NetFlow Traffic Analyzer 2020.2 System Requirements
Release date: June 4, 2020
The system requirements for SolarWinds NTA 2020.2 provide the following sections:
- On-premise requirements for NTA
- Virtual machine requirements
- SolarWinds NTA port requirements
- Cloud instance requirements for the NTA SQL Flow Storage database in Azure
For additional information about requirements and configurations, see the Multi-module system guidelines. You should also review the NTA administrator guide and release notes for the exact product requirements beyond these minimums.
On-premise requirements for NTA
To deploy NTA locally, on a server, review the following recommendations.
Type | Requirements |
---|---|
Operating system |
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Microsoft Windows Server 2019 |
SolarWinds NPM |
SolarWinds NTA requires an appropriate SolarWinds NPM version hosted on the same server. |
SQL server for the NTA Flow Storage database
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NTA and Orion Platform use two databases - the Orion database and the NTA SQL Flow Storage database. The Orion database stores SolarWinds Orion configuration data and all collected performance and syslog data. The NTA Flow Storage database is where SolarWinds NTA stores your flow data.
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More details on requirements for the NTA SQL Flow Storage database server
You cannot install Orion Platform products on the same server as SolarWinds Access Rights Manager (ARM).
- SolarWinds supports both the Orion database and the NTA SQL Flow Storage database in the same SQL server instance, as long as that instance is SQL Server 2016 SP1 or later.
If you decide to use separate SQL servers for the Orion database and the NTA SQL Flow Storage database, the Orion database requires Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and later.
- For recommendations on sizing in NTA 2020.2, see What are the hardware recommendations for the NTA SQL Flow Storage database.
- For an example configuration, see User scenario: Recommended SQL server disk configuration.
- For more information on deploying the NTA SQL Flow Storage database in NTA 2020.2, see NTA 4.4 and Later Adoption: Frequently Asked Questions.
- SolarWinds supports Express, Standard, or Enterprise versions of the SQL server for Flow Storage database. For more information on using SQL server Express in a production environment, see Impact of using SQL Express server for flow data storage.
Requirements for the Orion database server
The table below lists software and hardware requirements for your SolarWinds Orion database server using SolarWinds NPM license levels.
Requirements | SL100, SL250, SL500 | SL2000 | SLX |
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SQL server
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SQL Server collation
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CPU speed |
Quad core processor or better |
Dual quad core processor or better |
Dual quad core processor or better |
Hard drive space
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20 GB minimum 40 GB recommended |
50 GB minimum 100 GB recommended |
100 GB minimum 400 GB recommended SolarWinds recommends the following configuration:
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Memory |
SL100 8 GB minimum 16 GB recommended |
16 GB minimum 64 GB recommended |
64 GB minimum 128 GB recommended |
SL250 &SL500 8 GB minimum 16 GB recommended |
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Authentication |
Either mixed-mode or Windows authentication. If you require SQL authentication, you must enable mixed mode on your SQL server. |
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Other software |
If you are managing your SolarWinds Orion database, SolarWinds recommends you install the SQL Server Management Studio component. The Installation wizard installs the following required x86 components if they are not found on your Orion database server:
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More details on requirements for the Orion database server
- Multiple SolarWinds Orion server installations using the same database are not supported.
- If you install on a virtual machine, you must maintain your SQL Server database on a separate, physical drive.
SQL server
- Use Express, Standard, or Enterprise versions of the SQL server.
- Use the 64-bit version of SQL server.
- You can set the database recovery model to Full Recovery if you use Always On Availability. SolarWinds recommends Simple database recovery mode to ensure best performance.
SQL server collation
- SolarWinds supports CI database on an CS SQL Server.
- SolarWinds does not support case-sensitive databases.
Hard drive space
- Due to intense I/O requirements, a RAID 1+0 drive is strongly recommended for the SolarWinds database, data, and log files with a dedicated drive for the server operating system and tempdb files.
- Other RAID configurations can negatively affect your SQL Server's performance.
- Mirrored drives for the OS and RAID 1+0 for database data files are recommended.
- Solid state drives (SSD) are recommended for all components.
- Per Windows standards, some common files may need to be installed on the same drive as your server operating system. You may want to move or expand the Windows or SQL temporary directories.
Virtual machine requirements
SolarWinds NTA may be installed on VMware Virtual Machines and Microsoft Virtual Servers if the following conditions are met in your virtual environment:
- Each virtual machine needs to meet the SolarWinds NPM requirements for virtual machines. For more information, see the SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor documentation.
- Each installation of NPM should have its own dedicated network interface controller.
SolarWinds NPM uses SNMP to monitor your network. SNMP traffic is generally assigned low priority, and thus you can experience gaps in monitoring data.
Port requirements
The following table lists ports that SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer uses to communicate with other devices and servers.
Port | Protocol | Service/Process | Direction | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
80 | TCP | World Wide Web Publishing Service | Bidirectional | Port used for web console and any other web servers. |
137 | UDP | NetBIOS | Outbound |
Port for outbound traffic if NetBIOS name resolution is turned on. When NTA is trying to resolve the NetBIOS names of servers in their conversations, you may find a large amount of outbound UDP 137 traffic from the NTA collector to a number of external addresses. You can confirm the traffic by using the Flow Navigator to match the outbound connections to existing conversations. This is normal behavior when NetBIOS is enabled. An easy way to demonstrate the behavior is to disable NetBIOS in NTA and watch all outbound connections terminate. |
161 |
UDP TCP |
SolarWinds Job Engine v2 | Outbound | Port used for sending and receiving SNMP information, including polling CBQoS-enabled devices. |
1433 | TCP |
SolarWinds NetFlow Service SolarWinds NetFlow Storage Service |
Outbound | Port used for communication between the NetFlow Service and the existing SQL server. |
1434 |
UDP |
SolarWinds NetFlow Service SolarWinds NetFlow Storage Service SQL Browse Service |
Outbound | The port used for communication between the NetFlow Service and the Orion database. This port is required only if your SQL Server is configured to use dynamic ports. |
2055 | UDP | SolarWinds NetFlow Service | Inbound | Port for receiving flows on any SolarWinds NTA collector. |
5671 | TCP | RabbitMQ | Bidirectional | Rabbit MQ messaging. |
17777 | TCP | SolarWinds Information Service | Bidirectional |
Port for sending and receiving traffic between SolarWinds NPM and other Orion Modules. Port used for communication between remote Flow Storage Database and NTA Main Poller. |
17778 | HTTPS and TCP | SolarWinds Information Service | Bidirectional | Open to access the SolarWinds Information Service API and agent communication. |
17791 | TCP | SolarWinds Agent | Bidirectional | Open for agent communication on any SolarWinds Orion server running Windows Server 2016. |
Device-specific | Any port required by a specific device. |
For a complete list of the port requirements for the SolarWinds Orion server, see the Port Requirements document.
Cloud instance requirements for the NTA SQL Flow Storage database in Azure
Instance Details | Medium (SL2000) | Large (SLX) |
---|---|---|
Instance type | D12_v2 | D15_v2 |
CPU | 4 CPU | 16 CPU |
RAM | 30.5 GB RAM | 122 GB RAM |
Disk | System SSD 80 GB (included in D12_v2) + Data Azure Storage Disk Volume 500 GB (8 GB for every received sustained 1000 Flows/s with 30-days retention period) | System SSD 320 GB (included in D12_v2) + Data Azure Storage Disk Volume 2.5 TB (2.5 TB is Flow Storage, 300k FPS with 30-days retention, Azure Storage Disk with Provisioned IOPS recommended) |