Documentation forNetFlow Traffic Analyzer

DNS resolution in NTA

DNS resolution is done on the main polling engine. SolarWinds NTA does not support resolving DNS on additional polling engines.

Resolve and store hostnames at the time of ingestion

Domain names are resolved continuously for all devices involved in flow monitoring. This is the default for new installations.

If you select Resolve and store hostnames at the time of ingestion, define:

  • Default number of days to wait until next DNS lookup: The interval on which endpoint domain names are refreshed in the SolarWinds Platform database.

  • Default number of days to wait until next DNS lookup for unresolved IP addresses: The interval on which NTA attempts to resolve domain names for unresolved endpoints in the SolarWinds Platform database.

  • Number of IP addresses to resolve as a batch: The number of addresses NTA resolves in a single batch.

  • Interval in seconds between batches: The delay between batches. To lower the load of DNS requests, you can increase this value and decrease the amount of addresses in a single batch.

Views may load more quickly because resolved domain names are retained, but database query times may increase as your database is continuously queried.

Top Domains widgets and SolarWinds Platform reports that include DNS names require resolving and storing hostnames immediately when a flow record is received. NTA does not support internationalized domain names which include special characters, symbols, and non-English letters.

Live DNS lookup for IPv4 and IPv6 addresses

DNS is resolved only when requested from the database.

Live DNS lookup for IPv4 and IPv6 addresses is intended to assist users with larger networks. With this option, an endpoint domain name is only resolved when information about it is actually requested from the SolarWinds Platform database. Database query times may improve as queries are limited, but the load time for some endpoint-related widgets may increase as NTA waits for domain name resolution.

Top Domains widgets and SolarWinds Platform reports that include DNS names require immediate resolving and storing of hostnames. They will not display DNS names if Live DNS Lookup for IPv4 and IPv6 addresses is selected.