SolarWinds NTA (Netflow Analyzer) Review
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We utilize SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA) for a variety of reasons. It does a good job with Bandwidth monitoring by identifying network congestion and potentially what is causing the congestion. It ties in flawlessly with our Cisco gear and environment. We monitor our switches, wireless controllers along with our network Servers. It helps us keep track of the resources our network gear and servers are using and have available. Part of the monitoring function is the alert portion, which allows us to set minimum/maximum alert status, then send us an alert if the device or service exceeds (or fails).
Pros
- Monitor network device status (up, down, fail state)
- Help identify network congestion, both cause and location.
- It's graphical display of our network and the various nodes and levels assists with overall network management and design by giving us a birds eye view.
- With the monitoring function along with the ability to "see" network devices, service and issues, it helps tremendously with troubleshooting, both performance related issues along with complete outage problems.
Cons
- Some of the default settings for bandwidth utilization are too low, causing alerts to be generated much too frequently. These can be manually adjusted, which is good, a bit higher tolerance would be helpful.
- The built in help is good for basic setups, but as you get into the weeds more, it is less intuitive and assistance is required.
- The initial setup of the product does work, but they should state that the minimum requirements are really not what you want to build it on. You should plan for the higher requirement out of the gate so adjusting and making changes is not required once it is set up.
Return on Investment
- It has been very beneficial for us because we can now monitor our entire network with a single point of reference. It also offers incredible granularity with what you can monitor.
- It works well with all of our products, we've not encountered a product or device that we can not monitor and log.
- Because of the large all encompassing monitoring ability, it allows us to better plan for future expansion or maintenance cycles.
Usability
Alternatives Considered
Wireshark
Other Software Used
CrowdStrike Falcon, Cisco Duo, Brightly Asset Essentials™
