Understanding and Maintaining Collected Data › How Data Is Collected

How Data Is Collected

The CA Network Flow Analysis components work together to collect and report information about network traffic:

Routers

Send flow datagrams to the Harvesters at regular intervals.

Harvesters

Distill the raw flows, parse the data, and compile it. In the CA Network Flow Analysis 9.1.00 two-tier data collection architecture, the Harvesters store the following data:

• Raw flow data for the previous 24 hours
• 1-minute resolution data--Interface-specific report data of the following types for the previous 2 months:
  • Top Protocols
  • Top Hosts
  • Top Conversations
  • Top ToS
• Historical (15-minute) data:
  • Protocol data for the previous 13 months
  • Interface summary data for the previous 13 months
  • ToS summary data for the previous 13 months
  • Top protocols for the top ToS values for the previous 13 months
  • Host and conversation data for the previous 2 months
  • Top hosts and top conversations for the top ToS values for the previous 2 months

NFA console

Gathers data from the Harvester as needed and displays report data in the web interface. Stores Enterprise Overview data.