Using NetFlow Tracker

User’s Guide – version 3.1.3

NetFlow Tracker

Once you have installed NetFlow Tracker and configured your devices, data will be available within a few minutes. There are many ways to access this data.

Real-time Data

NetFlow Tracker stores up to fourteen days full NetFlow data with one minute resolution. This data can be reported upon once it is several minutes old. There are several ways to view reports on this data – from the Network Overview page, from the Devices page or from the Filter Editor.

Long-term Data

In addition to automatically storing full data for up to fourteen days, NetFlow Tracker can be configured to store summarized data for any length of time. Long-term data is not stored automatically; long-term reports must first be set up using the Report Settings page. See the Long-term Reports chapter for more about setting up and viewing long-term reports.

Executive Reports

You can configure custom reports using the Report Settings page that contain sections from multiple real-time or long-term reports. See the Executive Reports chapter for more about setting up and viewing executive reports.

Network Overview

The Network Overview page is accessible from the home page of the software; if you do not have user security set up (see Security Settings) it is also the default page you see when you access the software.

The page gives you a simple overview of the devices and interfaces currently carrying the most traffic on your network. You can click on a device in the pie chart or on its name to see its top applications and busiest interfaces; you can also click on an interface name to see its recent traffic and top applications. It is also possible to drilldown from any of the charts to examine the data in more detail; see Working with Charts for more about this.

Devices

While the Network Overview page is useful for quickly identifying the busiest devices and interfaces on your network, the Devices page lists all devices regardless of how busy they are. You can sort the devices by name, address, recent peak traffic rate and recent peak packet rate by clicking the appropriate column header. By default, each peak rate is the highest two-minute rate in the last six hours, but this will be different if the default time range is altered (see Report Settings). Note that the report is refreshed regularly to ensure it is always up-to-date.