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philb19

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Quick monitor linux NIC - network utilization over 24 hours

im looking for something to monitor a linux NIC - without using snmp - do you know of a way i can monitor network utilization quickly of a linux server ? - without full blown monitoring solution (snmp) ? - in linux is there a comand to show utilization - i don't manage the server but the DBAs say no graphic - all just unix shell . thanks
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namol

What are you looking to get out of this monitoring? Do you want something real time like ntop can provide or do you want it to log locally until you check it at a later time?
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ASKER

Thanks namol - realtime yes - but more so log locally and check after 24/48 hours - any ideas?
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giltjr
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"Full blown monitoring solution" is not "snmp", what I am presuming from your question.

SNMP is a small protocol which any monitoring software (big or small) uses. You HAVE TO enable snmp whatever your purpose is, for monitoring because that protocol has been developed for monitoring only.

 I want to monitor but no snmp...... it's like asking to put an ip address without tcp/ip......

mrtg/prtg will give you what you want, as already suggested. They are small/compact.

Best,
What are you going to accomplish with this tracking, do you want to keep network statistics or just get notified when an interface goes down/up/bounces/etc?

If you just want to see when an interface starts flapping or is going down and then returning up you can see that in /var/log/messages log or wherever your distro logs are configured to go.
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ASKER

SNMP - ok will do however is it safe to monitor on a VLAN that is used for storage? - bearing in mind it is sensitive to latency. - will the snmp cause allot of traffic and hence effect performance?
How many interfaces do you plan to monitor?  Unless you are pushing the network close to its limits it should not affect.

Do you have managed switches?  If so, I would monitor the switch ports the Linux server is connected to instead of the Linux server itself.
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ASKER

yes thanks - what is the benefit of doing the switch interface rather than the linux server?

No dont think pushing to the limit. thanks again

switchs managed - monitor 1 switch
Less network traffic getting to the Linux server, so less resource consumption on it and less chance that it might interfere with iSCSI traffic.