ipband - IP bandwidth watchdog
ipband -aAbcCdfFhJlLmMowPrtTv INTERFACE
ipband is a pcap based IP traffic monitor. It tallies
per-subnet traffic and bandwidth usage and starts detailed logging if
specified threshold for the specific subnet is exceeded. If traffic has been
high for a certain period of time, the report for that subnet is generated
which can be appended to a file or e-mailed. When bandwidth usage drops
below the threshold, detailed logging for the subnet is stopped and memory
is freed.
This utility could be handy in a limited bandwidth WAN environment
(frame relay, ISDN etc. circuits) to pinpoint offending traffic source if
certain links become saturated to the point where legitimate packets start
getting dropped.
It also can be used to monitor internet connection when specifying
the range of local ip addresses (to avoid firing reports about non-local
networks).
Bandwidth is defined as total size in kBytes of the layer 2 frames
with IP packets passing the specified interface during the averaging period
divided by the number of seconds in that period.
- interface
- Network interface to read data from.
- -a secs
- Averaging period in seconds. How often total traffic and bandwidth should
be calculated. Default is 60 secs.
- -A
- Include threshold exceeded accumulated time and percentage in the report.
This option works only with preloaded subnets ("subnet"
directive) because otherwise subnet data is deleted when bandwidth usage
drops below threshold to clear memory and reduce processing time.
- -b kBps
- Bandwidth threshold in kBytes per sec. Default is 7 kBps i.e. 56 kbps.
- -c filename
- Use filename as configuration file. Default is /etc/ipband.conf.
Specifying different bandwidth threshold per subnet is only available
through the configuration file. See subnet directive in the
CONFIGURATION FILE section below.
- -C
- Ignore configuration file.
- -d level
- Debug level. 0 - no debugging; 1 - summary; 2 - subnet statistics; 3 - all
packets captured. Default is 0.
- -f filterstr
- Use filterstr as pcap filter. See manual page for tcpdump. Also see
EXAMPLES section below.
- -F
- Fork and run in background. Default is run in foreground.
- -h
- Print help and exit.
- -J number
- Packet length adjustment in bytes. This option can be used when layer 2
frame sizes for the interface ipband is listening on and the interface we
are measuring the bandwidth for are different. For example, if you are
concerned about bandwidth usage on a router's frame relay interface with 6
bytes overhead (frame header + RFC1490 encapsulation) while ipband is
running on an ethernet interface with 14 bytes MAC frame, then you could
use value -8 for this option to get more accurate bandwidth calculation.
The number can be a positive or a negative integer. Negative values
should not exceed leyer 2 frame size for the ipband's interface (i.e. we
can't use -15 in the above example). The default is 0.
- -l filename
- If -M (or mailto directive in config file) option is set, specifies
name of the file to be appended to the end of e-mail reports.
- -L
ip-range[:ip-range[:ip-range[..]]]
- This option specifies which network numbers should be considered local
when collecting data and generating reports (actually non-local networks
are not logged at all). It can be used instead of config file's multiple
"subnet" directives (unlike that directive, there would be a
single bandwidth threshold specified by -b option). This option can be
used for monitoring internet connections when you don't want to get
reports on someone else's networks.
There can be many ip-ranges separate by colons. No spaces may
appear in the argument. Each ip-range can be either a single ip address
such as 192.168.1.1 which indicates a range of one, a partial ip address
such as 192.168.1.0 which indicates a range from 192.168.1.0 to
192.168.1.255, a low and high ip address separated by a hyphen (-), and
a single ip address, a slash (/) and an integer between 0 and 32 (a
"net address") which indicates a network. If you run ipband
with the debug option (-d) the program will print the entire list of ip
ranges, so you can check their values.
Here is a list of arguments to -L along with the corresponding
range.
COMMAND: ipband eth0 -l 137.99.11
RANGE: 137.99.11.0-137.99.11.255
COMMAND: ipband eth0 -L 137.99.11:127.0.5/23
RANGE: 137.99.11.0-137.99.11.255,127.0.4.0-127.0.5.255
COMMAND: ipband eth0 -L 127.1.5.17-127.1.7.131
RANGE: 127.1.5.17-127.1.7.131
- -m maskbits
- Set number of subnet mask bits (1-32) for subnet traffic aggregation.
Default is 24 (255.255.255.0).
- -M email
address(es)
- Send detailed subnet report to specified e-mail address(es). Multiple
addresses must be separated by comma.
- -o filename
- Filename to output detailed subnet report. Default is ipband.txt in
current directory.
- -w filename
- HTML report output file. Default is ipband.html in current directory. The
styles.css file can be used in the same directory to customize its look
and feel.
- -P
- Do not use promiscuous mode on the network interface we are listening
on.
- -r secs
- Reporting period - number of seconds bandwidth threshold may be exceeded
before it should be reported. Default is 300 seconds.
- -t number
- Limit subnet report to a given number of per-host connections with highest
byte count (top connections). Default is no limit.
- -T string
- MTA command string for mailing reports. Default is
"/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -oi". The string is tokenized and passed
directly to exec(), so that shell's metacharacters are not interpreted.
- -v
- Print version and exit.
In addition to command line options you can use a configuration
file. When ipband starts it first looks for /etc/ipband.conf. You can
also give the '-c' (see OPTIONS above) to specify a configuration file.
The options in the config file are specified by keyword/value
pairs. Lines starting with # are ignored.
Below is a list of config file options:
- interface interface
- Interface to read packets from.
- promisc
{yes/no}
- Like -P option, specifies whether or not to use promiscious mode on the
listening network interface. Promiscuous mode is the default.
- debug
{0-3}
- Like -d option, specifies debug level.
- fork
{yes/no}
- Like -F option, specifies whether or not to run in background. Default is
no.
- filter
filterstr
- Like -f option, specifies pcap filter.
- outfile
filename
- Like -o option, specifies report file name. efault is ipband.txt in
current directory.
- htmlfile
filename
- Like -w option, HTML report output file. Default is ipband.html in current
directory. The styles.css file can be used in the same directory to
customize its look and feel.
- htmltitle
title
- HTML title of the report output file.
- bandwidth
kBps
- Like -b option, bandwidth threshold in kBytes per second. Default is 7.0
kBps.
- average
secs
- Like -a option, tells ipband nomber of seconds to average
per-subnet traffic and calculate bandwidth usage. Default is 60 seconds.
- lenadj
number
- Like -J option, specifies packet length adjustment in bytes.
- report
secs
- Like -r option, number of seconds specified threshold(s) may be exceeded
before report is fired off. Default is 300 secs.
- top
number
- Like -t option, limits subnet report to a given number of per-host
connections with highest byte count (top connections). Default is 0 - no
limit.
- accumulate
{yes/no}
- Like -A option, whether or not to include threshold exceeded accumulated
time and percentage in the report. Default is no.
- mailto email
address(es)
- Like -M option, e-mail address(es) detailed subnet report should be sent
to. Multiple addresses must be separated by comma.
- Like -l option, name of the file to be appended to the end of e-mail
reports.
- mtastring
string
- Like -T option, specifies MTA command string for mailing reports. Default
is "/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -oi".
- maskbits
{1-32}
- Like -m option, sets the number of network mask bits. Default is 24
(corresponding to subnet mask 255.255.255.0).
- localrange
ip_range
- Like -L option, determines which range(s) of ip addresses are considered
local.
- subnet subnet-ip
bandwidth kBps
- Specifies which subnets ipband should work with and sets individual
bandwidth thresholds for them - one subnet option per line (subnet mask is
set by maskbits option). This option is only available through a
configuration file. Setting it limits data collection and reporting to the
specified subnets.