If you have
Asus router model RT-N14UHP, you should probably read on. This is a pretty decent router capable for a lot of feature including supporting
qos and
ipv6. It's pretty odd somehow this router does not come preinstall with
net-snmp package. For your information,
snmp allow a device to be poll for
statistics collection purposes.
I have been requesting to poll statistics from the router using snmp from asus support some time around September 2014. The response I got is the development has taken this request however there is no guarantee when it would be made available. I have taken a deeper look into if the router support net-snmp. Google around and check if someone has similar problem and done it before unfortunately there is none as of this writing. There are a few come closer,
this and
this. The idea is to make the router by mounting an USB disk and then router will install
ipkg (a package manager for the router). By using ipkg, you can install package net-snmp however, the package will be install on the mounted USB drive rather than the router itself. That's a pity if usb disk is unmounted, then thing will not work. Example of command below:
user@RT-N14UHP:/asusware# ipkg install net-snmp
Installing net-snmp (5.4.2.1-1) to /opt/...
Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/oleg/cross/stable/net-snmp_5.4.2.1-1_mipsel.ipk
Configuring net-snmp
Successfully terminated.
user@RT-N14UHP:/asusware# app_set_enabled.sh net-snmp yes
Restarting the package...
Today, we will try differently. We will
poll statistics from the router through http and then plot the graph using the well known software,
mrtg.
MRTG by default poll device for statistics using snmp. However, it also allow data collection using script, that's something very nifty! Let's start by installing this package in the client.
$ sudo apt-get install mrtg apache2
The package apache is for you to access the graph via browser. There should a cron running every five minute,
/etc/cron.d/mrtg . So statistics will always be poll and graph will always be generate and update. Configuration for apache2 and where mrtg is accessible from web is left an exercises for you. (Hint : apache by default place in /var/www).
Create a script that will poll statistics from the router. Below is the script and you can download this bash script,
routerStats.sh and place it in
/bin/routerStats.sh
There are a few configuration you need to change. The obvious is the
router IP. This router has IP 192.168.133.20, so change to your router IP.
hwaddr is the hardware address of
eth0 in your router. To get hwaddr from your router, you need to enable telnet from the router web graphic user interface and then login from command line. Then issue the command such as below.
user@RT-N14UHP:/tmp/home/root# ip addr show eth0
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,10000> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 1000
link/ether 40:40:40:40:40:40 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet6 fe80::1234:1234:1234:1234/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
the value for field link/ether will be the value for hwaddr in the url. To get the value of http_id, issue the command such as below in the router terminal.
admin@RT-N14UHP:/www# nvram get http_id
TIDeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Then install
firefox live http header plugin and then start it, when the browser is pointed to router url and successfully logged in, then a line such as below should be identified. Use the string after Basic and fill into the url.
Authorization: Basic YGG3333d3BjMTQ5PPP=
With all these changed, the script is good to go. Next, we will configure
mrtg configuration file.
### Global Config Options
# for Debian
WorkDir: /var/www/router
### Global Defaults
# to get bits instead of bytes and graphs growing to the right
# Options[_]: growright, bits
Options[_]: growright
EnableIPv6: no
Target[router-to-inet_1]: `/bin/routerStats.sh`
MaxBytes[router-to-inet_1]: 700000
Title[router-to-inet_1]: Network traffic between router and internet
PageTop[router-to-inet_1]: <h1>Network traffic between router and internet</h1>
It's a pretty simple configuration file and you can place it in
/etc/mrtg.conf. The one that need some explanation, probably is routerStats.sh. This is actually the script that generated the statistics from the router. The script is placed in /bin and you can place anywhere as long as mrtg has the permission to execute this file. Note that the script you amended previously is actually get used by mrtg here. For the parameter in the configuration file, you can find more explanation
here.
Now in the terminal, executed this script,
user@localhost:~# env LANG=C /usr/bin/mrtg /etc/mrtg.cfg
2014-10-22 20:26:54, Rateup WARNING: /usr/bin/rateup could not read the primary log file for router-to-inet_1
2014-10-22 20:26:54, Rateup WARNING: /usr/bin/rateup The backup log file for router-to-inet_1 was invalid as well
2014-10-22 20:26:54, Rateup WARNING: /usr/bin/rateup Can't rename router-to-inet_1.log to router-to-inet_1.old updating log file
user@localhost:~# env LANG=C /usr/bin/mrtg /etc/mrtg.cfg
user@localhost:~#
Don't know why there is error, it is probably initialization but next command execution should finish without any error. Now check in web server, directory, by default in debian for mrtg, it is in
user@localhost:/var/www/router$ ls
mrtg-l.png mrtg-r.png router-to-inet_1.html router-to-inet_1-month.png router-to-inet_1-week.png
mrtg-m.png router-to-inet_1-day.png router-to-inet_1.log router-to-inet_1.old router-to-inet_1-year.png
A few files should have been generated. That's good. When you installed package mrtg, a cron should installed by default at
/etc/cron.d/mrtg. Take a look at the following:
*/5 * * * * root if [ -x /usr/bin/mrtg ] && [ -r /etc/mrtg.cfg ] && [ -d "$(grep '^[[:space:]]*[^#]*[[:space:]]*WorkDir' /etc/mrtg.cfg | awk '{ print $NF }')" ]; then mkdir -p /var/log/mrtg ; env LANG=C /usr/bin/mrtg /etc/mrtg.cfg 2>&1 | tee -a /var/log/mrtg/mrtg.log ; fi
So every five minute, the statistics will get collected. If you do not have this, just make a cron file. That's it, now point your browser to the web server url, example for mine,
http://192.168.133.30/router/router-to-inet_1.html.
I hope you find it useful for you too.
UPDATE : You can also find the source file here,
https://github.com/jasonwee/asus-rt-n14uhp-mrtg
