NFO Deployment Guide
This guide serves as your strategic roadmap for successfully deploying NetFlow Optimizer (NFO) in both single-node and horizontally scaled architectures. It focuses on the crucial pre-installation phases, architectural design, and initial configuration to ensure NFO is optimized for your environment.
This guide is planning-focused. For step-by-step software installation, see the NFO Installation Guide.
Purpose of this Guide
This guide assists you in strategically planning and executing the deployment of NetFlow Optimizer (NFO). It focuses on architectural considerations, pre-installation planning, and the initial configuration steps required to get NFO operational within your network.
The NFO Central component is recommended when horizontal scalability is needed to process extremely high volumes of NetFlow data across multiple peer nodes.
Audience
This guide is intended for network architects, deployment engineers, and IT professionals responsible for the initial setup and integration of NetFlow Optimizer into their infrastructure.
Document Structure
| Section Title | Descriptive Summary | Focus Area |
|---|---|---|
| Planning Your NFO Deployment Strategy | Determine your goals, identify data sources, and establish your target system requirements. | Defining Scale and Requirements |
| Deployment Architecture Considerations | Review sizing matrices and architectural options (Single-Node vs. NFO Central/Distributed) to match your environment's scale. | Choosing the Right Architecture |
| Pre-Installation Checklist | A comprehensive list of prerequisites, firewall rules, and system configurations required before running the installer. | Preparation |
| Initial Configuration for Data Collection | Steps for setting up the NFO server, licensing, and configuring the first NetFlow/IPFIX data listeners. | First Steps Post-Install |
| Verification of Initial Data Flow | Confirming that NFO is successfully ingesting, processing, and outputting data from your network devices. | Validation |
| Next Steps: Transitioning to Administration | Guidance on where to go next for monitoring, maintenance, and advanced feature configuration. | Post-Deployment |