User's Guide

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ExtremeAnalytics Application Data Collection
The ExtremeAnalytics engine provides an application data collection function
that collects and records information about network utilization. It includes:
l General Usage Collection — High-level application-centric data, collected hourly and
in five-minute intervals.
l Extended Application Collection — Detailed data about all end-systems in the
network, collected hourly.
Application data collection is based on network flow information. Network
utilization for various objects in the network (called targets) is measured,
collected, and used to create application data reports in Extreme Management
Center.
NOTE: Ensure at least 4GBof swap space is available for flow storage or impaired functionality may
occur. Use the free command to verify the amount of available RAM on your Linux system.
This Help topic describes application data collection, including collection
targets, statistics, and intervals. It also describes the different collectors used to
perform the collection, as well as the sources for flow information.
Data Collection Overview
Application data collection is performed by the ExtremeAnalytics engine. The
engine collects flow records from switches in your network. It then augments the
collected flow data with detailed application information derived by network
packet inspection, resulting in rich analytical data.
For example, if a NetFlow record reports 100 bytes transferred from client
Workstation 1 to server Host A, then the collection process would add 100 bytes
to the tally for Workstation 1, and 100 bytes to the separate tally for Host A. If the
flow is identified as traffic for the Payroll application, then 100 bytes would be
added to another tally for Payroll as well. And finally, 100 bytes is added to
another tally for the entire network. At the end of a collection interval, the totals
for client Workstation 1, server Host A, the Payroll application, and the entire
network are written to the database.