Network monitoring - looking for ideas

[RandomUsername]

Hi.

At work, we're trying to identify some potential bottlenecks on our network. To that end, I've had a laptop plugged into various points around the network for a couple of days at a time which every hour runs a script that does various things like copy a file across the network, uploads and downloads a file to the Internet etc. and logs the results.

We were just talking about how it would be nice to be able to continuously monitor traffic levels as my script would only show up long term problems rather than short term stuff (running the script more frequently would potentially adversely affect the network itself, making the test results faulty).

It struck me that I have a B2 sitting on the shelf at home doing nothing and I could probably set it up so that all traffic to and from a particular (physical) port on a switch goes through the B2 and then use Munin or something to log the traffic levels without actually affecting the traffic. Make sense?

So my rough plan at this stage is:
- disable DNS, DHCP and iptables on the B2.
- bridge the LAN and WAN network ports.
- Set up Munin or something to log traffic.

I'll have to wait until tomorrow to actually bring in my B2. In the meantime, can anyone offer any better suggestions or improve on my plan?

Thanks.

Darren.

[pcrene]

Hi Random,

Keep us informed, very curious how you will do it?
I just have vnstat. But would also like to know what al my users are doing.

Rene