In a network environment, capturing agents or sensors can be placed at various devices or elements in the network to collect flow data and network statistics from different locations. The collected data from the capturing agents can be analyzed to monitor and troubleshoot the network. The data collected from the capturing agents can provide valuable details about the status, security, or performance of the network, as well as any network elements. Information about the capturing agents can also help interpret the data from the capturing agents, in order to infer or ascertain additional details from the collected data. For example, understanding the placement (e.g., deployment location) of a capturing agent within a device or virtualized environment can provide a context to the data reported by the capturing agents, which can further help identify specific patterns or conditions in the network.
With larger networks, however, the number of capturing agents and sessions can grow to millions or more. It thus becomes very difficult to scale the numerous capturing agents and sensors. Moreover, as the number of collectors used in the network to collect the captured data from the capturing agents grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to track, organize, and maintain different portions of the same network flow.