vnstat command in Linux with Examples

vnstat is a command-line tool in Linux that is generally used by system administrators in order to monitor network parameters such as bandwidth consumption or maybe some traffic flowing in or out. It monitors the traffic on the network interfaces of the system. 

Installing vnstat on Linux

In case of RedHat based Linux

yum install vnstat

In case of a ubuntu or debian Linux

apt install vnstat 

Working with vnstat Command

1. To get basic stats of all network interfaces 

vnstat

This command will print all the basic stats of the network interfaces connected to the system. 

2. To monitor a specific interface 

vnstat -i wlo1

This will monitor and display the stats of the specified interface that is wlo1. 

3. To get the daily stats of an interface 

vnstat -d -i wlo1

This will print the daily stats of the specified interface which is wlo1. 

4. To get the hourly stats of an interface 

vnstat -h -i wlo1

This will print the hourly stats of the specified interface which is wlo1. 

5. To display the monthly stats of a interface 

vnstat -m -i wlo1

This command will display the monthly stats of the specified interface. 

6. To save output to a XML file 

vnstat --xml -i wlo1 >output.xml

The command will create an XML file with name output.xml and will have the output of the command in XML format. 

7. To save output to a JSON file 

vnstat --json -i wlo1 >output.json

This command will create a JSON file with name output.json and will have the output of the command in JSON format. 

8. To save output to a text file 

vnstat --oneline -i wlo1 >output.txt

This command will create a text file with name output.txt and will have the output in a one-line format. 

9. To calculate traffic on the current interface 

vnstat -tr

This command will display the traffic on the current network interface in use. 

10. To display vnstat help 

vnstat --help

This command will display the vnstat help section.