Ubuntu Manpage: vnstatd - daemon based database updating for vnStat

NAME

       vnstatd - daemon based database updating for vnStat

SYNOPSIS

       vnstatd  [ -Ddnpsv?  ] [ --config file ] [ --daemon ] [ --debug ] [ -g group ] [ --group group ] [ --help
       ] [ --noadd ] [ --nodaemon ] [ --pidfile file ] [ --sync ] [ --u user ] [ --user user ] [ --version ]

DESCRIPTION

       The purpose of vnstatd is to provide a more flexible and robust way for updating vnstat(1) databases than
       what using cron for updating can provide. The daemon makes possible updating databases more often but  at
       the  same  time causes less disk access since data can be cached and written only later to disk at a user
       configurable interval. The availability of each interface is automatically tracked which removes the need
       for additional scripts to be implemented and called when an interface comes online or goes offline.

       vnstatd is the command for starting the daemon. The daemon can either fork itself to run as a  background
       process or stay attached to the terminal.  It supports logging to a user selectable file or using syslog.

       Once  started, the daemon will read vnstat.conf(5) if available and then check if there are any databases
       available in the database directory that has been specified in the configuration file. New databases will
       be created for all available interfaces excluding pseudo interfaces lo, lo0 and sit0 if no databases  are
       found  during  startup.   This behaviour can be disabled if needed. The daemon will then proceed to track
       the availability of monitored interfaces, process the interface traffic statistics and write  new  values
       to databases at a configured interval. As a result, the daemon ends up spending most of the time sleeping
       between updates.

OPTIONS

--config file
Use file as configuration file instead of using normal configuration file search functionality.

-d, --daemon
Fork process to background and run as a daemon.

-D, --debug
Provide additional output for debug purposes. The process will stay attached to the terminal for
output.

-g, --group group
Set daemon process group to group during startup. group can be either the name of the group or a
numerical group id. This option can only be used when the process is started as root.

--noadd
Disable automatic creation of new databases for all available interfaces if the daemon is started
with zero database found. Pseudo interfaces lo, lo0 and sit0 are excluded from getting added.

-n, --nodaemon
Stay in foreground attached to the current terminal and start the update process.

-p, --pidfile file
Write the process id to file and use it for locking so that another instance of the daemon cannot
be started if the same file is specified.

-s, --sync
Synchronize internal counters in the database with interface counters for all available interfaces
before starting traffic monitoring. Use this option if the traffic between the previous shutdown
and the current startup of the daemon needs to be ignored. This option isn't required in normal
use because the daemon will automatically synchronize the internal counters after a system reboot,
if enought time has passed since the daemon was previously running or if the internal counters are
clearly out of sync.

-u, --user user
Set daemon process user to user during startup. user can be either the login of the user or a
numerical user id. This option can only be used when the process is started as root.

-v, --version
Show current version of the daemon executable.

-?, --help
Show a command option summary.

CONFIGURATION

The behaviour of the daemon is configured mainly using the configuration keywords UpdateInterval,
PollInterval and SaveInterval in the configuration file.

UpdateInterval defines in seconds how often the interface data is fetched and updated. This is similar
to the run interval for alternative cron based updating. However, the difference is that the data
doesn't directly get written to disk during updates.

PollInterval defines in seconds how often the list of available interfaces is checked for possible
changes. The minimum value is 2 seconds and the maximum 60 seconds. PollInterval also defines the
resolution for other intervals.

SaveInterval defines in minutes how often cached interface data is written to disk. A write can only
occur during the updating of interface data. Therefore, the value should be a multiple of UpdateInterval
with a maximum value of 60 minutes.

The default values of UpdateInterval 30, SaveInterval 5 and PollInterval 5 are usually suitable for most
systems and provide a similar behaviour as cron based updating does but with a better resolution for
interface changes and fast interfaces.

For embedded and/or low power systems more tuned configurations are possible. In such cases if the
interfaces are mostly static the PollInterval can be increased to around 10-30 seconds and UpdateInterval
set to 60 seconds. Higher values up to 300 seconds are possible if the interface speed is 10 Mbit or
less. SaveInterval can be increased for example to 15, 30 or even 60 minutes depending on how often the
data needs to be viewed.

SIGNALS

       The daemon is listening to signals SIGHUP, SIGINT and SIGTERM.  Sending the SIGHUP signal to  the  daemon
       will cause cached data to be written to disk, a rescan of the database directory and a reload of settings
       from  the  configuration  file.  However,  the  pid  file  location  will  not  be  changed  even if it's
       configuration setting has been modified.

       SIGTERM and SIGINT signals will cause the daemon to write all cached data to disk and then exit.

FILES

       /var/lib/vnstat/
              Default database directory. Files are named according to the monitored interfaces.

       /etc/vnstat.conf
              Config file that will be used unless $HOME/.vnstatrc exists. See  the  configuration  chapter  and
              vnstat.conf(5) for more information.

       /var/log/vnstat.log
              Log  file  that  will  be  used if logging to file is enable and no other file is specified in the
              config file.

       /var/run/vnstat.pid
              File used for storing the process id if no other file is specified in the  configuration  file  or
              using the command line parameter.

RESTRICTIONS

       Updates  needs  to  be  executed at least as often as it is possible for the interface to generate enough
       traffic to overflow the kernel interface traffic counter. Otherwise, it is  possible  that  some  traffic
       won't  be  seen.  This  isn't  an  issue  for 64-bit kernels but at least one update every hour is always
       required in order to provide proper input.  With 32-bit kernels, the maximum  time  between  two  updates
       depends on how fast the interface can transfer 4 GiB. Calculated theoretical times are:
              10 Mbit:        54 minutes
              100 Mbit:        5 minutes
              1000 Mbit:      30 seconds

       However,  for  1000  Mbit  interfaces  updating  once every minute is usually a usable solution if faster
       updates can't be used.

       Virtual and aliased interfaces cannot be monitored because the kernel doesn't provide traffic information
       for that type of interfaces. Such interfaces are usually named eth0:0, eth0:1, eth0:2 etc. where eth0  is
       the actual interface being aliased.

AUTHOR

       Teemu Toivola <tst at iki dot fi>