Netmap installation on a standard Linux distribution is straightforward. It should be observed that for slow devices (such as 1 Gbit/s and slower NICs, or several 10 Gbit/s NICs whose hardware is unable to sustain line rate), emulated and native mode throughput will most likely be similar or even the same. Although performance is inferior to native netmap mode, it is significantly better than various raw socket types (bpf, PF PACKET, and so on). If netmap does not natively support your NICs, they may still be used in netmap mode through emulation. Netmap natively supports the following devices on FreeBSD:
Netmap natively supports the following devices on Linux: Requirements for Installing Netmap on Linux
However, if you want to run Zenarmor in Routed Mode (元 Mode, Reporting and Blocking available) on supported Linux Distributions (Ubuntu 18.04 LTS & 20.04 LTS, Centos 7, & 8, Debian 10 and AlmaLinux 1) you must install Netmap by yourself.Īlso, if you have a Surricata, you should install netmap for a better performance of your IPS system.
Netmap is already included and enabled by default in recent FreeBSD (>= 10.x), OPNsense(r) and pfSense® software software releases. For FreeBSD and Linux, it is implemented as a single kernel module. Netmap is compatible with FreeBSD, Linux, and some versions of Windows. It is capable of handling tens of millions of packets per second, matching the speed of 10G and 40G ports even with small frames. Netmap provides extremely fast and efficient packet I/O in kernel, userspace, and virtual machine platforms. This allows us to have a peek at packets and take actions before they even reach their destinations. Netmap is a DPDK-like kernel interface that Zenarmor uses to deploy between your Ethernet Adapter and Linux/BSD Networking Stack.
Zenarmor (Sensei) uses the netmap framework to access raw Ethernet frames.