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Network flows format reference

These are the specifications for network flows format, used both internally and when exporting flows to Kafka.

Network Flows format reference

This is the specification of the network flows format. That format is used when a Kafka exporter is configured, for Prometheus metrics labels as well as internally for the Loki store.

The "Filter ID" column shows which related name to use when defining Quick Filters (see spec.consolePlugin.quickFilters in the FlowCollector specification).

The "Loki label" column is useful when querying Loki directly: label fields need to be selected using stream selectors.

The "Cardinality" column gives information about the implied metric cardinality if this field was to be used as a Prometheus label with the FlowMetric API. For more information, see the "FlowMetric API reference".

Name Type Description Filter ID Loki label Cardinality

Bytes

number

Number of bytes

n/a

no

avoid

DnsErrno

number

Error number returned from DNS tracker ebpf hook function

dns_errno

no

fine

DnsFlags

number

DNS flags for DNS record

n/a

no

fine

DnsFlagsResponseCode

string

Parsed DNS header RCODEs name

dns_flag_response_code

no

fine

DnsId

number

DNS record id

dns_id

no

avoid

DnsLatencyMs

number

Time between a DNS request and response, in milliseconds

dns_latency

no

avoid

Dscp

number

Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) value

dscp

no

fine

DstAddr

string

Destination IP address (ipv4 or ipv6)

dst_address

no

avoid

DstK8S_HostIP

string

Destination node IP

dst_host_address

no

fine

DstK8S_HostName

string

Destination node name

dst_host_name

no

fine

DstK8S_Name

string

Name of the destination Kubernetes object, such as Pod name, Service name or Node name.

dst_name

no

careful

DstK8S_Namespace

string

Destination namespace

dst_namespace

yes

fine

DstK8S_OwnerName

string

Name of the destination owner, such as Deployment name, StatefulSet name, etc.

dst_owner_name

yes

fine

DstK8S_OwnerType

string

Kind of the destination owner, such as Deployment, StatefulSet, etc.

dst_kind

no

fine

DstK8S_Type

string

Kind of the destination Kubernetes object, such as Pod, Service or Node.

dst_kind

yes

fine

DstK8S_Zone

string

Destination availability zone

dst_zone

yes

fine

DstMac

string

Destination MAC address

dst_mac

no

avoid

DstPort

number

Destination port

dst_port

no

careful

DstSubnetLabel

string

Destination subnet label

dst_subnet_label

no

fine

Duplicate

boolean

Indicates if this flow was also captured from another interface on the same host

n/a

yes

fine

Flags

number

Logical OR combination of unique TCP flags comprised in the flow, as per RFC-9293, with additional custom flags to represent the following per-packet combinations:
- SYN+ACK (0x100)
- FIN+ACK (0x200)
- RST+ACK (0x400)

n/a

no

fine

FlowDirection

number

Flow interpreted direction from the node observation point. Can be one of:
- 0: Ingress (incoming traffic, from the node observation point)
- 1: Egress (outgoing traffic, from the node observation point)
- 2: Inner (with the same source and destination node)

node_direction

yes

fine

IcmpCode

number

ICMP code

icmp_code

no

fine

IcmpType

number

ICMP type

icmp_type

no

fine

IfDirections

number

Flow directions from the network interface observation point. Can be one of:
- 0: Ingress (interface incoming traffic)
- 1: Egress (interface outgoing traffic)

ifdirections

no

fine

Interfaces

string

Network interfaces

interfaces

no

careful

K8S_ClusterName

string

Cluster name or identifier

cluster_name

yes

fine

K8S_FlowLayer

string

Flow layer: 'app' or 'infra'

flow_layer

no

fine

Packets

number

Number of packets

n/a

no

avoid

PktDropBytes

number

Number of bytes dropped by the kernel

n/a

no

avoid

PktDropLatestDropCause

string

Latest drop cause

pkt_drop_cause

no

fine

PktDropLatestFlags

number

TCP flags on last dropped packet

n/a

no

fine

PktDropLatestState

string

TCP state on last dropped packet

pkt_drop_state

no

fine

PktDropPackets

number

Number of packets dropped by the kernel

n/a

no

avoid

Proto

number

L4 protocol

protocol

no

fine

SrcAddr

string

Source IP address (ipv4 or ipv6)

src_address

no

avoid

SrcK8S_HostIP

string

Source node IP

src_host_address

no

fine

SrcK8S_HostName

string

Source node name

src_host_name

no

fine

SrcK8S_Name

string

Name of the source Kubernetes object, such as Pod name, Service name or Node name.

src_name

no

careful

SrcK8S_Namespace

string

Source namespace

src_namespace

yes

fine

SrcK8S_OwnerName

string

Name of the source owner, such as Deployment name, StatefulSet name, etc.

src_owner_name

yes

fine

SrcK8S_OwnerType

string

Kind of the source owner, such as Deployment, StatefulSet, etc.

src_kind

no

fine

SrcK8S_Type

string

Kind of the source Kubernetes object, such as Pod, Service or Node.

src_kind

yes

fine

SrcK8S_Zone

string

Source availability zone

src_zone

yes

fine

SrcMac

string

Source MAC address

src_mac

no

avoid

SrcPort

number

Source port

src_port

no

careful

SrcSubnetLabel

string

Source subnet label

src_subnet_label

no

fine

TimeFlowEndMs

number

End timestamp of this flow, in milliseconds

n/a

no

avoid

TimeFlowRttNs

number

TCP Smoothed Round Trip Time (SRTT), in nanoseconds

time_flow_rtt

no

avoid

TimeFlowStartMs

number

Start timestamp of this flow, in milliseconds

n/a

no

avoid

TimeReceived

number

Timestamp when this flow was received and processed by the flow collector, in seconds

n/a

no

avoid

_HashId

string

In conversation tracking, the conversation identifier

id

no

avoid

_RecordType

string

Type of record: 'flowLog' for regular flow logs, or 'newConnection', 'heartbeat', 'endConnection' for conversation tracking

type

yes

fine