NAM (Network Analysis Module) vs NGA (NetFlow Generation Appliance)

[s.arzandeh]

Hi,

I want to gather netflow traffic from my devices in the network including switches and routers. For performance issue i cant enable netflow on my devices so i want to buy netflow collector and using span port. But I dont know:

1. which type of netflow collector should i buy? NAM appliance Or NGA? what are differences?

2. what type of device each support?

thank u so much

[Marvin Rhoads]

The data sheets for the devices indicate what they support formally. Generally speaking it's just a span port so there's not much dependency on the devices providing the raw stream to be analyzed.

These are very expensive units (List prices: NGA US$40,000, NAM3 module for 6k US$59,000, NAM 2420 Appliance US$78,000) and I haven't seen any adoption in the customers I work with.

This has not been one of Cisco's strong areas - I would at least consider some third party options that offer competitive solutions. Riverbed, for example.