From: gcardwel@okazaki.acs.uci.edu (Guy Cardwell)
Subject: rpc.etherd for Decstations
Summary: rpc.etherd now available from ftp.uci.edu:/pub/rpc.etherd.
Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Keywords: rpc.etherd, traffic, xtr, ethertop
Date: 4 Jan 93 21:24:49 GMT


As part of my ethertop suite I have written a version of rpc.etherd for
DEC hardware running Ultrix.  rpc.etherd is a daemon, originally on Suns
which monitors and keeps statistics about the ethernet.  Programs like
Sun's traffic(1), my ethertop(1) and xtr can monitor this daemon remotely.

You need the packet filter stuff enabled in the kernel and have the
interface set so you can enable promiscuous mode.  The program is
available via anonymous ftp from 

ftp.uci.edu:/pub/rpc.etherd

You can get the tar file /pub/rpc.etherd.tar{.Z} or get the files
individually.  There is also a precompiled binary as well.

Ethertop is available from comp.sources.unix archives.  New version
coming soon with X support.

Here is the manual page for rpc.etherd:




RPC.ETHERD(8)         MAINTENANCE COMMANDS          RPC.ETHERD(8)



NAME
     rpc.etherd, etherd - network statistic server

SYNOPSIS
     rpc.etherd interface

DESCRIPTION
     rpc.etherd is a value added replacement for the  SunOS  pro-
     gram rpc.etherd which runs on DEC Ultrix systems.

     rpc.etherd gathers statistics about the network as seen from
     the  given  network  interface.   rpc.etherd  must be run as
     root, as  it  places  the  interface  in  promiscuous  mode.
     rpc.etherd  requires  a front end to display the statistics,
     such as ethertop(1) or traffic(1).

     The reporting of these statistics is  via  SUN  remote  pro-
     cedure call (RPC).


     Although  rpc.etherd  is  designed  to  emulate  the   SunOS
     rpc.etherd in every way, the exceptions are:

          Statistics for "other" include both IP and other proto-
          cols not categorized by the ether.x specification.

          When the protocol filters are in operation, the "other"
          field  still reports "other" protocols.  The SunOS ver-
          sion does not.

          Regardless of the IP packet type, host  statistics  are
          kept  for  each  IP host.  This means that if a host is
          sending out large amounts of IGMP messages, these  will
          register.   The  SunOS  version may or may not do this.
          It is reasonably difficult to verify at this time.

     This program causes a substancial performance impact because
     it  reads ALL packets which arrive on the network interface.
     A large queue is allocated both within  the  kernel  and  in
     user  space.   A  packet filter could be written to overcome
     this somewhat, but then the network  statistics  would  only
     report what the packet filter let through.

     The protocol "filter" procedure call can take any IP  packet
     type  as  its argument.  Thus, packets statistics other than
     the rpc.etherd was written  to  provide  DEC  users  with  a
     proper back end for the ethertop program by the same author.
     It was written in a "clean room /  black  box"  environment,
     meaning without knowlege of SunOS source code.  As a result,
     obscure features and bugs may be present in both implementa-
     tions.




Sun Release 4.1    Last change: 5 October 1992                  1






RPC.ETHERD(8)         MAINTENANCE COMMANDS          RPC.ETHERD(8)



SEE ALSO
     ethertop

DIAGNOSTICS
     None at this time.

BUGS
     A filter of any kind applied by a client program will affect
     all  clients  making  RPC  calls.  Any client that calls the
     etherproc_off procedure will turn of the interface  monitor-
     ing, thus rendering other clients useless.

     The ether.x protocol is flawed.  Host addresses  are  passed
     as int's rather than struct in_addr's.  This causes unneces-
     sary byte swapping of network addresses that are already  in
     network order.  This rpc.etherd compensates for this by byte
     swapping internally.



AUTHOR
     Guy Cardwell, UC Irvine Academic Computing, gcardwel@uci.edu

































Sun Release 4.1    Last change: 5 October 1992                  2



Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix