iftop Installation Guide Installation Guide

iftop is a free and open-source bandwidth usage. iftop displays bandwidth usage on interface by host

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 1 core minimum

RAM: 128MB minimum

Storage: 100MB for data

Network: CLI tool

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port N/A (default iftop port)

None

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install iftop
sudo dnf install -y iftop

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now iftop

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=N/A/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
iftop --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install iftop
sudo apt install -y iftop

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now iftop

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow N/A

# Verify installation
iftop --version

bash

# Install iftop
sudo pacman -S iftop

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now iftop

# Verify installation
iftop --version

bash

# Install iftop
apk add --no-cache iftop

# Enable and start service
rc-update add iftop default
rc-service iftop start

# Verify installation
iftop --version

bash

# Install iftop
sudo zypper install -y iftop

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now iftop

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=N/A/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
iftop --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install iftop

# Start service
brew services start iftop

# Verify installation
iftop --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install iftop

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'iftop_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service iftop start

# Verify installation
iftop --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install iftop

# Or using Scoop
scoop install iftop

# Verify installation
iftop --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/iftop

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
iftop --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable iftop

# Start service
sudo systemctl start iftop

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop iftop

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart iftop

# Check status
sudo systemctl status iftop

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u iftop -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add iftop default

# Start service
rc-service iftop start

# Stop service
rc-service iftop stop

# Restart service
rc-service iftop restart

# Check status
rc-service iftop status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'iftop_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service iftop start

# Stop service
service iftop stop

# Restart service
service iftop restart

# Check status
service iftop status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start iftop
brew services stop iftop
brew services restart iftop

# Check status
brew services list | grep iftop

powershell

# Start service
net start iftop

# Stop service
net stop iftop

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service iftop
Stop-Service iftop
Restart-Service iftop

# Check status
Get-Service iftop

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream iftop_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:N/A;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name iftop.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name iftop.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/iftop.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/iftop.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://iftop_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName iftop.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://iftop.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName iftop.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/iftop.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/iftop.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:N/A/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:N/A/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend iftop_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/iftop.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend iftop_backend

backend iftop_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server iftop1 127.0.0.1:N/A check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R iftop:iftop /etc/iftop
sudo chmod 750 /etc/iftop

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=N/A/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status iftop

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u iftop -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep iftop)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/iftop"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/iftop-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/iftop /var/lib/iftop

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/iftop-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop iftop

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/iftop/iftop-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start iftop

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u iftop -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/iftop/iftop.log

# Check configuration
iftop --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/iftop

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep N/A

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost N/A

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep iftop)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep iftop)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep N/A

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  iftop:
    image: iftop:latest
    ports:
      - "N/A:N/A"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/iftop
      - ./data:/var/lib/iftop
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update iftop

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade iftop

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu iftop

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade iftop

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update iftop

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade iftop

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/iftop-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/iftop

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart iftop

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/iftop

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/iftop -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/iftop

Official Documentation: https://docs.iftop.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/iftop/iftop

Community Forum: https://forum.iftop.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.iftop.org/best-practices

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Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

Related Network monitoring Guides

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darkstat Installation Guide

mrtg Installation Guide