How do I force rx_bytes and tx_bytes to reset?

Question

I'm keeping track of data transfers on my network interfaces but want them to be reset to 0 on the 1st of each month.

When I try echo 0 to the rx_bytes or tx_bytes files I get this:

bash: /sys/class/net/wlan0/statistics/rx_bytes: Permission denied

I run the command as root.

I also tried copying (overwriting) in a file:

cp: cannot create regular file:‘/sys/class/net/wlan0/statistics/rx_bytes’: Permission denied

I also tried changing permissions to 777 (default is 444)

Answer 1

The usual way would be to save the value at the change of month, and calculate differences against that value. That way you could easily, say count values over more than a single interval, and also make it possible to use a single data source with multiple independent consumers, without them stepping on each other's numbers. Besides, zeroing the counter would require a way to atomically read and clear it, otherwise you would lose the count for the traffic between reading the counter and zeroing it. Stuff like SNMP will also usually give you a read-only counter.

So I don't think you really want to clear the counter.

Programs designed for graphing network statistics can usually deal with the wraparound issue (e.g. rrdtool has COUNTER mode). Though you would still want to use 64-bit counters, since I remember getting problems with 32-bit overflow with a gigabit interface and a 5 minute polling rate.

Answer 2

The file manipulation operations you are performing might not be working, because files in /proc are not really true files in the common sense, but virtual files that provide a 'window'/interface to variables in the linux kernel.

The only way to reset the interface counters is by unloading and loading again the corresponding interface kernel module.

To find out the kernel module of eth0:

$sudo ethtool -i eth0 | grep driver
driver: vmxnet3

Then unload and load the kernel module with:

sudo -- sh -c  'ifdown eth0 ; modprobe -r vmxnet3; modprobe vmxnet3 ; ifup eth0'

if you do not use the above sudo syntax, I do recommend creating a script with the above commands, or otherwise you can, in certain conditions, lose control of the remote linux machine.

Be aware that if you have processes monitoring eth0, for instance watchdogs, you will have to stop them too before unloading the module.

Answer 3

Ok, So in my case, The only way to force the counters to reset would be to reboot the server. Not ideal, but this is the case.

As mentioned by ilkkachu, probably the best way to do this would be to save the value at the beginning of the new month and then calculate from that point forward. However, I couldn't wrap my head around an elegant way to accomplish this with the script I currently have set up.

So in lieu of that, I've gone for the reboot-my-server-once-a-month scenario. I've included a snippet of the code that I used below:

# CHECK FOR THE OLD_MONTH FILE
if [ ! -e /usr/local/bin/system/old_month ]; then
        # CREATE IT IF IT DOESN'T EXIST WITH THIS MONTHS DATE
        echo `date` | awk '{print $2,$6}' > /usr/local/bin/system/old_month
fi

# CREATE A NEW FILE EVERY TIME THIS IS RUN WITH THIS MONTHS DATE
echo `date` | awk '{print $2,$6}' > /usr/local/bin/system/this_month

# CHECK IF OLD_MONTH AND THIS_MONTH ARE NOT THE SAME
if ! cmp /usr/local/bin/system/this_month /usr/local/bin/system/old_month > /dev/null 2>&1 ;
then
        # RUN YOUR RELEVANT CODE HERE #
        echo `date` | awk '{print $2,$6}' > /usr/local/bin/system/old_month     # UPDATE THE VALUE IN OLD_MONTH SO THAT THEY WILL MATCH NEXT TIME
        reboot now                                                              # REBOOT
        exit 0                                                                  # AND EXIT THIS SCRIPT
fi