Newbie questions

[mikefairbanks]

I just downloaded v2.9 today and installed it.

I am running it on a 2003 Server R2 x64, and monitoring a Linksys WRT320N running DD-WRT build 13972 mega.

I got it running with a minimal amount of trouble, but the numbers don't seem to be right. I didn't get it running until after 11:00 am today, yet it is reporting more data transferred than the router is itself.

The router indicates the following for the WAN interface for the entire day... 795 MB inbound, 58 MB outbound. While SNMPThroughput is reporting... 548.8 MB inbound, 211.8 MB outbound just since 11 am.

I'm not surprised by the lower inbound number, since it hasn't been up all day... but I can't figure out the higher outbound number.

I did some large file transfers (10 GB) between computers on my LAN to make sure I wasn't querying a LAN port on the router.

There are a couple of errors in the log file... here's the last run entry.

********************************************************************************
06/03/2010 20:17:00, Info, SNMPTP, Starting SMNPThroughput version 2.9
06/03/2010 20:17:00, Info, Initialising, Reading the configuration file 'SNMPThroughput.xml'
06/03/2010 20:17:00, Info, Initialising, 1 devices defined in configuration file.
06/03/2010 20:17:00, Info, Initialising, Device 1 [WRT320N public@192.168.0.1]:Output HTML path: 'c:\inetpub\webs\throughput\' Output CSV path: 'c:\inetpub\webs\throughput\\CSV'.
06/03/2010 20:17:00, Warn, SNMP Request, Requested variable does not exist.
06/03/2010 20:17:00, Info, SNMP Get, Retrying SNMP Read - Attempt 2 of 3
06/03/2010 20:17:00, Warn, SNMP Request, Requested variable does not exist.
06/03/2010 20:17:00, Info, SNMP Get, Retrying SNMP Read - Attempt 3 of 3
06/03/2010 20:17:00, Warn, SNMP Request, Requested variable does not exist.
06/03/2010 20:17:00, Warn, Processing [WRT320N], Unable to read the interface last change counter on device 'WRT320N', 192.168.0.1, public, 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.9
06/03/2010 20:17:00, Info, Processing [WRT320N], There were 791.2 KB in and 865.5 KB out in the current session.
06/03/2010 20:17:01, Info, Processing, 1 Device processed in 1047ms
06/03/2010 20:17:01, Info, SNMPTP, Application Shutdown

You can also get to my output page here... http://www.dcsol.com/throughput/

Thanks, Mike

[phil]

Hi Mike,

Im not sure I can give you a solid answer here... But as far as I can tell, this is not a common problem (that is, other users havnt complined about the usage being reported incorrectly).

I know you have done tests but are you sure you have the right interface (wihch I/F are you using)? As its a WRT based device I would expect it to work as I have a WRT54G that it works fine on (although its not the external interface so I dont tend to monitor that much these days).

Can you tell me if it made the same errors today/tomorrow and perhaps I can have a closer look (and verify it gets it right for me too) tomorrow.

Thanks,
Phil

[mikefairbanks]

Thanks for getting back to me on this Phil.

I let it run for a few days, just to get a good comparison. Here is what DD-WRT is reporting for throughput on the WAN interface...

3/6 810 MB in / 71 MB out
3/7 1223 MB in / 128 MB out
3/8 112 MB in / 144 MB out
3/9 68 MB in / 149 MB out

Here is what SNMP-Throughput is reporting...

3/6 581.5 MB in / 250.7 MB out
3/7 1.38 GB in / 581.5 MB out
3/8 291.5 MB in / 209.6 MB out
3/9 247.5 MB in / 234.3 MB out

I'm not sure if I'm configured correctly for checking the WAN interface. I can't find any information on the net regarding SNMP port information for the WRT320N. I posted a question to the DD-WRT forum asking if anybody had this information, but have not received a response.

I did not change the default settings you had in the .XML file...

<entry name="System Up Time">1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3.0</entry>
<entry name="Bytes IN">1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.10</entry>
<entry name="Bytes OUT">1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.16</entry>

Thanks, Mike

[phil]

Mike,

Those numbers are so far out, it really looks like the SNMP interface number is wrong, or maybe broken in DD-WRT. My WRT54G is running DD-WRT so I will try and set-up SNMPTP on that again tonight (I normally just monitor my Speedtouch ADSL modem and the WRT sits behind that).

There is an old windows SNMP tool, called GetIF which allows you to "walk" the SNMP interface on the router and see what the raw counters are showing - from that it might be easy to spot which interface you should be using - or indeed, which counter is wrong! If you want more help on that let me know and I will try and be a bit more descriptive!

I will let you know what I find with my DD-WRT router (but I warn you that it worked in the past without "obvious" error).

One more thing, have you tried setting up MRTG to see if that also suffers?
The MRTG configuration tool should list all the SNMP interfaces on the device - again this might help find the right one.


Thanks,
Phil

[mikefairbanks]

OK, I downloaded a program called GetIF that scanned my router and generated a report. In the report it gave me the MAC addresses where appropriate, and from that I was able to determine the WAN, LAN, and Wireless interfaces. On the WRT320N the WAN interface is SNMP port 8... I had been monitoring port 2 which is the LAN port... Wireless is port 3.

I updated the .XML file and cleared everything out and restarted... now the numbers are looking like I expected.

Thanks, Mike

[mikefairbanks]

I responded without refreshing the page to read your last message... funny that I found GetIF via Google, and then you recommended it as well. It did the trick for me.

And yes, I also had MRTG setup and it was not showing what I expected either, although it's hard to see a direct correlation to SNMPThroughput as they're looking at different numbers. I went through and updated my mrtg.cfg file as well using the information I got from GetIF, and then downloaded and uploaded a few large files, and the informaiton MRTG is showing now agrees with what I was expecting.

Thanks again for your help.

[phil]

heh, glad that seems to have made it work. Monitoring the LAN interface would make that significant difference

I have just set it up on my WRT too - and its not obvious which interface to use for me (at least its a bit tricky remotely lol). Anyway if that is working for you then all good - but let me know if you notice any more major differences.

Thanks,
Phil

[mikefairbanks]

Only one thing left to pin down...

The totals sometimes get out of sink. Since this is a new installation, the totals for the week, month, year, and all time should all be the same... but the year and all time have sometimes shown different numbers than the others.

Today I deleted the device.XML file, and the .CSV file under the web files and started at zero. It looked good for a couple of hours, then they didn't match again. By this time I was done fiddling with everything, so I once again deleted the two files and started fresh. But within about 20 minutes the all time total didn't match the rest of them.

Any thoughts on this?

http://www.dcsol.com/throughput/

Thanks, Mike

[phil]

Thats very odd....
I will investigate - sounds like a code error to me....

Thanks - and I'll let you know when I find the error

[phil]

OK I understand whats going wrong (and have fixed it).
Basically its due to an error the first tiem you run (with no data file) it does not store the first run date properly, thus next time it runs, it thinks its wrapped from 0 day, 0 month, 0 year etc.. and ignores that session bytes total

Only All time, and billing period gets updated because they are held differently.
I've fixed it - if you want to try 2.9.4 beta, let me know and I will PM you a copy of the new executable file...

And at some point I will release it at 2.10 or something when I've run it a bit here

Thanks,
Phil

[mikefairbanks]

Yes please, send me the beta and I'll get it right on there.

[mikefairbanks]

After running overnight with the beta all numbers are correct.

Thanks so much for your help!

Mike

[phil]

Great,,,,

Maybe one day I'll ask to repay the favour... Pilot... hummm Well I work in flight safety (boring flight data recorder stuff) I took a look at your website lol. Played with RC a long time ago - but nothing quite like that

I'll shout if I'm ever in Alaska - (don't worry its not very likely the best I've managed so far is FL and CA)
Anyway glad its working

Phil

[mikefairbanks]

Alaska is one of those places you either love or hate... I'm the former.

I've been flying RC airplanes for 35 years now, and full scale for 8. Some days when it's beautiful outside I have a really hard time deciding whether to fly a model or a real plane!

It took a week or so, but I'm seeing variations in the numbers again. I'm not really all that worried about it, I have unlimited bandwidth on my line, and was basically just installing this for my own edification.

Anyway, after running uninterrupted for 8 days, I have the following totals...

Month - 4.51 GB in - 2.13 GB out - 6.64 GB combined
Year - 4.50 GB in - 2.12. GB out - 6.62 GB combined
All Time - 4.49 GB in - 2.10 GB out - 6.60 GB combined

As I said, I'm not all that worried about it for my application, it still gives me a good idea of my usage. But figured you'd want to know just in case there was still something not quite right.

Thanks, Mike

[phil]

Thanks for the feedback - I will try and have a look into it and see if Ive made any other silly mistakes.