] [-1 <path>] [-2 <path>] [-3 <path>] [-w <[:]http_port>] [-W <[:]https_port>] [-m <local_subnets>] [-u|--no-promisc] [-p <protocols>] [-P] [-q] [-r <redis_host[:port][@db-id]>] [-g <cpu_core_ids>] [-s] [-U <sys_user>] [-l<mode>] [-X <maxnumflows>] [-B <filter>] [-k <key>] [-A <mode>] [-x <max_num_hosts>] [-F <mode><dump-flows>] [-D <dump-hosts>] [-I <export-flows>] [-O <communities-list>] [-E <sticky-hosts>] [-t <dir>] [-T <enable-taps>] [-H] [--hw-timestamp-mode <mode>] [-N <name>] [-Z <prefix>] [--shutdown-when-done] [--zmq-encrypt-pwd <apssword>] [--capture-direction] [--online-license-check] [--print-ndpi-protocols] [-v <level>] [-V] [-h]

DESCRIPTION
ntopng shows the current network usage. It displays a list of hosts that are currently using the network and reports information concerning the (IP and non-IP) traffic generated and received by each host. ntopng may operate as a front-end collector or as a stand-alone collector/display program. A web browser is needed to access the information captured by the ntopng program.

ntopng is a hybrid layer 2 / layer 3 network monitor, by default it uses the layer 2 Media Access Control (MAC) addresses AND the layer 3 tcp/ip addresses. ntopng is capable of associating the two, so that ip and non-ip traffic (e.g. arp, rarp) are combined for a complete picture of network activity.

OPTIONS

The text of filename is copied — ignoring line breaks and comment lines (anything following a #) — into the command line. ntopng behaves as if all of the text had simply been typed directly on the command line. For example, if the command line is "ntopng s.conf" and file s.conf contains just the line '-s', then the effective command line is "ntopng -s". In case you use a configuration file, the following options on the command line will be ignored. Example "ntopng /etc/ntopng/ntopng.conf -v" the -v option is ignored.

The configuration file is similar to the command line, with the exception that an equal sign '=' must be used between key and value. Example: -i=p1p2 or --interface=p1p2 For options with no value (e.g. -v) the equal is also necessary. Example: "-v=" must be used.

Remember, most ntopng options are "sticky", that is they just set an internal flag. Invoking them multiple times doesn't change the ntopng's behavior. However, options that set a value, such as --trace-level, will use the LAST value given: -w 8000 -w 8080 will run as -w 8080.

Sets the DNS address resolution mode:
0 — Decode DNS responses and resolve only local (-m) numeric IPs
1 — Decode DNS responses and resolve all numeric IPs
2 — Decode DNS responses and don't resolve numeric IPs
3 — Don't decode DNS responses and don't resolve numeric IPs

Specifies the network interface or collector endpoint to be used by ntopng for network monitoring. On Unix you can specify both the interface name (e.g. lo) or the numeric interface id as shown by ntopng -h. On Windows you must use the interface number instead. Note that you can specify -i multiple times in order to instruct ntopng to create multiple interfaces. If you want to pipe data from stdin use - (dash) as device name. Example "cat ~/traffic.pcap | ./ntopng -i -".

The -i option can also be used to specify a unified view of more interfaces, given they are provided in a comma-separated list and with the "view:" prefix (e.g. -i view:eth0,eth1). This is just a logical view of multiple physical interfaces.

If a collector endpoint is specified, ntopng open a ZeroMQ connection to the specified endpoint as a subscriber whose format is <ZMQ endpoint>. In this case ntopng acts as a client that subscribes to the remote endpoint and fetches flows. If you want the remote probe to send flows to ntopng (as in NetFlow), (you need to add a 'c' at the collector endpoint in ntopng. Example: tcp://127.0.0.1:5556c (ntopng expects to receive flows on 127.0.0.1:5556) and tcp://127.0.0.1:5556 (ntopng connects to 127.0.0.1:5556 to receive flows). Note that you can specify multiple endpoint, commas separated list, in order to instruct ntopng to aggregate it in a single interface. (e.g -i tcp://127.0.0.1:5556,ipc://flows.ipc)

If you want you can pass a path of a pcap file (e.g. -i dummy.pcap) or a path of a list file contains a path of a pcap file for each line (e.g. -i pcap.list) and ntopng will read packets from the specified pcap file/s.

nProbe can be instructed to act as a publisher delivering flows to a ZeroMQ endpoint using the --ZMQ <endpoint> parameter.

Finally using -i dummy it is possible to create a dummy interface that generates a large number of flows/hosts in order to saturate ntopng resources. This way ntopng can be tested for performance issues as well proper handling of low-memory situations.

Specifies the data directory (it must be writable). Default directory is /var/lib/ntopng

Specifies the installation directory. Default directory is retrieved from common install paths.

Specifies the path where the PID (process ID) is saved. Default is /var/run/ntopng.pid

Set the key used to access httpbl services (default: disabled). Please read README.httpbl and README.flashstart for more info.

This parameter causes ntop to become a daemon, i.e. a task which runs in the background without connection to a specific terminal. To use ntop other than as a casual monitoring tool, you probably will want to use this option.

Directory where HTTP documents are placed. Default: httpdocs.

Directory where lua scripts reside. Default: scripts.

Directory where callback scripts reside. Default: scripts/callbacks.

Sets the HTTP port of the embedded web server. If set to 0, the http server will be disabled. If you prepend a : before the port (i.e. -w :80) ntopng will listen to the loopback address. You can specify a second HTTP port so that ntopng can isten on both ports. Example -w 80,3000 will start ntopng on both port 80 adn 3000. Note that for enabling the captive portal (not available on the community edition) you need to start ntopng on port 80. NOTE: omitting the -w option won't disable http: ntopng will fallback to the default http port.

Sets the HTTPS port of the embedded web server. If not set, it will be set to the value of -w plus one. If you prepend a : before the port (i.e. -w :80) ntopng will listen to the loopback address.

ntopng determines the ip addresses and netmasks for each active interface. Any traffic on those networks is considered local. This parameter allows the user to define additional networks and subnetworks whose traffic is also considered local in ntopng reports. All other hosts are considered remote. If not specified the default is set to 192.168.1.0/24.

Commas separate multiple network values. Both netmask and CIDR notation may be used, even mixed together, for instance "131.114.21.0/24,10.0.0.0/255.0.0.0".

Disable promiscuous mode when capturing from network interfaces (by default promiscuous mode is used).

This parameter is used to specify a nDPI protocol file. The format is <tcp|udp>:<port>,<tcp|udp>:<port>,.....@<proto> where <port> is a port number and <proto> is a name of a protocol supported by nDPI protocol, or host:"<string>"@<proto> where string is part of an host name. As example see https://svn.ntop.org/svn/ntop/trunk/nDPI/example/protos.txt

Disable host persistency in the Redis cache.

Disable web interface logout for inactivity.

Disable user login. Mode can be set to 0 (disable login only for localhost) or 1 (disable login only for all hosts). This is useful for debug purposes, local host access unrestricted, or if you want to let everyone access the web gui. NOTE: this option lets anyone accessing the web interface (from localhost or from all hosts depending on the parameter) be administrator of the web interface.

Specifies the redis database host, port, and a database id. On unix <redis_host> can be the redis socket file to connect to. If a socket connection is made, <port> is ignored. In case you plan to run multiple redis-based applications on the same redis server, you need to use a different database id per application. For more information about redis, please refer to http://redis.io/.

Bind the capture/processing threads to specific CPU cores, indicated in a comma-separated list. Cores are assigned to interface processing loops in the order interfaces are mapped to IDs. NOTE: ntopng automatically sets affinity of capture/processing threads to different CPU cores.

Run ntopng with the specified system user instead of 'nobody'.

Do not change user (debug only).

Specifies the packet filter for the specified interface. For pcap/PF_RING interfaces the filter has to be specified in BPF format (Berkeley Packet Filter).

Specify the maximum number of active flows that ntopng will handle. If more flows are detected they will be discarded.

Specify the maximum number of active hosts that ntopng will handle. If more hosts are detected they will be discarded.

If ntopng is compiled with sqlite support, flows can dumped persistently on disk using this option. The mode can be set to es - Dump on ntopng.es queue in Elasticsearch format that be insert on a ES database. In this case the format is "es;<idx type>;<idx name>;<es URL>;<http auth>". Example: -F "es;ntopng;ntopng-%Y.%m.%d;http://localhost:9200/_bulk;user:pwd". The <idx name> accepts the strftime() format. mysql - Dump flows in MySQL tables. In this case the format is "<host[@port]|unix socket>:<dbname>:<table>:<user>:<pw>". Example -F "mysql;localhost;ntopng;flows-%Y.%m.%d;root;".

If ntopng is compiled with sqlite support, hosts contacts can dumped persistently on disk using this option. Databases are created daily under <data directory>/<interface>/contacts. This options supports three dump modes: local (dumps only local hosts), remote (dumps only remote hosts), all (dumps all hosts). If not specified, no hosts are dumped to disk.

Export the expired flows on the specified endpoint. For instance supposing to start ntopng on host 1.2.3.4 as ntopng -I "tcp://*:3456", it exports flows on this endpoint so that you can create a hierarchy of ntopng's. You can achieve that by starting a collector ntopng as ntopng -i tcp://1.2.3.4:3456

Parse the specified file and retrieve a list of communities, that are a logical representation of clusters of hosts that fall under the same administrative domain. The file must be in the following format:
    communityX@id1=net1,net2,net3
    communityY@id2=net4,net5,net6
    ...

If ntopng is compiled with sqlite support, hosts contacts can dumped persistently on disk using this option. Databases are created daily under <data directory>/<interface>/contacts. This options supports three dump modes: local (dumps only aggregations contacted by local hosts), remote (dumps only aggregations contacted by remote hosts), all (dumps all aggregations). If not specified, no hosts are dumped to disk.

ntopng periodically purges idle hosts. With this option you can modify this behaviour by telling ntopng not to purge the hosts specified by -S. This parameter requires an argument that can be "all" (Keep all hosts in memory), "local" (Keep only local hosts), "remote" (Keep only remote hosts), "none" (Flush hosts when idle).

Enable hw timestamping/stripping. Supported TS modes are:
ixia — Timestamped packets by ixiacom.com hardware devices.

Force ntopng to use the HTML/lua files installed on the specified directory. This option should not be used unless under testing or development, as packaging systems should place the files at the right place.

Enable tap interfaces to dump packets on. If not specified, traffic can be dumped only on disk but not sent live to apps.

Assign <name> to this ntopng instance. Such information is used to uniquely identify the data source and thus its responsibility of the ntopng user to make sure that the name is unique across all the ntopng instances. If this option is not set, we assume as instance name the hostname where this ntopng instance is running.

HTTP prefix to be prepended to URLs. This is useful when using ntopng behind a proxy. E.g. if you want to make the ntopng web interface accessible through a proxy at a certain IP address with the /ntopng/ base URL and you have the following lines in your proxy's configuration:
    ProxyPass /ntopng/ http://192.168.0.3:3000/ntopng/
    ProxyPassReverse /ntopng/ http://192.168.0.3:3000/ntopng/
You must use ntopng with -Z "/ntopng"
Do not use trailing shashes in the HTTP prefix.

Terminate ntopng when the input pcap file is over (debug only).

This is the password used by the symmetric encryption on the probe side. Note that in case you have multiple ZMQ endpoints, the same password is used for all of them.

Specify the packet capture direction for packet capture interfaces (no ZMQ). Supported values are: 0=RX+TX (default), 1=RX only, 2=TX only

In case the license does not match (e.g. you are running ntopng on a VM/container) you can use this option to check your license instead of using the local license file. Using this option we make sure that changes in your system do not interfere with license check (thing that we cannot guarantee with file-based licenses).

Print the list of nDPI protocols supported by the ntopng instance

Verbose tracing: level 2 is normal, level 6 is debugging.

Print ntopng version and quit.

Help

WEB VIEWS
While ntopng is running, multiple users can access the traffic information using their web browsers. ntopng makes use of JavaScript and LESS CSS.

We do not expect problems with any current web browser, but our ability to test with less common ones is very limited. Testing has included Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer, with very limited testing on other current common browsers such as Opera.

NOTES
ntopng requires a number of external tools and libraries to operate. Certain other tools are optional, but add to the program's capabilities.

Required libraries include:

libpcap from http://www.tcpdump.org/, version 1.0 or newer.

The Windows version makes use of WinPcap (libpcap for Windows) which may be downloaded from http://winpcap.polito.it/install/default.htm.

ntopng requires a POSIX threads library.

The rrdtool library creates 'Round-Robin databases' which are used to store historical data in a format that permits long duration retention without growing larger over time. The rrdtool home page is http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/webtools/rrdtool/

The LuaJIT library is a Just-In-Time Compiler for Lua used to execute GUI and periodic scripts.

The mongoose library is used to implement the HTTP server part of ntopng.

zeromq is a socket library supporting the publish/subscribe pattern used to collect flows from nProbe

ntopng includes LuaJIT, mongoose, rrdtool and zeromq in the third-party/ directory. Users of ntopng should not need to specifically install such libraries.

SEE ALSO
top(1), tcpdump(8), pcap(3).

USER SUPPORT
Please send bug reports to https://github.com/ntop/ntopng/issues. The ntopng <ntop@ntop.org> mailing list is used for discussing ntopng usage issues. In order to post messages on the lists a (free) subscription is required to limit/avoid spam. Please do NOT contact the authors directly unless this is a personal question.

Commercial support is available upon request. Please see the ntop site for further info.

Please send code patches via the github pull requests mechanism.

LICENCE
ntopng is distributed under the GNU GPLv3 licence (http://www.gnu.org/).