Anonymization of argus flow data

Kaustubh Gadkari kaustubh at CS.ColoState.EDU
Tue Oct 8 14:11:25 EDT 2013


Hey Carter,

I don't have a .rarc file, and I am not setting RA_PRINT_NAMES explicitly anywhere. My invocation of ranonymize is as follows:

ranonymize -f /path/to/configfile -r input.argus -w output.argus - <filter expression>

The config file has the following entries:
RANON_PRESERVE_ETHERNET_VENDOR=yes
RANON_PRESERVE_BROADCAST_ADDRESS=yes
RANON_NET_ANONYMIZATION=sequential
RANON_HOST_ANONYMIZATION=sequential
RANON_PRESERVE_NET_ADDRESS_HIERARCHY=class

Thanks,
Kaustubh


On Oct 8, 2013, at 10:04 AM, Carter Bullard <carter at qosient.com> wrote:

> Hey Kaustubh,
> There is a chance that if you run ranonymize() with the options to
> print hostnames, either in the .rarc file or using the -nn option
> on the command line, you will hurt ranonymize's performance by doing
> bind lookups on each address before the number is translated.
> 
> Any chance that is going on here?  What is the value of your RA_PRINT_NAMES
> variable in your .rarc, and/or how are you calling ranonymize() ?
> 
> Carter
> 
> 
> On Oct 8, 2013, at 8:45 AM, Carter Bullard <carter at qosient.com> wrote:
> 
>> Hey Kaustubh,
>> I have not had a chance, but thanks for reminding me.
>> I'll look at it today !!!!  Keep bugging me !!!
>> 
>> Carter
>> 
>>> On Oct 7, 2013, at 12:39 PM, Kaustubh Gadkari <kaustubh at cs.colostate.edu> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hey Carter,
>>> 
>>> I just wanted to check if you've found any reasons why ranonymize is taking so long to complete on my dataset?
>>> 
>>> Thanks,
>>> Kaustubh
>>> 
>>>> On Sep 10, 2013, at 10:40 AM, Kaustubh Gadkari <kaustubh at CS.ColoState.EDU> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> On Sep 10, 2013, at 9:33 AM, Carter Bullard <carter at qosient.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Well,
>>>>> On my system 80% of the cycles are being spent doing the address,
>>>>> port, mac, AS number mappings (managing allocation of a new object
>>>>> and caching the values), and a small amount on the lookups.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I'll work on profiling the mapping logic to see if we've got
>>>>> something askew.
>>>> 
>>>> Great. Thanks again for the help.
>>>> 
>>>>> Hope all is most excellent,
>>>> 
>>>> And with you too :)
>>>> 
>>>> Kaustubh
>>>> 
>>>>> Carter
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Sep 10, 2013, at 12:22 PM, Kaustubh Gadkari <kaustubh at CS.ColoState.EDU> wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> On Sep 10, 2013, at 8:40 AM, Carter Bullard <carter at qosient.com> wrote:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Hey Kaustubh,
>>>>>>> I've been profiling ranonymize() with a lot of data, and
>>>>>>> while I do see opportunities to improve performance, I don't
>>>>>>> see many massively inefficient parts of the code, when run
>>>>>>> against my data sets.  There are still some things for
>>>>>>> me to look at, so I wanted you to know that I'm working on
>>>>>>> your problem.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Thanks for looking at this, Carter. 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Based on what you've seen me so far, you're machine is 85%
>>>>>>> idle, is ranonymize() using 100% of a single core, or is it
>>>>>>> sleeping a lot?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> top says ranonymize is using 100% of a single core.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> What kind of machine are you running on??  Can you describe the
>>>>>>> machine a bit?  CPUs, memory, disks, etc….
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I've been testing this on two machines. One is a Dell PowerEdge 2970, with 2 quad core AMD Opteron processors. The machine has 32GB RAM, a 130GB system disk and 16 8TB RAID5 partitions. The other machine is a Dell PowerEdge 2950. It has 2 quad core Intel Xeon X5450 CPUs, with 32GB RAM, a 140GB system disk and 3 8TB RAID5 partitions.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>> Kaustubh
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Carter
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> On Sep 3, 2013, at 3:05 PM, Kaustubh Gadkari <kaustubh at cs.colostate.edu> wrote:
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 12:33 PM, Carter Bullard <carter at qosient.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>> Hmmmmmm, well, you're not using the machine much (85% idle)
>>>>>>>>> so I'm looking into whether we're making any calls to any
>>>>>>>>> routines that would add some wait states, like name lookups, or
>>>>>>>>> sleeping somewhere.
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> Lets assume that there is a big problem, and I'll try to make
>>>>>>>>> some changes to improve your performance.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Thanks, Carter.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Kaustubh
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> Carter
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> On Sep 3, 2013, at 1:57 PM, Kaustubh Gadkari <kaustubh at cs.colostate.edu> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> Hey Carter,
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> On Sep 3, 2013, at 11:36 AM, Carter Bullard <carter at qosient.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> Hey Kaustubh,
>>>>>>>>>>> If its still writing records to the output file, its not in an infinite loop,
>>>>>>>>>>> although I'm sure that it feels like one.  So, no need to print debug msgs
>>>>>>>>>>> or run under gdb().
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> Hmmmmmm, you must have a very large number of IP addresses.  racount() isn't doing
>>>>>>>>>>> anything exotic with the "-M addr" mode.  Its hashing and storing each unique
>>>>>>>>>>> IP address, so that we can report on how many and what types.
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> My guess is that you must be short on physical memory, and the programs are swapping,
>>>>>>>>>>> which means that everything on this machine will be going very slowly.
>>>>>>>>>>> Run " top " to see if one of our programs is eating all the memory, or
>>>>>>>>>>> use vmstat() or vm_stat() or whatever to see if there is any paging.
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> No, the machine is not running out of memory. ranonymize is the largest memory user, and it is using 42.1% of a total of 32GB RAM. The swap usage is only 205MB, which is OK.  vmstat shows me the following:
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> kaustubh at proton:~$ sudo vmstat -w
>>>>>>>>>> procs -------------------memory------------------ ---swap-- -----io---- --system-- -----cpu-------
>>>>>>>>>> r  b       swpd       free       buff      cache   si   so    bi    bo   in   cs  us sy  id wa st
>>>>>>>>>> 1  0     205916    1638176     101636   16287400    0    0   527   342    1    1  14  0  85  1  0
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> There are no other memory intensive processes running on the box.
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> If it is a memory problem, then you will need to subdivide the data based
>>>>>>>>>>> on size, not on time, using rasplit().  And yes its easy to merge split files
>>>>>>>>>>> back to a single file.
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> UNFORTUNATELY, because the scope of anonymization is the file, anonymizing a
>>>>>>>>>>> single big file of records will generate different results compared to
>>>>>>>>>>> anonymizing a set of split files created from the big file.  Address A will be
>>>>>>>>>>> anonymized potentially to a different address in each file.
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> The configuration provides the means to get consistent results between files,
>>>>>>>>>>> but its a bit of work to do so.
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> Do you think you're running out of memory?
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> No, I think I'm ok in terms of memory usage.
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> Kaustubh
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> Carter
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> On Sep 3, 2013, at 1:11 PM, Kaustubh Gadkari <kaustubh.gadkari at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 8:49 AM, Carter Bullard <carter at qosient.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hmmm, if racount() takes 18min, I would think ranonymize() should take about 20min
>>>>>>>>>>>>> to complete.   You can run " racount -M addr " to get racount() to printout address
>>>>>>>>>>>>> information, like how many addresses are in the file.
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> Carter, I ran racount with -M addr, but the process hasn't finished
>>>>>>>>>>>> yet (it's been running for about 90 min now). I'll let it run for a
>>>>>>>>>>>> while longer and keep you updated.
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> ranonymize() works on a single argus record at a time, reading a single record,
>>>>>>>>>>>>> anonymizing all the various data elements, and then writing the anonymized
>>>>>>>>>>>>> record out to the output file.  If ranonymize() hasn't written out a record recently,
>>>>>>>>>>>>> then its possible that its in an infinite loop, especially if its running at 100%, and
>>>>>>>>>>>>> its been running for a month, and it seems to have stopped writing into the file.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> What was the last " modified " time on your output file ???
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> It hasn't stopped writing to file .. the last modified time is right
>>>>>>>>>>>> now, since the process is still running.
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> If you've compiled debug support into your ra* programs, you can send a USR1
>>>>>>>>>>>>> signal to the running ranonymize() and it will start writing debug information out
>>>>>>>>>>>>> to stderr().  Send a USR2 to turn debug output off.  Assuming that ranonymize()s
>>>>>>>>>>>>> process id is 35122, you can do this:
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> % kill -USR1 35122
>>>>>>>>>>>>> % kill -USR2 35122
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> If you've compiled development support into your programs, you can attach
>>>>>>>>>>>>> to ranonymize() using gdb(), and then step through the program to see where
>>>>>>>>>>>>> it is.
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> I haven't compiled my ra* programs with debug or development support.
>>>>>>>>>>>> If you can tell me what I need to change in the Makefiles, I can do so
>>>>>>>>>>>> and run ranonymize with gdb and see what's happening.
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> Kaustubh
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> % gdb ranonymize 35122
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> This will attach to the program, and stop the acitve process.  If this all seems
>>>>>>>>>>>>> unfamiliar, send more email, and I'll walk you through one of these strategies.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Carter
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> On Sep 3, 2013, at 9:56 AM, Kaustubh Gadkari <kaustubh.gadkari at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 7:19 AM, Kaustubh Gadkari
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> <kaustubh.gadkari at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 6:00 AM, Carter Bullard <carter at qosient.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hmmmm,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> There shouldn't be any performance issues with anonymizing a file, if your
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> just
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> anonymizing the IP addresses.  How many addresses are in the file?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> What does your ranonymize.conf file look like?   How much memory is it
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> using?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I am not quite sure how many IP addresses there are in the file. My
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ranonymize.conf looks like this:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> RANON_PRESERVE_ETHERNET_VENDOR=yes
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> RANON_PRESERVE_BROADCAST_ADDRESS=yes
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> RANON_NET_ANONYMIZATION=sequential
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> RANON_HOST_ANONYMIZATION=sequential
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> RANON_PRESERVE_NET_ADDRESS_HIERARCHY=class
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I took a look at how much memory ranonymize is using .. the usage is
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> about 42% on a machine with 32GB RAM.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ranonymize() can be a little complex O(nLogN + C), but it should be
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> in the same time frame as racount().  How long does it take for racount()
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> to read the file?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I am running racount right now .. I will post results once it finishes.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> racount takes about 18min to run on the file:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> real    17m58.528s
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> user    17m12.413s
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> sys     2m0.332s
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kaustubh
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Just a rule of thumb. If a ra* program doesn't complete in a few minutes,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> you
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> should stop it and try to figure out if there is a memory problem or not.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Thanks, I'll keep this in mind :)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kaustubh
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Carter
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> On Sep 2, 2013, at 2:20 PM, Kaustubh Gadkari <kaustubh.gadkari at gmail.com>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I have a set of argus flow data captured at our data capture vantage point,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> and I want to anonymize the IP addresses (both source and destination) fully
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> i.e. I want to replace both the addresses, using a prefix preserving
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> technique. I have tried using ranonymize, but it is taking an extremely long
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> time to anonymize the file (I started the process a couple of months ago, on
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> a ~125GB file, and the output file size today is only ~30GB).
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Can anyone suggest the right way to go about anonymizing the data set I
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> have? Is ranonymize the right tool for the job?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kaustubh
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kaustubh Gadkari
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kaustubh Gadkari
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kaustubh Gadkari
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>>>>> Kaustubh Gadkari
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>>> Kaustubh Gadkari
>>>>>>>>>> kaustubh at cs.colostate.edu
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> -- 
>>>>>>>> Kaustubh Gadkari
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Kaustubh Gadkari
>>>>>> kaustubh at cs.colostate.edu
>>>> 
>>>> --
>>>> Kaustubh Gadkari
>>>> kaustubh at cs.colostate.edu
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Kaustubh Gadkari
>>> kaustubh at cs.colostate.edu
>>> 
>> 
> 

--
Kaustubh Gadkari
kaustubh at cs.colostate.edu

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