How to use the MTR (Traceroute) tool on Linux & Windows
For a system administrator, monitoring the stable operation of the system is an extremely important thing, for systems deploying online services, the top issue is the network. To be able to monitor the online status, sending/receiving packages usually system administrators use command lines such as ping, traceroute to see if the transmission of packages on the network through points is stable or not. Instead of using single commands and having to gather discrete parameters to analyze and make judgments, you can use specialized tools for network analysis. The following will guide you to use the mtr (traceroute) tool to evaluate and analyze the status of the network.
-MTR is a tool that includes 2 programs traceroute and ping. When you run the mtr tool, it will make a connection between the host you are installing mtr on and another server via IP address or hostname by sending low indexed TTLs packages through different points to disk. , packets are sent continuously, % rate is calculated by sending packets, sending packets from there to help administrators make accurate judgments about the status of the network connected to the host/server to be checked.
1. MTR on Linux
1.1. Install
To use the mtr tool on Linux, you install the mtr packages on the Linux environment
-On Centos:
$ yum install mtr
-On Ubuntu,Debian
$ apt-get install mtr
1.2. How to use
Check connection to domain/IP
$ mtr [domainName/IP]
Eg:
Domain:
$ mtr google.com
Or IP address:
$ mtr 216.58.223.78
You can display the numeric IP address in the tracking report instead of the hostname. The -n option with the mtr command is used to display numeric IP addresses. Run the following command on a command line to view numeric IP addresses:
$ mtr -n google.com
If you want to display both IP address as well as hostname options then you would use the -b option with the mtr command.
Run the following command to display both the hostname and IP address in the tracking report:
$ mtr -b google.com
2. MTR on Windows
2.1. Install
MTR on windows is in the form of an .exe file that does not need to be installed on the computer. Make the download here.
After downloading, extract and run the WinMTR.exe file
2.2. How to use
+ Interval (sec): The time interval between each outgoing mtr package.
+ Ping size (bytes): The size of the outgoing mtr packet.
+ Max hosts in LRU list: Number of hopes passed.
+ Reslove name: Display or not display the hostname of the passing hopes.
You just need to enter the IP/Domain and click Start
Result
MTR on windows supports exporting the results to text, html.
3. Read and analyze the results
+ Hostname: The hope packages pass through before reaching the destination host to be checked.
+ Lost %: Percentage of packages lost in transmission to that hope (Important information to collect).
+ Sent: Number of packages sent.
+ Recv: Number of packages to respond to.
+ Avrg: Average response time (ms).
+ Best: Fastest response time (ms).
+ Worst: Longest response time (ms).
+ Last: The response time of the most recent packet (ms).
+ StDev: Standard Deviation.
Good Luck!
