can you give an absolute datetime for when the amount of connections started to drop?
2018-11-06 21:00 UTC
are you sure this is UTC?
IPv4 Exit Policy Summary reject 1-65535
did that change? did it change at the same time?
This I realized today - didn' checked it before.
historical onionoo data indicates that 'zwiebeltoralf' current exit_policy_summary first appeared with that value on 2018-11-06 19:00 UTC which somewhat correlates with the time you observed the drop in connection count
and that your exit policy changed as well from [1] (2018-11-06 18:00 UTC) to [2] (2018-11-06 19:00 UTC) according to past onionoo data.
Generally speaking your exit policy appears to change quite often (multiple times a day). Is that expected?
no changes to torrc AFAICT.
Are you saying you did not change your tor configuration and exit policy at all during that time?
I did not look at the underlying descriptor data but onionoo data suggests that an exit policy change occurred which could have caused the change in connection counts.
I'm still surprised that you do not have more connections since even non-exits have more than 1k concurrent connections unless you are talking about specific connections only?
[1] reject 0.0.0.0/8:*, reject 169.254.0.0/16:*, reject 127.0.0.0/8:*, reject 192.168.0.0/16:*, reject 10.0.0.0/8:*, reject 172.16.0.0/12:*, reject 194.9.149.49/24:*, reject 162.218.232.15/21:*, reject 210.105.69.49/22:*, reject 65.202.15.202/27:*, reject 210.182.0.0/19:*, reject 185.25.91.128/27:*, reject 103.59.156.0/22:*, reject 195.78.231.151/22:*, reject 185.60.216.15/8:443, reject 81.3.7.31:443, reject 149.154.167.51:5222, reject 198.50.195.216:7777, reject 194.109.206.212:80, accept *:53, accept *:79, accept *:80, accept *:110, accept *:119, accept *:194, accept *:220, accept *:389, accept *:443, accept *:464, accept *:465, accept *:531, accept *:543, accept *:544, accept *:563, accept *:587, accept *:636, accept *:706, accept *:749, accept *:853, accept *:873, accept *:902, accept *:903, accept *:904, accept *:981, accept *:989, accept *:990, accept *:991, accept *:992, accept *:993, accept *:994, accept *:995, accept *:1194, accept *:1220, accept *:1293, accept *:1533, accept *:1677, accept *:1723, accept *:1755, accept *:1863, accept *:1883, accept *:2095, accept *:2096, accept *:2102, accept *:2103, accept *:2104, accept *:3128, accept *:3690, accept *:4321, accept *:4643, accept *:5050, accept *:5190, accept *:5222, accept *:5223, accept *:5269, accept *:5280, accept *:6660, accept *:6661, accept *:6662, accept *:6663, accept *:6664, accept *:6665, accept *:6666, accept *:6667, accept *:6668, accept *:6669, accept *:6679, accept *:6697, accept *:7777, accept *:8008, accept *:8074, accept *:8080, accept *:8082, accept *:8232, accept *:8233, accept *:8332, accept *:8333, accept *:8443, accept *:8883, accept *:8888, accept *:9418, accept *:11371, accept *:19294, accept *:19638, accept *:50002, accept *:64738, reject *:*
[2] reject 0.0.0.0/8:*, reject 127.0.0.0/8:*, reject 192.168.0.0/16:*, reject 10.0.0.0/8:*, reject 172.16.0.0/12:*, reject 159.0.0.0/8:*, reject 169.0.0.0/8:*, reject 194.9.149.0/24:*, reject 162.218.232.15/21:*, reject 210.105.69.49/22:*, reject 65.202.15.202/27:*, reject 210.182.0.0/19:*, reject 185.25.91.128/27:*, reject 103.59.156.0/22:*, reject 195.78.231.151/22:*, reject 104.244.42.80/8:443, reject 178.237.20.121/8:443, reject 185.103.30.39/8:443, reject 199.59.148.175/8:443, reject 104.108.60.52/8:80, reject 185.10.61.120/8:80, reject 199.58.81.140/8:80, reject 51.68.153.90/8:80, reject 91.228.7.11/8:80, reject 91.146.131.78/8:8080, reject 184.168.230.1/16:80, reject 87.240.129.133/24:443, reject 193.124.118.184/24:80, reject 109.201.135.79:443, reject 149.154.167.51:443, reject 151.101.113.2:443, reject 152.195.34.118:443, reject 152.195.39.72:443, reject 157.240.20.174:443, reject 164.100.78.192:443, reject 165.227.51.238:443, reject 2.19.46.136:443, reject 200.252.60.65:443, reject 203.119.215.109:443, reject 35.165.113.217:443, reject 35.165.136.85:443, reject 5.160.138.235:443, reject 51.68.71.35:443, reject 52.216.133.77:443, reject 52.222.158.94:443, reject 54.192.202.107:443, reject 62.240.232.140:443, reject 8.247.13.109:443, reject 8.252.23.115:443, reject 87.250.250.92:443, reject 88.208.10.18:443, reject 89.45.235.19:443, reject 94.100.180.76:443, reject 94.76.213.163:443, reject 149.154.167.51:5222, reject 109.206.161.83:80, reject 14.215.165.22:80, reject 149.126.77.208:80, reject 149.56.14.76:80, reject 162.220.11.2:80, reject 163.172.15.249:80, reject 163.172.205.124:80, reject 172.217.16.174:80, reject 173.214.243.68:80, reject 178.162.198.170:80, reject 182.176.96.104:80, reject 190.115.18.99:80, reject 194.109.206.212:80, reject 200.252.60.65:80, reject 203.119.215.109:80, reject 208.83.20.20:80, reject 212.27.63.35:80, reject 213.174.131.126:80, reject 213.184.225.53:80, reject 23.236.62.147:80, reject 5.79.69.137:80, reject 52.86.122.241:80, reject 62.149.140.105:80, reject 62.210.16.61:80, reject 72.52.4.119:80, reject 78.46.94.151:80, reject 82.209.230.66:80, reject 88.208.18.245:80, reject 88.208.52.134:80, reject 88.214.203.52:80, reject 93.184.220.29:80, reject 95.107.48.115:80, reject 95.211.212.148:80, reject 104.20.7.177:8080, reject 198.251.81.243:8080, reject 67.228.177.23:8080, reject 212.47.240.70:8888, reject 146.20.147.247:993, reject 217.146.190.234:993, reject 77.238.185.51:993, reject 96.114.157.78:993, accept *:53, accept *:79, accept *:80, accept *:110, accept *:119, accept *:194, accept *:220, accept *:389, accept *:443, accept *:464, accept *:465, accept *:531, accept *:543, accept *:544, accept *:563, accept *:587, accept *:636, accept *:706, accept *:749, accept *:853, accept *:873, accept *:902, accept *:903, accept *:904, accept *:981, accept *:989, accept *:990, accept *:991, accept *:992, accept *:993, accept *:994, accept *:995, accept *:1194, accept *:1220, accept *:1293, accept *:1533, accept *:1677, accept *:1723, accept *:1755, accept *:1863, accept *:1883, accept *:2095, accept *:2096, accept *:2102, accept *:2103, accept *:2104, accept *:3128, accept *:3690, accept *:4321, accept *:4643, accept *:5050, accept *:5190, accept *:5222, accept *:5223, accept *:5269, accept *:5280, accept *:6660, accept *:6661, accept *:6662, accept *:6663, accept *:6664, accept *:6665, accept *:6666, accept *:6667, accept *:6668, accept *:6669, accept *:6679, accept *:6697, accept *:7777, accept *:8008, accept *:8074, accept *:8080, accept *:8082, accept *:8232, accept *:8233, accept *:8332, accept *:8333, accept *:8443, accept *:8883, accept *:8888, accept *:9418, accept *:11371, accept *:19294, accept *:19638, accept *:50002, accept *:64738, reject *:*