| 1 | <!--startmeta |
| 2 | custom_edit_url: "https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/src/crates/netflow-plugin/integrations/custom_mmdb_database.md" |
| 3 | meta_yaml: "https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/src/crates/netflow-plugin/metadata.yaml" |
| 4 | sidebar_label: "Custom MMDB Database" |
| 5 | learn_status: "Published" |
| 6 | learn_rel_path: "Network Flows/Enrichment Methods" |
| 7 | keywords: ['mmdb', 'custom database', 'bring your own', 'mmdbwriter', 'internal asn', 'internal ipam', 'ip intelligence'] |
| 8 | message: "DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE DIRECTLY, IT IS GENERATED BY THE FLOWS' metadata.yaml FILE" |
| 9 | endmeta--> |
| 10 | |
| 11 | <!-- markdownlint-disable-file --> |
| 12 | |
| 13 | # Custom MMDB Database |
| 14 | |
| 15 | |
| 16 | <img src="https://netdata.cloud/img/network-wired.svg" width="150"/> |
| 17 | |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Plugin: netflow-plugin |
| 20 | Module: custom-mmdb |
| 21 | |
| 22 | <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/maintained%20by-Netdata-%2300ab44" /> |
| 23 | |
| 24 | ## Overview |
| 25 | |
| 26 | Enrich network flows with ASN, geographic, or internal network context from |
| 27 | operator-built MMDB databases. Use Custom MMDB Database when you want the netflow |
| 28 | plugin to read a MaxMind-format binary database (`.mmdb`) that your |
| 29 | own tooling produces -- typical use cases are joining the upstream DB-IP / |
| 30 | GeoLite2 data with internal AS labels, or producing a CIDR-tagged custom file |
| 31 | directly from an internal IPAM. The plugin only requires the file to conform to |
| 32 | the [MaxMind DB binary format](https://maxmind.github.io/MaxMind-DB/); whatever |
| 33 | fields it exposes are picked up by the same decoder path used for DB-IP and |
| 34 | MaxMind. |
| 35 | |
| 36 | The decoder reads `autonomous_system_number`, `autonomous_system_organization`, |
| 37 | and (optionally) a string `asn` field from the ASN database, and `country.iso_code`, |
| 38 | `subdivisions[].iso_code`, `city.names.en`, `location.latitude`, |
| 39 | `location.longitude`, plus the Netdata-specific `netdata.ip_class` flag from the |
| 40 | geo database. Any other vendor-specific keys are ignored. |
| 41 | |
| 42 | Note that `*_GEO_CITY`, `*_GEO_LATITUDE`, and `*_GEO_LONGITUDE` are written to |
| 43 | the raw journal tier only -- the rollup tiers drop these high-cardinality fields. |
| 44 | State and country survive into all four tiers. |
| 45 | |
| 46 | For the full IP-intelligence concept (composition rule, ASN provider chain, |
| 47 | auto-detect path order, dual-stack handling, hot reload semantics), see |
| 48 | [IP Intelligence](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/network-flows/enrichment). |
| 49 | |
| 50 | |
| 51 | You build (or download) the MMDB file with your own tooling, place it on the |
| 52 | agent host, and point `enrichment.geoip.asn_database` and / or |
| 53 | `enrichment.geoip.geo_database` at it in `netflow.yaml`. The plugin reloads on |
| 54 | file change automatically (mechanism documented on the IP Intelligence page). |
| 55 | |
| 56 | |
| 57 | This integration is only supported on the following platforms: |
| 58 | |
| 59 | - Linux |
| 60 | |
| 61 | This integration runs as a single instance per Netdata Agent. |
| 62 | |
| 63 | |
| 64 | ### Default Behavior |
| 65 | |
| 66 | #### Auto-Detection |
| 67 | |
| 68 | Not auto-detected. You must configure paths explicitly. |
| 69 | |
| 70 | #### Limits |
| 71 | |
| 72 | Coverage, schema quality, and freshness are entirely controlled by the custom MMDB build you provide. Invalid or missing files fail startup unless marked optional. |
| 73 | |
| 74 | #### Performance Impact |
| 75 | |
| 76 | Lookups are local MMDB reads with no per-flow network call. Memory use depends on the size and number of custom databases you configure. |
| 77 | |
| 78 | ## Setup |
| 79 | |
| 80 | |
| 81 | ### Prerequisites |
| 82 | |
| 83 | #### Build or obtain a standards-compliant MMDB file |
| 84 | |
| 85 | The file must conform to the |
| 86 | [MaxMind DB binary format spec](https://maxmind.github.io/MaxMind-DB/) -- |
| 87 | a binary search tree over IP prefixes plus a data section of |
| 88 | type-length-value records. Validate with `mmdblookup` from the |
| 89 | `libmaxminddb-tools` package before deploying: |
| 90 | |
| 91 | ```bash |
| 92 | mmdblookup --file your-custom.mmdb --ip 8.8.8.8 |
| 93 | ``` |
| 94 | |
| 95 | Common ways to produce a file: |
| 96 | |
| 97 | - **Go**: [`github.com/maxmind/mmdbwriter`](https://github.com/maxmind/mmdbwriter) |
| 98 | -- MaxMind's official Go writer. Lets you start from an upstream MMDB |
| 99 | (DB-IP, GeoLite2) and overlay extra records, then write a new file. |
| 100 | Pairs well with the read-side library |
| 101 | [`github.com/oschwald/maxminddb-golang`](https://github.com/oschwald/maxminddb-golang). |
| 102 | - **Perl**: [`MaxMind::DB::Writer`](https://metacpan.org/pod/MaxMind::DB::Writer) |
| 103 | -- the original reference writer. |
| 104 | - **Python**: community ports such as `mmdb_writer` (PyPI) wrap the same |
| 105 | format. |
| 106 | |
| 107 | Whatever fields you encode are read by the plugin only if they match the |
| 108 | standard schema names listed in the metrics description above. |
| 109 | |
| 110 | |
| 111 | |
| 112 | ### Configuration |
| 113 | |
| 114 | #### Options |
| 115 | |
| 116 | Point `enrichment.geoip.asn_database` and / or `enrichment.geoip.geo_database` |
| 117 | at your custom MMDB file paths. Set `optional: true` while you iterate so a |
| 118 | missing or malformed file does not block plugin startup. |
| 119 | |
| 120 | |
| 121 | <details open><summary>Config options</summary> |
| 122 | |
| 123 | |
| 124 | |
| 125 | | Option | Description | Default | Required | |
| 126 | |:-----|:------------|:--------|:---------:| |
| 127 | | enrichment.geoip.asn_database | List of MMDB paths providing AS data. Multiple files compose -- per field, the last database returning a non-empty value wins. | [] | no | |
| 128 | | enrichment.geoip.geo_database | List of MMDB paths providing geographic data. Same composition rule as the ASN list. | [] | no | |
| 129 | | enrichment.geoip.optional | When true, missing or unreadable files at startup are tolerated (the resolver starts with no databases). Recommended while testing a custom file. | false | no | |
| 130 | |
| 131 | |
| 132 | </details> |
| 133 | |
| 134 | |
| 135 | |
| 136 | #### via File |
| 137 | |
| 138 | The configuration file name for this integration is `netflow.yaml`. |
| 139 | |
| 140 | |
| 141 | You can edit the configuration file using the [`edit-config`](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/docs/netdata-agent/configuration/README.md#edit-configuration-files) script from the |
| 142 | Netdata [config directory](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/docs/netdata-agent/configuration/README.md#locate-your-config-directory). |
| 143 | |
| 144 | ```bash |
| 145 | cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata |
| 146 | sudo ./edit-config netflow.yaml |
| 147 | ``` |
| 148 | |
| 149 | ##### Examples |
| 150 | |
| 151 | ###### Internal MMDB built with mmdbwriter |
| 152 | |
| 153 | A custom build that combines public BGP data with internal CIDR labels, written atomically into the plugin's lookup directory by the operator's own pipeline. |
| 154 | |
| 155 | ```yaml |
| 156 | enrichment: |
| 157 | geoip: |
| 158 | asn_database: |
| 159 | - /etc/netdata/internal-asn.mmdb |
| 160 | geo_database: |
| 161 | - /etc/netdata/internal-geo.mmdb |
| 162 | optional: false |
| 163 | |
| 164 | ``` |
| 165 | ###### Overlay a custom ASN file on top of the bundled DB-IP geo |
| 166 | |
| 167 | Keep DB-IP for geographic data and use a custom MMDB only for AS labels (your IPAM-derived prefixes win because they appear last in the list -- the resolver merges per field, last non-empty wins). |
| 168 | |
| 169 | <details open><summary>Config</summary> |
| 170 | |
| 171 | ```yaml |
| 172 | enrichment: |
| 173 | geoip: |
| 174 | asn_database: |
| 175 | - /var/cache/netdata/topology-ip-intel/topology-ip-asn.mmdb |
| 176 | - /etc/netdata/internal-asn.mmdb |
| 177 | geo_database: |
| 178 | - /var/cache/netdata/topology-ip-intel/topology-ip-geo.mmdb |
| 179 | optional: true |
| 180 | |
| 181 | ``` |
| 182 | </details> |
| 183 | |
| 184 | ###### Iterating on a new custom MMDB |
| 185 | |
| 186 | While you tune the build pipeline, mark the database optional so an absent or malformed file becomes a startup warning instead of a fatal error. |
| 187 | |
| 188 | <details open><summary>Config</summary> |
| 189 | |
| 190 | ```yaml |
| 191 | enrichment: |
| 192 | geoip: |
| 193 | asn_database: |
| 194 | - /etc/netdata/wip-asn.mmdb |
| 195 | geo_database: [] |
| 196 | optional: true |
| 197 | |
| 198 | ``` |
| 199 | </details> |
| 200 | |
| 201 | |
| 202 | |
| 203 | ### Lookups silently return empty |
| 204 | |
| 205 | The custom file's schema is non-standard (for example, the ASN is encoded |
| 206 | as a string instead of `autonomous_system_number: uint32`, or the country |
| 207 | is at a non-standard path). The plugin only reads the standard MaxMind |
| 208 | field names listed in the data-collection description. Validate with |
| 209 | `mmdblookup --file your-custom.mmdb --ip <known-public-ip>` and confirm the |
| 210 | standard fields are present at the expected paths. |
| 211 | |
| 212 | |
| 213 | ### Plugin fails to start with optional=false |
| 214 | |
| 215 | File missing, unreadable, or not a valid MMDB at the configured path. |
| 216 | Check permissions (the netdata user must be able to read the file) and |
| 217 | re-validate with `mmdblookup`. Set `optional: true` while iterating. |
| 218 | |
| 219 | |
| 220 | ### Custom file refresh did not take effect |
| 221 | |
| 222 | The plugin reloads custom databases the same way it reloads stock ones |
| 223 | (signature-driven, in place). If the file was rewritten in place the |
| 224 | plugin will pick it up; if it was edited byte-by-byte (rare with MMDB |
| 225 | builders) verify size or mtime actually changed. The reload mechanism |
| 226 | and its 30-second cadence are documented in |
| 227 | [IP Intelligence](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/network-flows/enrichment). |
| 228 | Operational practice: have your build pipeline write the new MMDB to a |
| 229 | temp file in the same directory and `rename(2)` it over the live path so |
| 230 | the swap is atomic. |
| 231 | |
| 232 | |
| 233 |