What is the role of NetFlow data in NPM, and what configurations are typically required?

• A. NetFlow data provides SNMP traps for alerting; requires SNMP agents.
• B. NetFlow provides flow-level traffic data to analyze bandwidth usage by source/destination, requiring NetFlow-enabled devices and export to the Orion server.
• C. NetFlow stores only CPU utilization data.
• D. NetFlow requires only IP addresses to be collected without export.

Answer: (B)

NetFlow data in NPM is about capturing flow-level traffic information, so you can see who is talking to whom and how much bandwidth each conversation uses. This lets you analyze traffic by source and destination, including ports and protocols, which helps identify top talkers, bottlenecks, and application usage for capacity planning and troubleshooting. To enable this in NPM, you configure NetFlow (or IPFIX) on the routers and switches that generate the traffic to export flow records to the Orion server, where the NetFlow collector parses and presents them in dashboards and reports. The setup requires NetFlow-enabled devices with proper export configuration pointing to the Orion server, along with the collector enabled and network connectivity in place. NetFlow isn’t about SNMP traps, it isn’t limited to CPU utilization data, and it isn’t useful without exporting flow data to a central collector.