"No data" in the Flows Dashboard after NTP servers provide future time to VCF Operations for Networks

Products

• VCF Operations for Networks

Issue/Introduction

• There has been a change to the NTP servers configuration causing the VCF Operations for Networks deployment to provide time more than 24 hours into the future
• In Aria Operations for Networks GUI , the Flows counter show "--" for the data sources instead of exact values
  
• Flows query in the UI does not show any flow
  
• Platform Capacity shows Active Flows as "0"
  
• NFCAPD files are created with a future date (in the screenshot below, the year is 2142)
  
  
  

NOTE:  VCF Operations for Networks was formerly named Aria Operations for Networks (AON), and prior to that was named vRealize Network Insight (vRNI).

Environment

Aria Operations for Networks 6.14.0
Aria Operations for Networks 6.14.1
VCF Operations for Networks 9.x.x

Cause

• Incorrect NTP configuration - If the NTP servers that provide time data to the VCF Operations for Networks deployment provide time data that was more than 24 hours further in the future than reality, then flow data will be captured by the application and recorded with date / time stamps that are not appropriate; i.e. the future
• Aria Operations for Networks is not able to process the NFCAPD files because they were created for a future date as the time stamps will be too far in the future to be considered valid by the application.  

Resolution

The resolution of this will depend on a detailed investigation, and attempts to resolve before contacting support are not recommended.

If you experience such symptoms, please open a support case with VCF Operations for Networks support by following the instructions at Creating and managing Broadcom support request (SR) cases