Configuring settings with vnStat under pfSense.
vnStat is a console-based program for network traffic monitoring in Linux and BSD. It keeps a log of hourly, daily, and monthly network traffic for the selected interfaces. It uses the network interface statistics provided by the kernel as an information source. This means two things. [1] vnStat isn’t a packet sniffer. But equally important [2] vnStat does not heavily tax system resources. A Linux kernel of at least 2.2 is required. Here, we are concerned with installing and configuring vnStat under pfSense.
Network Traffic Monitoring with vnStat: Installation and Configuration
To install vnStat under pfSense, navigate to System -> Packages and click on the “Available Packages” tab. Scroll down the list of available packages to vnStat, and press the “plus” button on the right side of the entry. On the next page, press the “Confirm” button to confirm installation, which should not take more than a few minutes.
In order to create a vnStat database for an interface, you need to start an SSH session with your pfSense box or access it directly from the console. Then type “8″ at the pfSense menu to start a shell session. At the command line, type the following:
vnstat -u -i eth0
where eth0 is the interface to be monitored.
Viewing stats for the LAN interface with vnStat.
Once installation is complete, you can begin network traffic monitoring. There should be an entry under the Status menu called “Vnstat2“. Navigate to Status -> Vnstat2 and click on the “Config” tab for VnStat configuration options. The “MonthRotate” dropdown box allows you to specify the day of month that months are expected to change. This is usually set to 1, but it can be set to alternate values. For example, if you need to track monthly billed traffic where the billing period does not start on the first day of the month, you can change this parameter accordingly. The “Enable php frontend for vnstat” check box allows you to enable the vnstat frontend (no login needed).
On the second tab, “Vnstati“, you can see pie charts, bar graphs and tables detailing usage of the interface selected from the dropdown box. You can only see information, however, with interfaces for which databases were created. By clicking on the “Access vnstat php frontend” tab, you can access the php frontend, if it is installed and enabled (you can download this frontend from sqweek.com. From the “vnstat info” tab, you can see information about selected interfaces (once you select an interface, the information presented can be filtered via the dropdown box at the top – for example, you can choose to see only activity for the last 24 hours). The “vnstat summary” tab allows you to see a summary of all interfaces for which databases were created.
External Links:
PHP frontend for VnStat at sqweek.com
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