Install and configure NfSen on Ubuntu 18 server

• NfSen 1.3.8
• nfdump 1.6.17

• Download NfSen http://nfsen.sourceforge.net/.
• Clone nfdump from git https://github.com/phaag/nfdump.

  git clone https://github.com/phaag/nfdump

• Extract files.

  tar zxf nfsen-1.3.8.tar.gz

• Install development tools.

  apt-get update
  apt-get upgrade
  apt-get install build-essential

• Install prerequisites.

  add-apt-repository universe
  apt-get install autoconf rrdtool librrds-perl librrdp-perl librrd-dev libmailtools-perl apache2 libapache2-mod-php php bison flex libsocket6-perl liburi-perl libnet-idn-encode-perl libtool m4 automake pkg-config libbz2-dev

• Create user netflow.

  useradd netflow

• Add user netflow to apache group.

  usermod -G www-data netflow

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

  cd nfdump
  ./autogen.sh
  ./configure --prefix=/opt/nfdump --enable-nfprofile
  make
  make install

• Install nfsen.

  cd nfsen-1.3.8
  cd etc
  cp nfsen-dist.conf nfsen.conf
  vi nfsen.conf

    $BASEDIR = "/opt/nfsen";
    $HTMLDIR = "/opt/nfsen/www/";
    $PREFIX  = '/opt/nfdump/bin';
    $WWWUSER  = "www-data";
    $WWWGROUP = "www-data";
  
    $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' },
    );
  
  # OR
  
  %sources = (
      'ccr1016'      => { 'port' => '9995', 'IP' => 'x.x.x.x', 'col' => '#0000ff', 'type' => 'netflow' },
      'apfloor1'     => { 'port' => '9995', 'IP' => 'x.x.x.x', 'col' => '#8B0000' },
      'apfloor2'     => { 'port' => '9995', 'IP' => 'x.x.x.x', 'col' => '#DC143C'},
      'apfloor3'     => { 'port' => '9995', 'IP' => 'x.x.x.x', 'col' => '#FF7F50'},
  );
  
  

  cd ..
  sudo ./install.pl ./etc/nfsen.conf

• Add apache config.

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

• Enable and start apache:

  systemctl enable apache2
  systemctl start apache2

• Start nfsen.

  /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

• Open NfSen: http://localhost/nfsen/nfsen.php