Scheduling Periodic Bandwidth Checks Between pfSense Routers Using iPerf

I have a customer who, for years, has complained that their point to point connection (over a dedicated Point-to-Point Cable connection referred to as EoC or Ethernet over Cable) slows down every afternoon regardless of the number of users.  Initial investigations revealed nothing of importance.  iPerf tests would show periodic slowdowns but without any consistency as I could only run iPerf at the console, which required me to stand over it and initiate the tests.

What I desired was iPerf tests every 5 minutes during business hours.

To get started install the iPerf packages in both of your pfSense systems.  I am clueless why there are iPerf options in the Webmin, they seem to do nothing, please ignore them and use iPerf from the console.

iperf -c 192.168.0.1 -t 28800 -i 300

SEEMS to work, but it would need to be invoked every morning, and only outputs to the screen. Furthermore it runs the test ALL DAY LONG, not just every 5 minutes.  This would hog up the connection and prevent real work from being done quickly.  What I need is for it to be done periodically then output to a text file that I can check occasionally.  Furthermore, the office is only open 8am-5pm Monday through Friday, so why fill up my file with tests all the rest of the time?  Lastly, iPerf doesn't include dates and times in the report, so I need to add them.  I decided to haul out Crontab and do the following:

1.  Install the iPerf package in both pfSense systems.

2.  Pick a pfSense system to be ny server, log into its administrative console, and run the following command:

iperf -s -D

This runs iPerf as a daemon and allows me to close the session but keep iPerf running.

3.  Create an sh script (mine is iperftest.sh) using vi containing the following:

date
/usr/local/bin/iperf -c 192.168.0.1 -t -x CSV

The date line adds the date and time to the output file, and the -x CSV prevents showing info beyond the amount of data transferred and the speed at which it was transferred.

4.  Add a crontab job (crontab -e) for the user admin similar to the following:

00/5 8-17 * * 1-5 /root/autoiperf.sh >> iperfreport.txt

5.  Now all you need to do is cat your iperfreport.txt to see reports.

Wed Jul  2 13:25:00 CDT 2014
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0-10.0 sec  6.00 MBytes  5.03 Mbits/sec
Wed Jul  2 13:30:00 CDT 2014
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0-10.1 sec  6.00 MBytes  4.98 Mbits/sec