monitor interface 

Syntax

monitor interface <interface-name | traffic>

Description

Display real-time statistics about a physical interface, updating them every second. The
output of this command also shows the amount that each field has changed since you
started the command or since you cleared the counters by using the c key. This command
also checks for and displays common interface failures, such as SDH/SONET and T3
alarms, loopbacks detected, and increases in framing errors.

To control the output of the command while it is running, use the following keys:

Action Key
Display information about the next physical interface. The monitor interface n
command scrolls through the interfaces in the same order that they are displayed by
the show interfaces terse command.
Display information about a different interface. The command prompts you for the i
name of a specific physical interface.
Freeze the display, halting the display of updated statistics. f
Thaw the display, resuming the display of updated statistics. t
Clear (zero) the counters. c
Stop the monitor interface command. q

Options

interface-name--Name of a physical interface.

traffic--Display traffic data for active interfaces

Required Privilege Level

trace

See Also
show interfaces statistics, show interfaces statistics.

Sample Output

user@host> monitor interface so-0/0/0

router1 Seconds: 19 Time:
15:46:29

Interface: so-0/0/0, Enabled, Link is Up

Encapsulation: PPP, Keepalives, Speed: OC48
Traffic statistics: Current
Delta
Input packets: 6045 (0 pps)
[11]
Input bytes: 6290065 (0 bps)
[13882]
Output packets: 10376 (0 pps)
[10]
Output bytes: 10365540 (0 bps)
[9418]
Encapsulation statistics:
Input keepalives: 1901
[2]
Output keepalives: 1901
[2]
NCP state: Opened
LCP state: Opened
Error statistics:
Input errors: 0
[0]
Input drops: 0
[0]
Input framing errors: 0
[0]
Policed discards: 0
[0]
L3 incompletes: 0
[0]
L2 channel errors: 0
[0]
L2 mismatch timeouts: 0
[0]
Carrier transitions: 1
[0]
Output errors: 0
[0]
Output drops: 0
[0]
Aged packets: 0
[0]
Active alarms : None
Active defects: None
SONET error counts/seconds:
LOS count 1
[0]
 LOF count 1
[0]
SEF count 1
[0]
ES-S 0
[0]
SES-S 0
[0]
SONET statistics:
BIP-B1 458871
[0]
BIP-B2 460072
[0]
REI-L 465610
[0]
BIP-B3 458978
[0]
REI-P 458773
[0]
Received SONET overhead:
F1 : 0x00 J0 : 0x00 K1 : 0x00
K2 : 0x00 S1 : 0x00 C2 : 0x00
C2(cmp) : 0x00 F2 : 0x00 Z3 : 0x00
Z4 : 0x00 S1(cmp) : 0x00
Transmitted SONET overhead:
F1 : 0x00 J0 : 0x01 K1 : 0x00
K2 : 0x00 S1 : 0x00 C2 : 0xcf
F2 : 0x00 Z3 : 0x00 Z4 : 0x00

Next='n', Quit='q' or ESC, Freeze='f', Thaw='t', Clear='c',

Interface='i'

user@host> monitor interface traffic

host name Seconds: 6 Time: 16:17:19

Interface Input packets (pps) Output packets

(pps)
at-0/2/0 0 (0) 0
(0)
at-0/3/0 0 (0) 0
(0)
so-1/0/0 0 (0) 0
(0)
ge-1/1/0 0 (0) 0
(0)
ge-1/1/1 0 (0) 0
(0)
so-2/0/0:0 0 (0) 0
(0)
so-2/0/0:1 0 (0) 0
(0)
so-2/0/0:2 0 (0) 0
(0)
so-2/0/0:3 0 (0) 0
(0)
t1-3/2/0:0 0 (0) 0
(0)
 t1-3/2/0:10 0 (0) 0
(0)
t1-3/2/0:11 0 (0) 0
(0)
t1-3/2/0:12 0 (0) 0
(0)
t1-3/2/0:13 0 (0) 0
(0)
t1-3/2/0:14 0 (0) 0
(0)
t1-3/2/0:15 0 (0) 0
(0)
t1-3/2/0:16 0 (0) 0
(0)
t1-3/2/0:17 0 (0) 0
(0)

Next='n', Quit='q' or ESC, Freeze='f', Thaw='t', Clear='c',

Interface='i'

Output Fields

router1--Host name of the router.

Seconds--How long the monitor interface command has been running or how long since
you last zeroed the counters.

Time--Current time (UTC).

Interface--Short description of the interface, including its name, status, and encapsulation.

Current delta--Cumulative number for the counter in question since the time shown in the
Seconds field, which is the time since you started the command or last zeroed the
counters.

Statistics--For an explanation of the interface statistics, see the description of the show
interfaces statistics detail command for the appropriate interface type.

.: Monitors :.

Resolution

Imagine lying down in the grass with your nose pressed deep into the thatch.
Your field of vision would not be very large, and all you would see are a few big
blades of grass, some grains of dirt, and maybe an ant or two. This is a 14-inch
640 x 480 monitor. Now, get up on your hands and knees, and your field of vision
will improve considerably: you'll see a lot more grass. This is a 15-inch 800 x 640
monitor. For a 1280 x 1024 perspective (on a 19-inch monitor), stand up and look
at the ground. Some monitors can handle higher resolutions such as 1600 x 1200
or even 1920 x 1440—somewhat akin to a view from up in a tree.

Monitors are measured in inches, diagonally from side to side (on the screen).
However, there can be a big difference between that measurement and the actual
viewable area. A 14-inch monitor only has a 13.2-inch viewable area, a 15-inch
sees only 13.8 inches, and a 20-inch will give you 18.8 inches (viewing 85.7%
more than a 15-inch screen).

A computer monitor is made of pixels (short for "picture element"). Monitor

resolution is measured in pixels, width by height. 640 x 480 resolution means
that the screen is 640 pixels wide by 480 tall, an aspect ratio of 4:3. With the
exception of one resolution combination (1280 x 1024 uses a ratio of 5:4), all
aspect ratios are the same.

From The PC Guide, by Charles M. Kozierok:

A pixel is the smallest element of a video image, but not the smallest element of a
monitor's screen. Since each pixel must be made up of three separate colors,
there are smaller red, green, and blue dots on the screen that make up the image.
The term dot is used to refer to these small elements that make up the displayed
image on the screen. In order to use different resolutions on a monitor, the
monitor must be able to support automatic changing of resolution modes.
Originally, monitors were fixed at a particular resolution, but most monitors
today are capable of changing their displayed resolution under software control.
This allows for higher or lower resolution depending on the needs of the
application. A higher resolution display shows more on the screen at one time,
and the maximum resolution that a monitor can display is limited by the size of
the monitor and the characteristics of the CRT (cathode-ray tube). In addition,
the monitor must have sufficient input bandwidth to allow for refresh of the
screen, which becomes more difficult at higher resolutions because there is so
much more information being sent to the monitor.

You can see by the chart below how screen size and effective resolution are
linked. Compare a 15-inch monitor and a 21-inch monitor, both set to 800 x 600
pixels: the 15-inch will have a higher resolution. Larger monitors must contain
smaller pixels in order to maintain the same resolution, but when a smaller
monitor is set to a high resolution, the images would be much too small to read. A
14-inch monitor set to 640 x 480 is very readable, while a 21-inch needs at least
1024 x 768. Here are some recommended resolutions for the different screen
sizes:

14" 15" 17" 19" 21"

640x480 BEST GOOD TOO BIG HUGE TERRIBLE

800x600 GOOD BEST GOOD TOO BIG HUGE

 1024x768 TOO SMALL GOOD BEST GOOD STILL GOOD

1280x1024 TINY TOO SMALL GOOD BEST GOOD

1600x1200 TERRIBLE TINY TOO SMALL GOOD BEST

TheScreamOnline is optimized for viewing at 1024 x 768 resolution.

As you can see by the chart above, it should look good on most monitors.
Be aware that there are many versions and interpretations of these settings.
This table is an average of various opinions.

Adjusting Resolution

On a PC with Windows, do the following:

1. Double-click the Display Icon in the Control Panel by clicking: Start > Settings
> Control Panel.
2. Select the "Settings" tab in the Display Properties Dialog Box.
3. Adjust the slider to 800 x 600 (shown below), then click the Test Button. A test
bitmap will appear for 5 seconds, then you will be asked if everything looked OK.
Click YES to confirm.

On a Mac, go to Control Panels > Monitors and you will see a list of settings. It
couldn't be easier.
 Color

From The PC Guide, by Charles M. Kozierok

There are 4 standard color depths used by monitors: 4-bit (Standard VGA), 8-bit
(256-Color Mode), 16-bit (High Color),and 24-bit (True Color). Each pixel of the
screen image is displayed using a combination of three different color signals:
red, green, and blue. The appearance of each pixel is controlled by the intensity of
these three beams of light. When all are set to the highest level the result is white;
when all are set to zero the pixel is black. The amount of information that is
stored about a pixel determines its color depth, which controls how precisely the
pixel's color can be specified. This is also sometimes called the bit depth, because
the precision of color depth is specified in bits. The more bits that are used per
pixel, the finer the color detail of the image. However, increased color depths also
require significantly more memory for storage of the image, and also more data
for the video card to process, which reduces the possible maximum refresh rate.

[Computers use a binary language of two numbers, "one" and" zero," signifying
"on" and "off." Bit depth is the number of bits in each pixel. Color depth is the
maximum number of colors in an image and is based on the bit depth of the
image and of the displaying monitor. A black and white monitor uses 1-bit color
depth (2 to the power of 1): black=light off, and white= light on. Each pixel has a
bit depth of one and a color depth of two. One bit produces two possible colors.
Color monitors use at least 2-bit color, or 2-to-the-2nd power (2x2=4), meaning
that 4 shades of color are available for each of the three primary colors (red, blue,
and green). 4-bit color (2x2x2x2=16) means that each of the primaries has 16
shades; the greater the bit depth, the more shades for each color. See the chart
below for a comparison of bit depth and color resolution. —Ed.]

256-Color Mode: uses only 8 bits (2 bits for blue, 3 for green, 3 for red). Choosing
between only 4 or 8 different values for each color would result in poor blocky
color, so a different approach is taken instead: the use of a palette. A palette is
created containing 256 different colors. Each one is defined using the standard 3-
byte color definition that is used in true color: 256 possible intensities for each of
red, blue, and green. Each pixel is allowed to choose one of the 256 colors in the
palette, which can be considered a "color number" of sorts. So the full range of
color can be used in each image, but each image can only use 256 of the available
16 million different colors. When each pixel is displayed, the video card looks up
the real RGB values in the palette based on the "color number" the pixel is
assigned.

The palette approach is an excellent compromise: it allows only 8 bits to be used

to specify each color in an image, but allows the creator of the image to decide
what the 256 colors in the image should be. Since virtually no images contain an
even distribution of colors, this allows for more precision in an image by using
more colors than would be possible by assigning each pixel a 2-bit value for blue
and 3-bit values each for green and red. For example, an image of the sky with
clouds would have many different shades of blue, white, and gray, and virtually
no reds, greens, or yellows.

256-color is the standard for much of computing, mainly because the higher-
precision color modes require more resources (especially video memory) and
aren't supported by many PC's. Despite the ability to "hand pick" the 256 colors,
this mode produces noticeably worse image quality than high color, and most
people can tell the difference between high color and 256-color mode.

High color: 16-bit color—uses two bytes of information to store the intensity
values for the three colors. This is done by breaking the 16 bits into 5 bits for blue,
5 bits for red, and 6 bits for green, giving 32 different intensities for blue, 32 for
red, and 64 for green. This reduced color precision results in a slight loss of
visible image quality, but it is actually very slight—most people cannot see the
differences between true color and high color images unless they are looking for
them. For this reason high color is often used instead of true color—it requires
33% (or 50% in some cases) less video memory, and it is also faster for the same
reason.

True color: 24-bit color—three bytes of information are used, one for each of the
red, blue, and green signals that make up each pixel. Since a byte has 256
different values, each color can have 256 different intensities, using over 16
million different color possibilities, and allowing for a very realistic
representation of the color of images, with no compromises necessary and no
restrictions on the number of colors an image can contain. In fact, 16 million
colors is more than the human eye can discern, though true color is necessary for
doing high-quality photo editing, graphic design, etc. [Some video cards have to
use 32 bits of memory for each pixel when operating in true color, due to how
they use the video memory.]

[TheScreamOnline is best viewed with 24-bit color, or millions of colors, though

thousands of colors will suffice. On a Mac, go to Control Panels > Monitors (see
graphic above under Adjusting Resolution) and set the color depth to thousands
or millions of colors if your video card supports it. Lowering the resolution of
your screen display may allow you to achieve a greater color depth. On a
Windows computer, go to Start Menu > Settings > Control Panels > Display >
Settings. —Ed.]

BIT DEPTH COLOR RESOLUTION CALCULATION

1-bit 2 colors 2 (2)

2-bit 4 colors 2 (2x2)

3-bit 8 colors 2 (2x2x2)

4-bit 16 colors 2 (2x2x2x2)

5-bit 32 colors 2 (2x2x2x2x2)

6-bit 64 colors 2 (2x2x2x2x2x2)

7-bit 128 colors 2 (2x2x2x2x2x2x2)

8-bit 256 colors 2 (2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2)

16-bit 65,536 colors 2

24-bit 16,777,215 colors 2

Monitors vs. Browsers

Four variables tend to make the life of a web designer a living hell. Macintosh
monitors display text at 72 dpi (dots-per-inch) and PC's take 96 pixels to show
that same text. Translation: a PC monitor enlarges the type—sort of like reading a
large-print novel. Differences in the two major browsers (Netscape and Internet
Explorer) also add to the problem. Netscape is close to WYSIWYG (What You See
Is What You Get)—it doesn't significantly change how a webpage is meant to
appear. Internet Explorer (or IE), on the other hand, enlarges text one-to-two
point sizes. So, a page of text can appear four different ways, depending on the
combination: Netscape on a Mac, IE on a Mac, Netscape on a PC, and IE on a PC.
The difference between viewing a page on a Mac using the Netscape browser and
that same page on a PC with IE is enormous.

A lot of seemingly unnecessary time is spent by web designers trying to "dumb-

down" a site so that it looks acceptable in all formats. Many designers, however,
say "To hell with those with cheap equipment," and create a site for users with
high-end gear. If only the two platforms and browsers could conform to a
standard, then most of these woes wouldn't exist and not only could designers
focus more on the quality of the design itself, the product would be better and the
end-user (you!) would consistently see websites as they were meant to be viewed.
 Caveat Emptor

Many of the low-price "deals" that come with PC packages can include—in
addition to the requisite monitor, CPU, and keyboard—a modem, scanner, Zip
drive, printer, and CD-rom drive. Be careful—you get what you pay for. Much of
the time you will end up with a very inexpensive 8-bit 640 x 480 monitor that
cannot be adjusted. While a good monitor (large size with a high
resolution/bandwidth/refresh rate and small dot pitch) will hold its value for
some time, CPU's will be worth only a fraction of their original cost after about a
year. If you just use a computer for basic word-processing and email
communications, then the cheap route is probably adequate. Beyond that, you
will quickly realize the limitations of your purchase. If you are serious about
creating, or at least viewing, high-quality images, in addition to viewing websites
as they are meant to be seen, then it would be wise to invest in the appropriate
equipment.

Interface Monitor
Overview

The Interface Monitor Plugin gives you a detail and synthetic view of a network interface
status.
The use of the MIB II standard allows you to get this information of almost all system
and network devices.
The % of the current load is diplayed in a line graph and tells you in a blink of one eye if
your interface is overloaded. You can specify a pourcentage of load (threshold) that will
generate an alarm if this one is reached.
Installation

The installation of the Interface Monitor Plugin is performed in the directory workspace.
Select one host in your directory and then from the contextual Menu select Insert Task and
Plugin.
You should see the following result in your workspace.

By a double click on the hammer icon you should start the Plugin Dialog Window and could
configure it.

Configuration

The configuration of the Interface Monitor is performed directly in the Plugin main window.
Few parameter have to be set.

You should first select an interface frome the list.

You should set a polling interval. If the polling interval is high the line graph x scale will be
bigger and thus you will have a view on a longer time period.

If you want to be warn when a load threshold is reached you have to set up the three fields.
"If usage >" parameter specifies the load threshold in % above which you want to be warn.
"Send Event" parameter should contain the event number displayed in the event manager
(value should be unique within your set of events and higher than 10000).
The "At level" value (between 0 and 10) specifies the gravity of the alarm and the color of the
event.
The screen below shows you example of alarm for each severity level.

Supervision

The information provided by the various indicators present in the screen are all very
instructive and give rich information on the interface traffics and errors.

Here is the list of these indicators.

Graph : Incoming/Outgoing for interface index ...

Graph : Interface load in %
Graph : Packets in Error
Graph : Packets Discarded
Information
ifAdminStatus (Interface Administrative Status)
ifinUnknowProtos (Interface Inbound unknow Protocol)
ifinUcastPkts (Interface Inbound Unicast Packets)
ifinNUcastPkts (Interface Inbound Non-Unicast packets)
ifOperStatus (Interface Operational Status)
ifOutQlen (Interface Output Queue lenght)
ifOutUcastPkts (Interface Out Unicast packets)
ifOutNUcastPkts (Interface Out Non-unicast Packets) Broadcast and Multicast
Rx discard Pkts/s (Received Packets discarded)
Tx discard Pkts/s
Rx error Pkts/s
Tx error Pkts/s
Rx broad Pkts/s
Tx broad Pkts/s

Graph : Incoming/Outgoing for interface index ...

This graph displays the number of octets sent and received by the interface. The in (yellow)
line display the incoming octet value, the out (purple) line displays the ougoing octet value.

Both value comes from the ifOutOctets OID (The total number of octets transmitted out of the
interface, including framing characters) and ifInOctects OID (The total number of octets
received on the interface, including framing characters.
The y-axis displays octet values, the x-axis is the time scale.

The value displayed on the y-axis is the number of inbound or ounbond Octets counted during
the polling interval. The octet value depends from the polling interval selection. if you want to
know the octet/second values you should do the following conversion.

y-axis value / Polling interval = Octets per second (average)

If you want to have a speed value in bits per second the formula is :

(y-axis value / Polling interval) * 8 = Bits per second (average)

With this formula, remenber that more the polling interval is high more the value is averaged.
In other words, if your traffic contains surges you could miss them.

The following table gives you examples of values for various interface types, various polling
intervals and various loads.

Number of octets per polling interval

Interface Interface
10 30 60
type - Speed 1 seconds 5 secondes 8 seconds 5 mn
seconds seconds seconds
Load Mbps

4 000
octets/s
1 200
50 % load 64 000 4 000 20 000 32 000 40 000 120 000 240 000
000
on LL 64
Kbps

8 000
octets/s
2 400
100 % load 64 000 8 000 40 000 64 000 80 000 240 000 480 000
000
on LL 64
Kpbs

125 000
37
octets/s 1 000 1 250 3 750 7 500
2 000 000 125 000 625 000 500
50 % load 000 000 000 000
000
on E1 line
250 000
75
octets/s 2 000 2 500 7 500 15 000
2 000 000 250 000 1 250 000 000
100 % load 000 000 000 000
000
on E1 line

625 000
octets/s 187
5 000 6 250 18 750 37 500
= 50% load 10 000 000 625 000 3 125 000 500
000 000 000 000
on Ethernet 000
100 Mbps

1 250 000
octets/s
375
= 100% 1 250 10 000 12 500 37 500 75 000
10 000 000 6 250 000 000
load on 000 000 000 000 000
000
Ethernet
100 Mbps

6 250 000
octets/s 1 875
100 000 6 250 31 250 50 000 62 500 187 500 375 000
= 50% load 000
000 000 000 000 000 000 000
on Ethernet 000
100 Mbps

12 500 000
octets/s
3 750
= 100% 100 000 12 500 62 500 100 000 125 000 375 000 750 000
000
load on 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
000
Ethernet
100 Mbps

Graph : Interface load in %

This graph displays the percentage of load for the interface. Two lines, one for the
incoming traffic, one for the outgoing traffic are represented.

The % of load is calculated by :

- reading the interface speed value in Bits/s (ifSpeed OID)
- reading the current throughput in Octets/s (ifIinOctets and ifOutOctets OIDs)
- and by applying the following formula :

(Octets per second / Polling interval) / ((Speed of interface in Bits per second) / 8 / 100 )

The maximum reached by one of both indicator is displayed as a white line and its value is
indicated on the right side (82.10 % for the Inbound load in our example).

Graph : Packets in Error

Error packet are malformed packet at the link control layer, Ethernet for example, that could
not be used by upper applications.

The maximum reached by one of both indicators is displayed as a white line and its value is
indicated on the right side.

The value displayed on the y-axis is the number of inbound or outbound packets counted
during the polling interval.

This table gives you the value in Pkts/s and their corresponding values for various polling
interval .

Number of packets per polling interval

1 seconds 5 secondes 8 seconds 10 seconds 30 seconds 60 seconds 5 mn

10 Pkts/s 10 50 80 100 300 600 3000

100 Pkts/ 100 500 800 1 000 3 000 6 000 30 000

1 000
1 000 5 000 8 000 10 000 30 000 60 000 300 000
Pkts/s

10 000
10 000 50 000 80 000 100 000 300 000 600 000 3 000 000
Pkts/s

In our screen shot the maximum value recorded is 5817 packets. It gives us an average of
1164 Packet per second.
Graph : Packets Discarded

The graph displays the number of inbound and outbound packets which were chosen to be
discarded even though no errors had been detected to prevent their being deliverable to a
higher-layer protocol. One possible reason for discarding such a packet could be to free up
buffer space.

The maximum reached by one of both indicator is displayed as a white line and its value is
indicated on the right side.

The value displayed on the y-axis is the number of inbound or outbound packets counted
during the polling interval.

Information

This field displays information about the Network interface.

Description. The name given to the interface for better identification

Type. The type of interface, distinguished according to the physical/link protocol(s)

immediately below the network layer in the protocol stack.

MTU (maximum Transmit Unit). The size of the largest datagram which can be
sent/received on the interface, specified in octets. For interfaces that are used for transmitting
network datagrams, this is the size of the largest network datagram that can be sent on the
interface.

Speed. An estimate of the interface's current bandwidth in bits per second. For interfaces
which do not vary in bandwidth or for those where no accurate estimation can be made, this
object should contain the nominal bandwidth.

Physical address. The interface's address at the protocol layer immediately `below' the
network layer in the protocol stack. For interfaces which do not have such an address (e.g., a
serial line), this object should contain an octet string of zero length.

ifAdminStatus - Interface Administrative Status

The desired state of the interface. The states could be :

• up(1) ready to send or receive packets

• down(2) unable to send or receive packets
• testing(3) in some test mode

The testing(3) state indicates that no operational packets can be passed.

ifinUnknowProtos - Interface Inbound Unknown Protocols

The number of packets received via the interface which were discarded because of an
unknown or unsupported protocol. Accepted protocols should be supported by the type of
interface.

ifinUcastPakts - Interface Inbound Unicast Packets

The number of subnetwork-unicast packets delivered to a higher-layer protocol.

ifinNUcastPkts - Interface Inbound Non-Unicast Packets (Broadcast and Multicast)

The number of non-unicast (i.e., subnetwork- broadcast or subnetwork-multicast) packets

delivered to a higher-layer protocol.

ifOperStatus - Interface Operational Status

The current operational state of the interface.

• up(1) ready to send or receive packets

• down(2) unable to send or receive packets
• testing(3) in some test mode

The testing(3) state indicates that no operational

packets can be passed.

ifOutQlen - Interface Output Queue Lenght

The length of the output packet queue (in packets)

ifOutUcastPkts - Interface Outbound Unicast Packets

The total number of packets that higher-level protocols requested be transmitted to a

subnetwork-unicast address, including those that were discarded or not sent.

ifOutNUcastPkts - Interface Outbound Non-Unicast Packets

The total number of packets that higher-level protocols requested be transmitted to a non-
unicast (i.e., a subnetwork-broadcast or subnetwork-multicast) address, including those
that were discarded or not sent.

Rx discard Pkts/s
The average value of received packets discarded per second during the polling interval

Tx discard Pkts/s

The average value of transmitted packets in error per second during the polling interval

Rx error Pkts/s

The average value of received packets in error per second during the polling interval

Tx error Pkts/s

The average value of transmitted packets in error per second during the polling interval

Rx broad Pkts/s

The average value of broadcast packet received per second during the polling interval

Tx broad Pkts/s

The average value of broadacst packet transmitted per second during the polling interval