VNSTAT

Section: User Manuals (1)
Updated: JULY 2009
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NAME

vnStat - a console-based network traffic monitor  

SYNOPSIS

vnstat [ -Ddhlmqrstuvw? ] [ -i interface ] [ -ru ] [ -tr time ] [ --cleartop ] [ --config file ] [ --days ] [ --dbdir directory ] [ --debug ] [ --disable ] [ --dumpdb ] [ --enable ] [ --help ] [ --hours ] [ --iface interface ] [ --iflist ] [ --live ] [ --locale locale ] [ --longhelp ] [ --months ] [ --nick nickname ] [ --query ] [ --rateunit ] [ --rebuildtotal ] [ --reset ] [ --short ] [ --showconfig ] [ --sync ] [ --testkernel ] [ --top10 ] [ --traffic time ] [ --update ] [ --version ] [ --weeks ] [ --xml ]  

DESCRIPTION

vnStat is a console-based network traffic monitor. It keeps a log of hourly, daily and monthly network traffic for the selected interface(s). However, it isn't a packet sniffer. The traffic information is analyzed from the proc(5) and sys filesystems depending on availability. That way vnStat can be used even without root permissions on most systems.  

OPTIONS

-d, --days
Show traffic for days.
-h, --hours
Show traffic for the last 24 hours.
-m, --months
Show traffic for months.
-s, --short
Use short output mode. This mode is also used if more than one database is available.
-t, --top10
Show all time top10 traffic days.
-w, --weeks
Show traffic for 7 days, current and previous week.
-tr time
Calculate how much traffic goes through the selected interface during the given time seconds. The time will be 5 seconds if a number parameter isn't included.
-l, --live
Display current transfer rate for the selected interface in real time until interrupted. Statistics will be shown after interruption if runtime was more than 10 seconds.
-ru, --rateunit
Swap the configured rate unit. If rate has been configured to be shown in bytes then rate will be shown in bits if this option is present. In the same way, if rate has been configured to be shown in bits then rate will be shown in bytes when this option is present.
-i, --iface interface
Select one specific interface and apply actions to only it.
--iflist
Show list of currently available interfaces.
-q, --query
Force database query mode.
-u, --update
Update all enabled databases or only the one specified with -i parameter.
-r, --reset
Reset the internal counters in the database for the selected interface. Use this if the interface goes down and back up, otherwise that interface will get some extra traffic to its database.
--sync
Synchronize internal counters in the database with interface counters for the selected interface. Use this if the system is rebooted but interface counters aren't reseted. Such can occur when suspend to ram/disk is used.
--enable, --disable
Enable or disable updates for selected interface. Useful for interfaces that aren't always available, like ppp0. If the interface goes down it should be disabled in order to avoid errors. Add something like vnstat -r --disable -i ppp0 to the script that's executed when the interface goes down and vnstat --enable -i ppp0 to the up script.
-v, --version
Show current version.
--cleartop
Remove all top10 entries.
-?, --help
Show a command summary.
--longhelp
Show complete options list.
--nick nickname
Set the selected interfaces nickname as an alias the will be displayed in queries. Usage of -u is required to save the change.
--config file
Use file as config file instead of using normal config file search function.
--dbdir directory
Use directory as database directory instead of using the directory specified in the configuration file or the hardcoded default if no configuration file is available.
--locale locale
Use locale instead of using the locale setting specified in the configuration file or the system default if no configuration file is available.
--rebuildtotal
Reset the total traffic counters and recount those using recorded months.
--testkernel
Test if the kernel boot time information always stays the same like it should or if it's shifting.
-D, --debug
Show additional debug output.
--xml
Show database content for selected interface or all interfaces in xml format. All traffic values in the output are in KiB.
--dumpdb
Instead of showing the database with a formated output, this output will dump the whole database in a format that should be easy to parse with most script languages. Use this for example with PHP, Perl or Python to make a custom webpage. The dump uses ; as field delimeter.

      active;1		activity status

      interface;eth0		name for the interface

      nick;inet		nick (if given)

      created;1023895272		creation date in Unix time

      updated;1065467100		when the database was updated

      totalrx;569605		all time total received MiB

      totaltx;2023708		all time total transmitted MiB

      currx;621673719		latest rx value in /proc

      curtx;981730184		latest tx value in /proc

      totalrxk;644		total rx KiB counter

      totaltxk;494		total tx KiB counter

      btime;1059414541		system boot time in Unix time

Then follows 30 lines like the following


      d;0;1078696800;559;7433;68;557;1

where d = days, 0 = day number in database (0 is today), 1077314401 date in Unix time, 559 = rx MiB, 7433 = tx MiB, 68 = rx KiB, 557 = tx KiB and 1 tells that vnStat has filled this value and it is in use.

      m;0;1078092000;48649;139704;527;252;1		(x12)

      t;0;1078351200;5979;47155;362;525;1		(x10)

      h;0;1078699800;118265;516545		(x24)

m = months, t = top10 and h = hours, all other fields are in the same order as in days except hours that doesn't have a separate KiB value. For hours the forth and fifth fields have values in KiB.

 

FILES

/var/lib/vnstat/
This directory contains all databases the program uses. Files are named according to the monitored interfaces.
/etc/vnstat.conf
Config file that will be used unless $HOME/.vnstatrc exists. See vnstat.conf(5) for more information.
 

EXAMPLES

vnstat
Display traffic summary for the default interface.
vnstat -i eth0+eth1+eth3
Display traffic summary for a merge of interfaces eth0, eth1 and eth3.
vnstat -i eth2 --xml
Output all information about interface eth2 in xml format.
vnstat -u -i eth0
Force a database update for interface eth0 or create the database if it doesn't exist. This is usually the first command used after a fresh install.
vnstat -u -i eth0 --nick local
Give interface eth0 the nickname "local". That information will be later later visible as a label when eth0 is queried. The database will also be updated when this command is executed or created if the database doesn't exist.
 

RESTRICTIONS

Updates needs to be executed at least as often as it is possible for the interface to generate enough traffic to wrap the kernel interface traffic counter. Otherwise it is possible that some traffic won't be seen. This isn't an issue for 64 bit kernels but at least one update every hour is always required in order to provide proper input. With 32 bit kernels the maximum time between two updates depends on how fast the interface can transfer 4 GiB. Calculated theoretical times are:
10 Mbit:54 minutes
100 Mbit: 5 minutes
1000 Mbit:30 seconds

However, for 1000 Mbit interfaces updating once every minute is usually still a working option.

Estimated traffic values are likely to be somewhat inaccurate if daily traffic is low because only the MiB counter is used to calculate the estimate.

Virtual and aliased interfaces cannot be monitored because the kernel doesn't provide traffic information for that type of interfaces. Such interfaces are usually named eth0:0, eth0:1, eth0:2 etc. where eth0 is the actual interface being aliased.  

AUTHOR

Teemu Toivola <tst at iki dot fi>  

SEE ALSO

vnstatd(1), vnstati(1), vnstat.conf(5), proc(5), ifconfig(8), units(7)

 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
FILES
EXAMPLES
RESTRICTIONS
AUTHOR
SEE ALSO
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Time: 15:05:16 GMT, March 18, 2021