How to Monitor Network Traffic with vnStat on Ubuntu 22.04
This tutorial exists for these OS versions
- Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish)
- Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa)
On this page
vnStat is a free, open-source, and console-based network traffic monitoring tool for Linux operating system. With vnStat, you can monitor network statistics over various time periods. It is simple, lightweight, and consumes a small portion of your system resources. vnStat allow you to generate the network traffic data in an hour, day, month, week, and day. This tutorial will show you how to install and use vnStat to monitor network traffic.
Features
- Monitor multiple interfaces at the same time.
- Provides several output options, such as day-wise, week-wise, etc.
- Sort the data by hour, day, month, or week or get the top 10 days.
- Allows you to generate output in image format.
- Monitor multiple network interfaces at the same time.
- Lightweight and low CPU usage.
This tutorial will show you how to install and use the VnStat tool to monitor network traffic on Ubuntu 22.04.
Prerequisites
- A server running Ubuntu 20.04.
- A root password is configured on the server.
Getting Started
Before starting, updating and upgrading all system packages to the latest version is recommended. You can update all of them using the following command:
apt update -y
apt upgrade -y
Once all the packages are updated, you can install the VnStat from the source in the next step.
Install vnStat
By default, the latest version of vnStat is not available in the Ubuntu default repository. So you will need to compile it from the source.
First, install all the dependencies required to compile vnStat with the following command:
apt-get install build-essential gcc make libsqlite3-dev -y
Once all the dependencies are installed, download the latest version of the vnStat source with the following command:
wget https://humdi.net/vnstat/vnstat-2.10.tar.gz
Once the download is completed, extract the downloaded file with the following command:
tar -xvzf vnstat-2.10.tar.gz
Next, change the directory to the extracted directory and configure it with the following command:
cd vnstat-2.10
./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc
Next, install the vnStat by running the following command:
make
make install
Once vnStat is installed, you can verify the installed version of vnStat with the following command:
vnstat -v
You should get the following output:
vnStat 2.10 by Teemu Toivola
Once you are finished, you can proceed to the next step.
Use Systemd To Manage VnStat
To manage VnStat with systemd, you will need to copy the vnStat systemd service file from the vnStat source to the /etc/systemd/system/ directory:
cp -v vnstat-2.10/examples/systemd/vnstat.service /etc/systemd/system/
Next, enable the vnStat service and start it with the following command:
systemctl enable vnstat
systemctl start vnstat
You can also check the status of vnStat service using the following command:
systemctl status vnstat
You should get the following output:
? vnstat.service - vnStat network traffic monitor
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/vnstat.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Tue 2022-11-29 08:34:08 IST; 2h 49min ago
Docs: man:vnstatd(1)
man:vnstat(1)
man:vnstat.conf(5)
Main PID: 1730 (vnstatd)
Tasks: 1 (limit: 4915)
CGroup: /system.slice/vnstat.service
??1730 /usr/sbin/vnstatd -n
Nov 29 08:34:08 vyompc systemd[1]: Started vnStat network traffic monitor.
Nov 29 08:34:08 vyompc vnstatd[1730]: Info: vnStat daemon 1.18 started. (pid:1730 uid:122 gid:128)
Nov 29 08:34:08 vyompc vnstatd[1730]: Info: Monitoring: enp20s0 (1000 Mbit) wlp22s0 (1000 Mbit)
Once you are finished, you can proceed to the next step.
How to Monitor Network Traffic with vnStat
vnStat provides several options that allow you to monitor the network traffic. You can list all available options with the following command:
vnstat --help
You should get the following output:
vnStat 2.10 by Teemu Toivola-5, --fiveminutes [limit] show 5 minutes -h, --hours [limit] show hours -hg, --hoursgraph show hours graph -d, --days [limit] show days -m, --months [limit] show months -y, --years [limit] show years -t, --top [limit] show top days -b, --begin set list begin date -e, --end set list end date --oneline [mode] show simple parsable format --json [mode] [limit] show database in json format --xml [mode] [limit] show database in xml format -tr, --traffic [time] calculate traffic -l, --live [mode] show transfer rate in real time -i, --iface select interface Use "--longhelp" or "man vnstat" for complete list of options.
Before using vnStat, you will need to wait for some time to update the vnStat database. After updating the database, you can run vnStat without any option as shown below:
vnstat
You should see the following output:
rx / tx / total / estimated
wlp22s0:
Oct '22 17.80 GiB / 4.35 GiB / 22.15 GiB
Nov '22 16.61 GiB / 3.62 GiB / 20.23 GiB / 21.48 GiB
yesterday 332.22 MiB / 114.17 MiB / 446.39 MiB
today 710.25 MiB / 44.85 MiB / 755.11 MiB / 1.55 GiB
To use the specific network interface, use the -i option as shown below:
vnstat -i ens3
You should get the daily and monthly statistics in the following output:
Database updated: 2020-11-12 06:30:00
ens3 since Saturday 29 January 2022
rx: 185.89 GiB tx: 38.82 GiB total: 224.70 GiB
monthly
rx | tx | total | avg. rate
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
Oct '22 17.80 GiB | 4.35 GiB | 22.15 GiB | 71.04 kbit/s
Nov '22 16.61 GiB | 3.62 GiB | 20.23 GiB | 71.20 kbit/s
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
estimated 17.64 GiB | 3.85 GiB | 21.48 GiB |
daily
rx | tx | total | avg. rate
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
yesterday 332.22 MiB | 114.17 MiB | 446.39 MiB | 43.34 kbit/s
today 710.25 MiB | 44.85 MiB | 755.11 MiB | 154.31 kbit/s
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
estimated 1.46 GiB | 92 MiB | 1.55 GiB |
To display the hourly statistics, run the following command:
vnstat -h
You should get the following output:
ens3 / hourly h rx (MiB) tx (MiB) ][ h rx (MiB) tx (MiB) ][ h rx (MiB) tx (MiB) 12 5.4 0.2 ][ 20 30.4 14.8 ][ 04 0.0 0.0 13 72.7 15.0 ][ 21 24.8 6.4 ][ 05 0.0 0.0 14 1.9 0.4 ][ 22 20.1 9.8 ][ 06 0.0 0.0 15 0.0 0.0 ][ 23 0.0 0.0 ][ 07 0.0 0.0 16 0.0 0.0 ][ 00 0.0 0.0 ][ 08 147.0 10.2 17 36.4 9.6 ][ 01 0.0 0.0 ][ 09 64.1 9.4 18 54.0 23.4 ][ 02 0.0 0.0 ][ 10 496.9 23.9 19 86.5 34.5 ][ 03 0.0 0.0 ][ 11 2.3 1.3
To display the daily statistics, run the following command:
vnstat -d
You should get the following output:
ens3 / daily
day rx | tx | total | avg. rate
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
Sunday 30 October 2022 266.75 MiB | 47.81 MiB | 314.56 MiB | 30.54 kbit/s
Monday 31 October 2022 701.49 MiB | 225.89 MiB | 927.38 MiB | 90.04 kbit/s
Tuesday 01 November 2022 506.20 MiB | 184.50 MiB | 690.70 MiB | 67.06 kbit/s
Wednesday 02 November 2022 631.15 MiB | 182.43 MiB | 813.59 MiB | 78.99 kbit/s
Thursday 03 November 2022 189.21 MiB | 41.18 MiB | 230.39 MiB | 22.37 kbit/s
Friday 04 November 2022 703.67 MiB | 175.49 MiB | 879.16 MiB | 85.36 kbit/s
Saturday 05 November 2022 518.96 MiB | 130.47 MiB | 649.43 MiB | 63.05 kbit/s
Sunday 06 November 2022 301.74 MiB | 81.95 MiB | 383.69 MiB | 37.25 kbit/s
You can use the option -t to display the top traffic days:
vnstat -t
You should get the following output:
ens3 / top 1
# day rx | tx | total | avg. rate
-----------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
1 Thursday 03 February 2022 2.58 GiB | 214.64 MiB | 2.79 GiB | 277.76 kbit/s
2 Saturday 05 February 2022 2.11 GiB | 229.32 MiB | 2.33 GiB | 231.67 kbit/s
3 Tuesday 01 February 2022 1.81 GiB | 190.56 MiB | 2.00 GiB | 198.71 kbit/s
4 Wednesday 02 February 2022 1.80 GiB | 179.75 MiB | 1.98 GiB | 196.72 kbit/s
5 Sunday 10 July 2022 1.69 GiB | 248.34 MiB | 1.93 GiB | 192.21 kbit/s
6 Saturday 19 February 2022 1.56 GiB | 172.67 MiB | 1.73 GiB | 171.56 kbit/s
7 Friday 16 September 2022 1.44 GiB | 201.21 MiB | 1.64 GiB | 163.16 kbit/s
8 Friday 17 June 2022 1.34 GiB | 278.89 MiB | 1.61 GiB | 160.33 kbit/s
9 Friday 25 March 2022 1.06 GiB | 504.19 MiB | 1.55 GiB | 154.51 kbit/s
10 Monday 07 February 2022 1.30 GiB | 160.68 MiB | 1.46 GiB | 145.30 kbit/s
-----------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
To display the network traffic statistics in real time, run the following command:
vnstat -l
You should get the following output:
Monitoring ens3... (press CTRL-C to stop)
rx: 11 kbit/s 7 p/s tx: 9 kbit/s 6 p/s^C
ens3 / traffic statistics
rx | tx
--------------------------------------+------------------
bytes 17 KiB | 18 KiB
--------------------------------------+------------------
max 24 kbit/s | 33 kbit/s
average 6.78 kbit/s | 7.39 kbit/s
min 0 kbit/s | 0 kbit/s
--------------------------------------+------------------
packets 78 | 82
--------------------------------------+------------------
max 10 p/s | 11 p/s
average 3 p/s | 4 p/s
min 0 p/s | 0 p/s
--------------------------------------+------------------
time 20 seconds
You can also clear the database entries for interface ens3 and stop monitoring using the following command:
vnstat -i ens3 --remove --force
You should get the following output:
Interface "ens3" removed from database. The interface will no longer be monitored. Use --add if monitoring the interface is again needed.
You can also add the removed interface ens3 again by running the following command:
vnstat -i ens3 --add
You should get the following output:
Adding interface "ens3" for monitoring to database... Restart the vnStat daemon if it is currently running in order to start monitoring "ens3".
Next, restart the vnStat service to apply the changes:
systemctl restart vnstat
Conclusion
In this post, we explained how to install vnStat on Ubuntu 22.04. We also show you how to use it to monitor network traffic with several examples. You can now use this tool to analyze and troubleshoot network-related problems. Feel free to ask me if you have any questions.
