Recover a Flowmon Appliance

This section describes how to recover a Flowmon hardware appliance. The recovery steps are the same for Flowmon Collector and Flowmon Probe.

Recovery process

There are three general options of Flowmon hardware appliance recovery - using:

1. USB flash drive

2. DVD optical drive (note: applied for models with DVD-ROM drive only)

3. Remote Control (note: applied for models with Enterprise version of remote control, see the specification)

All these options require a Flowmon image (that is used for recovery) and a license file for Flowmon appliance activation. You can optionally use a backup configuration file for Flowmon appliance configuration.

Download the Flowmon Recovery DVD ISO

You can download the Flowmon Recovery DVD ISO file from our support portal at https://support.flowmon.com. In the Popular downloads & resources section, select the software version you would like to download. We recommend using the latest version available.

Get the licence

Make sure you have a valid license file for the appliance. If you do not have a backup of the license file, you can download it from the appliance. The recommended approach (if the device is still working) is to download the whole Configuration file, which includes the license and appliance configuration settings. Log in to the Flowmon appliance and go to Configuration Center > System > Maintenance. There is a button to download the Configuration file. Before downloading, you are prompted to select the configuration groups for export. You can keep everything selected.

The following screenshot shows the location of the Configuration file download option in Flowmon (legacy GUI):

Alternatively, you can use terminal and scp. The license is stored in /etc/flowmon/license and you can download it using the Flowmon user and configured password. For example, using Linux shell:

scp flowmon@192.168.51.237:/etc/flowmon/license ~/ flowmon@192.168.51.237's password: license 100% 2735 2.7KB/s 00:00

If you need further help, contact our Support team at https://support.flowmon.com. Please provide the Service Tag of the appliance for its identification.

Option A - Recovery using a USB flash drive

This option requires a USB flash drive with at least 3 GB of free space and the application Rufus (https://rufus.akeo.ie/) to create a bootable USB drive.

Create a bootable drive using Rufus and the Flowmon Recovery DVD ISO file. Browse to the ISO file using the drive icon – the settings are automatically configured.

Boot from the prepared bootable USB flash drive:

• Plug in the USB drive to the Flowmon appliance, turn the appliance on, and press F11 to prompt booting options.

• Go to Boot Manager and select One-time boot from the USB drive.

• Reboot the appliance and the Flowmon installation will start.

• Wait until the installation is complete and then reboot the appliance.

• Proceed to the section Post-recovery Configuration.

Option B - Recovery using DVD optical drive

Burn the Flowmon Recovery DVD ISO to a DVD. Ensure booting from CD/DVD is set as the first device in the BIOS Boot Sequence (this is the default factory settings). Alternatively, you can press F11 during the start, go to Boot Manager and select One-time boot from the CD/DVD optical drive.

Insert the Recovery DVD into the DVD optical drive (note: optionally, you can also boot from an external DVD optical drive). Reboot the Flowmon appliance and wait until the installation process is finished.

Restart the appliance and remove the Recovery DVD while the appliance is in the POST stage with BIOS options on screen (otherwise the recovery process will start again automatically).

Option C - Recovery using Remote Control

Recovery using Remote Control requires the virtual console (available only in the Enterprise version of Remote Control - the Express version does not include the virtual console) and Java Runtime Environment (https://java.com/en/download/) to be installed on your PC.

Flowmon appliances use Integrated Dell Remote Access (iDRAC) for remote control (similar to HP iLO or IBM IMM). First, you must connect the iDRAC port of the appliance to the network and either use default IP 192.168.0.120, assign a static IP address, or obtain the IP address from a DHCP server. The manual is provided on our support portal with an explanation of how to set up and log into iDRAC remote console (Flowmon Remote Console Setup).

Visit the IP address via your internet browser, and confirm security exception/issue (as the certificate is self-signed and not valid for the name / IP address). Then you should see the following window:

Type the username and password (the default is root/calvin).

In the second screen (Default Password Warning) select the second option Keep Default Password. This screen will only show if you did not change the password yet.

After signing in, go to Overview > Server > System Summary where you can see the health information of hardware in addition to detailed information about the Service Tag. You can start the Virtual Console by clicking Launch.

Depending on your browser, it will either ask you to run or download a Java application called viewer.jnlp. Launch it, confirm several exceptions, and then you should see a window where you can see the same information as on the display connected to the appliance.

This guide shows how to perform recovery with iDRAC directly from an ISO image. However, it is also possible to insert a USB flash drive into the Flowmon appliance and manage recovery remotely with iDRAC. The recovery steps are then the same as under section Option A - Recovery using USB flash drive.

The first step in the Java application is to connect the downloaded Recovery DVD ISO image to the virtual drive by selecting the menu option Virtual Media > Connect Virtual Media.

Then you will must choose the option Virtual Media > Map CD/DVD and select the ISO image.

Now, verify it is connected in the same menu where you will see it mapped.

Now, you must configure the appliance to start on the next boot. From the menu Next Boot, select Virtual CD/DVD/ISO and confirm the selection.

Now you are ready to begin the recovery process. In the Power menu, choose Reset System (warm boot) to reboot the appliance and start with installation.

The process will start automatically and there is no interaction required. It can take about 30 minutes to complete depending on the speed of your network connection to this appliance.

When you see text saying that the installation is complete then it is time to disconnect the image in the Virtual Media section. Once that is completed, go to the Power menu and reboot by clicking Reset System (warm boot).

Post-recovery configuration

After the recovery and standard system boot, you must configure the appliance. First, you must use the terminal and use the sysconfig command to set up an IP address.

Then if you have a configuration file backup containing the license file you can navigate to Configuration Center > System > Maintenance to upload it. Alternatively, you can upload the license file directly using the Upload new license option in Configuration Center > License.

Refer to the relevant document on the Flowmon Documentation page for instructions on how to complete the configuration of the appliance.

Licensed Flowmon modules (such as Flowmon ADS, Flowmon DDoS Defender, and Flowmon APM) must be installed on the appliance separately. Use the installation packages available on our https://support.flowmon.com and apply them by going to Install / Update package in Configuration Center > Licenses.