Documentation forNetFlow Traffic Analyzer
Analyzing network traffic and bandwidth is a key capability of SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted (formerly Hybrid Cloud Observability) and is available in the Advanced edition. NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA) is also available in a standalone module.

Cisco Catalyst 6500

The following example includes annotations that explain the requirements for successfully configuring NetFlow on this device.

ip route-cache flow

This command enables fast switching (CEF) on the device. On this device NetFlow is monitored only for traffic that is fast-switched (CEF).

mls ip multicast flow-stat-timer 9
mls aging long 64
mls aging normal 32
mls flow ip interface-full
mls nde sender version 5

These Multilayer Switching commands set the named timer (ip multicast flow stat timer), the aging intervals for data in the flow cache (aging long, aging normal) by which export should occur, the flow mask (flow ip); and also configure flow export (nde sender version) as NetFlow version 5 on the Policy Feature Card (PFC).

ip flow-export source IP Address
ip flow-export version 5
ip flow-export destination IP_Address(Orion NPM server) 2055
ip flow ingress layer2-switched vlan x, y, z (separate each VLAN with a comma)
ip flow ingress

These commands do the following:

  • Set the flow export source: ip flow-export source (the IP address must be monitored in SolarWinds Platform)
  • The flow version: ip flow export version
  • The flow export destination: ip flow-export destination (the IP of the SolarWinds Platform server with default port 2055)
  • Enable NetFlow:
    • ip flow ingress layer2-switched for Layer 2 switched traffic and Layer 3 traffic
    • ip flow ingress on the Multilayer Switch Feature Card (MSFC)

Full configuration

The overall configuration without annotations looks like this:

ip route-cache flow
mls ip multicast flow-stat-timer 9
mls aging long 64
mls aging normal 32
mls flow ip interface-full
mls nde sender version 5
ip flow-export source IP Address
ip flow-export version 5
ip flow-export destination IP_Address(Orion NPM server) 2055
ip flow ingress layer2-switched vlan x, y, z (separate each VLAN with a comma)
ip flow ingress