SolarWinds- Bandwidth Usage Monitoring

  SOLARWINDS BANDWIDTH MONITORING USAGE  

FEATURES

• Multi-Vendor Flow Collection & Analysis

• Supports Cisco NetFlow v5/v9, Juniper J-Flow, IPFIX, sFlow, Huawei NetStream, and other flow protocols. It collects flow data across your network devices and converts it into actionable insights.

• Interface-Level Bandwidth Monitoring

• Provides real-time and historical utilization metrics per interface, showing who, what, and where bandwidth is consumed.

• Traffic Forensics & Drill-Down Analysis

• Enables deep exploration of traffic flows, identifying top talkers, applications, IP pairs, and protocol breakdowns.

• CBQoS & Policy Awareness

• Allows viewing of traffic categorized by CBQoS class maps (pre- and post-policy), enabling validation of QoS configurations.

• Alerting & Thresholds

• Generates alerts when bandwidth thresholds are crossed and highlights traffic spikes or drops.

• Integration with Orion Platform

• Acts as a module in the SolarWinds Orion platform, integrating with Network Performance Monitor (NPM) and other Orion modules for a unified view.

• Wireless / WLC Flow Visibility

• Supports flow data from wireless controllers to monitor WLAN bandwidth usage alongside wired networks.

• VMware vSphere Distributed Switch Support

• Provides visibility inside virtual switch fabrics, enabling east-west traffic monitoring between virtual machines.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Database Architecture: Uses a separate SQL “Flow Storage” database in addition to the Orion / platform database.

• SQL Server Support: SQL Server 2016 SP1, 2017, 2019, 2022 (Express, Standard, Enterprise)

• Flow Field Requirements: Expects templates including source port, dest port, packet counts, flow timestamps, last/first switched fields, etc.

• System Requirements: Must co-install with NPM on same server; separate SQL instance recommended.

• Supported Flow Protocols: NetFlow v5/v9, J-Flow, sFlow, IPFIX, Huawei NetStream

• Interface Granularity: Per-interface traffic metrics with 1-minute granularity over historical timeframes

• Alerting: Threshold alerts based on bandwidth utilization and top talker detection

• Integration: Works with Orion’s PerfStack, Orion Maps, NetPath, and other modules for cross-stack correlation

• Topology / Map Support: Orion Maps display relationships and bandwidth overlay on physical/logical topology

• Historical Data Retention: Depends on database sizing and configuration (user configurable)

• Ports & Connectivity: Uses standard flow ports; must allow inbound UDP flow data from devices

  SOLARWINDS BANDWIDTH MONITORING NETFLOW TRAFFIC ANALYZER  

FEATURES

• Flow-Based Bandwidth Visibility

• NTA collects and analyzes flow data (NetFlow, sFlow, J-Flow, IPFIX, Huawei NetStream) to reveal which users, applications, and protocols are consuming bandwidth and where.

• Top Talker & Threshold Alerts

• Alerts when interfaces exceed utilization thresholds, and highlights “top talkers” contributing to traffic spikes or abnormal usage.

• CBQoS & Policy Monitoring

• Supports collecting and showing Class-Based QoS (CBQoS) data, allowing admins to validate traffic policies and see before/after policy maps.

• Wireless & Virtual Traffic Insight

• Includes wireless LAN controller flow support to monitor Wi-Fi traffic, and visibility into east-west VM traffic via VMware vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS).

• Integrated with Orion & NPM

• Built as an add-on to SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) on the Orion platform, bringing flow analytics into a unified dashboard.

• Drill-Down & Historical Traffic Analysis

• Enables deep dives into traffic by minute, hour, day, or month; trace flows by source/destination IP, port, protocol, and application for trend and root-cause analysis.

• Bundle with Performance Monitoring (BAP)

• The Network Bandwidth Analyzer Pack (BAP) combines NTA with NPM’s monitoring features (availability, response time, device metrics) for an all-in-one solution.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Supported Flow Protocols: NetFlow v5 / v9, sFlow, J-Flow, IPFIX, Huawei NetStream

• Required Platform Dependency: Must run as add-on on Orion / NPM; cannot run standalone

• Database Architecture: Uses two databases — Orion database + separate Flow Storage SQL database

• SQL Server Version: Requires SQL Server 2016 SP1 or later for Flow Storage (Express not recommended for production)

• Required Flow Template Fields (for NetFlow v9): Post-NAT Source IPv4, Destination IPv4, Source Port, Destination Port

• Time Granularity: Up to 1-minute resolution for flow data visualization

• Storage & I/O: High I/O requirements; recommendations include RAID setups (RAID 1+0 for logs/data)

• System Requirements: Must be installed on same server as NPM; both share Orion platform resources

• Integration: Works with Orion Maps, PerfStack, custom dashboards, alerts & reports

• BAP (Bandwidth Analyzer Pack):

•  • Combines NTA and NPM for full network monitoring + traffic analytics

•  • Offers bandwidth metrics, performance monitoring, traffic pattern analysis, alerting, and topology mashups

  SOLARWINDS BANDWIDTH MONITORING ANALYZER PACK (BAP)  

FEATURES

• Integrated Performance & Bandwidth Analytics

• BAP combines Network Performance Monitor (NPM) and NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA) to offer both health monitoring (availability, latency, device metrics) and detailed bandwidth usage analysis in one unified platform.

• Traffic Flow Insights & Application Visibility

• It collects and analyzes flow data (NetFlow, sFlow, IPFIX, J-Flow, Huawei NetStream) to show which users, applications, protocols, and interfaces are consuming bandwidth.

• Topology-Aware Dashboards & Maps

• Provides visualizations and topology maps overlaid with bandwidth metrics, enabling you to see traffic patterns in relation to network layout.

• Alerts, Thresholds & Reporting

• Supports setting thresholds for bandwidth usage or link saturation, triggering alerts, and generating detailed reports (daily, weekly, monthly) for capacity planning or SLA tracking.

• Scalable Deployment & Modular Licensing

• Because BAP is a bundle of two modular components, you can scale performance monitoring and bandwidth analysis independently, licensing each according to your needs.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Components: NPM + NTA (bundled)

• Supported Flow Protocols: NetFlow v5/v9, sFlow, J-Flow, IPFIX, Huawei NetStream

• Interface Monitoring Granularity: per interface, with minute-level resolution

• Integration: Requires Orion / NPM platform (NTA is an add-on to NPM)

• Database Architecture: Separate Flow Storage database in addition to Orion database

• Alerting & Notifications: Custom thresholds, usage spikes, top talker alerts, integration with Orion Alert Manager

• Reporting & Historical Data: Long-term traffic trends, application breakdowns, exportable reports

• Visualization: Top talkers, application charts, protocol usage, bandwidth over time, dashboard widgets

• Scalability: Depends on NPM sizing; can support large environments with appropriate licensing and hardware