Install and configure NfSen on CentOS 7.x

• NfSen 1.3.7
• nfdump 1.6.13

Prerequisites:

• EPEL Repository

• Download NfSen http://nfsen.sourceforge.net/.
• Download nfdump http://nfdump.sourceforge.net/.
• Extract files.

  tar zxf nfdump-1.6.13.tar.gz
  tar zxf nfsen-1.3.7.tar.gz

• Install development tools.

  sudo yum groupinstall development tools

• Install rrdtool.

  sudo yum install rrdtool rrdtool-devel

• Install Apache, php and perl modules.

  sudo yum install apache php perl-MailTools rrdtool-perl perl-Socket6 perl-Sys-Syslog.x86_64

• Install SELinux tools:

  yum install policycoreutils-python

• Configure PHP timezone:

  echo "date.timezone = Europe/Amsterdam" > /etc/php.d/timezone.ini

• Create user netflow.

  useradd netflow

• Add user netflow to apache group.

  sudo usermod -G apache netflow

• Create seperate /opt filesystem (for lots of data).
• Compile and install nfdump.

  cd nfdump-1.6.13
  ./configure --prefix=/opt/nfdump --enable-nfprofile
  autoreconf
  make
  sudo make install

• Install nfsen.

  cd nfsen-1.3.7
  cd etc
  cp nfsen-dist.conf nfsen.conf
  vi nfsen.conf
    $BASEDIR = "/opt/nfsen";
    $HTMLDIR = "/opt/nfsen/www/";
    $PREFIX  = '/opt/nfdump/bin';
    $WWWUSER  = "apache";
    $WWWGROUP = "apache";
  
    $MAIL_FROM   = 'nfsen@yourdomain.tld';
    $SMTP_SERVER = 'fqdn.mail.server';
    
    %sources = (
        'source1' => { 'port' => '9995', 'col' => '#0000ff', 'type' => 'netflow' },
        'source2' => { 'port' => '9996', 'col' => '#cc3333', 'type' => 'netflow' },
        'source3' => { 'port' => '9997', 'col' => '#99ff33', 'type' => 'netflow' },
    );
  
  cd ..
  sudo ./install.pl etc/nfsen.conf

• Open port 80 and netflow ports:

  firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=trusted --add-service=http
  firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=trusted --add-source=1.2.3.1
  firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=trusted --add-port=9995/udp
  firewall-cmd --reload
  firewall-cmd --zone=trusted --list-all

• Add apache config. Create /etc/httpd/conf.d/nfsen.conf

  <Directory "/opt/nfsen/www">
     AllowOverride None
     Require all granted
  </Directory>
  
  Alias /nfsen "/opt/nfsen/www"

• Enable and start apache:

  sudo systemctl enable httpd
  sudo systemctl start httpd

• Set SElinux rights to www directory:

  semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_content_t "/opt/nfsen/www(/.*)?"
  restorecon -Rv /opt/nfsen/

• Create SELinux module. Important: Modules created with audit2allow may allow more access than required.

  setenforce 0
  /opt/nfsen/bin/nfsen start
  /opt/nfsen/bin/nfsen stop
  cp /var/log/audit/audit.log /var/tmp
  cd /var/tmp
  audit2allow -M mynfsen < audit.log
  semodule -i mynfsen.pp
  setenforce 1

• Start nfsen.

  sudo /opt/nfsen/bin/nfsen start

• Create /etc/systemd/system/nfsen.service:

  [Unit]
  Description=NfSen Service
  After=network.target
  
  [Service]
  Type=forking
  PIDFile=/opt/nfsen/var/run/nfsend.pid
  ExecStart=/opt/nfsen/bin/nfsen start
  ExecStop=/opt/nfsen/bin/nfsen stop
  Restart=on-abort
  
  [Install]
  WantedBy=multi-user.target

• Enable service:

  systemctl enable nfsen
  systemctl start nfsen