Online Hybrid-Cloud-Observability-Network-Monitoring Questions Video

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Flow collectors differ from polling engines because they passively receive and process flow records sent by network devices, while polling engines actively poll devices for data (like SNMP). Devices must be explicitly configured to export their NetFlow, sFlow, or J-Flow records to the IP address and port of the flow collector, rather than being queried by the SolarWinds server.

The documentation states:

"To monitor flow data, devices must be configured to send their flow records to the collector. Unlike traditional polling, the collector does not initiate contact; it listens for incoming flow exports from network devices."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

NetFlow defines a flow as a unidirectional sequence of packets sharing common values in seven key fields. The three essential data points from your list used to determine if packets are part of the same flow are IP address (source and destination), Layer 3 protocol (such as TCP or UDP), and port number (source and destination). The interface name is not used to identify a unique flow.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

The flow navigator in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer allows users to filter and analyze flow data. For future access, you can save your custom view to the menu bar from the flow navigator, providing one-click access to your saved configurations.

The documentation states:

“To save a custom NetFlow analysis for future use, configure your view in the flow navigator, then select the option to save the view to the menu bar for easy retrieval.”

The “top talkers” feature tracks the highest-bandwidth consumers in your network. Lowering the optimization value means more flows and more detailed data are collected and stored, which can increase the storage requirement on your server.

Exact Extract from Official Guide:

“Decreasing the Top Talkers optimization value results in the storage of more detailed data, which increases the database and storage requirements.”

— (Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide, “NetFlow and Top Talkers Optimization” section)