nicstat - print network traffic statistics
nicstat [-hvnsxpztualkMU] [-iinterface] [-Sint:mbps[fd|hd]] [interval [count]]
nicstat(1) General Commands Manual nicstat(1)
NAME
nicstat - print network traffic statistics
SYNOPSIS
nicstat [-hvnsxpztualkMU] [-iinterface] [-Sint:mbps[fd|hd]] [interval
[count]]
DESCRIPTION
nicstat prints out network statistics for all network cards (NICs),
including packets, kilobytes per second, average packet sizes and more.
OPTIONS
-h Display brief usage information (help).
-v Display nicstat version (and additional fields when combined
with '-l')
-n Show statistics for non-local (i.e. non-loopback) interfaces
only.
-s Display summary output - just the amount of data received
(read) and transmitted (written).
-x Display extended output. See OUTPUT section for details.
-U Display separate read and write utilization statistics. This
affects the default, extended (-x) and all (-a) format out-
puts. For the default format the "Sat" statistic is dropped
to fit the output in 80 columns.
-M Display interface throughput statistics in Mbps (megabits per
second), instead of the default KB/s (kilobytes per second).
NOTE - interface statistics are reported to operating systems
in bytes. nicstat does not know if Ethernet or other hard-
ware overheads are included in the statistic on each plat-
form.
-p Display output in parseable format. This outputs one line
per interface, in the following formats (which correspond to
the default, -x, -t and -u options; respectively):
time:In:rKB/s:wKB/s:rPk/s:wPk/s:%Util:Sat
time:In:rKB/s:wKB/s:rPk/s:wPk/s:%Util:Sat:IErr:OErr:Coll:NoCP:Defer
time:TCP:InKB:OutKB:InSeg:OutSeg:Reset:AttF:%ReTX:InConn:Out-
Con:Drops time:UDP:InDG:OutDG:InErr:OutErr
where time is the number of seconds since midnight, Jan 1
1970 (UST) and the other fields are as described in the OUT-
PUT section below.
NOTE - throughput statistics are always in KB/s (kilbytes per
second) for parseable formats, even if the "-M" flag has been
specified.
-z Skip interfaces for which there was zero traffic for the sam-
ple period.
-t Show TCP statistics.
-u Show UDP statistics.
-a Equvalent to '-x -t -u'.
-l Just list interfaces.
-iinterface[,interface...]
Show statistics for only the interface(s) listed. Multiple
interfaces can be listed, separated by commas (,).
-k Search for active network interfaces by looking for kstat
"link_state" statistics with a value of 1. This is only of
value on systems running Solaris 10 (or early releases of
Solaris 11 Express), with Exclusive IP Zones, where the
interfaces given to an Exclusive IP Zone are not otherwise
visible. If you are running Solaris 9 (or earlier), or
Solaris 11 (or later) you do not need this option.
OPERANDS
interval Specifies the number of seconds between samples.
count Specifies the number of times that the statistics are
repeated. If no count is specified, nicstat will repeat sta-
tistics indefinitely.
OUTPUT
The fields of nicstat's display are:
Time The time corresponding to the end of the sample shown, in
HH:MM:SS format (24-hour clock).
Int The interface name.
rKB/s, InKB
Kilobytes/second read (received).
wKB/s, OutKB
Kilobytes/second written (transmitted).
rMbps, RdMbps
Megabits/second read (received).
wMbps, WrMbps
Megabits/second written (transmitted).
rPk/s, InSeg, InDG
Packets (TCP Segments, UDP Datagrams)/second read (received).
wPk/s, OutSeg, OutDG
Packets (TCP Segments, UDP Datagrams)/second written (trans-
mitted).
rAvs Average size of packets read (received).
wAvs Average size of packets written (transmitted).
%Util Percentage utilization of the interface. For full-duplex
interfaces, this is the greater of rKB/s or wKB/s as a per-
centage of the interface speed. For half-duplex interfaces,
rKB/s and wKB/s are summed.
%rUtil, %wUtil
Percentage utilization for bytes read and written, respec-
tively.
Sat Saturation. This the number of errors/second seen for the
interface - an indicator the interface may be approaching
saturation. This statistic is combined from a number of ker-
nel statistics. It is recommended to use the '-x' option to
see more individual statistics (those mentioned below) when
attempting to diagnose a network issue.
IErr Packets received that could not be processed because they
contained errors
OErr Packets that were not successfully transmitted because of
errors
Coll Ethernet collisions during transmit.
NoCP No-can-puts. This is when an incoming packet can not be put
to the process reading the socket. This suggests the local
process is unable to process incoming packets in a timely
manner.
Defer Defer Transmits. Packets without collisions where first
transmit attempt was delayed because the medium was busy.
Reset tcpEstabResets. The number of times TCP connections have made
a direct transition to the CLOSED state from either the
ESTABLISHED state or the CLOSE-WAIT state.
AttF tcpAttemptFails - The number of times that TCP connections
have made a direct transition to the CLOSED state from either
the SYN-SENT state or the SYN-RCVD state, plus the number of
times TCP connections have made a direct transition to the
LISTEN state from the SYN-RCVD state.
%ReTX Percentage of TCP segments retransmitted - that is, the num-
ber of TCP segments transmitted containing one or more previ-
ously transmitted octets.
InConn tcpPassiveOpens - The number of times that TCP connections
have made a direct transition to the SYN-RCVD state from the
LISTEN state.
OutCon tcpActiveOpens - The number of times that TCP connections
have made a direct transition to the SYN-SENT state from the
CLOSED state.
Drops tcpHalfOpenDrop + tcpListenDrop + tcpListenDropQ0.
tcpListenDrop and tcpListenDropQ0 - Number of connections dropped from
the completed connection queue and incomplete connection queue, respec-
tively. tcpHalfOpenDrops - Number of connections dropped after the
initial SYN packet was received.
The first set of statistics printed are averages since system boot. If
no interval operand is specified, or a count value of "1" is specified,
this will be the only sample printed.
EXAMPLES
Print average statistics from boot time to now only:
$ nicstat
Print statistics for all interfaces, every 3 seconds:
$ nicstat 3
Print statistics for all interfaces, every 5 seconds, finishing after
10 samples:
$ nicstat 5 10
Print statistics every 3 seconds, only for interfaces "hme0" and
"hme1":
$ nicstat -i hme0,hme1 3
Print statistics for non-local interfaces, setting speed of "eth0" and
"eth1" to 10mbps/half-duplex and 1000mbps/full-duplex, respectively:
$ nicstat -n -S eth0:10h,eth1:1000 5
SEE ALSO
netstat(1M) kstat(1M), kstat(3KSTAT), mibiisa(1M)
"nicstat - the Solaris and Linux Network Monitoring Tool You Did Not
Know You Needed" -http://blogs.oracle.com/timc/entry/nic-
stat_the_solaris_and_linux
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+---------------+--------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+--------------------+
|Availability | diagnostic/nicstat |
+---------------+--------------------+
|Stability | Volatile |
+---------------+--------------------+
NOTES
The way that saturation is reported is a best effort, as there is no
standardized naming to capture all errors related to an interface's
inability to receive or transmit a packet. Monitoring %Util and packet
rates, along with an understanding of the specific NICs may be more
useful in judging whether you are nearing saturation.
This software was built from source available at
https://java.net/projects/solaris-userland. The original community
source was downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/projects/nic-
stat/files/nicstat-1.95.tar.gz/download
Further information about this software can be found on the open source
community website at http://sourceforge.net/projects/nicstat/.
4th Berkeley Distribution 27 Jan 2014 nicstat(1)