vnStat

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

By default, traffic statistics are stored on a five-minute level for the last 48 hours, on an hourly level for the last 4 days, on a daily level for the last 2 full months, and on a yearly level forever. The data retention durations are fully user-configurable. Total seen traffic and a top days listing are also provided. Optional png image output is available in systems with the gd library installed.

Feature

• quick and simple to install and get running
• gathered statistics persist through system reboots
• can monitor multiple interfaces at the same time
• several output options
  • summary, 5 minutes, hourly, daily, monthly, weekly, yearly, top days
  • optional png image output (using libgd)
• data retention duration is fully user configurable on the fly
• months can be configured to follow the billing period
• light, minimal resource usage
• same low cpu usage regardless of traffic
• can be used without root permissions
• online color configuration editor

Changelog v2.8

• Fixed
  • Using a combination of --live and --json wasn’t flushing stdout after
    each line resulting in buffered output if the output was being piped
  • Image output would fail to show the last line bar graph in list outputs
    if EstimateStyle was 0, BarColumnShowsRate was 1 and the last line had a
    higher traffic rate than other lines
  • Image output didn’t correctly horizontally align the “no data available”
    message in 5 minute graph depending on the width of the image
  • Image output related configuration warnings could get shown when image
    output wasn’t being used
  • Warnings of mismatches between image output and data retention
    configuration didn’t provide relevant details for solving the issues
  • BandwidthDetection was being used for tun interfaces even when the
    Linux kernel had the information hardcoded to 10 Mbit regardless of the
    used real interface, interface specific MaxBW will now be used instead
    or MaxBandwidth as fallback
  • Configured interface specific MaxBW values were getting overridden by
    BandwidthDetection when something could be detected
  • Image output horizontal rx/tx bars often had one pixel too much width in
    the tx section resulting in slightly wrong ratio getting shown
  • Top days list wasn’t always sorting entries with exactly the same traffic
    sum using ascending date
  • 64bitInterfaceCounters with value -2 always assumed 32-bit on Linux
    systems until a 64-bit value was seen if kernel headers weren’t available
    when binaries were built
• New
  • Add the possibility of specifying an interface without using the
    -i / --iface options (vnstat and vnstati)
  • The daemon can discover added interfaces from the database without
    requiring a restart, configurable with option RescanDatabaseOnSave
  • Add configuration option UseUTC for using UTC as timezone for database
    entries instead of following the system timezone configuration
  • --iflist uses user configured interface specific MaxBW values in the
    output when available instead of showing only the kernel provided
    information when detected
  • Add configuration option AlwaysAddNewInterfaces to expose the daemon
    --alwaysadd command line option which gains an optional mode parameter
  • Image output uses LibGD filled arc bug workaround only for LibGD
    versions that are known to be broken
  • Image output example cgi (examples/vnstat.cgi) improvements
    • Automatically lists all monitored interfaces instead of requiring the
      list to be filled manually, server name in page title comes from
      hostname command by default
    • Provides links for most available images to more detailed or longer
      versions of each image
    • Allows direct interface specific page access with /interfacename suffix
      for the cgi if the used httpd supports PATH_INFO
    • Page auto refresh can be enabled with configurable interval

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Copyright (C) 2017 vergoh