Xaprb » Cacti templates http://www.xaprb.com/blog Stay curious! Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:55:47 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Version 1.1.6 of Better Cacti Templates released http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2010/01/10/version-1-1-6-of-better-cacti-templates-released/ http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2010/01/10/version-1-1-6-of-better-cacti-templates-released/#comments Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:01:26 +0000 Xaprb http://www.xaprb.com/blog/?p=1551 Further Reading:]]> 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).

Further Reading:

]]> http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2010/01/10/version-1-1-6-of-better-cacti-templates-released/feed/ 1 Vote for Cacti template enhancements http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2009/12/30/vote-for-cacti-template-enhancements/ http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2009/12/30/vote-for-cacti-template-enhancements/#comments Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:36:54 +0000 Xaprb http://www.xaprb.com/blog/?p=1510 Further Reading:]]> 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.

Further Reading:

]]> http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2009/12/30/vote-for-cacti-template-enhancements/feed/ 0 Version 1.1.4 of improved Cacti templates released http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2009/10/25/version-1-1-4-of-improved-cacti-templates-released/ http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2009/10/25/version-1-1-4-of-improved-cacti-templates-released/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:49:45 +0000 Xaprb http://www.xaprb.com/blog/?p=1397 Further Reading:]]> 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).

Further Reading:

]]> http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2009/10/25/version-1-1-4-of-improved-cacti-templates-released/feed/ 5 Secure, easy Cacti graphing without SNMP http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2009/04/25/secure-easy-cacti-graphing-without-snmp/ http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2009/04/25/secure-easy-cacti-graphing-without-snmp/#comments Sat, 25 Apr 2009 19:01:02 +0000 Xaprb http://www.xaprb.com/blog/?p=1041 Further Reading:]]> Cacti is a great tool for collecting information about systems and graphing it. However, it likes to use SNMP, and SNMP is often not desirable. Instead, I often see the need for a method that is:

  • Secure. Use trusted, well-known, encrypted communication. Do not open up new ports.
  • Zero install on the monitored system.
  • As little installation or modification on the monitoring system as possible.

Over the last several years, I’ve slowly created more and more software to create Cacti graphs via standard POSIX command-line utilities over SSH with key-pair authentication. (I’ve also created similar software for Nagios, but that’s another matter.) The major problem with the work I’ve done is that it’s totally un-publicized.

The system works by passing command-line arguments to a local PHP script like any other Cacti script. This script then executes a remote SSH command, such as ssh somehost uptime and extracts statistics from the result.

The requirements are very simple. On the system to be monitored, a public key must be installed. On the monitoring system, the cacti user account must have a private SSH key that it can read and others can’t. This is standard for any SSH key. The cacti user account must also have the SSH key fingerprint of the monitored system in its known_hosts file.

The work I’ve done thus far is available from Subversion in the mysql-cacti-templates project. This project has the scaffolding for creating Cacti templates easily, so I’m using it.

At this point, the following are available:

  • Apache
  • Operating system (CPU, memory, load average, etc)
  • Memcached
  • Nginx

Unfinished work includes network, disk, etc. The techniques to monitor something of which there is a variable number (e.g. there can be many disks, each of which needs its own graph) are a little more complex than simple things like monitoring overall CPU usage. So that’s a work in progress. Once it’s done, it’ll make it really easy to discover and monitor multiples of anything — for example, multiple MySQL servers or memcached servers on a single host — without creating a new host for each resource to monitor.

As with the MySQL templates I created, these templates are comprehensive and have lots of nice properties most templates lack. This is something you get free with my scaffolding. If you’ve ever created templates by hand through the web interface, you should give my work a try. You can turn a three-day project into a few minutes and avoid bugs and other hassles. There are instructions for creating Cacti templates on the project wiki.

Further Reading:

]]> http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2009/04/25/secure-easy-cacti-graphing-without-snmp/feed/ 13 MySQL Cacti templates version 1.1.1 released http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2008/10/15/mysql-cacti-templates-version-111-released/ http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2008/10/15/mysql-cacti-templates-version-111-released/#comments Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:21:14 +0000 Xaprb http://www.xaprb.com/blog/?p=626 Further Reading:]]> I’ve released version 1.1.1 of the MySQL Cacti templates I develop. The new templates work around more Cacti limitations, including the limitation on the length of the data returned from the poller script. There’s also a new graph and many other niceties since the last release.

Note that there are TWO incompatible changes with the previous version of the templates. You don’t have to throw away your RRA files, you just have to delete and re-import over all the existing templates. It’s not my fault, there was no other way to work around the limitations mentioned above. Really. Have fun upgrading!

Version 1.1.1 is actually just a repackaging of 1.1.0.

The changelog follows.

2008-10-15: version 1.1.1

	* The tarball didn't have make-template.pl mysql_definitions.pl (issue 34)

2008-10-14: version 1.1.0

	* Graphs fetched too much data, causing errors (incompatible; issue 28, 23).
	* Output of the poller script is compressed with short value names.
	* Checks can be disabled; no need to fetch INNODB STATUS if unwanted.
	* Queries could cause a MySQL thread stack overflow (issue 19).
	* Older PHP didn't have array_change_key_case function (issue 21).
	* The PROCESS privilege is required for MySQL 5.1.29 with InnoDB (issue 22).
	* Added an aggregated view of SHOW PROCESSLIST; requires PROCESS privilege.
	* The text on the graph could overflow the right-hand edge.
	* Truncated SHOW INNODB STATUS could cause an SQL error (issue 27).
	* The poller script requires proper cmdline options (incompatible change).

Further Reading:

]]> http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2008/10/15/mysql-cacti-templates-version-111-released/feed/ 13