Redhat AS3.0 - 2.4.21-20.0.1.ELsmp
I could use a hand interpretting the output of "sar -n DEV | grep -v lo". In the output below, I see a huge spike (for lack of a better word) in the number of packets handled over a ten minute period. This server using a e100 NIC (connected at 100/Full), I'm curious about how valid the output is. The consideration is that, at random times, the NIC will collect RX overruns as well and sometimes even go off-line. Not sure if there is a connection here:

ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:02:55:AC:51:C7
inet addr:9.56.224.216 Bcast:9.56.224.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:3948191581 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:946 frame:0
TX packets:3948901984 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:133464453 (127.2 Mb) TX bytes:649168241 (619.0 Mb)
Interrupt:42


Check out the spike at 10:10AM from the output below:

sar -n DEV | grep -v lo
Linux 2.4.21-20.0.1.ELsmp ........

12:00:00 AM IFACE rxpck/s txpck/s rxbyt/s txbyt/s rxcmp/s txcmp/s rxmcst/s
12:10:00 AM eth0 213.69 223.57 165400.96 162941.90 0.00 0.00 0.00
12:20:00 AM eth0 148.23 154.84 107690.62 112992.20 0.00 0.00 0.00
12:30:00 AM eth0 180.97 195.08 121062.30 142176.53 0.00 0.00 0.00
12:40:00 AM eth0 148.89 154.50 116919.08 119233.71 0.00 0.00 0.00
12:50:00 AM eth0 73.91 77.79 44612.27 41848.09 0.00 0.00 0.00
01:00:00 AM eth0 88.05 91.08 60913.92 58550.10 0.00 0.00 0.00
01:10:01 AM eth0 138.97 139.57 91873.62 82920.99 0.00 0.00 0.00
01:20:00 AM eth0 102.49 108.98 65828.09 70445.99 0.00 0.00 0.00
01:30:01 AM eth0 80.19 82.65 53630.72 50456.09 0.00 0.00 0.00
01:40:00 AM eth0 84.60 88.38 54731.08 52370.42 0.00 0.00 0.00
01:50:00 AM eth0 147.94 159.61 115638.69 113562.74 0.00 0.00 0.00
02:00:00 AM eth0 103.70 108.24 73338.87 71789.14 0.00 0.00 0.00
02:10:00 AM eth0 110.39 111.85 71897.95 69222.26 0.00 0.00 0.00
02:20:00 AM eth0 111.83 118.51 69978.87 67445.74 0.00 0.00 0.00
02:30:00 AM eth0 117.39 131.71 84374.19 99908.64 0.00 0.00 0.00
02:40:01 AM eth0 97.29 100.70 69797.59 67112.71 0.00 0.00 0.00
02:50:00 AM eth0 59.90 60.91 32697.48 27809.99 0.00 0.00 0.00
03:00:00 AM eth0 64.72 66.71 32190.76 26551.22 0.00 0.00 0.00
03:10:01 AM eth0 108.19 114.17 64139.45 62118.05 0.00 0.00 0.00
03:20:00 AM eth0 152.32 155.62 85555.53 80340.50 0.00 0.00 0.00
03:30:00 AM eth0 133.66 137.44 86573.33 80314.91 0.00 0.00 0.00
03:40:00 AM eth0 97.05 100.59 58397.90 54146.80 0.00 0.00 0.00
03:50:00 AM eth0 101.57 105.90 67235.09 64886.82 0.00 0.00 0.00
04:00:00 AM eth0 85.74 89.15 49523.49 47990.14 0.00 0.00 0.00
04:10:01 AM eth0 182.96 188.55 99097.12 92053.40 0.00 0.00 0.00
04:20:00 AM eth0 127.74 127.16 78673.25 57117.04 0.00 0.00 0.00
04:30:00 AM eth0 101.60 111.05 66483.73 73952.20 0.00 0.00 0.00
04:40:00 AM eth0 94.82 93.59 62927.91 46667.78 0.00 0.00 0.00
04:50:00 AM eth0 140.01 146.76 59245.15 65332.66 0.00 0.00 0.00
05:00:00 AM eth0 87.28 90.15 51108.48 46930.30 0.00 0.00 0.00
05:10:00 AM eth0 156.58 164.18 79362.27 67216.99 0.00 0.00 0.00
05:20:00 AM eth0 169.96 178.70 64156.90 60541.18 0.00 0.00 0.00
05:30:00 AM eth0 145.90 160.79 86241.16 95011.35 0.00 0.00 0.00
05:40:00 AM eth0 132.03 137.83 62660.03 59381.36 0.00 0.00 0.00
05:50:00 AM eth0 86.78 93.86 51134.80 49931.11 0.00 0.00 0.00
06:00:01 AM eth0 151.77 159.98 94064.62 93587.22 0.00 0.00 0.00
06:10:00 AM eth0 193.69 203.14 111055.54 112272.37 0.00 0.00 0.00
06:20:01 AM eth0 181.04 195.41 129643.48 147492.63 0.00 0.00 0.00
06:30:00 AM eth0 137.98 149.16 108104.86 104694.81 0.00 0.00 0.00
06:40:00 AM eth0 169.86 174.76 132321.44 128668.37 0.00 0.00 0.00
06:50:00 AM eth0 139.08 145.60 96067.10 89019.68 0.00 0.00 0.00
07:00:00 AM eth0 121.41 128.78 77618.13 77085.03 0.00 0.00 0.00
07:10:00 AM eth0 273.77 286.76 191128.71 191615.94 0.00 0.00 0.00
07:20:00 AM eth0 175.30 182.95 127631.69 125717.76 0.00 0.00 0.00
07:30:00 AM eth0 214.59 211.20 139280.37 146381.70 0.00 0.00 0.00
07:40:00 AM eth0 213.66 225.20 166297.89 175461.16 0.00 0.00 0.00
07:50:00 AM eth0 237.74 252.25 191540.09 200971.79 0.00 0.00 0.00
08:00:01 AM eth0 297.17 301.10 231001.81 237117.34 0.00 0.00 0.00
08:10:00 AM eth0 380.11 400.41 303064.16 319555.34 0.00 0.00 0.00
08:20:00 AM eth0 294.92 308.86 234909.36 243271.25 0.00 0.00 0.00
08:30:00 AM eth0 345.59 364.06 286636.07 302135.02 0.00 0.00 0.00
08:40:00 AM eth0 429.16 447.30 369731.18 374159.08 0.00 0.00 0.00
08:50:01 AM eth0 391.59 404.46 309896.27 320867.63 0.00 0.00 0.00
09:00:00 AM eth0 346.47 363.61 262732.10 271015.62 0.00 0.00 0.00
09:10:00 AM eth0 520.08 549.99 404833.24 436738.88 0.00 0.00 0.00
09:20:00 AM eth0 562.88 579.69 485525.08 485292.25 0.00 0.00 0.00
09:30:00 AM eth0 504.43 530.20 423498.19 435309.25 0.00 0.00 0.00
09:40:00 AM eth0 884.00 882.79 802829.59 818190.82 0.00 0.00 0.00
09:50:00 AM eth0 675.41 707.09 588580.84 636497.10 0.00 0.00 0.00
10:00:00 AM eth0 615.65 647.59 503883.75 547032.82 0.00 0.00 0.00
10:10:00 AM eth0 6799751.27 6800594.63 7311128.35 543036.63 0.00 0.00 0.00
10:20:00 AM eth0 629.44 677.58 517766.64 566662.65 0.00 0.00 0.00
10:30:00 AM eth0 644.86 671.37 427222.20 535691.21 0.00 0.00 0.00
10:40:00 AM eth0 664.92 684.71 571304.01 580310.57 0.00 0.00 0.00
10:50:00 AM eth0 548.09 578.79 441937.76 462663.75 0.00 0.00 0.00
11:00:00 AM eth0 610.74 643.93 491856.24 526378.38 0.00 0.00 0.00
11:10:00 AM eth0 1102.15 1125.83 980554.65 1018555.91 0.00 0.00 0.00
11:20:00 AM eth0 715.48 733.20 576378.60 574831.93 0.00 0.00 0.00
11:30:00 AM eth0 655.10 685.78 548146.48 557367.21 0.00 0.00 0.00
11:40:00 AM eth0 554.75 579.39 455440.47 460878.22 0.00 0.00 0.00
11:50:00 AM eth0 697.23 712.65 621558.55 620578.01 0.00 0.00 0.00
12:00:00 PM eth0 567.61 586.12 468115.79 477618.89 0.00 0.00 0.00
12:10:00 PM eth0 498.85 516.84 381824.90 382185.54 0.00 0.00 0.00
12:20:01 PM eth0 588.42 615.63 482972.91 498076.07 0.00 0.00 0.00
12:30:00 PM eth0 499.50 528.86 398795.91 329441.27 0.00 0.00 0.00
Average: eth0 294.19 306.41 34162.07 39788.44 0.00 0.00 0.00

Thanks in advance for observations and comments.
Ron-