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.

Top XX Applications (Classic Chart)

This widget provides a view of the top XX applications responsible for monitored traffic on your network, ranked in order of traffic volume.

When placed on the Node Details or Interface Details view, this widget provides a view of the applications responsible for the most traffic passing through the viewed node or interface over the selected period of time.

Note: This widget shows only applications whose monitoring has been enabled on the Manage Applications and Service Ports view. Data for ports and applications whose monitoring is not enabled there are collected, aggregated, and shown in the Top XX Applications widget as Unmonitored traffic. For more information about monitored ports and applications, see Configuring Monitored Ports and Applications.

View more details about displayed applications

Click a listed application to open the NetFlow Applications Summary view that presents statistics for the selected application. For more details, see NetFlow Application Summary View.

Click + to expand a listed application and display the list of nodes and their respective interfaces over which the selected application traffic is currently flowing.

Click a node or interface to display the NetFlow Application detail view showing statistics for the selected application traffic traversing through the appropriate node or interface. For more details, see NetFlow Application View.

View unmonitored traffic

If there are applications whose monitoring is not enabled in the Manage Applications and Service Ports page, the Top XX Applications widget on a summary view displays the Unmonitored traffic item. This item aggregates traffic coming from ports or applications whose monitoring is not enabled at the moment.

To view what ports generate the unmonitored traffic:

  1. Click the Unmonitored traffic item to go the NetFlow Applications Summary view filtered by unmonitored traffic.
  2. Consult the Top XX Applications widget there. The widget will list unmonitored applications, and allow you to monitor appropriate ports by a button click.

Monitor unmonitored ports

If you are viewing the Top XX Applications widget on an Unmonitored traffic view, you can enable monitoring of unmonitored ports:

  1. Click Monitor Port to enable monitoring of the listed port.
  2. Now in the Monitor Application window, check the Port(s) whose monitoring you want to enable.
  3. Select the Source and Destination IP Address.
  4. Select an appropriate Protocol.
  5. Enter an appropriate Description, and then click Add Application to enable monitoring.

    Note: You can also enable monitoring for these applications and ports on the Manage Applications and Service Ports page. For more details, see Configuring Monitored Ports and Applications.

Top XX Applications (Endpoint Centric)

You can customize an endpoint-centric version of this widget and place it on the NetFlow Node Details or Interface Details view.

The endpoint-centric Top XX Applications widget provides a ranked list of applications responsible for traffic passing through the specified node or interface.

For more information about adding endpoint-centric widgets, see Add endpoint-centric widgets to NTA views.

Table legend

The table below the chart provides the following information:

Column Title Contents
Application The application name with its assigned port number in parentheses. If the application is unidentified, NTA uses one of these labels: Unknown, Unclassified, Unrecognized, Remaining Traffic. See NBAR2 Applications for additional details.
Ingress Bytes, Egress Bytes
Ingress Packets, Egress Packets
Displays the amount of data (in bytes and packets) flowing to the selected application through the viewed node or interface.
The columns displayed depend on the flow direction set in the top left corner of the view (either only Ingress Bytes, or only Egress Bytes, or both columns).
Percent (Utilization) Displays the percentage of all traffic through the viewed object that can be attributed to use of the listed application.

The first value describes the percentage of the appropriate item based on items shown by the chart. Individual items in the legend add up 100%. This percentage can be absolute or relative. For more information, see Set the Percentage type for Top XX lists.

A value in parentheses is available only for interfaces. It describes how the appropriate item utilizes the interface bandwidth in percentage.

If the utilization is approximately twice as high as it should be, for example 150% instead of 75%, it might be caused by flow duplication. For more information, see Resolve duplicate flows.

Edit the widget

If you are logged in using a User ID with administrative privileges, you can change the way this widget is displayed for all users:

  1. Click Edit to go to the Edit widget page.
  2. Make the appropriate changes.
  1. Click Submit.

Edit the widget for the current session

You can change the contents and looks of the widget for the current session only. After you leave the view, your changes will be lost and default settings applied.

Chart Style and Data Units

  1. In the Data drop-down, select the appropriate chart style (Area Chart or Pie Chart).
  2. If you have selected the Area Chart type, you can further select what data you want to display by the widget.
    1. In the Data Units drop-down, select the appropriate unit.

Time Period and Flows Direction

To change the time period and Flows direction shown by all widgets in the view, click next to the appropriate setting below the view name and define the settings.

For more information about time settings, see Edit time settings for NTA views.

For more information about Flow direction settings, seeEdit flow direction in NTA views.