Monitoring network traffic with ibmonitor

If you want to monitor the traffic on network interfaces on a Linux system, one tool that will give you real-time statistics on network utilization is ibmonitor. An RPM package and the Perl script that constitutes the program and is contained in ibmonitor-1.4.tar.gz can be downloaded from ibmonitor. The program is a console application , i.e., a command line program with a text interface. It is written in the Perl programming language. Its features include the following:

When run, the program will display output similar to the following output from the application on a CentOS Linux system:

 Interface    Received        Sent       Total
                  Kbps        Kbps        Kbps

 enp1s4           1.04        4.00        5.12

 lo               0.00        0.00        0.00

 virbr0           0.00        0.00        0.00

 virbr0-nic        0.00        0.00        0.00

 All              1.04        4.00        5.12

 Press 'q' to quit...           Elapsed time: 0 hrs, 1 mins, 10 s

If you download the RPM file from the provided link, you can use yum to install it on a RedHat, Fedora, or CentOS Linux system.

# yum install ibmonitor-1.4-1.noarch.rpm
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, langpacks
Examining ibmonitor-1.4-1.noarch.rpm: ibmonitor-1.4-1.noarch
Marking ibmonitor-1.4-1.noarch.rpm to be installed
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ibmonitor.noarch 0:1.4-1 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

================================================================================
 Package         Arch         Version       Repository                     Size
================================================================================
Installing:
 ibmonitor       noarch       1.4-1         /ibmonitor-1.4-1.noarch        58 k

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install  1 Package

Total size: 58 k
Installed size: 58 k
Is this ok [y/d/N]: y
Downloading packages:
Running transaction check
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction
  Installing : ibmonitor-1.4-1.noarch                                       1/1
  Verifying  : ibmonitor-1.4-1.noarch                                       1/1

Installed:
  ibmonitor.noarch 0:1.4-1

Complete!
#

If you install the .rpm file with yum, the program will be installed in /bin:

# which ibmonitor
/bin/ibmonitor

If you use the .tar.gz file, instead, you can copy the Perl script named ibmonitor into any directory which is in your path, e.g. /bin or /usr/bin.

The utility will only run on linux distros which support the /proc filesystem, due to the fact that ibmonitor reads the file /proc/net/dev for the byte counter values.

To obtain help on using the utility, type ibmonitor -h or ibmonitor --help:

$ ibmonitor -h

ibmonitor version 1.4
usage: ibmonitor [--bits] [--bytes] [--max] [--avg]
                [--data] [--interval n] [--colors | --nocolors]
                [--dev regex] [--file proc] [--help] [--version]

The following command line options (and their explanation) are available:

--bits       -> Show output values in KBits/sec. This is the default.
--bytes      -> Show output values in KBytes/sec
--max        -> Show maximum values per interface
--avg        -> Show average values per interface
--interval n -> Set time interval as n seconds. The default is 2 seconds.
--data       -> Show data transferred in KB/MB/GB
--colors     -> Show some fancy coloring! (This is the default)
--nocolors   -> No fancy coloring please!
--dev regex  -> Show output from device which matches regex
--file proc  -> Specify which file to use in the proc filesystem
                for the interface byte counter
--help       -> Show help and exit
--version    -> Show version number and exit

While the program is running, the following keys
are recognized, which enables the user to change the output display
format of the program.

Note: ibmonitor responds directly to the single keystroke
      ie. the 'Enter' key need not be pressed

q    -> [q]uit
1-9  -> Set sleep time interval(in seconds) to the digit entered
m    -> Toggle display of [m]ax bandwidth
a    -> Toggle display of [a]verage bandwidth
i    -> Toggle display of values in KB[i]ts/sec (Kbps)
y    -> Toggle display of values in KB[y]tes/sec (KBps)
d    -> Toggle display of [d]ata transferred
s    -> Shift interface up/down.
        This should be followed by the interface number,
        and then the direction (u or d)
r    -> [r]eset all values
?/h  -> help screen for interactive commands

$

 

 

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