Technologies/Tailscale/tailscale.bytes.sent.total
TailscaleTailscaleMetric

tailscale.bytes.sent.total

Total bytes sent
Dimensions:None
Available on:PrometheusPrometheus (1)CloudWatchCloudWatch (1)Google Cloud MonitoringGoogle Cloud Monitoring (1)

Summary

Cumulative count of bytes transmitted across all Tailscale network connections since daemon startup. This counter monotonically increases and resets only on process restart. Rising send rates indicate active outbound traffic flow, while significant deviation from receive rates may indicate data distribution patterns or potential routing problems. Critical for understanding egress bandwidth usage and detecting traffic anomalies.

Interface Metrics (3)
PrometheusPrometheus
Total bytes transmitted through the Tailscale network interface
Dimensions:None
CloudWatchCloudWatch
Total bytes sent across all Tailscale connections
Dimensions:None
Google Cloud MonitoringGoogle Cloud Monitoring
Total bytes sent by this Tailscale node to other nodes in the network
Dimensions:None
Sources
tailscale_tx_bytes_totalgithub.com
BytesSenttailscale.com
tailscale.node.bytes_sentcloud.google.com

Technical Annotations (17)

Configuration Parameters (3)
RouteAllrecommended: false
disable exit node to prevent unintended traffic routing
ExitNodeIDrecommended: empty
no exit node selected by default
allow_incoming_connectionsrecommended: disabled (workaround only)
Disabling prevents CPU spike but limits Tailscale functionality
CLI Commands (4)
tailscale metrics printdiagnostic
tailscale prefsdiagnostic
tailscale set --relay-server-port=<port>remediation
tailscale ping <node>diagnostic
Technical References (10)
exit nodecomponentDERP relaycomponentsubnet routercomponentDERP relay serverscomponentNAT traversalconcepttailscaled.execomponentHyper-VcomponentDERPcomponentpeer relaycomponentnetwork flow logscomponent
Related Insights (9)
Exit node resource exhaustion from excessive inbound connections degrades performancewarning
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Tailscale client metrics available for Prometheus scrapinginfo
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Exit node usage causes unexpected egress IP and geo-based service alertswarning
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Exit node becomes single point of failure causing company-wide outagescritical
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DERP relay usage indicates direct connectivity failure between peerswarning
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Tailscale daemon CPU usage spikes to 25-60% with high network utilization on Windows Serverwarning
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DERP relay throughput throttling causes severe degradation on intercontinental connectionswarning
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Excessive traffic through exit node indicating performance bottleneckwarning

When a large volume of traffic is routed through a single exit node, it can create a performance bottleneck, saturating the exit node's bandwidth, CPU, or network interfaces. This degrades performance for all users routing through that exit node and creates a single point of failure.

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Network flow logs now include node information automaticallyinfo
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