What Is the Relationship Between the Number of Network Connections and the Number of Socket Connections on an ECS?

The number of network connections and the number of socket connections on an ECS are two independent concepts.

Network connections are valid network connections established between devices (such as servers, clients, and routers) at the same time. These connections are mainly used for managing network security groups and ACLs.

• Identifier: a 5-tuple, comprising the source IP address, destination IP address, source port, destination port, and protocol (TCP or UDP)

  For the ICMP protocol, a 3-tuple is used for identification, comprising the ICMP type, ICMP code, and ICMP protocol number.

• Record: Network connection entries are recorded.

  Network connection entries are generated in both the inbound and outbound directions of ECSs. This metric is not directly related to the statistics collected using the netstat/ss command.

• Aging time: It is configured on the network device and is irrelevant to the aging timers of socket connections.

A socket connection is a communication mechanism managed by the kernel of the operating system. It allows different processes to communicate with each other over networks.

• Identifier: a 4-tuple, comprising the source IP address, source port, destination IP address, and destination port.
• Record: Statistics are collected within ECSs using the netstat/ss command.
• Aging time: It is controlled by various aging timers (such as FIN_WAIT and TIME_WAIT) in the operating system.