# Understanding NetFlow duplication: Why it happens, and how to deduplicate

DevFeed: [Understanding NetFlow duplication: Why it happens, and how to deduplicate](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/understanding-netflow-duplication-why-it-happens-and-how-to-deduplicate-2317.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.datadoghq.com/blog/understanding-netflow-duplication/>)

Author: Julie Wang; Garrison Stauffer

Published: 2026-09-11T00:00:00Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [Datadog | The Monitor blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/datadog-the-monitor-blog.md>)

Topics: [telemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/telemetry.md>)

Tags: [how-to](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/how-to.md>), [metrics](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/metrics.md>), [monitoring](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/monitoring.md>), [netflow](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/netflow.md>), [network-device-monitoring](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/network-device-monitoring.md>), [networks](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/networks.md>)

## AI overview

The article explains why NetFlow flow records can be duplicated and how duplicate traffic data distorts network analytics. It covers ingress/egress and multi-exporter duplication, recommends selective monitoring, and introduces deduplication in Datadog.

## Source excerpt

Learn about the underlying factors that cause duplication of NetFlow traffic flow data, how to prevent the issue, and how Datadog can help.