Here is how to keep log of daily network traffic on Dedicated Servers :

* It is a console-base network traffic monitor for Linux (perfect tool for remote Linux box hosted at ISP)
* It keeps a log of daily and monthly network traffic for the selected network interface(s).
* It collects all data from /proc file system it means normal user can monitor traffic (no need to run vnstat as a root user)
* Easy to setup & configure
* Ease of use

Step # 1: Install vnstat
Debian user can install vnstat using apt-get command

# apt-get install vnstat

Step # 2: Enable vnstat
Once installed you need to create a database with following command:

# vnstat -u -i eth0

Where,
u :forces a database update for interface or creates the database if it doesn’t exist
i eth0 : use to specify interface

Please note that it will start to collect data via cronjob

0-55/5 * * * *   root    /usr/bin/vnstat -u

You do not have to install cronjob yourself; it should be automatically configure by apt-get.

Step # 3 View statistics
Display default traffic statistics

$ vnstat

Display daily traffic statistics

$ vnstat -d

Display monthly traffic statistics:

$ vnstat -m

Display all time top10 traffic days:

$ vnstat -t

Try help option to get all query options:

$ vnstat –help

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