---
title: "Data Flow Overview"
slug: "data-flow-overview-tg"
updated: 2026-10-27T17:23:23Z
published: 2026-10-27T17:23:23Z
canonical: "docs.vastdata.com/data-flow-overview-tg"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vastdata.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Data Flow Overview

The Data Flow analytics tool provides a detailed graphic view of how the IO load is distributed throughout the cluster network over a chosen sampling period within recent days. Using Data Flow, you can monitor the load distribution and identify load balancing issues.

For example, you might identify:

- Virtual IP balancing issues to be fixed with client remounts.
- Rarely used views. Views only appear on the Data Flow page if they received IOs during the selected time period.
- Load distribution for top performing users and hosts. For example, if the top n performing users are shown to map to a subset of CNodes.
- Overloaded CNodes. Since every client mount is allocated a single virtual IP and virtual IPs can move between CNodes, it's possible for a disproportionate number of client users to be writing to the same CNode. It's also possible for clients to mount views using a specific VIP instead of being allocated a VIP by a DNS server. If a single VIP is overused for mounts, that will naturally lead to sub optimal balancing.
- Underused CNodes. A CNode that rarely appears on the page is likely to be underused.
- Views that receive higher traffic than others. If a specific subset of client hosts is sending most of the traffic to a high-traffic view, you might decide to allocate a virtual IP pool with a dedicated CNode group to that set of hosts.
- Heavily used and top performing databases.