Use the Network Traffic Analysis Database Table Maintenance (SETTINGS menu > Network Traffic Analysis > NTA Record Maintenance) dialog to perform table maintenance on the Network Traffic Analysis database and archive database.

Regularly purging database tables can improve performance of Network Traffic Analysis.

Important: Purged data cannot be recovered. Make sure that you export and save any Flow data you need for your records.

Step 1: Stop the Flow Collector Service

To perform any of the purge actions listed in this dialog, you must first stop the Flow Collector service.

  1. From the Network Traffic Analysis Database Table Maintenance dialog (SETTINGS menu > Network Traffic Analysis > NTA Record Maintenance) , click on the Stop Service button.

    An alert box confirms the service shutdown.

  2. Click the Start NTA Collector upon completion checkbox.
  3. Enter a freshness period in days using the Delete log records older than text box.
  4. Select the category of database item(s) you want to purge.

Step 2: Select items to purge

When the Flow Collector service has been stopped, you can select the Network Traffic Analysis database tables you want to purge.

  • Purge the log table. Select this option to purge the log table. The log table holds messages generated by Network Traffic Analysis about the status of Network Traffic Analysis, as well as errors and warnings that have occurred during operations.
  • Purge temporary tables. Select this option to purge host update and flush tables. These tables temporarily hold data during the configuration and flushing of flow data.
  • Purge flow tables. Select this option to purge flow data. This table holds flow data gathered from the NetFlow exporter on the Network Traffic Analysis source, this information includes source and destination IP addresses, with traffic values in number of flows, packets and bytes.
  • Purge the Host table. Select this option to purge host data. This table holds information on hosts discovered during the processing of flow information, and successfully resolved using DNS.
  • Purge the Interface table. Select this option to purge interface traffic data. This table holds information about interface traffic, including traffic values in number of flows, packets and bytes.
  • Purge NBAR tables. Select this option to purge NBAR information gathered by Network Traffic Analysis. These tables hold information gathered using NBAR, including application identification as well as traffic values in number of packets and bytes.
  • Purge flows with unclassified ports. Select this option to purge flows with unclassified ports from the Data table. Ports are classified by mapping the port to an application.
  • Purge the Archive Flow table. Select this option to purge archived flow data. This table holds archived flow information, includes source and destination host identification as well as traffic values in number of flows, packets and bytes.
  • Purge the Archive Host table. This table holds archived host information discovered during the processing of flow information.
  • Purge the Archive Interface table. Select this option to purge interface traffic data. This table holds archived information about interface traffic, including traffic values in number of flows, packets and bytes.
  • Purge the Archive NBAR table. Select this option to purge NBAR information gathered by Network Traffic Analysis. This table holds archived information gathered using NBAR, including application identification as well as traffic values in number of packets and bytes.

Step 3: (optional) Maintain log data during a purge

You can configure Network Traffic Analysis to keep a given number of days of log data during a purge of the Log table.

Enter the number of days of logs you want Network Traffic Analysis to maintain in Delete log records older than xx days. Log data that is older than the configured number of days will be purged from the Log table.

Step 4: Initiate the purge (and with immediate restart of collector service)

After you have selected or configured all of the appropriate database table maintenance tasks:

  1. Ensure Start Flow Collector service upon completion is checked (otherwise, you will need to restart the Flow Collector service from SETTINGS menu > System Services).
  2. Review your selections, then click Purge to begin database maintenance. The database maintenance process could be lengthy depending on the size of the tables in your Network Traffic Analysis database and archive database.
Important: Do not navigate away from this page or close the Web browser until the process finishes completely. Failure to wait on the process to complete may result in database corruption or data loss.