vnStat

vnStat is a console-based network traffic monitor that uses the network interface statistics provided by the kernel as information source. This means that vnStat won't actually be sniffing any traffic and also ensures light use of system resources regardless of network traffic rate.

By default, traffic statistics are stored on a five minute level for the last 48 hours, on a hourly level for the last 4 days, on a daily level for the last 2 full months and on a yearly level forever. The data retention durations are fully user configurable. Total seen traffic and a top days listing is also provided. Optional image output is available in systems with the GD library installed.

See the official webpage for additional details and output examples.

Getting started

vnStat works best when installed. It's possible to either use the latest stable release, get the current development version from git or use a Docker container containing the pre-compiled latest stable release.

Stable version

wget https://humdi.net/vnstat/vnstat-latest.tar.gz
optional steps for verifying the file signature
1. wget https://humdi.net/vnstat/vnstat-latest.tar.gz.asc
2. gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-key 0xDAFE84E63D140114
3. gpg --verify vnstat-latest.tar.gz.asc vnstat-latest.tar.gz
4. the signature is correct if the output shows "Good signature from Teemu Toivola"
tar zxvf vnstat-latest.tar.gz
cd vnstat-*

Development version

git clone https://github.com/vergoh/vnstat
cd vnstat

In both above cases, continue with instructions from the INSTALL or INSTALL_BSD file depending on used operating system. Instructions for upgrading from a previous version are included in the UPGRADE file. Release notes can be found from the CHANGES file.

Docker container

docker run -d \
    --restart=unless-stopped \
    --network=host \
    -e HTTP_PORT=8685 \
    -v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro \
    -v /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro \
    --name vnstat \
    vergoh/vnstat

For more details regarding container usage, available environment variables and a docker-compose.yml example, see the vergoh/vnstat-docker git repository or Docker Hub. The same container images are also being published as ghcr.io/vergoh/vnstat.

Contacting the author

email - Teemu Toivola <tst at iki dot fi>
irc - Vergo (IRCNet)
git - https://github.com/vergoh/vnstat

Bug reports, improvement ideas, feature requests and pull requests should be sent using the matching features on GitHub as those are harder to miss or forget.

vergoh / vnstat