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NTA: if you manage more than a handful of sites, definitely worth a look.
November 13, 2020

NTA: if you manage more than a handful of sites, definitely worth a look.

Steve Adams | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)

The instance I use [of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)] is used by our department only. There are other installations across the organization. When we have network issues at a site, it helps determine what the issue is ( bandwidth flooding, undesirable traffic, improper traffic, etc) and helps identify what devices are the bad actors. We can see conversations per device and the utilization for each conversation. Protocols are also identified.
  • It is used as a troubleshooting device by our department. It helps shorten the time spent in identify root cause of issues. I do not have hard numbers.
We utilize NetScout in conjunction with NetScout. NetScout gives a finer grained insight into traffic, while [SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer] (NTA) gives a better quick glance at the entire organizational structure.
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA) support in general is pretty good. However, it may take them 24 hours to get back to you in some cases.
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM), SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)
[SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)] does well for bandwidth utilization tracking from endpoint to endpoint, as well as what protocols are being utilized in the conversations. However, if you need a deeper dive, a product like Wireshark would need to be utilized. I have not seen the capability to store individual conversations and analyze them.

Using SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)

The software installation is fairly painless. In order to get the netflow information to SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA) from the field switches/devices, a handful of configuration lines are necessary (maybe 10 - 15 lines) in the field devices. The configuration statements can be easily looked up on the internet. Once the data is flowing to SolarWinds, the Netflow section of the web page auto-populates with the usage data, in a fairly robust set of KPI's. The dashboards are very intuitive to use. However, they are limited, in the out of the box settings, to the top 5 or 10 of variables (top protocols, top endpoints, top bandwidth usage endpoints, etc...). Customization is available, but is not as intuitive to set up. So, for a quick glance at the top 10 utilizers of bandwidth, or the top 5 protocols being utilized, very intuitive and easy to use.