Network Management

NetFlow Service is inaccessible. Verify that service is 'Started'

The article will show couple of possible resolution and cause of service stop of NTA

First published date

10/20/2018 10:09 PM

Last published date

10/20/2025 3:05 PM

Overview

The following error is displayed when opening any of the NetFlow pages or NTA settings page:

NetFlow Service inaccessible. Verify that service is 'Started'

Product section

Netflow Traffic Analyzer

Cause

This issue may be caused by any of the following:

  • There is a licensing issue. For example, the NTA license doesn't match volume of NPM license.
  • The IP address or hostname of the SolarWinds Platform server has been changed or migrated to another server keeping the old DB; Fix: Either contact support to solve this, or go to Settings > All Settings > Polling Engines > check that you have two primary polling engines > delete the old one. Then go to NetFlow summary view > NetFlow services resource > Edit > Delete the old NetFlow service.
  • The SolarWinds Platform, Flow storage or  SQL server have a different time and time zone.
  • The service is stopped.
  • The service is missing on the primary server. 
  • There are duplicate flow engines in the database table called "Flowengines"
  • Upgraded the Flow Storage Database and never ran the install on the primary. 
  • The Database password has been updated, the SolarWinds Platform Server has SQL always on enabled , a failover has taken place and the Database with the updated password has not been replicated over (in SQL Cluster). NTA is now trying to access the database instance with old password.

Resolution

Licensing issue 

Obtain and apply the correct license to your product.

 

IP address issue 

  1. Contact SolarWinds support or go to SolarWinds Web Console Settings > All Settings > Polling Engines
  2. Check that you have two primary polling engines.
  3. Delete the old polling engine.
  4. Go to NetFlow summary view > NetFlow services resource > Edit and delete the old NetFlow service.

Time and time zone issue 

Verify that the SolarWinds Platform, SQL and Netflow Flow Storage servers are on the same time and time zone.


NTA Service is stopped: 

  1. Start NTA service through Start > Run > services.msc.
  2. Find SolarWinds NetFlow Service.
  3. Right click, and Start the service.

 

NTA Collector is missing: 

  1. Checked database manager 
  2. Query the flow engines table if the entry is missing. 
  3. Open control panel>program and features, and run repair on NTA to correct the problem.