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hdds-viewer Quickstart

Get started analyzing DDS traffic with hdds-viewer in minutes.

Installation​

From Cargo​

cargo install hdds-viewer

From Binary Release​

# Linux x86_64
curl -LO https://github.com/skylab/hdds/releases/latest/download/hdds-viewer-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
tar xzf hdds-viewer-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
sudo mv hdds-viewer /usr/local/bin/

Build from Source​

git clone https://github.com/skylab/hdds.git
cd hdds/tools/hdds-viewer
cargo build --release

Quick Start​

View Live Traffic​

Monitor DDS traffic on domain 0:

hdds-viewer --domain 0

Output:

HDDS Viewer v1.0.0 - Monitoring domain 0

[12:34:56.123] PARTICIPANT DISCOVERED
  GUID: 01.0f.ab.cd.12.34.56.78|0.0.1.c1
  Host: sensor-node-1
  Process: sensor_publisher (PID 1234)

[12:34:56.456] TOPIC DISCOVERED
  Name: SensorTopic
  Type: sensors::SensorData
  Writers: 1, Readers: 0

[12:34:57.001] DATA RECEIVED (SensorTopic)
  sensor_id: 1
  value: 25.5
  timestamp: 1703847297001234567

Monitor Specific Topic​

hdds-viewer --domain 0 --topic SensorTopic

Live Statistics​

Show real-time statistics:

hdds-viewer --domain 0 --stats

Output:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ HDDS Viewer - Domain 0                                  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Participants: 3    Topics: 5    Writers: 8    Readers: 12 │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Topic               │ Rate      │ Bytes/s   │ Writers  │
├─────────────────────┼───────────┼───────────┼──────────┤
│ SensorTopic         │ 100 Hz    │ 4.8 KB/s  │ 2        │
│ CommandTopic        │ 10 Hz     │ 320 B/s   │ 1        │
│ StatusTopic         │ 1 Hz      │ 128 B/s   │ 3        │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Capture and Analyze​

Record to File​

Capture traffic to a file for later analysis:

hdds-viewer --domain 0 --record capture.hddscap

Analyze Capture​

Analyze a recorded capture:

hdds-viewer --analyze capture.hddscap

Output:

Capture Analysis: capture.hddscap
Duration: 5m 23s
Samples: 32,456

Top Topics by Volume:
  1. SensorTopic       - 25,000 samples (77%)
  2. TelemetryTopic    - 5,456 samples (17%)
  3. CommandTopic      - 2,000 samples (6%)

Latency Statistics (SensorTopic):
  Min: 0.12 ms
  Max: 4.56 ms
  Avg: 0.34 ms
  P99: 1.23 ms

Export to PCAP​

Convert capture to Wireshark-compatible format:

hdds-viewer --convert capture.hddscap --output capture.pcap

ML-Based Analysis​

Anomaly Detection​

Enable ML-powered anomaly detection:

hdds-viewer --domain 0 --ml-detect

Output:

[12:35:01.234] ANOMALY DETECTED
  Topic: SensorTopic
  Type: Latency Spike
  Expected: 0.3 ms, Observed: 15.2 ms
  Confidence: 98.7%

[12:35:02.567] ANOMALY DETECTED
  Topic: CommandTopic
  Type: Missing Samples
  Expected rate: 10 Hz, Observed: 3 Hz
  Confidence: 95.2%

Traffic Classification​

Classify traffic patterns:

hdds-viewer --analyze capture.hddscap --classify

Output:

Traffic Classification Results:

  Normal Operation: 94.2%
  High Load: 4.1%
  Degraded: 1.5%
  Attack/Anomaly: 0.2%

Detected Patterns:
  - Periodic sensor data (100 Hz)
  - Request-response commands
  - Heartbeat traffic

Common Use Cases​

Debug Discovery Issues​

Watch discovery traffic:

hdds-viewer --domain 0 --discovery-only

Monitor QoS Violations​

Alert on QoS issues:

hdds-viewer --domain 0 --qos-alerts

Compare Before/After​

Compare two captures:

hdds-viewer --diff before.hddscap after.hddscap

Output Formats​

JSON Output​

hdds-viewer --domain 0 --format json | jq '.'

CSV Export​

hdds-viewer --analyze capture.hddscap --format csv > data.csv

Live Web Dashboard​

Start web interface:

hdds-viewer --domain 0 --web --port 8080

Access at http://localhost:8080.

Filter Expressions​

Filter by topic pattern:

hdds-viewer --domain 0 --filter "topic =~ 'Sensor.*'"

Filter by content:

hdds-viewer --domain 0 --filter "data.value > 100"

Combine filters:

hdds-viewer --domain 0 --filter "topic == 'SensorTopic' AND data.sensor_id == 1"

Configuration​

Config File​

Create ~/.config/hdds-viewer/config.toml:

[default]
domain = 0
format = "pretty"
color = true

[ml]
anomaly_threshold = 0.95
model_path = "~/.config/hdds-viewer/models/"

[capture]
max_size = "1GB"
rotate = true

Environment Variables​

export HDDS_VIEWER_DOMAIN=0
export HDDS_VIEWER_LOG_LEVEL=debug

Next Steps​