## Overview

This section explains the concept of the Opsview Flow Collector Module; including what NetFlow, sFlow and jFlow data are, how it is sent back into Opsview Monitor, and finally how the gathered data can be interpreted and analyzed.

Opsview Monitor's Flow Collector Module is an add-on module for Opsview Monitor SMB, Enterprise and MSP customers which enables the collection and analysis of flow-enabled network devices, such as NetFlow from Cisco routers, sFlow from HP Switches and more.

The main benefit of flow protocols such as NetFlow and sFlow is that they allow you to look 'inside' the connection to see not only 'That link is 95% utilized', but to understand why: i.e. is a user downloading large files continuously, is a router misconfigured, etc.

Flow Module currently supports the three main flow protocols:

• NetFlow

• jFlow

• sFlow