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NetFlow v3.1 Upgrade

Like many NetFlow (NF) users, I have been dreaming of a day when NF functions properly and efficiently. Seems 3.1 may have solved this, at least so far. I am hesitant in making that statement however, from past experience.

I have upgraded to v3.1 and noticed modest performance improvements. I can't seem to determine if the upgrade is complete or not. When you install the upgrade, you are informed that due to the vast amounts of changes to the DB, that the upgrade will continue to run in the background. This progress is tracked by the NPM event logs. Applied upgrade yesterday and last reported completion percentage was 36%.

Has anyone received a 100% complete log or know how to check to see if the upgrade is complete?

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FormerMember

Yes. Shortly after I did the upgrade I got a completion message however our NetFlow usage is low and I only have one source currently per network.

usmc_ed

I see...

Entering the 23^rd hour… Yes! 23^rd hour… and the upgrade continues.

I started to see process event logs again a few hours ago and now we are at 61% complete. I was to the point where I wanted to blow away all NF tables and start from scratch. Luckily SW tech advised to stay with it. Whatever is going on, is working. My DB size has gone from 123GB down to 33GB.

jeff.stewart

The DB migration can take some time depending on your DB size and hardware.

mcbridea

Note that the upgrade is done in two phases. Phase one, where the NTA app is upgraded should happen quickly. Phase two, the database migration can take some time but NTA is available for use during phase two. The migration takes place in the background and includes database shrinking.

Andy

SamuelB

Like many NetFlow (NF) users, I have been dreaming of a day when NF functions properly and efficiently. Seems 3.1 may have solved this, at least so far. I am hesitant in making that statement however, from past experience.

I would just like to add on to this comment and say that I upgraded yesterday and the speed improvements have been HUGE! The nightly maintenance only made things even faster! I appreciate all of the work that went into making NTA faster!

mcbridea

Thanks all for the feedback. We really appreciate that you take the time to let us know how we are doing!

Debbi

How can I monitor the progress of the process? In task manager? What is the process name and how will I be able to tell how far along it is? -Thanks.

mcbridea

The Event window will update you periodically.

bbusbey

So during this database migration, is Orion working?

mcbridea

Yes

FormerMember

Additional:

I'm seeing my SolarWindsOrion_FG4 file balloon to seemlingly ridiculous sizes compared with the original database I'm upgrading from.

eg. under NetFlow v3.0 regime, my current Solarwinds Orion Database is around 23GB.

At the time of writing this post, l'm running NetFlow v3.1 setup, the install is still happening and I'm seeing 4 additional DB's like everyone else, but FG4 is currently at 52GB (and climbing) and the upgrade is still happening!

Seeing I've only got 100GB free on the drive in total, how large can I expect these DB's to get?

(Did anyone else see this happen?)

- Pete

davidmaltby

Filegroup FG4 contains only uncompressed data from new flows that you've received since your upgrade. In NTA 3.1, the service is now able to capture a lot more flows then it did in 3.0. Our tests have shown in that in some high stress scenarios, that we were dropping as much as 40% of the flows coming in before they were able to be stored in the database.

What is your setting on how much uncompressed data to store? If you adjust that value down, you'll end up reducing your FG4 size when the next nightly maintance comes around and shrinks your database.

Thanks,

David

FormerMember

The FG4 file finished at 62GB, I understand that data was compressed I just wasn't expecting to need more storage to perform the upgrade but it makes sense after the fact.

I've got default values for data retention:

Keep uncompressed data for 4 hours

Keep compressed data for 365 days

I'm now seeing table migration in the Orion events so things are moving. I'm unable to view NetFlow Traffic Analysis at the moment as I get this error:

Orion Website Error

An error has occurred with the Orion website.

Additional Information

System.FormatException: Input string was not in a correct format.
   at System.Number.StringToNumber(String str, NumberStyles options, NumberBuffer& number, NumberFormatInfo info, Boolean parseDecimal)
   at System.Number.ParseInt32(String s, NumberStyles style, NumberFormatInfo info)
   at SolarWinds.Netflow.Reporting.NetflowSettingsDAL.GetSummary2Period()
   at SolarWinds.Netflow.Reporting.DateTimeBoundaryHelper.RoundAccordingToCollapseInterval(DateTime& dateTime, Boolean roundGreater)
   at SolarWinds.Netflow.Reporting.DateTimeBoundaryHelper.GetPreviousMinuteBoundary(Int32 index, DateTime oldDate, Boolean roundGreater)
   at SolarWinds.Netflow.Reporting.TimePeriod.SetRelativePeriod(String PeriodName, String timeField, Int32 timeValue)
   at SolarWinds.Netflow.Reporting.TimePeriod.ParseName(String PeriodName)
   at SolarWinds.Netflow.Reporting.TimePeriod..ctor(String PeriodName)
   at SolarWinds.Netflow.Web.UI.TopXXBase.DataBind()
   at System.Web.UI.Control.DataBindChildren()
   at System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind(Boolean raiseOnDataBinding)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind()
   at System.Web.UI.Control.DataBindChildren()
   at System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind(Boolean raiseOnDataBinding)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind()
   at System.Web.UI.Control.DataBindChildren()
   at System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind(Boolean raiseOnDataBinding)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind()
   at System.Web.UI.Control.DataBindChildren()
   at System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind(Boolean raiseOnDataBinding)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind()
   at Orion_Netflow_Summary.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive()
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)

This has been reported to Solarwinds support anyway.

-Pete

Debbi

I did the 3.1 upgrade this AM (Tuesday) about 5:15 Pacific time. I saw those 4 files get created but no change in their size since then. I have not gotten any status events all day. My swdebug.log file says the migration aborted right away at 5:30 but SW techies say the migration is still running. I would like to see some evidence of that. I feel like I am pretty much in the dark as far as what to expect. My db is about 80 gig. -Debbi

davidmaltby

PeteF,

FG4 stores only your uncompressed data. If you reduce your 4 hour uncompressed down to 1 hour, and restart the service, then when the next night maintenance occurs and a shrink is performed on the database, then that disk will reclaim the space.

I've also looked up the details on your exception and have informed Tech Support about the details, so that they can help you further.

Thanks,

David

davidmaltby

If you have a log message from the 'SolarWinds.Orion.NetFlow.Migration.MigrationDatabaseHelper' component that says that the migration was aborted, then the migration won't try to start again until you restart the serve. If you could attach your swdebug.log file to this thread then, I can take a quick look and see if it gives me details as to why it aborted.

Thanks,

David

FormerMember

Hi David,

I've responded to your email with the SWDEBUG.LOG. I can't find 'SolarWinds.Orion.NetFlow.Migration.MigrationDatabaseHelper' in the swdebug.log.

-Pete