Traffic Totals

The Traffic Totals package (port FreeSense-pkg-Status_Traffic_Totals) adds a Status → Traffic Totals page that shows how much traffic each interface received and sent per hour, per day, per month, and on its ten busiest days. Data is collected by the vnStat daemon, which reads the kernel’s interface counters, so it adds almost no load and does not capture packets.

At the 1.1.0 release lock the package (version 2.3.5_5) depends on vnStat 2.13 from the pinned FreeBSD ports tree.

Use it to answer “how much did we use this month?” questions, check ISP data caps, or compare interfaces over time. It does not show who used the traffic; for per-host or per-application detail use ntopng or export flows with softflowd. For live per-second graphs, use the built-in traffic graph described in Monitoring and logs.

Install

Open System → Package Manager → Available Packages.
Find Traffic Totals (category Monitoring, lightweight) and select Install package, then Confirm.

Stable packages are published for amd64 and, starting with 1.1.1, arm64. See Installing packages.

Where to find it

Menu path	Page
Status → Traffic Totals (Traffic group)	Settings panel, interactive graph, and data summary table, with Hourly, Daily, Monthly, and Top 10 Days tabs

The collector service appears as vnstatd (Status Traffic Totals data collection daemon) under Status → Services.

First-time setup

Graphing is off after a fresh installation; the page shows Graphing is not enabled, Enable Graphing in the Advanced Settings above until you turn it on.

Open Status → Traffic Totals.
In the Settings panel, select Display Advanced.
Select Enable Graphing. FreeSense writes /usr/local/etc/vnstat.conf, starts vnstatd, and creates a vnStat database entry for every interface (see below).
Wait at least five minutes. vnStat updates its data every five minutes, so the first graph is empty or nearly empty.
Choose the interfaces, graph type, and other options, select Update Graphs, and switch between the Hourly, Daily, Monthly, and Top 10 Days tabs.
To keep your choices, select Display Advanced → Save As Defaults.

Databases are created for every assigned interface, plus IPsec (enc0) when IPsec is enabled and each enabled OpenVPN server and client instance. Each database is given the interface’s description as its vnStat alias.

Settings reference

All settings are on the Settings panel of the page.

Control	What it does	Default
Interface(s)	Interfaces shown in the graph and summary. Multiple can be selected; Top 10 Days accepts only one.	All
Type	Line, Bar, Line (Stacked), or Bar (Stacked).	Line
Inverse	On plots transmitted traffic below the axis.	On
Cumulative	On shows a running total across the period instead of per-period values.	Off
Start Day	Day of the month (1-28) on which the monthly period begins (vnStat `MonthRotate`); set it to your ISP billing day.	1
Update Graphs	Redraws the graph with the current options.	-
Display Advanced	Shows the buttons below.	-
Export As CSV	Downloads the data summary table as CSV.	-
Save As Defaults	Stores the current period, interfaces, type, inverse, cumulative, and start day as the page defaults and applies Start Day to vnStat.	-
Enable Graphing / Disable Graphing	Starts collection, or stops `vnstatd` and deletes all collected data.	Disabled
Reset Graphing Data	Deletes all vnStat databases, restarts `vnstatd`, and recreates empty databases.	-

Firewall rules and interfaces

No firewall rules are needed. vnStat reads interface counters locally and the page reads vnStat’s JSON output through the WebUI.

Interfaces added after graphing was enabled are added to vnStat the next time the configuration is synchronized, for example by Save As Defaults, or by disabling and re-enabling graphing (which discards existing data).

Service, logs, and status

Item	Value
Service	`vnstatd` (Status → Services)
rc script	`/usr/local/etc/rc.d/vnstatd.sh` (generated while graphing is enabled)
Configuration	`/usr/local/etc/vnstat.conf` (generated, do not edit)
Database	`/var/db/vnstat/`
PID file	`/var/run/vnstat/vnstat.pid`; the daemon runs as user `vnstat`
Data source for the page	`/vnstat_fetch_json.php` (output of `vnstat --json`)
Package messages	Errors such as Could not write /usr/local/etc/vnstat.conf go to the system log with the `Traffic Totals` prefix

The package registers vnstat as a RAM-disk directory: when /var is a RAM disk, FreeSense’s package-data backup saves /var/db/vnstat to the RAM disk store under /cf/conf/RAM_Disk_Store so it can be restored at boot.

Access to the page and its data endpoint is controlled by the WebCfg - Status: Traffic Totals privilege.

Upgrade, backup, and removal

Page defaults and the enabled state are stored in config.xml under installedpackages/traffictotals and are included in configuration backups. The traffic history in /var/db/vnstat/ is not part of the configuration backup.
When the package is reinstalled (for example during an upgrade) and graphing was enabled but no data can be read, the package rewrites the configuration and recreates the databases.
Removing the package deletes /var/db/vnstat/ and all traffic history. In 1.1 the Package Manager stops vnstatd before removing its service entry.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause and fix
Graphing is not enabled, Enable Graphing in the Advanced Settings above	Graphing is off or the database is missing. Select Display Advanced → Enable Graphing.
Top 10 doesn’t allow for more than one interface to be selected	Select a single interface on the Top 10 Days tab.
Graph is empty right after enabling	vnStat records data every five minutes; wait and select Update Graphs.
A new interface or VPN instance is missing	Select Save As Defaults to resynchronize the interface databases.
Monthly totals do not match the ISP bill	Set Start Day to the billing day and save it as default. vnStat counts all traffic on the interface, including traffic the firewall itself sends.
Invalid Start Day	Use a value from 1 to 28.
Data disappeared	Disable Graphing, Reset Graphing Data, and package removal all delete the history. On a RAM-disk `/var`, data collected since the last package-data backup is lost on an unclean shutdown.