nfswatch(8) Unsupported nfswatch(8)Namenfswatch - monitor an NFS server
Syntax
/usr/etc/nfswatch [ -dst dsthost ] [ -src srchost ] [ -dev device ] [
-allif ] [ -f filelist ] [ -lf logfile ]
[ -sf snapshotfile ] [ -t timeout ] [ -fs ] [ -if ] [ -procs ] [
-clients ] [ -all ] [ -usage ] [ -l ]
Description
The command monitors all incoming ethernet traffic to an NFS file
server and divides it into several categories. The number and percent‐
age of packets received in each category is displayed on the screen in
a continuously updated display. The screen is updated every ten sec‐
onds by default; this time period is called an interval.
On SunOS : You must be the super-user to invoke or it must be installed
setuid to ``root.'' On ULTRIX : Any user can invoke once the super-
user has enabled promiscuous-mode operation using or (less desirable)
By default, monitors all packets destined for the current host. An
alternate destination host to watch for may be specified using the -dst
argument. If a source host is specified with the -src argument, then
only packets arriving at the destination host which were sent by the
source host are monitored. If the -all argument is given, then all NFS
traffic on the network is monitored.
The screen is divided into three parts. The first part, at the top of
the screen, is made up of three lines. The first line displays the
name of the host being monitored, the current date and time, and the
time elapsed since the start of monitoring. The second line displays
the total number of packets received during the most recent interval,
and the third line displays the total number of packets received since
monitoring started. These two lines display three numbers each: the
total number of packets on the network, the total number of packets
received by the destination host (possibly subject to being only from
the specified source host), and the number of packets dropped by the
monitoring interface due to buffer space limitations. Dropped packets
are not included in the packet monitoring totals.
The second part of the screen divides the received packets into 16 cat‐
egories. Each category is displayed with three numbers: the number of
packets received this interval, the percentage this represents of all
packets received by the host during this interval, and the total number
of packets received since monitoring started. The packet categories
are not mutually exclusive; some packets may be counted in more than
one category (for example, NFS packets are also UDP packets). The cat‐
egories in this section and their meanings are:
ND Read
Sun Network Disk read requests. Only servers which serve
clients running SunOS 3.5 or less should display non-zero counts
in this section.
ND Write
Sun Network Disk write requests. Only servers which serve
clients running SunOS 3.5 or less should display non-zero counts
in this section.
NFS Read
NFS requests which primarily result in a file system read being
performed (for example, read file, read directory).
NFS Write
NFS requests which primarily result in a file system write being
performed (for example, write file, rename file, create file,
delete file).
NFS Mount
NFS mount requests.
Yellow Pages/NIS
Sun Yellow Pages (NIS) requests.
RPC Authorization
All RPC reply packets fall into this category, because RPC
replies do not contain the protocol number, and thus cannot be
classified as anything else. (If the -all argument is given,
then you will see all the RPC replies on the network in this
category.)
Other RPC Packets
All RPC requests which do not fall into one of the above cate‐
gories.
TCP Packets
Packets sent using the Transmission Control Protocol.
UDP Packets
Packets sent using the User Datagram Protocol.
ICMP Packets
Packets sent using the Internet Control Message Protocol.
Routing Control
Routing Information Protocol (RIP) packets.
Address Resolution
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) packets.
Reverse Addr Resol
Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) packets.
Ethernet Broadcast
Ethernet broadcast packets. These packets are destined for and
received by all hosts on the local ethernet.
Other Packets
A catch-all for any packets not counted in any of the above cat‐
egories.
The third part of the display shows the mounted file systems exported
by the file server for mounting through NFS. If is monitoring the same
host it is being run on, these file systems are listed by path name.
Otherwise, the program attempts to decode the server's major and minor
device numbers for the file system, and displays them in parentheses.
(If the -all argument is given, the name of the server is also shown.)
With each file system, three numbers are displayed: the number of NFS
requests for this file system received during the interval, the per‐
centage this represents of all NFS requests received by the host, and
the total number of NFS requests for this file system received since
monitoring started. Up to 256 file systems are monitored by and
recorded in the log file, but only as many as will fit (2 * (LINES -
16)) are displayed on the screen.
If the -f filelist option is specified, a list of file names (one per
line) is read from filelist, and the traffic to these individual files
is also monitored. The files must reside in file systems exported by
the file server. When this option is specified, the third section of
the screen will display counters for these files, instead of for the
mounted file systems. Up to 256 individual files are monitored by and
recorded in the log file, but only as many as will fit (2 * (LINES -
16)) are displayed on the screen.
If the -procs option is specified, then instead of showing per-file or
per-file system statistics, shows the frequency of each NFS procedure
(RPC call) (or as many as will fit on the screen).
If the -clients option is specified, then instead of showing per-file
or per-file system statistics, shows the operation rate of each NFS
client of the specified server(s) (or as many as will fit on the
screen).
Note that only NFS requests, made by client machines, are counted in
the NFS packet monitoring area. The NFS traffic generated by the
server in response to these requests is not counted.
Options
The command can usually be run without arguments and obtains useful
results. However, for those occasions when the defaults are not good
enough, the following options are provided:
-dst dsthost
Monitors packets destined for dsthost instead of the local host.
-src srchost
Restricts packets being counted to those sent by srchost.
-all Monitors packets to and from all NFS servers on the local net‐
work.
-dev device
On SunOS : Uses network interface device device to read packets
from. By default, uses the system's default network device for
an Internet datagram. On ULTRIX : device specifies the packet
filter interface from which to read packets. You can specify
interfaces either by their actual names (such as or by their
generic packet filter interface names ( for N a small integer).
By default, (the first configured interface that supports the
packet filter) is used.
-allif Read packets from all configured network interfaces, instead of
a single device. On SunOS : The first five (0-4) and the first
five (0-4) devices (a total of ten devices) are checked, and if
configured, are monitored. On ULTRIX : The first ten devices
(0-9) are checked, and if configured, are monitored.
-f filelist
Reads a list of file names (one per line) from filelist and mon‐
itors the NFS traffic to these files in addition to the normal
monitoring of exported file systems.
-lf logfile
When logging, writes information to the file logfile. The
default is
-sf snapshotfile
Writes snapshots to the file snapshotfile. The default is
-t timeout
Sets the cycle time (interval length) to timeout seconds. The
default is 10. The cycle time may also be adjusted from the
command prompt.
-fs Displays the file system NFS monitoring data instead of the
individual file data. This option is only meaningful if the -f
filelist option was specified. The display may also be con‐
trolled from the command prompt.
-if Displays the individual file NFS monitoring data instead of the
file system data. This option is only meaningful if the -f
filelist option was specified. The display may also be con‐
trolled from the command prompt.
-procs Displays statistics on NFS procedures (RPC calls) instead of
per-file or per-filesystem data.
-client
Displays statistics on NFS client operation rates instead of
per-file or per-filesystem data.
-usage Sets file system, procedure, or client display to be sorted in
declining order of percent usage. By default, the display is
sorted alphabetically. This may also be toggled from the com‐
mand prompt.
-l Turns logging on at startup time. Logging is turned off by
default, but may be enabled from the command prompt.
Restrictions
To monitor NFS traffic to files and file systems, must extract informa‐
tion from the NFS file handle. The file handle is a server-specific
item, and its contents vary from vendor to vendor and operating system
to operating system. Unfortunately, there is no machine-independent
way to extract information from a file handle. The command understands
the file handle format used by SunOS 4.1 SPARC and ULTRIX systems
(depending on how it was compiled); the program must be modified to
understand other formats.
The command uses the Network Interface Tap under SunOS 4.x, and the
Packet Filter ( under ULTRIX 4.0 or later. To run on other systems,
including pre-4.x SunOS, code must be written to read packets from the
network in promiscuous mode.
Logfile
When logging is on, writes one entry to the log file each interval.
The information printed to the log file is easily readable, and basi‐
cally contains a copy of all information on the screen. Additionally,
any NFS traffic to file systems or individual files which was not
printed on the screen (due to space limitations) is printed in the log
file. Finally, in the log file, the NFS traffic to file systems and
individual files is further broken down into counts of how many times
each specific NFS procedure was called.
The information in the log file can be summarized easily using the pro‐
gram.
Commands
The command also allows a small set of commands to be entered at its
prompt during execution. The prompt is displayed on the last line of
the screen. For most commands, feedback describing the effect of the
command is printed on the same line as the prompt. The commands are:
^L Clears and redraws the screen.
c Switches the display to show statistics on NFS client hosts
instead of per-file or per-filesystem information.
f Toggles the display of mounted file systems and the display of
individual files in the NFS packet monitoring area. This com‐
mand is only meaningful if the -f filelist option was specified
on the command line. (If the display is showing NFS procedures
or clients, then this command switches the display to show file
systems.)
p Switches the display to show statistics on NFS procedures
instead of per-file or per-filesystem information.
l Toggles the logging feature. If logging is off it is
(re)started; if logging is on, it is turned off.
s Takes a ``snapshot'' of the current screen and saves it to a
file. This is useful to record occasional copies of the data
when the logfile is not needed.
u Toggles the sort key for the display of mounted file systems in
the NFS packet monitoring area. By default, these are sorted by
file system name, but they can also be sorted in declining order
of percent usage.
- Decreases the cycle time (interval length) by ten seconds. This
takes effect after the next screen update.
+ Increases the cycle time (interval length) by ten seconds. This
takes effect after the next screen update.
< Decreases the cycle time (interval length) by one second. This
takes effect after the next screen update.
> Increases the cycle time (interval length) by one second. This
takes effect after the next screen update.
] Scrolls forward through the bottom part of the display, if there
are files/file systems/clients/procedures not being displayed
due to lack of space.
[ Scrolls back.
q Exits Using the interrupt key also causes to exit.
Typing any other character causes a help screen to be displayed.
See Alsonfslogsum(8), packetfilter(4)nfswatch(8)
