Xaprb

I’ve released version 1.1.6 of the Better Cacti Templates project. This release includes a bunch of bug fixes (but not all of them!) and two new sets of graphs. One set is for disk I/O on GNU/Linux, and the other is a new set of templates for OpenVZ. I’m looking for feedback on both of those. This release also has a bunch of code-level features: much better test coverage (hooray!), and a refactored ss_get_by_ssh.php that makes it much easier to create new graphs and templates. The SSH-based templates also take advantage of the same caching as the MySQL templates, which makes them a lot more efficient.

There are upgrade instructions on the project wiki for this and all releases. There is also a comprehensive tutorial on how to create your own graphs and templates with this project. Use the project issue tracker to view and report issues, and use the project mailing list to discuss the templates and scripts.

The full changelog follows.

2010-01-10: version 1.1.6

  * Added OpenVZ graphs (--type openvz) (issue 95).
  * Added IO usage graphs (--type diskstats) (issue 97).
  * Added extra error-reporting (issue 110).
  * The $debug $debug_log options couldn't be set in the .cnf file (issue 110).
  * Added a --use-ssh option to ss_get_by_ssh.php (issue 66).
  * Added a debugging log to ss_get_by_ssh.php (issue 54).
  * Enabled caching of results in ss_get_by_ssh.php (issue 46).
  * Added a test suite for ss_get_by_ssh.php (issue 110).
  * The 'free' stats suffered from PHP's issues with big numbers (issue 102).
  * There was ambiguity (but no error) in SHOW STATUS overrides (issue 106).
  * It was hard to debug failures caused by missing ext/mysql (issue 105).
  * Code to make ss_get_mysql_stats.php testable was broken (issue 108).

If you’d like some improvements to the Cacti templates (MySQL, Apache, Memcached, and more) I’ve been maintaining, please make your voice heard — either write to the mailing list, or post a new issue (or comment on an existing one) on the issue list. I’ve got a bunch of work underway, including a test suite for ss_get_by_ssh.php.

I’ve released version 1.1.4 of my improved Cacti templates. Unlike the prior release, which was solely bug fixes, this one includes new graphs in the MySQL template. Some of the graphs are of data that’s exposed in standard MySQL versions, but some of it is available only in Percona’s high-performance builds of the MySQL database server. If you don’t have a Percona build, those graphs will just contain nothing, but there is no detrimental effect.

This template release is fully backwards compatible with the previous release. The upgrade process is to copy the new PHP file into place and import the new template file. You can then add the new graphs to your hosts.

I’ve also taken the opportunity to address many of the other open issues. Most of these were minor, such as a debug log to help troubleshoot. Some are big improvements, such as no longer using GET_LOCK() in MySQL to arbitrate access to the cache file. A list of open issues can always be found at http://code.google.com/p/mysql-cacti-templates/issues/list.

To ease the process of future upgrades, I’ve also added in a gratuitous GPRINT definition, which is unused and merely records the installed version of the template (both the template version, and the version of the PHP file against which it was generated).

The full changelog follows.

2009-10-25: version 1.1.4

        * Changed SSH options so host keys are accepted automatically (issue 68).
        * Parsing of the pending_ibuf_aio_reads property was broken.
        * Parsing of the pending_aio_log_ios property was broken.
        * Parsing of the pending_aio_sync_ios property was broken.
        * Added a debugging log for ss_get_mysql_stats.php (issue 54).
        * Added the --lint_check option to make-template.pl (issue 80).
        * Removed the use of GET_LOCK() and changed to flock() instead (issue 78).
        * The template and script version is now recorded in a GPRINT (issue 79).
        * Restored unflushed_log, which was accidentally deleted in 1.1.3.
        * Added the InnoDB Internal Hash Memory Usage graph (issue 75).
        * Added the InnoDB Checkpoint Age graph (issue 73).
        * Added the InnoDB Insert Buffer Usage graph (issue 74).
        * Added the InnoDB Active/Locked Transactions graph.
        * Added the InnoDB Memory Allocation graph.
        * Added the InnoDB Adaptive Hash Index graph.
        * Added the InnoDB Tables In Use graph (issue 32).
        * Added the InnoDB Current Lock Waits graph.
        * Added the InnoDB Lock Structures graph (issue 32).