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Rules

Magic Network Monitoring rules will allow you to monitor the traffic volume destined for IP addresses or IP prefixes on your network. You can also receive alerts if the volume of traffic arriving at specific destinations exceeds a defined threshold.

Create rules

Refer to Recommended rule configuration for more details on the settings we recommend to create appropriate Magic Network Monitoring rules.

  1. Log in to the Cloudflare dashboard ↗, and select your account.
  2. Go to Analytics & Logs > Magic Monitoring.
  3. Select Configure Magic Network Monitoring > Add new rule.
  4. Create your rule according to your needs. Refer to Rule fields for more information on what each field does.
  5. Select Create a new rule when you are finished.

Edit or delete rules

  1. Log in to the Cloudflare dashboard ↗, and select your account.
  2. Go to Analytics & Logs > Magic Monitoring.
  3. Select Configure Magic Network Monitoring.
  4. Find the rule you want to edit, and select Edit. Optionally, you can also select Delete to delete a rule.
  5. Edit the appropriate fields. Refer to Rule fields for more information on what each field does.
  6. Select Save when you are finished.

Rule Auto-Advertisement

If you are an Enterprise customer using Magic Transit On Demand, enable Auto-Advertisement if you want to automatically activate Magic Transit when a certain threshold is exceeded.

Follow the previous steps to create or edit a rule. Then, make sure you enable Auto-Advertisement.

Rule fields

FieldDescription
Rule nameMust be unique and cannot contain spaces. Supports characters A-Z, a-z, 0-9, underscore (_), dash (-), period (.), and tilde (~). Max 256 characters.
Rule threshold typeCan be defined in either bits per second or packets per second.
Rule thresholdThe number of bits per second or packets per second for the rule alert. When this value is exceeded for the rule duration, an alert notification is sent. Minimum of 1 and no maximum.
Rule durationThe amount of time in minutes the rule threshold must exceed to send an alert notification. Choose from the following values: 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, or 60 minutes.
Auto-advertisementIf you are a Magic Transit On Demand customer, you can enable this feature to automatically enable Magic Transit if the rule alert is triggered.
Rule IP prefixThe IP prefix associated with the rule for monitoring traffic volume. Must be a CIDR range such as 160.168.0.1/24. Max is 5,000 unique CIDR entries.

Enable per-prefix thresholds with the API

You can also use the Magic Network Monitoring API to configure custom thresholds for specific prefixes.

The system uses the concept of rules, and each rule consists of a group of prefixes. All prefixes inside a rule are evaluated as a whole, and you should set up a rule if you want the prefixes' aggregated traffic to trigger an alert or advertisement. For thresholds on singular prefixes or IPs, you can create an individual rule with one prefix and the desired threshold.

Example

For a rule with two prefix CIDRs and a packet_threshold of 10000 as shown below, the rule will be flagged if the joint packet traffic of 192.168.0.0/24 and 172.118.0.0/24 is greater than 10000. This also means that Cloudflare attempts to auto advertise both CIDRs in case the flag is turned on.

Terminal window
"rules":[
        "name": "Too many packets",
        "prefixes": ["192.168.0.0/24", "172.118.0.0/24"],
        "packet_threshold": 10000,
        "automatic_advertisement": true,
        "duration": "1m0s",
        ]

For more granular thresholds, create a more focused rule as shown below.

Terminal window
"rules":[
        "name": "Too many packets",
        "prefixes": ["172.118.0.0/24"],
        "packet_threshold": 1000,
        "automatic_advertisement": true,
        "duration": "1m0s",
       ]

Refer to the Magic Network Monitoring API documentation for more information.

Notifications

Webhook, PagerDuty, and email notifications are sent following an auto-advertisement attempt for all prefixes inside the flagged rule.

You will receive the status of the advertisement for each prefix with the following available statuses:

  • Advertised: The prefix was successfully advertised.
  • Already Advertised: The prefix was advertised prior to the auto advertisement attempt.
  • Delayed: The prefix cannot currently be advertised but will attempt advertisement. After the prefix can be advertised, a new notification is sent with the updated status.
  • Locked: The prefix is locked and cannot be advertised.
  • Could not Advertise: Cloudflare was unable to advertise the prefix. This status can occur for multiple reasons, but usually occurs when you are not allowed to advertise a prefix.
  • Error: A general error occurred during prefix advertisement.

Refer to Notifications to learn how to create one.

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