Wireshark-users: [Wireshark-users] Want to monitor a port, count bytes transferred, record who tr

From: wireshark@xxxxxxxxxxx (Brian Excarnate)
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:45:25 -0500
Hi,

I went through the man pages, searched Google, searched the FAQ, searched the Wiki, searched the mail list archives, and if I missed what I'm looking for, just point me at it and perhaps suggest a useful search string.

I have several Linux servers, each serving several users their own database, each database has its own port. I have root.

What I want to do is see who (which IP address) connects when, how much is transferred (in and out), when they disconnect. Maybe more based on what things look initially, but that's the core of what I want.

I don't want to capture packets (for various reasons including load), which is where I have trouble figuring out how to get Wireshark to work.

So my first question is: Is there some other tool that is a better choice, and if so which?

Assuming Wireshark can do what I want (can it?):  How?

I'm not looking for fancy, in fact I prefer simple, and naturally something with minimal load on the box. A file with lines something like this:

10.11.12.13	1334933001	11534336	698351616	1334934052
10.11.12.14	1334934053	1572864	1572864	1334935001
10.11.12.15	1334933000	76546048	456150656	1334937017

That is: IP, date +%s start time, bytes to server, bytes from server, date +%s end time. Presumably written as each connection closes. I'm OK with counting in memory, but don't require it!

I'm OK with, but don't prefer, a file similar to:

OPEN	10.11.12.15	1334933000
OPEN	10.11.12.13	1334933001
CLOSE	10.11.12.13	1334934052	11534336	698351616
OPEN	10.11.12.14	1334934053
CLOSE	10.11.12.14	1334935001	1572864	1572864
CLOSE	10.11.12.15	1334937017	76546048	456150656

I found a program that sounded like it was written to do this, but when it failed to compile for me I asked a programmer friend about it, and said something along the lines of "since he did foo, then it is bar, and you shouldn't use it even if you could get it to compile".


Brian
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