From webhostingwalk.com
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.
A new database can be created with the following command:
vnstat -u -i eth0
Show traffic for days.
# vnstat -d
eth0 / daily
day rx | tx | total | avg. rate
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
06/30/10 3.84 MiB | 3.29 MiB | 7.13 MiB | 1.22 kbit/s
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
estimated 5 MiB | 5 MiB | 10 MiB |
To list additional debug output:
# vnstat -D
Config file: /etc/vnstat.conf
c: Interface "eth0"
-> "Interface": "eth0"
c: DatabaseDir "/var/lib/vnstat"
-> "DatabaseDir": "/var/lib/vnstat"
c: Locale "-"
-> "Locale": "-"
To show traffic for the last 24 hours:
# vnstat -h
eth0 13:19
^ r
| r
| rt
| rt
| rt
| rt
| rt
| rt
| rt
| rt
-+--------------------------------------------------------------------------->
| 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13
h rx (KiB) tx (KiB) h rx (KiB) tx (KiB) h rx (KiB) tx (KiB)
14 0 0 22 0 0 06 0 0
15 0 0 23 0 0 07 0 0
16 0 0 00 0 0 08 0 0
17 0 0 01 0 0 09 0 0
18 0 0 02 0 0 10 0 0
19 0 0 03 0 0 11 0 0
20 0 0 04 0 0 12 153 195
21 0 0 05 0 0 13 3779 3174
Select one specific interface and apply actions to only it.
# vnstat -i eth0
Show list of currently available interfaces.
# vnstat -iflist
Available interfaces: lo eth0 eth1 sit0 vmnet1 vmnet8
To Display current transfer rate for the selected interface in real time until interrupted. Statistics will be shown after interruption if the run- time was more than 10 seconds.
# vnstat -l
Monitoring eth0... (press CTRL-C to stop)
rx: 4 kbit/s 2 p/s tx: 4 kbit/s 3 p/s
To show traffic for months.
# vnstat -m
eth0 / monthly
month rx | tx | total | avg. rate
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
Jun '10 3.84 MiB | 3.29 MiB | 7.13 MiB | 0.02 kbit/s
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
estimated 3 MiB | 3 MiB | 6 MiB |
To show traffic summary for selected interface using one line with a parseable format.
# vnstat --oneline
1;eth0;06/30/10;3.84 MiB;3.29 MiB;7.13 MiB;1.22 kbit/s;Jun '10;3.84 MiB;3.29 MiB;7.13 MiB;0.02 kbit/s;3.84 MiB;3.29 MiB;7.13 MiB
Show all time top10 traffic days.
# vnstat -t
To 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.
54 packets sampled in 5 seconds
Traffic average for eth0
rx 6.40 kbit/s 5 packets/s
tx 6.40 kbit/s 5 packets/s
To update all enabled databases.
# vnstat -u
To show traffic for 7 days, current and previous week.
# vnstat -w
eth0 / weekly
rx | tx | total | avg. rate
---------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
last 7 days 3.84 MiB | 3.29 MiB | 7.13 MiB | 0.10 kbit/s
current week 3.84 MiB | 3.29 MiB | 7.13 MiB | 0.26 kbit/s
---------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
estimated 8 MiB | 8 MiB | 16 MiB |
To delete database of interface eth2 and stop monitoring it.
# vnstat -i eth2 --delete
