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Diagnostic Tool

Diagnostic Tool

The Diagnostic Tool is a standalone binary that runs network tests (DNS, HTTP, gateway connectivity) to diagnose connectivity issues and report on network performance.

It can also be run from within the daemon with the same CLI interface.

Download Binary

To get nym-diagnostic follow these steps:

1. Download nym-vpn-core
2. Install or extract and make executable
  • If you downloaded .deb installer, install it with this command:
sudo dpkg -i <FILE_NAME>
  • If you downloaded .tar.gz, in terminal you can extract the file with
tar -xvf <FILE_NAME>
  • Navigate inside the directory and make executable:
cd nym-vpn-core-<VERSION>
chmod +x ./*

CLI Usage

The Diagnostic Tool runs from the command line. The usage instructions and options follow. See Tests Performed for the purpose and outcome of each command.

Command Syntax

./nym-diagnostic [command] [options]
./nym-vpnc diagnostic [command] [options]

run command arguments

The most useful command is run, here are the options for that command:

-h, --help      Display help information and exit.
--skip-dns      Skip the DNS tests
--skip-http     Skip the HTTP tests
--gateway <ID_KEY>  Run the gateway connectivity test on the given gateway. Skip those tests if not provided
-v, --verbose   Enable verbose output for detailed logging.

register command arguments

Command register requires valid credential. Here are the options for that command:

--gateway <ID_KEY>    Register to the given gateway
--storage-path    Path to the directory containing the credentials database. If it is not valid registration will be skipped.
--skip-wireguard  Skip Wireguard tests

Command Examples

  • Run all tests on a gateway:
./nym-diagnostic run --gateway <ID_KEY>
  • Run the DNS tests only:
./nym-diagnostic run --skip-http
  • Register to a gateway:
sudo ./nym-diagnostic register --gateway <ID_KEY> --storage-path /var/lib/nym-vpnd/mainnet 
# sudo is required to read the database
  • You can also run DNS and HTTP tests from nym-vpnc (installation here):
./nym-vpnc diagnostic run​

Tests Performed

The Diagnostic Tool runs the following tests:

1. DNS Test

  • Purpose: Check DNS resolution availability.
  • Process: Resolve all domain names present in the given Nym network environment with different DNS configurations.
  • Output: Resolved IP address and time taken for resolution.

2. HTTP Test

  • Purpose: Verify accessibility of the NymVPN API.
  • Process: Query the health and nodes/described endpoints.
  • Output: Response from the health endpoint, time skew, and number of nodes in the network (sanity check).

3. Gateway Test

  • Purpose: Check connectivity to a given gateway.
  • Process: Fetch information about the gateway, establish a TCP connection, upgrade it to WS, and send a request.
  • Output: Gateway-reported information, connection status, and WS response.

4. Registration Test

  • Purpose: Check the registration process.
  • Process: Build a mixnet client to the provided gateway and register with the entry authenticator.
  • Output: Status of each step.
  • Caveat: This test spends a credential, which is why it lives in a separate command.

5. Wireguard Test

  • Purpose: Check the soundness of a wireguard connection.
  • Process: Use the registration data from the previous step to establish a wireguard connection and ping an IP.
  • Output: Ping RTTs and any errors.

Reports

Reports are logged in JSON format and also returned by the commands for later use.

CommandsTcpProxy Binaries (Standalone)