NetFlowFastBitStringHeap Question

Hi, table NetFlowFastBitStringHeap located in Orion DB (by default named SolarwindsOrion) was used in NTA versions from 4.0 to 4.2.3. Any NTA versioned with 4.4 or higher or any HCO version is using different table NetFlowStringHeap located in separate database by default named SolarWindsFlowStorage.

Let's assume you are running NTA 4.2.3 or older: By truncating the NetFlowFastBitStringHeap table you will loose access to all NetFlow Data prior to the truncate time. Starting again the FastBit Server (NTA Service) will initialize the table again and new data will appear.

If you are running newer version, then there was a bug in upgrade procedures that left this outdated table in DB. Upgrading to latest HCO version should remove this obsolete table. The issue was fixed in HCO 2023.1. Simply said, if you are running any NTA version newer than 4.4 or newer than you can safely truncate NetFlowFastBitStringHeap table.

The only way how to limit the size of those tables is to disable setting 'Resolve and store IPv4 hostnames immediately when a flow record is received' so no new records will be added to this table.

hi shack

this table "dbo.NetFlowFastBitStringHeap" contain only the cache information of resolved ip's by DNS Resolution of NTA.  This is safe to truncate as it will automatically populate every time DNS resolution works. 

you may also disable the DNS resolution settings. but, your nta reports and charts will only shows ip address your nodes. 

reference:

https://support.solarwinds.com/SuccessCenter/s/article/Connection-to-NTA-Flow-Storage-Database-has-been-lost?language=en_US

https://support.solarwinds.com/SuccessCenter/s/article/NTA-causing-DB-maintenance-indexing-errors-for-value-that-was-either-too-large-or-too-small-for-an-Int32?language=en_US