vnStat

vnStat is a console-based network traffic monitor that uses the network interface statistics provided by the kernel as information source. This means that vnStat won't actually be sniffing any traffic and also ensures light use of system resources.

Traffic statistics are stored on a hourly level for the last 24 hours, on a daily level for the last 30 days and on a monthly level for the last 12 months. Total seen traffic and a top 10 days listing is also provided. Optional png image output is available in systems with the gd library installed.

See the official webpage http://humdi.net/vnstat/ for additional details and output examples.

Getting started

vnStat works best when installed. It's possible to either use the latest stable release or get the current development version from git.

Stable version

1. wget http://humdi.net/vnstat/vnstat-latest.tar.gz
2. optional steps for verifying the file signature
   1. wget http://humdi.net/vnstat/vnstat-latest.tar.gz.asc
   2. gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-key 0xDAFE84E63D140114
   3. gpg --verify vnstat-latest.tar.gz.asc vnstat-latest.tar.gz
   4. the signature is correct if the output shows "Good signature from Teemu Toivola"
3. tar zxvf vnstat-latest.tar.gz
4. cd vnstat-*

Development version (not recommended currently, documentation not up to date)

1. git clone https://github.com/vergoh/vnstat
2. cd vnstat

In both cases, continue with instructions from the INSTALL or INSTALL_BSD file depending on used operating system. Experimental instructions for OS X are available in the INSTALL_OSX file. Instructions for upgrading from a previous version are included in the UPGRADE file.

Current development status

Unlike version 1.18, the current development version uses a sqlite database for storing data instead of a C structure dump in a file. This change enables having longer-duration statistics with user-configurable data retention durations. Yearly and five-minute resolution statistics are now included.

Overall status

• beta version
  • possibly more beta than seen with recent 1.x releases
  • has been tested so far mainly in 24/7 running servers
• vnstatd (daemon) has all features implemented
  • some sanity checks may be missing or disabled
• vnstat (console output) has most features implemented
• vnstati (image output) has all intended original features implemented
• test coverage is better than with 1.x releases
  • some unit conversion issues have been found and fixed

Done

• vnstatd (daemon)
  • database creation and handling
  • support for multiple interfaces
  • dynamic data buffering, SaveInterval is honored
  • 5 minute, hourly, daily, monthly, yearly and total traffic recorded to database
  • legacy database files are read only during first startup for data import
    • write support is no longer included in code
    • legacy database files aren't removed after first time import to new database
  • full data import from vnStat 1.x database format including reconstructed yearly data
  • legacy database is not kept in memory for each interface during daemon runtime
  • new configuration options for data retention durations
    • features can be disabled
  • old data cleanup
    • executed during startup and then once every hour
  • logging and handling of possible database access errors
    • only fatal errors will cause the daemon to exit directly
• most vnstat (console output) features
• all vnstati (image output) features
• pebibyte support

Removed features

• text format database import
  • most likely better to do directly via sqlite cli or using some script language
• merge of data from multiple interfaces
• weekly ouput
• MonthRotate configuration option
• kernel test
  • provided some use mostly with 2.0 and 2.2 kernels
• --update / -u using vnstat command
• old style (default in versions up to 1.7) summary layout in image output

TODO

• grep TODO src/* tests/*
• rewrite version 1.18 feature which didn't merge properly
• output of 5 minute resolution statistics (vnstat and vnstati)
  • possibly not included in first 2.x release
• query of specific time range date
  • most likely not included in first 2.x release
  • extending the length of the current outputs is however already supported
    • hourly output is the only exception
• feature configurability
• freeze database structure
  • plan ahead and figure out how to migrate data to new structure if necessary?
• documentation
  • will be updated once merged to master from branch
  • especially feature comparison with 1.x versions is needed as some features may be left out
• remember what else has been forgotten from this list

Contacting the author

email: Teemu Toivola irc: Vergo (IRCNet) git: https://github.com/vergoh/vnstat

Bug reports, improvement ideas, feature requests and pull requests should be sent using the matching features on GitHub as those are harder to miss or forget.