Network traffic appliance for triggering augmented data collection on a network based on traffic patterns

1. An apparatus comprising:

a network traffic appliance for regulating network traffic between computing devices in a network, the network traffic appliance comprising:

a network interface;

a data collector coupled to the network interface, during operation the collection module collecting network traffic data from a first set of data sources based on the data traffic passing through the network traffic appliance at a normal level;

a storage device during operation storing collected network traffic data; and

a traffic performance analysis engine coupled to the data collector, the traffic performance analysis engine, during operation is configured to monitor the network traffic data from the data collector and determine:

whether the network traffic data indicates an abnormal condition, wherein when an abnormal condition is determined by the traffic performance analysis engine, the data collector collects network data from a second set of data sources and increases collection of network traffic data, and the first set of data sources is different than the second set of data sources; and

determine a cause of increased network traffic data flow to enable management of the network.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data collector collects network traffic data from another network traffic appliance for managing network traffic data on another network.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the network traffic appliance is configured to manage network traffic data on another network; and

the data collector and the traffic performance analysis engine are included in a central management device coupled to the network traffic appliance.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data collector monitors the increased collection of the network traffic data to determine a cessation of the abnormal condition.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein collection of network traffic data is returned to the normal level when the abnormal condition has ceased.

6. The system of claim 4 , further comprising returning the collection of network traffic data to the normal level after a predetermined time.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the network traffic data from the increased collection is removed from the memory device after the abnormal condition ceases.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the increased data collection includes network traffic data collected under the Netflow protocol.

9. The network traffic appliance of claim 8 , wherein the data collector is configured as a Netflow data collector.

10. The network traffic appliance of claim 9 , wherein the increased data collection includes at least one of network traffic data from a router, a server, a firewall or a network device.

11. The network traffic appliance of claim 9 , further comprising a quality of service controller executing a policy to direct network traffic managed by the network traffic appliance.

12. The network traffic appliance of claim 9 , wherein the data collector increases collection of network traffic data by collecting network traffic data from a data collection device in the network.

13. The network traffic appliance of claim 9 , wherein the data collector includes a plurality of data interfaces and each of the data interfaces collects a different source of network traffic data.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the increased data collection includes at least one of network traffic data from a router, network device, or simple network management protocol data device.