Network Activity Monitoring

The 'Network Monitor' GUI module is a dedicated network monitoring module showing the list of network interfaces in the computer and displaying the network transfer rate, the network send transfer rate, the network receive transfer rate, the network packets rate, the send packets rate, the receive packets rate, the network output queue length, the number of send packets errors and the number of receive packets errors for the currently selected network interface.

The network transfer rate charts, which are located on the top side of the window, allow one to display the monitoring data for the last minute, last 2 minutes or last 5 minutes. In addition, all network monitoring counters, display the minimum, maximum and average value on the counter's status bar.

The SysGauge network monitor provides the user with the ability to save network monitoring reports into a number of standard formats including HTML, PDF, Excel, text, CSV and XML. In order to save a network monitoring report, press the 'Save' button located on the main toolbar, select an appropriate report format, enter a report file name and press the 'Save' button.

Network Monitoring Counters

In addition to the dedicated network monitor module, the user can use the customizable 'System Monitor' module to configure user-custom network monitoring profiles. In order to add a network activity counter, press the 'Add' button located on the main toolbar, selected the 'Network Activity' counters category in the left-side view and then select an appropriate network activity counter in the middle view. By default, SysGauge will monitor all network cards installed in the computer, but if required, the user can select a specific network card to monitor in the right-side view. In addition, in order to monitor the network activity in a remote computer via the network, press the 'Connect' button located in the bottom-left corner and specify the host name of the remote computer to monitor.

• Network Transfer Rate - this counter measures the network transfer rate in Megabytes per second at which data is sent and received over the selected network adapter.
• Network Transmit Rate - this counter measures the network transfer rate in Megabytes per second at which data is sent over the selected network adapter.
• Network Receive Rate - this counter measures the network transfer rate in Megabytes per second at which data is received over the selected network adapter.
• Network Packets Rate - this counter measures the rate at which packets are sent and received on the selected network adapter.
• Network Send Packets Rate - this counter measures the rate at which packets are sent on the selected network adapter.
• Network Receive Packets Rate - this counter measures the rate at which packets are received on the selected network adapter.
• Network Send Packets Errors - this counter measures the number of outbound packets that could not be transmitted because of errors.
• Network Receive Packets Errors - this counter measures the number of inbound packets that contained errors preventing them from being deliverable to a higher-layer protocol.
• Network Send Packets Discarded - this counter measures the number of outbound packets that were chosen to be discarded even though no errors had been detected to prevent transmission. One possible reason for discarding packets could be to free up the system memory.
• Network Receive Packets Discarded - this counter measures the number of inbound packets that were chosen to be discarded even though no errors had been detected to prevent their delivery to a higher-layer protocol. One possible reason for discarding packets could be to free up the system memory.
• Network Output Queue Length - this counter measures the number of network packets in the output packet queue. If the number of network packets in the output queue more than two, there are delays and the bottleneck should be found and eliminated, if possible.

SysGauge Command Line Utility

The SysGauge command line utility, which is available in SysGauge Ultimate and SysGauge Server product versions, provides the ability to monitor the network activity and save network monitoring reports from batch files and shell scripts. The command line utility is located in the SysGauge 'bin' directory and it can be used to monitor the local system or remote servers via the network.

In the simplest case, open a command prompt window, go to the SysGauge 'bin' directory and type the following command:

sysgauge -network_monitor -save_pdf_report <File Name or Directory>

This command will perform a network monitoring operation using a number of network monitoring counters including the network transfer rate, network transmit rate, network receive rate, network packets rate, network send packets rate, network receive packets rate, network send packets errors, network receive packets errors and the network output queue length. In addition, after the monitoring operation will be completed, SysGauge will save a PDF network monitoring report to the specified file or directory.

Command Line Options:

-extended

By default, the network monitor reports the total network activity statistics for all network interface cards in the monitored server. This command line option enables individual network interface cards activity monitoring counters for each network card and the network activity monitoring results will include individual network cards statistics for each network interface card in the monitored server.

-host <Remote Host Name or IP address>

This option allows one to monitor the network activity in remote servers via the network.

-time <Monitoring Time in Seconds>

This command line option sets the maximum monitoring time.

-silent

This command line option enables silent operation, which is useful when saving reports.

-save_html_report <File Name or Directory>

This command line option saves an HTML network activity monitoring report.

-save_pdf_report <File Name or Directory>

This command line option saves a PDF network activity monitoring report.

-save_excel_report <File Name or Directory>

This command line option saves an Excel network activity monitoring report.

-save_text_report <File Name or Directory>

This command line option saves a text network activity monitoring report.

-save_csv_report <File Name or Directory>

This command line option saves a CSV network activity monitoring report.

-save_xml_report <File Name or Directory>

This command line option saves an XML network activity monitoring report.

-save_to_database <Table Name>

This command line option saves monitoring results to the specified SQL database table.