Single linode, lots of Priv In spikes?

Hi all,

since I've got only one linode I cannot understand these (relatively) huge Priv In spikes:

~~![](<URL url=)http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2875427/priv_in_graph.png" />

When I saw the first one I thought "maybe the backup" but I'd appreciate any help.

Thanks~~

11 Replies

If you look at the scale, it's just a few bits per second. Not really a large traffic spike - it just appears so because of the scale.

My Linode shows exactly the same thing - it's probably something simple like pings hitting your Linode from the local router or similar and not likely to be something to worry about.

first of all thanks.

Indeed it's a few bites but they sort of coincide with a more sluggish website (which is the reason I check the graphs in the first place).

It could be an unrelated issue. Are you seeing any spikes in other resources like RAM, CPU, or disk?

likely unrelated but any other spike (CPU%, traffic, IO) doesn't overlap at all with this and the others are irregular while this one is kind of regular

This looks like about the right level for for IPv6 local router advert traffic. It's what allows for the "easy-self-setup"-type features, etc. That amount of traffic should be expected on ipv6. Remember, that scale is in bits-per-second, not megabits or kilobits.

If you take any group of hosts running ipv6, you get a fair amount of background chatter, and a lot of it is multicast setup traffic. And it's usually at regular intervals, unless someone specifically changed it in their setup. Can't really turn it off without breaking "features" of ipv6. It's just part of the package really.

I haven't had a chance to deploy ipv6 myself, but I have seen this before.

Some examples of what kinds of things use ipv6 where many people don't realize here:

~~[https://labs.ripe.net/Members/mirjam/background-radiation-in-ipv6" target="_blank">](https://labs.ripe.net/Members/mirjam/ba … on-in-ipv6">https://labs.ripe.net/Members/mirjam/background-radiation-in-ipv6](

~~[http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articlestutorials/IPv6-multicast-background-traffic-Part1.html" target="blank">](http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articl … Part1.html">http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/IPv6-multicast-background-traffic-Part1.html](

and

~~[http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articlestutorials/IPv6-multicast-background-traffic-Part7.html" target="blank">](http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articl … Part7.html">http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/IPv6-multicast-background-traffic-Part7.html](

thanks a lot, I'll look into that

That is normal IPv6 LAN chatter. It's not counted against your monthly transfer. Don't sweat it.

-Chris

Hi,

not worried about quota, more about the fact that it seemed to happen roughly at the same time of a more sluggish website

Thanks

Just a wild idea… are you using IPv6? I mean, is your goal to make that website IPv6 accessible? If not, make sure that your web server is not listening on your IPv6 addresses. Its possible that IPv6 is trying to auto-configure or something when that traffic hits your Linode. That can cause a perceived disruption to IPv4 traffic, because a lot of (most?) browsers these days are configured to prefer IPv6 by default. So if an IPv6 link is coming up when you are browsing, you might be seeing that.

Just an idea.

@fuzzman442:

Just a wild idea… are you using IPv6? I mean, is your goal to make that website IPv6 accessible? If not, make sure that your web server is not listening on your IPv6 addresses. Its possible that IPv6 is trying to auto-configure or something when that traffic hits your Linode. That can cause a perceived disruption to IPv4 traffic, because a lot of (most?) browsers these days are configured to prefer IPv6 by default. So if an IPv6 link is coming up when you are browsing, you might be seeing that.

Just an idea.
If there aren't any AAAA records, it doesn't matter if the web server is listening on IPv6. If there are AAAA records, working IPv6 won't cause delays. (Unless, like, you have a relatively poor IPv6 route, but that's not what I meant.)

Aha, so that's what it is. I was trying to figure out what these were as well.

I checked to see if I installed anything on April 2nd when they started, but that must have been when I enabled IP v6.

Thanks!

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