Netsloth

This is a simple script that calls various benchmarking and network troubleshooting tools and uploads this data to InfluxDB.

Set up InfluxDB

For testing, the easy thing to do is run the InfluxDB container on a server:

docker run --rm --name influxdb -p 8086:8086 -v influx_volume:/var/lib/influxdb2 influxdb:latest

Open http://myserver:8086 to set up initial user. Alternately, see https://hub.docker.com/_/influxdb/ for many ways to initialize the container with an already created user.

When it asks you to set up InfluxDB just ignore that step.

After creating your user, the next thing you must do is create a bucket. Navigate to Load Data > Buckets > Create Bucket. Change 'config.yml' entry 'bucket' to match the name you gave the bucket.

Next create an API token from Load Data > API Tokens > Generate API Token.

Configuration

Edit the file config/config.yml with the bucket and API token you created in the setup.

Helper programs

iperf3:

sudo apt install iperf3

miniooni:

download from https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/releases

Run

Run netsloth:

bin/netsloth

Docker

Run the image directly from the registry:

docker run -it -e USER=calyx -e LOCATION=nyc -e DEVICE=mifi-m2000 registry.0xacab.org/calyx/gems/netsloth:latest

Build image:

docker build -t netsloth .

Run locally built image:

docker run -it -e USER=calyx -e LOCATION=nyc -e DEVICE=mifi-m2000 netsloth

Further Reading

InfluxDB client gem: https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb-client-ruby

Querying data in Flux: https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/cloud/query-data/flux/

Classes on learning InfluxDB: https://university.influxdata.com/

Example Graphs

A simple graph showing the aggregate bandwidth for all users at a specific location, grouped in 5 minute windows:

from(bucket: "network")
  |> range(start: v.timeRangeStart, stop: v.timeRangeStop)
  |> filter(fn: (r) => r["_measurement"] == "iperf3")
  |> filter(fn: (r) => r["_field"] == "receiver_bits_per_second")
  |> filter(fn: (r) => r["location"] == "seattle")
  |> drop(columns: ["user"])
  |> aggregateWindow(every: 5m, fn: median, createEmpty: false)
  |> yield(name: "median")

If you want to further aggregate over all devices:

  |> drop(columns: ["user", "device"])

Using calyxos and termux

Install termux from f-droid

Open termux and install packages: pkg update && pkg install curl git ruby iperf3

Clone netsloth and install packages

git clone https://0xacab.org/calyx/experiments/netsloth.git
cd netsloth
bundle install

Download miniooni: curl -L -O "https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/releases/download/v3.17.2/miniooni-android-arm64" && chmod +x miniooni-android-arm64

Change variables in config/config.yml to match your location, device, etc.

By default iperf3_cmd is located at /data/data/com.termux/files/user/bin/iperf3