/apache-mod-ntraffic

Apache module to measure Apache Traffic (in & out) on a virtual host basis.

Primary LanguageCMozilla Public License 2.0MPL-2.0

Mod-Ntraffic

mod_ntraffic is an Apache module to record traffic statistics for each Apache virtual host or a grand total for the whole server.

The module collects the hits, the inbound bytes and the outbound bytes.

The data are made available through HTTP GET requests to a configurable handler which can return data in XML, Json or Plain Text formats.

The data are also stored eventually on the file system for persistence or easier collection if necessary.

Installation

To build mod_ntraffic you need apxs2. This is usually shipped with the sources of your Apache server. If you are using a package manager, this utility is usually shipped with the development files and headers. If you are a Debian addict, for example, this utility is usually shipped with the package apache2-threaded-dev or apache2-prefork-dev If you are using a RPM based distribution, the package is usually called apache-devel or httpd-devel.

To build the module simply run:

make

To install the module simply run (as root):

make install

Eventually Use sudo if needed.

Configuration

The distribution contains a file called ntraffic.conf which contains all the following global configuration directives.

<IfModule mod_ntraffic.c>
    NTrafficEnabled             On
    NTrafficRefreshInterval     120

    NTrafficDataDir             /var/spool/apache2/mod_ntraffic/

    NTrafficExcludeIP           127.0.0.1/8
    NTrafficExcludeIP           10.1.1.0/24
    NTrafficExcludeIP           192.168.1.2

    <Location /ntraffic-status>
        SetHandler ntraffic-status

        RewriteEngine Off
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from 127.0.0.1
        Allow from 10.0.0.0/16
    </Location>
</IfModule>

  • NTrafficEnabled (On/Off)

    Disables or enables Ntraffic globally

  • NTrafficRefreshInterval (seconds)

    Ntraffic stores the statistics on files (inside NTrafficDataDir). This values specify the minimum interval between two updates. Please note that the file is updated only after a request (no request implies no update)

  • NTrafficDataDir

    This is where the statistic files are stored. If not specified, no files will be used.

  • NTrafficExcludeIP (IP or Network sub-net)

    Ntraffic counts all requests from all hosts. This directive, which can be used several times, indicates which hosts or networks should not be logged.

The location part installs the ntraffic-status handler for every virtual hosts, enabling access restrictions.

Access the data

The ntraffic-status handler is the main way to access the traffic statistics.

If you have, for example, a virtual host called www.test.it then accessing the following URL:

http://www.test.it/ntraffic-status

from an IP inside an allowed network (see the Allow directive in the example above) will show you the virtual host statistics in XML (default format):

<document type="ntraffic/xml">
    <ntraffic-data>
        <vhost name="www.test.it" hits="74" sent="17734" recvd="15019" />
    </ntraffic-data>
</document>

There are four URL parameters that you may pass to alter the output:

  • globals allows you to see the collected statistics of all the visited virtual hosts. If no statistics have been collected for a single virtual host, it will not be included in the list.

  • plain turns the output from XML to plain TEXT, tab separated

  • json turns the output to JSON

  • flush clears the virtual host statistics (or every statistic if 'globals' is used) to zero after displaying them.

The plain and the json options should not be used together.

As an example, the following URL will:

http://www.test.it/ntraffic-status?globals&json&flush

display all the statistics collected for every virtual host in json format and will clear them after displaying.

Development

Authors

Massimo Cetra