1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571 572 573 574 575 576 577 578 579 580 581 582 583 584 585 586 587 588 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 596 597 598 599 600 601 602 603 604 605 606 607 608 609 610 611 612 613 614 615 616 617 618 619 620 621 622 623 624 625 626 627 628 629 630 631 632 633 634 635 636 637 638 639 640 641 642 643 644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 665 666 667 668 669 670 671 672 673 674 675 676 677 678 679 680 681 682 683 684 685 686 687 688 689 690 691 692 693 694 695 696 697 698 699 700 701 702 703 704 705 706 707 708 709 710 711 712 713 714 715 716 717 718 719 720 721 722 723 724 725 726 727 728 729 730 731 732 733 734 735 736 737 738 739 740 741 742 743 744 745 746 747 748 749 750 751 752 753 754 755 756 757 758 759 760 761 762 763 764 765 766 767 768 769 770 771 772 773 774 775 776 777 778 779 780 781 782 783 784 785 786 787 788 789 790 791 792 793 794 795 796 797 798 799 800 801 802 803 804 805 806 807 808 809 810 811 812 813 814 815 816 817 818 819 820 821 822 823 824 825 826 827 828 829 830 831 832 833 834 835 836 837 838 839 840 841 842 843 844 845 846 847 848 849 850 851 852 853 854 855 856 857 858 859 860 861 862 863 864 865 866 867 868 869 870 871 872 873 874 875 876 877 878 879 880 881 882 883 884 885 886 887 888 889 890 891 892 893 894 895 896 897 898 899 900 901 902 903 904 905 906 907 908 909 910 911 912 913 914 915 916 917 918 919 920 921 922 923 924 925 926 927 928 929 930 931 932 933 934 935 936 937 938 939 940 941 942 943 944 945 946 947 948 949 950 951 952 953 954 955 956 957 958 959 960 961 962 963 964 965 966 967 968 969 970 971 972 973 974 975 976 977 978 979 980 981 982 983 984 985 986 987 988 989 990 991 992 993 994 995 996 997 998 999 1000 1001 1002 1003 1004 1005 1006 1007 1008 1009 1010 1011 1012 1013 1014 1015 1016 1017 1018 1019 1020 1021 1022 1023 1024 1025 1026 1027 1028 1029 1030 1031 1032 1033 1034 1035 1036 1037 1038 1039 1040 1041 1042 1043 1044 1045 1046 1047 1048 1049 1050 1051 1052 1053 1054 1055 1056 1057 1058 1059 1060 1061 1062 1063 1064 1065 1066 1067 1068 1069 1070 1071 1072 1073 1074 1075 1076 1077 1078 1079 1080 1081 1082 1083 1084 1085 1086 1087 1088 1089 1090 1091 1092 1093 1094 1095 1096 1097 1098 1099 1100 1101 1102 1103 1104 1105 1106 1107 1108 1109 1110 1111 1112 1113 1114 1115 1116 1117 1118 1119 1120 1121 1122 1123 1124 1125 1126 1127 1128 1129 1130 1131 1132 1133 1134 1135 1136 1137 1138 1139 1140 1141 1142 1143 1144 1145 1146 1147 1148 1149 1150 1151 1152 1153 1154 1155 1156 1157 1158 1159 1160 1161 1162 1163 1164 1165 1166 1167 1168 1169 1170 1171 1172 1173 1174 1175 1176 1177 1178 1179 1180 1181 1182 1183 1184 1185 1186 1187 1188 1189 1190 1191 1192 1193 1194 1195 1196 1197 1198 1199 1200 1201 1202 1203 1204 1205 1206 1207 1208 1209 1210 1211 1212 1213 1214 1215 1216 1217 1218 1219 1220 1221 1222 1223 1224 1225 1226 1227 1228 1229 1230 1231 1232 1233 1234 1235 1236 1237 1238 1239 1240 1241 1242 1243 1244 1245 1246 1247 1248 1249 1250 1251 1252 1253 1254 1255 1256 1257 1258 1259 1260 1261 1262 1263 1264 1265 1266 1267 1268 1269 1270 1271 1272 1273 1274 1275 1276 1277 1278 1279 1280 1281 1282 1283 1284 1285 1286 1287 1288 1289 1290 1291 1292 1293 1294 1295 1296 1297 1298 1299 1300 1301 1302 1303 1304 1305 1306 1307 1308 1309 1310 1311 1312 1313 1314 1315 1316 1317 1318 1319 1320 1321 1322 1323 1324 1325 1326 1327 1328 1329 1330 1331 1332 1333 1334 1335 1336 1337 1338 1339 1340 1341 1342 1343 1344 1345 1346 1347 1348 1349 1350 1351 1352 1353 1354 1355 1356 1357 1358 1359 1360 1361 1362 1363 1364 1365 1366 1367 1368 1369 1370 1371 1372 1373 1374 1375 1376 1377 1378 1379 1380 1381 1382 1383 1384 1385 1386 1387 1388 1389 1390 1391 1392 1393 1394 1395 1396 1397 1398 1399 1400 1401 1402 1403 1404 1405 1406 1407 1408 1409 1410 1411 1412 1413 1414 1415 1416 1417 1418 1419 1420 1421 1422 1423 1424 1425 1426 1427 1428 1429 1430 1431 1432 1433 1434 1435 1436 1437 1438 1439 1440 1441 1442 1443 1444 1445 1446 1447 1448 1449 1450 1451 1452 1453 1454 1455 1456 1457 1458 1459 1460 1461 1462 1463 1464 1465 1466 1467 1468 1469 1470 1471 1472 1473 1474 1475 1476 1477 1478 1479 1480 1481 1482 1483 1484 1485 1486 1487 1488 1489 1490 1491 1492 1493 1494 1495 1496 1497 1498 1499 1500 1501 1502 1503 1504 1505 1506 1507 1508 1509 1510 1511 1512 1513 1514 1515 1516 1517 1518 1519 1520 1521 1522 1523 1524 1525 1526 1527 1528 1529 1530 1531 1532 1533 1534 1535 1536 1537 1538 1539 1540 1541 1542 1543 1544 1545 1546 1547 1548 1549 1550 1551 1552 1553 1554 1555 1556 1557
|
The NetMRG Reference
Brady Alleman
Douglas E. Warner
Copyright © 2003-2004 Brady Alleman and Douglas E. Warner
This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT License.
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files
(the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction,
including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge,
publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software,
and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so,
subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS
BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN
ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN
CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.
All product names are property of their respective owners. Such
names are used for identification purposes only and are not
indicative of endorsement by or of any company, organization,
product, or platform.
_________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
I. Overview
1. Introduction
2. Revision History
II. Concepts
3. System Structure
4. Monitoring and Reporting Concepts
5. Graphing Concepts
III. Installation
6. Software Requirements
7. Satisfying Requirements
8. Installation Procedure
9. Upgrade Procedure
10. Basic Tutorial
11. Graph Tutorial
12. Interface and Disk Cache Tutorial
IV. Feature Guide
13. External Authentication
14. Workday Highlighting
V. Reference
I. Manual Pages
netmrg-gatherer -- Gathers data from devices.
II. Web Interface Descriptions
Monitoring -- Items associated with setting up gathering
of information
Groups -- A container for a collection of devices
Devices -- A container for a collection of sub-devices
Sub Devices -- A container for a collection of monitors
Monitors -- A container for a collection of tracked
values
Events -- A container for a collection of actions to take
based on monitor values
Conditions -- A collection of paramenters to trigger an
Event
Reporting -- Items whose purpose is to display and report
information to the user.
Graphing -- Where graphs (compositions of one or more
monitors) are created.
Tests -- Tests represent actions taken to gather data.
Notifications -- Configuration for notifying users when
events occur.
Admin -- Administrative functions not related to the
reporting or gathering of information.
Help -- How to get assistance with NetMRG.
15. Contact Information
I. Overview
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Revision History
_________________________________________________________
Chapter 1. Introduction
Welcome to NetMRG! NetMRG is a database-driven network monitoring
and graphing tool for use on Linux systems. It offers an intuitive
web-based configuration, customized monitoring capabilities for
unusual situations, a fast multi-threaded polling application, and
brilliant graphs rendered by RRDTOOL.
This document aims to guide you swiftly through the installation and
configuration of NetMRG, as well as act as a reference for those
with existing installations.
_________________________________________________________
Chapter 2. Revision History
* 0.18.2
2004.11.09
Minor Bug Fixes; Fixed some escaping problems on the interface
cache page, disabled the 'quickprint' Net-SNMP option for better
compatibility, fixed the snmp-failure test, fixed an SVO-user
view issue, and added failover for duplicate ifNames when adding
interfaces.
* 0.18.1
2004.11.01
Minor Bug Fixes; Fixed a small bug where the gatherer would not
register negative values.
* 0.18
2004.10.25
Major Bug Fixes; Fixed an issue preventing form submissions on
some browsers, fixed PHP string escaping problems, fixed
inability to create inverted stacked graphs, and fixed parameter
substituion and documentation regarding notifications and
responses. Added better support on FreeBSDs (4.8-5.2) and x86-64
architectures (Linux and FreeBSD), the ability to multiply
summed values, MySQL timeouts, simple value parsing (to get the
numeric content out of quoted numbers, etc), graphic icons for
most actions, support for a default external auth user (with
regards to permissions), and cleaned up the gatherer build
process output.
* 0.17
2004.09.13
Minor Feature Enhancements; Added colorized gatherer output,
checkbox support on multiple pages, the ability to disable
users, fixed a potential SQL-injection bug, updated navigation
on group pages, updated tutorials.
* 0.16
2004.06.10
Minor Bugfixes and Feature Enhancements; fixed a user management
bug and several bugs related to 'single view only' users not
being able to see graphs, added the ability to ignore SNMP
uptime checks for devices (permitting the monitoring of broken
devices), added the ability to do an SNMP walk of an OID (useful
for the Windows SNMP agent), enhanced group/device management,
cleaned up autoconf (now supports FC2), and added experimental
syslog and daemon support in the gatherer.
* 0.15
2004.05.20
Minor Bugfixes and Feature Enhancements; fixes for various db
errors (including the infamous one on snmp_cache_view.php),
better cross-platform compilation, select all/none/invert
checkbox support, support for choosing what graph to apply to an
interface, better support for php < 4.2.0, and some security
fixes for single-view-only users.
* 0.14
2004.03.10
Minor Bugfixes and Feature Enhancements; escaping issues in
template dereferencing, broken links on various pages, security
issues regarding manual SNMP recaching, broken duplication on
non-cutting-edge MySQL, more parameter substitution in SQL
tests, better date parsing for advanced graph view, nav-bar and
group navigation enhancements, advanced view capability for
monitor-only graphs.
* 0.13
2003.12.19
Minor Bugfixes and Feature Enhancements; slide show ordering,
previous slide, resume slide show, better formatting of 'sums',
errors on view editing, fixes to permissions checking, and an
occassional segfault in the gatherer was fixed.
* 0.12
2003.12.15
Major Feature Enhancents and Bugfixes; added SNMPv2 support,
fixed a bug that would cause a device to be deleted from all
groups, fixed session timeout when using external auth, added
checkbox support to interface/disk cache pages, slide show
enhancements, fixed permission issue where unauthorized users
could view/edit test_* pages
* 0.10
2003.10.05
Major bug fix; fixes a db error when trying to view monitors, a
bug that would always set the width and height to zero when
creating graphs, and makes conditions with 'rate of change'
work. Many documentation upgrades.
* 0.10pre2
2003.09.15
This release focuses on adding new features and sqaushing bugs.
In addition, there is now an 'updater.php' that is required to
be run between versions. A minor change needs to be made to
everyone's 'netmrg.xml' to add an 'externalauth' field inside
the 'website' section.
* 0.10pre1
2003.07.28
Initial publication
II. Concepts
Table of Contents
3. System Structure
4. Monitoring and Reporting Concepts
5. Graphing Concepts
_________________________________________________________
Chapter 3. System Structure
The components of NetMRG.
* Gatherer
The Gatherer is a multi-threaded C++ program that interacts with
the Database and RRDTOOL to gather and store data. The program
is run by cron, or another scheduling system of your choice, on
five minute intervals.
* Web Interface
The Web Interface consists of several PHP scripts, static HTML
files and images, as well as CSS for formatting. It interacts
with the Database for the storage of configuration data and with
RRDTOOL for the rendering of graphs for presentation.
* Database
The Database is a relational database running on MySQL. It is
utilized by the Web Interface and the Gatherer.
* RRDTOOL
RRDTOOL is a graphing system based upon round-robin databases
(RRDs). It is used for both storing data into the databases and
creating graphs using the databases.
* RRDs
RRDs are the round-robin databases used by RRDTOOL. They are
individual files that are writable by the Gatherer and readable
by the Web Interface.
_________________________________________________________
Chapter 4. Monitoring and Reporting Concepts
* Groups
Groups are organizational containers used in NetMRG. They are
capable of containing Devices, as well as having a View
associated with them. As they are strictly organizational, the
Web Interface is the only component to utilize them. They are
ignored by the Gatherer.
* Devices
Devices can be thought of as any physical device on your network
that will be monitored. They may also be used organizationally
to group Monitors that are not associated directly to any
physcial host. Devices may have, but are not required to have,
IP addresses, SNMP community strings, and so forth. Data
gathering for Devices may be explicitly disabled. Devices
contain Sub-Devices.
* Sub-Devices
Sub-Devices are discrete entities on a Device. Examples of these
are network interfaces, disk drives, and so forth. Sub-Devices
may have parameters or variables associated with them for
identification purposes. For example, a web server has a network
interface designated "eth0." In NetMRG, the server would have a
network interface Sub-Device which would have a variable of
"ifDescr" set to "eth0." Sub-Devices contain Monitors.
* Monitors
Monitors represent discrete monitorable quantities. The Gatherer
performs the Monitor's Test upon the Monitor's Sub-Device. The
result is then stored in a RRD. Monitors are also associated
with Graph Items. If NetMRG is being used to track events, a
Monitor may also contain Events.
* Tests
Tests are data gathering operations associated with Monitors.
There are four types of tests: Scripts, SNMP Queries, SQL
Queries, and Internal tests. Script tests call a script and use
either its return code or its output as data. SNMP Tests perform
a SNMP GET operation against a device using a supplied OID. SQL
Tests perform a MySQL query and use a value from a returned row
as data. Internal tests are frequently used tests built into the
Gatherer. They typically start as Script Tests but are
integrated for the sake of efficiency.
* Events
Events contain a group of Conditions and Responses. If the
Conditions of an Event are met, the appropriate response is
performed.
_________________________________________________________
Chapter 5. Graphing Concepts
* Graphs
Graphs are the abstraction of a single chart generated by NetMRG
using RRDTOOL. Graphs have properties such as sizes, a title,
and vertical labels. They also contain a set of Graph Items
which represent the separate pieces of data graphed.
+ Custom Graphs
Custom graphs have "absolute" referencing of data to be
displayed. They are typically used for graphs that are
applicable in only one instance, such as a stack graph of
all Internet links on your network.
+ Templated Graphs
Template Graphs have "relative" references to data. They
are used for graphs such as CPU load on a server or traffic
on a network interface. They are applicable in many
instances. The use of templates allows you to create one
graph for a set of variables on a Sub-Device and then apply
that same graph to other Sub-Devices for graphs formatted
identically. This allows considerable savings of time as
there is no need to create a Custom Graph for each instance
of a graph.
* Graph Items
Graph Items represent data on a graph. They can represent areas,
lines, and stacks on Graphs. Each Graph Item is linked to a
Monitor for dynamic data or given a static value. Options for
Graph Items include type (such as line, area, stack), color,
value (either static or dynamic based on a Monitor), and legend
options.
* RRDs and Variables
Graphs and variables (subdevice parameters) won't become
available until after the gatherer runs. The gatherer creates
RRD files that the graphs use to display and inserts the
variables into the database so they can be used to be displayed
in the graphs. This can occasionally bite you when you add a new
parameter and expect it to be displayed immediately in your
graph.
* Variables and Parameters
Subdevice parameters become variables that can be used in
various places inside NetMRG. Variables can be used inside
Tests, Graph Legends and Graph item multipliers.
Inside tests, it allows you to use use the same test for
multiple subdevices by defining a parameter that will be
substituted in.
Inside graph items, it will allow you to use a graph for
multiple subdevices.
Here's a partial list of some variables that will be defined by
NetMRG for a device/subdevice
+ %dev_name%: your device's name
+ %ip%: the IP entered for your device
+ %test_name%: the name of the test executed
+ %test_result%: the results of the test
+ %snmp_read_community%: the SNMP community for the device
+ %subdev_name%: name of the subdevice
There are usually several "Dynamic Parameters" for a subdevice;
if you go to your device, then click parameters next to your
subdevice, you will get a list of parameters you entered an a
list of dynamic parameters that NetMRG has created.
III. Installation
Table of Contents
6. Software Requirements
7. Satisfying Requirements
8. Installation Procedure
9. Upgrade Procedure
10. Basic Tutorial
11. Graph Tutorial
12. Interface and Disk Cache Tutorial
_________________________________________________________
Chapter 6. Software Requirements
NetMRG Requires the following packages for compilation.
* PHP, Version >= 4.1
* MySQL, Version >= 3.23
* RRDTOOL, Version >= 1.0.28
* Libxml2, Version >= 2.30
* Libstdc++, Version >= 3.2
Versions earlier than this may compile just fine, but may
experience runtime issues. Specifically, we experienced software
crashes on an SMP machine running version 2.96 that were
resolved by upgrading to 3.2.
* NET/UCD-SNMP, Version >= 4.2.2
_________________________________________________________
Chapter 7. Satisfying Requirements
Specific instructions to satisfy dependencies for certain platforms
are presented below. They should be used more as suggestions, not
necessarily step-by-step instructions. You may need to do more than
what is listed, or much less, depending on the options you selected
when installing your operating system.
* Red Hat Linux
+ In order to satisfy the libstdc++ requirement, Redhat 8.0
or above is required. NetMRG may not be stable on older
versions of libstdc++.
+ Install the following RPMs from your Red Hat installation
media:
o httpd
o php
o php-mysql
o mysql
o mysql-server
o mysql-devel
o libxml2
o libxml2-devel
o net-snmp
o net-snmp-devel
o net-snmp-utils
+ Installing RRDTOOL
o Download an RRDTOOL RPM from http://www.freshrpms.net/
o OR Download the RRDTOOL source from
http://www.rrdtool.org/ and compile it.
+ Installing precompiled NetMRG RPM
Download the latest NetMRG RPM and install it as follows:
$ rpm -Uvh netmrg-0.10.rpm
You will still have to perform the following tasks listed
in the Install Instructions:
o Setup the Database
o Configure Apache
o Configure the Installation
o Setup Crontab
* FreeBSD (4.8)
+ Install the following ports:
o www/apache13
o rrdtool
o net-snmp
o libxml2
o mod_php4 (specify MySQL support)
o lang/gcc32
+ Run configure, specifying gcc32:
./configure 'LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/gcc3/lib' 'CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/gcc3
/include' 'CXX=g++32'
_________________________________________________________
Chapter 8. Installation Procedure
1. Untar to some directory like /tmp/ (it will untar into a
'netmrg' directory)
cd /tmp
wget http://www.netmrg.net/download/release/netmrg.tar.gz
tar xzvf netmrg.tar.gz
2. Now we need to compile and install the source. cd into the
directory made by your tar command and type the following:
./configure
make
make install
Note: If configure fails to locate the needed libraries they can
be manually specified. Run ./configure --help for details on the
necessary options.
3. Setup the database
Now we need to setup the database. Please change at least the
password (netmrgpass below).
mysqladmin create netmrg
mysql -u root -p netmrg < share/netmrg.mysql
mysql -u root -p
> grant all on netmrg.* to netmrguser@localhost identified by 'netmrgpa
ss';
4. You need to modify your apache config in order to make your
NetMRG installation live (commonly in
/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf).
The first is to alias /netmrg to the installed web directory
(commonly /usr/local/var/www/netmrg/webfiles).
Alias /netmrg "/usr/local/var/www/netmrg/webfiles"
The easier way (if you're running Apache >= 1.3) is to just
Include the conf file we've created anywhere in your file (near
the bottom is fine).
Include /usr/local/etc/netmrg.conf
You will need to restart your Apache after making config
changes. Telling it to reload its config should be good enough
killall -HUP httpd
5. Configure the Installation
All of NetMRG's common configuration options are controlled by
an XML file, normally located at /usr/local/etc/netmrg.xml. You
should edit this file to make any necessary changes before
continuing with installation.
For most installations, you will at least need to edit
netmrg.xml to reflect your database username and password.
6. Setup Permissions
NetMRG does not need superuser permissions to run, therefore we
will setup a user for it.
# useradd netmrg
# chown netmrg:netmrg /usr/local/var/log/netmrg
# chown netmrg:netmrg /usr/local/var/lib/netmrg/rrd
7. Setup crontab
You can setup the crontab entries in two places: either edit
/etc/crontab, or run crontab -e as the netmrg user. For 'crontab
-e', use an entry similar to this:
su netmrg
*/5 * * * * /usr/local/bin/netmrg_cron.sh
exit
To edit the master crontab, edit /etc/crontab and add a line
similar to this:
*/5 * * * * netmrg /usr/local/bin/netmrg_cron.sh
8. Point your web browser at your install, and start graphing
things! The default login is admin and the default password is
nimda. Point your web browser at the host you built this on
(something similar to http://yourhost.com/netmrg/) and please
change your password!
_________________________________________________________
Chapter 9. Upgrade Procedure
After doing a 'make install' as described in the chapter on
Installing NetMRG, the next step is to run the web-based updater.
This is accomplished by logging into NetMRG with administrator
privileges, and following the prompts. NetMRG's web interface will
not operate normally and the gatherer will not run until the
web-based upgrade is performed. Non-administrator users will only
receive a message directing them to contact their NetMRG
administrator.
If you need to perform an upgrade, the updater will prompt you to
apply all updates. Clicking this link will perform all necessary
updates for this release.
If for some reason an update fails, or you would like to re-apply an
update for any reason, you can goto the updater and goto View all
available updates. This will present you a list of the updates that
are available and their status (applied, not applied, or error). If
you have problems updating from one version to the next, you can
force individual updates that fail so that they're considered
'applied'. Once all updates are applied for a particular version,
the database will be automatically updated to the latest version
that has all updates applied.
_________________________________________________________
Chapter 10. Basic Tutorial
This brief tutorial will walk you through the major features of
NetMRG. The tutorial assumes that you have installed the Net-SNMP
daemon on a system which you want to monitor.
1. Create a new group.
a. Click on Groups in the Monitoring menu.
b. Click on Add.
c. In the Name textbox, enter a name for your group, such as
"Home."
d. In the Comment textbox, enter a description for your group,
such as "Computers in my house."
e. In the Parent drop down box, select -Root- as we want this
device in the root of the device tree. You can create
nested groups.
f. Click the Save Changes button to create your new group.
2. Create a new device.
a. Click on the name of your new group. You are now looking at
an (empty) list of devices in your new group.
b. Click on Add in the Monitored Devices section.
c. Click on Create a new device.
d. In the Name textbox, enter a name for your device, such as
"My Server."
e. In the IP or Host Name textbox, enter a domain name or IP
address of your device. Domain names must be resolvable
from your monitoring host.
f. In the SNMP Support dropdown, select the appropriate
version. If unsure, select SNMPv1.
g. In the SNMP Read Community textbox, enter the SNMP
community string for your device.
h. Click the Save Changes button to create your new device.
3. Create a new sub-device.
a. Click on the name of your new device. You are now looking
at an (empty) list of sub-devices in your new device.
b. Click on Add.
c. In the Name textbox, enter "System." This will be a
pseudo-sub-device used for monitoring the device as a
whole.
d. In the Type drop down box, ensure that Group is selected.
e. Click the Save Changes button to create your new "System"
sub-device.
4. Add graph templates.
Since devices running Net-SNMP are common, NetMRG comes with
several graph templates for commonly used variables.
a. Click on Template Graphs in the Graphing menu.
b. Click on the Apply Template To... icon (hover to see the
caption) next to the Linux Box - CPU Utilization template
graph.
c. In the Subdevice drop down box, select My Server - System.
d. Click on the Save Changes button to apply the template.
e. Repeat this step for any other graph templates you find
interesting.
5. View your new graphs.
a. Click on Device Tree in the Reporting menu.
b. Click on the name of your group to expand it.
c. Click on the graph icon beside your device (orange graphs
mean there are graphs associated with this device, black
means there are no graphs attached to this device.
d. You should now see graphs! If you don't, you may need to
wait for the gatherer to perform another cycle.
_________________________________________________________
Chapter 11. Graph Tutorial
This tutorial aims to show you the basics of how to create a Custom
or Template Graph. It will be useful to look at existing graphs that
are supplied with NetMRG for examples.
Custom and Template graphs are very similar, but have slightly
different applications. A Custom Graph is designed to be used only
once, while a Template Graph is designed to be applied to multiple
devices and subdevices
Let's try a basic graph using no subdevice parameters.
1. Creating a Template/Custom Graph
a. Goto the Template Graph item under the Graphing menu.
b. Click on Add.
c. Click on Add.
This leads you to a screen where you can combine multiple
monitors (usually of the same subdevice) into one graph
using various styles; areas, stacked areas, and thicknesses
of lines.
d. Click on add
This page allows you to edit various aspects of this
monitor's appearance.
Name: Name that will be displayed in the legend. If
omitted, this item will not be displayed in the legend.
Item Type: can be various thickness of lines (1 being
thinnest, 3 being thickest), area (which will always start
at '0' from the graph - positive or negative), and stack
(which will 'stack' on top of other areas and stacks).
Item Color: color of the item on the graph and in the
legend. It can be omitted to have a transparent item.
Fixed Value or Multiplier: change the value displayed by
your monitor.
The rest of the checkboxes should be self explanatory
e. By repeating these steps you can add multiple monitors to a
single graph.
_________________________________________________________
Chapter 12. Interface and Disk Cache Tutorial
The Interface and Disk Cache (that is available next to your device
names under the Groups menu) are quick tools for setting up
interfaces and disk graphs on your devices.
These caches provide useful mechanisms for indexing disks and
interfaces. For example, commonly you want to graph your interfaces
by their ifName (interface name) which is commonly something like
'Se2/1'. Doing a lookup each time you gather data would be very
time-consuming, so the cache allows you monitor an interface by
using it's name, and NetMRG will do the mapping to the correct
ifIndex. NetMRG will do the same thing for disks
* The options from next to your device are as follows
1. View Interface Cache: This is only available after you have
cached your interfaces. Most of the management is done
through here
2. Recache Interfaces: If you add or remove interfaces to your
device, this can force a recache. You can also setup NetMRG
to automatically recache your interfaces when the device
reboots or the number of interfaces changes by editing your
device.
3. View Disk Cache: Like the interface cache; the list of
disks that NetMRG currently knows about.
4. Recache Disks: You'll probably only do this once when you
create your device (unless you add/remove disks a lot).
* Inside the Interface Cache
1. Checkboxes: You can select multiple interfaces to monitor
by using the '*' (all), '0' (none), and '-' (inverse)
items, or by clicking each checkbox individually.
2. View: View the graph that has been created by clicking
'monitor/graph'.
3. Monitors: View the monitors under the subdevice that was
created by clicking 'monitor/graph'.
4. Monitor/Graph: Apply the graph template selected in the
dropdown box by clicking this item
5. Dropdown box: The list of graph templates that are
available in your NetMRG installation; it's very useful
when you have different types of interfaces with different
monitors you want applied to an interface (maybe you have
one graph with a maximum line, or different multiplers to
show bits instead of bytes).
* Inside the Disk Cache
1. The options inside the Disk Cache are very similar to the
Interface Cache. Refer there for their descriptions.
IV. Feature Guide
Table of Contents
13. External Authentication
14. Workday Highlighting
_________________________________________________________
Chapter 13. External Authentication
NetMRG handles authentication internally by default, checking
passwords against its own database. It is possible for NetMRG to use
other systems for username/password authentication. This is
accomplished by handing off the authentication task to the HTTP
server.
Note: You must still create accounts in NetMRG for each user when
using external authentication in order to assign them permissions
and rights.
Details on methods of authentication using the Apache web server are
available here. There are add-on modules for Apache that allow for
various authentication mechanisms, including LDAP and custom
database authentication systems. Using Apache-based authentication,
it is possible for an organization to maintain users and passwords
in one location for a variety of web-based services, only needing to
set up application-specific permissions in each application.
To enable external authentication, edit netmrg.xml and set
externalAuth to true.
There is also a way to map all users that are able to be
authenticated to a single user's permissions. This is accomplished
by creating a user named NETMRG_DEFAULT_MAP and assigning it
whatever permsissions you see fit (SVO, Read Only, etc). This is
often useful when you have a large staff that is authenticated
centrally and you would like to allow them all to view graphs
without having to create an account for each employee.
_________________________________________________________
Chapter 14. Workday Highlighting
Shading specific time periods on a graph is possible using NetMRG.
Typically this is used for highlighting the workday or SLA
distinctions based on time of day. The following steps will walk you
through the setup of workday highlighting on a graph.
1. Add a new Graph Item.
2. Select Show Advanced.
3. Leave the title of the item blank if you want it to be omitted
on the legend, otherwise enter a label such as "Business Hours."
4. Set the Item Type to Area.
5. Select a color for the highlighting.
6. Select Fixed Value in the Monitor drop-down.
7. Type in "INF" as the fixed value. This allows the graph item to
take on an infinite height, which is rendered by filling the
background.
8. Unselect all checkboxes under Legend.
9. Enter start and stop times in their respective text boxes. Times
should be prefixed with a plus sign ('+') and be consistent with
GNU Date Input Formats. An example would be +9am for a start
time and +5pm for an end time, to highlight the "typical"
business day.
10. Click Save Changes and observe the colored rectangle cover a lot
of the data on your graph.
11. Click Move Up beside your new graph item until it reaches the
top of the list. You now have a graph with workday highlighting!
V. Reference
Table of Contents
I. Manual Pages
II. Web Interface Descriptions
I. Manual Pages
Table of Contents
netmrg-gatherer -- Gathers data from devices.
netmrg-gatherer
Name
netmrg-gatherer -- Gathers data from devices.
Synopsis
netmrg-gatherer [OPTIONS]
Description
netmrg-gatherer performs tests on all enabled hosts in NetMRG. It
will store results in RRD files using RRDTOOL(1) and perform actions
in response to events.
Global Options
-h
Displays usage information and exits.
-v
Displays software version and exits.
Operating Options
-t num threads
Run no more than the specified number of threads
simultaneously.
-X
Become a daemon.
-M mode
Mode of operation. This option controls the manner in which
the gatherer operates. The modes currently supported are
"once" (the default, best used manually or via cron) which
runs all tests once then exits, and "wait" (best used when
daemonized) which will run all tests, wait for the gatherer
interval to expire, and then repeat.
Note: To run netmrg-gatherer daemonized, the recommended set of
options at this point is "-X -S -M wait" which will daemonize,
repeat the gather cycle on each interval, and write output to
syslog.
Logging, Debugging and Verbosity Options
-S
Syslog. Logs messages to syslog instead of stdout.
-b
Bland. Disables color output. By default, netmrg-gatherer
will display color output when connected to a terminal, but
will use bland output when its output is written to a file.
This option should only be needed when the detection
mechanism has failed, or the user doesn't want to see colors
when running the program by hand.
-a
All. Displays all log messages.
-m
Most. Displays more messages than default.
-q
Quiet. Silences all output.
-l level mask
Only outputs messages that match the specified level mask.
-c component mask
Only outputs messages that match the specified component
mask.
-s
Safe. Tries to keep sensitive information out of the
displayed messages.
Configuration File Options
-C config file
Uses the specified XML configuration file.
-K config file
Parses the specified XML configuration file and exits.
Database Options
-H host
Uses the specified host name for connecting to the database.
-D database
Uses the specified database name.
-u user name
Uses the specified user name for connecting to the database.
-p [password]
Uses the specified password for connecting to the database.
If no password is specified, the user is prompted to enter
one.
Recaching Options
-i device id
Performs an interface recache on the specified device.
-d device id
Performs a disk recache on the specified device.
Note: Recaching options are intended for use by the web interface.
These options should not be generally used by end users.
II. Web Interface Descriptions
Table of Contents
Monitoring -- Items associated with setting up gathering of
information
Groups -- A container for a collection of devices
Devices -- A container for a collection of sub-devices
Sub Devices -- A container for a collection of monitors
Monitors -- A container for a collection of tracked values
Events -- A container for a collection of actions to take based on
monitor values
Conditions -- A collection of paramenters to trigger an Event
Reporting -- Items whose purpose is to display and report
information to the user.
Graphing -- Where graphs (compositions of one or more monitors) are
created.
Tests -- Tests represent actions taken to gather data.
Notifications -- Configuration for notifying users when events
occur.
Admin -- Administrative functions not related to the reporting or
gathering of information.
Help -- How to get assistance with NetMRG.
Monitoring
Name
Monitoring -- Items associated with setting up gathering of
information
Description
Groups
Management of Groups, Devices, Sub-devices, Monitors, Events, and
the Notifications used by the events.
Device Types
Types of devices; unused at this point.
Notifications
Types of notifications that can be tied to events.
* Name - Descriptive name of the notification
* Command - Command to execute for the notification. Notifications
that start with a '/' will use the ful path the the specified
command, whereas commands without a starting '/' will start
using NetMRG's libexec directory. Parameter substitution is
fully functional here, as well.
Groups
Name
Groups -- A container for a collection of devices
Description
List
List of all groups. This is the default view when you first click on
Groups in the nav bar.
* Name - click on the name of the group to view the devices
contained in it
* Comments - description of a group
* Add - add another group
* View - views graphs assocated with this group and allows you to
edit what graphs are associated with the group
* Edit - edits parameters of a group
* Delete - deletes the group and all devices, sub-devices, etc
underneath it
Edit
Edit information about a group
* Name - Name of the group
* Comment - Description of the group
* Parent - Parent group for this group; sets up subgroups
Devices
Name
Devices -- A container for a collection of sub-devices
Description
List
List of devices in a group; this is the default view when you click
on a group name.
* Name - click on the name of the device to view the sub devices
contained in it
* SNMP Options
+ View Interface Cache - views a list of cached interfaces
(interfaces and values that NetMRG knows about)
+ Recache Interfaces - recache the interface list (to get new
ifAliases or new interfaces, for example)
+ View Disk Cache - views a list of cached disks (disks and
their values that NetMRG knows about)
+ Recache Disks - recache the list of disks (to get new disks
or paths, for example)
* Add - add a new device or an existing device to this group
* View - views graphs assocated with this device and allows you to
edit what graphs are associated with the device
* Edit - edits parameters of a device
* Delete - deletes the device all sub-devices, monitors, etc
underneath it
Add
* Create a new device - creates a new device in the current group
* Add an existing device to this group - puts a link to an
existing device in this group (does not copy it, just refers to
it; they are the same device
+ Device - Name of the device to add to this group
Edit
Edit info about a device
* General
+ Name - Name of a device; commonly the hostname
+ IP or Hostname - IP address of the device, or hostname
(must be resolvable by the monitoring box)
+ Device Type - Type of device (currently not used)
+ Disabled - Don't gather data for this device
* SNMP
+ SNMP Support - The version of SNMP to use when querying
this device, if any.
+ SNMP Read Community - The SNMP community string to use when
querying this device.
+ Recaching Method - Methods used by the gatherer for
determining if its SNMP cache is stale.
o Never refresh cache - The gatherer will never
automatically refresh the cache. The cache must be
refreshed manually when changes occur.
o Refresh on SNMP agent restart - The gatherer will
refresh the cache if the SNMP agent uptime goes
backwards, or if the device has become reachable again
after a period of unreachability. This option is
useful for devices that change interface counts too
often, such as a router serving DSL sessions.
o Refresh on interface count change - The gatherer will
refresh the cache if the "ifNumber" value has changed
since the last gathering. This typically happens when
cards are added to or removed from a router, or when
PPP sessions go up or down. (Also includes the above.)
o Refresh on interface count mismatch - The gatherer
will refresh the cache when the number of items in the
interface cache do not match the "ifNumber" on a
device. This can prevent problems when devices are in
the process of booting. This is the preferred option
for most devices. (Also includes the above.)
o Always refresh cache - Always refresh the cache on
each gather. This is useful for devices that are
always changing, when you care about the changes.
* Advanced SNMP Options
+ Disable SNMP Uptime Check - Allows NetMRG to work with
devices that are broken or abnormal with respect to
system.sysUpTime.0. NetMRG usually uses this value to
determine if a host is up and if the SNMP agent has
restarted since the last polling cycle. It should only be
used when absolutely necessary as it reduces the robustness
of the SNMP avoidance and recaching mechanisms which can be
crutial to performance.
+ SNMP UDP Port - UDP port to direct SNMP queries to (default
is 161).
+ SNMP Timeout (microseconds) - Number of microseconds to
wait for a response to a query before retrying (default is
1000000 or 1 second). An exponential backoff is used after
each failed query; this is the initial delay.
+ SNMP Retries - Number of times to query the device before
giving up (default is 3).
SNMP Cache View
List of cached values for a device
Interface Cache
List of Interfaces NetMRG knows about
* Index - SNMP ifIndex
* Status - SNMP ifAdminStatus/ifOperStatus
* Name - SNMP ifName
* Description - SNMP ifDescr
* Alias - SNMP ifAlias (commonly the 'description' field on
routers and switches)
* IP Address - IP address of this interface
* MAC Address - MAC address of this interface
* View - View the graph for this interface (if monitored)
* Monitors - View the monitors for this interface (if monitored)
* Monitor/Graph - Choose to graph this interface (adds an
interface subdevice based on ifDescr, adds monitors for
ifInOctets, ifOutOctets, and ifInErrors for the subdevice, and
assocates a graph with the device)
Disk Cache
List of Disks NetMRG knows about
* Index - SNMP dskIndex
* Device - SNMP dskDevice
* Path - SNMP dskPath
* View - View the graph for this disk (if monitored)
* Monitors - View the monitors for this disk (if monitored)
* Monitor/Graph - Choose to graph this disk (adds a disk subdevice
based on dskPath, adds monitors for KB Used and KB Available for
the subdevice, and assocates a graph with the device)
Sub Devices
Name
Sub Devices -- A container for a collection of monitors
Description
List
list of sub devices in a device
* Sub Devices - Name of the sub devices for this device; click on
a name to view its monitors
* Type - Type of sub device (group, interface, or disk)
* Add - add a new sub device to this device
* Parameters - View/edit available parameters for this sub device
(such as what ifName to use to graph this interface)
* View - views graphs assocated with this sub device and allows
you to edit what graphs are associated with the sub device
* Edit - edits options of a sub device
* Delete - deletes the sub device all monitors, events, etc
underneath it
Edit
edit info about a sub device
* Name - Name of this sub device
* Sub-Device Type - Type of sub device (group, interface, or disk)
Parameters
items that alter what interface or disk a sub device monitors
Configured Parameters
* Name - Name of paramter to match this sub device to (commonly
'dskPath' for disks or 'ifDescr' for interfaces)
* Value - Value of the Name to match (commonly '/' for disks or
'eth0' for interfaces)
* Add - Adds a Name/Value pair for this sub device
* Edit - Edits the values above for this sub device
* Delete - Deletes this Name/Value pair for this sub device
Dynamic Parameters
* Name - Name of paramter that is available in template graphs as
a wildcard (put between two '%' in the title)
* Value - Value of the Name that will be displayed
Monitors
Name
Monitors -- A container for a collection of tracked values
Description
List
list of monitors for a sub-device
* Test - Name of what is being monitored; click to view/edit
events for this monitor
* Data - Information about the last gather of this monitor
+ Value - value gathered in the last run
+ Rate of Change - Difference between the current value and
the last value, divided by the time between samples
+ Time Stamp - Date/Time of last gather for this monitor
* Graph - A small representation of the current data gathered for
this monitor; click on the graph for more options
* Add - add a new monitor to this sub device
* Edit - edits options of a monitor
* Delete - deletes the monitor and everything underneath it
Edit
edit info about a monitor
* Monitoring Type - specifies the type of test used for this
monitor (Script, SNMP, SQL, or Internal)
* Test Options - this section varies depending on the setting of
Monitoring Type
+ Script Options
o Script Test - specifies which script to run
o Parameters - specifies a string which will be appended
to the script's parameters. Parameter expansions are
honored in this field.
+ SNMP Options
o SNMP Test - specifies which SNMP test to run
o Parameters - specifies a string which will replace the
expansion %parameters% in SNMP OIDs.
+ SQL Options
o SQL Test - specifies which SQL test to run
o Parameters - specifies a string which will replace the
expansion %parameters% in SQL queries.
+ Internal Options
o Internal Test - specifies which internal test to run
o Parameters - specifies a string used by the internal
test
* Graphing Options
+ Data Type - the RRDTOOL data type for this monitor
o Absolute - a counter reset when read
o Counter - an incrementing value interpreted as a rate
(such as calculating your average speed with odometer
readings)
o Derive - a counter without overflow protection,
permits graphing of negative rates
o Gauge - the value read is the value used, such as
temperatures
For a more complete discussion on when to use which data
type, see the RRD Create manual page.
+ Minimum Value - the minimum value accepted by RRDTOOL as
valid.
+ Maximum Value - the maximum value accepted by RRDTOOL as
valid.
Events
Name
Events -- A container for a collection of actions to take based on
monitor values
Description
List
list of events for a monitor
Note: Events displayed in bold are currently triggered.
Edit
edit info about an event
* Name - a name for the event, unique within a device. This name
is used when displaying entries in the Event Log.
* Trigger Type - when to trigger an event. When events are
triggered, they are logged in the Event Log and any Responses
associated with the event are executed.
+ On Change - The event is triggered when its conditions are
met, and the conditions had not been met on the last run.
Example: If you have an event to warn you when CPU Usage
climbs above 80%, it will trigger this condition if the
previous value was 72 and the current value 85, but not if
the previous value was 82 and the current value 85. This
prevents duplicate triggerings to a situation spanning
multiple polling intervals.
+ Never (disabled) - This event is ignored and responses for
it are not processed.
* Situation - the severity of the situation the event indicates.
+ Disabled - the tested service is in a non-operational, yet
normal, condition.
+ Normal - the tested service is operating normally.
+ Warning - the tested service is operating in a degraded
condition.
+ Critical - the tested service is not operating acceptably.
Note: Situations for an event propagate up the Device Tree. Each
level takes on the worst situation of its descendents. For
example, if you have a Critical situation, the Event as well as
the Monitor, Sub-Device, Device, and Groups above that Event will
take on the situation Critical as well.
Conditions
Name
Conditions -- A collection of paramenters to trigger an Event
Description
List
list of conditions for an event
Edit
edit info about an condition
* Logical Operation - the logical operator (AND or OR) to apply
between this condition and the previous one. This parameter is
not valid, nor is displayed, for the first condition in a set of
conditions.
* Value Type - the type of data about the Monitor to be used for
comparision.
+ Current Value - the current value of the Monitor
+ Delta Value - the difference between the current value and
the previous value.
+ Rate of Change - the delta value divided by the difference
in timestamps between the current and previous values. When
using counters, this gives you the "per second" value.
* Condition - the arithmetic operator to use when comparing the
Value Type of the Monitor and the Value of the Condition.
* Value - the number used for comparision.
Reporting
Name
Reporting -- Items whose purpose is to display and report
information to the user.
Description
Device Tree
Displays graphs attached to Groups, Devices, etc, down to the
monitor level. Graph icons next to each level represent where views
are attached to items. Orange icons mean one or more graphs are
linked here; grey icons mean there are non currently.
Groups will have a Slide Show icon next to them which will show all
views in subgroups and devices underneath this group.
Most items will also have a pencil icon (when a user has Read/Write
permissions) in order to quickly edit this item.
Event Log
When events are triggered, the record of their status changes can be
viewed here.
Slide Show
Starts an in-order or random slide show of all views. A 'Resume
Slide Show' link will also appear to go back to the place where you
left off if you leave the slide show. If you have auto-scroll
enabled, clicking anywhere on the page will pause the slideshow, and
clicking again will resume scrolling.
Graphing
Name
Graphing -- Where graphs (compositions of one or more monitors) are
created.
Description
Custom Graphs
Custom Graphs are graphs meant to only be used once. If you have an
application where you are going to apply the same type of monitors
to more than one device (even if the parameters are different), use
a template graph.
Template Graphs
Graphs intended to be used more than once. Template graphs are
applied to a sub-device at the view level. It will look for the same
type of monitors as it was created with and use the matching monitor
types from whichever sub-device was selected.
Template graphs also have the added benefit of being applied to a
sub-device, allowing you to automatically create the same monitor
types inside a new sub-device, quickly adding more monitors to your
device.
Tests
Name
Tests -- Tests represent actions taken to gather data.
Overview
A monitor can be thought of as a specific instantiation of a test.
There are currently four types of tests supported by NetMRG:
Scripts, SNMP, SQL, and Internal.
Scripts
Arbitrary scripts can be executed and their output or return values
used as values to be monitored.
Edit
* Name - An description used to identify the test.
* Command - The program to execute for this test. If the value of
this field does not start with a slash, it is assumed that the
command is located in the default NetMRG tests directory.
Commands are passed to a shell for execution by the gatherer.
* Data Type - The type of data gathered from the program.
+ Standard Out - Data from the program's standard output is
returned. The program should output data on one line which
should be a numeric value or "U" to specify an unknown
value.
+ Error Code - The integer return code from the executed
program is returned.
SNMP
SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is widely used for
accessing statistics on network infrastructure and hosts.
Edit
* Name - An description used to identify the test.
* SNMP OID - The OID to be obtained. The value may be numeric or
of any form your Net-SNMP library can understand. Because the
installed MIBs can vary from machine to machine, use of numeric
(or at least common) values is preferred.
* Type - specifies whether to GET or WALK the OID
+ Direct (Get) - The specific OID specified will be returned.
+ Nth Item (Walk) - The OID specified will be walked until
the Nth item is encountered. This item will be returned.
* Item # - Specifies which item to return when doing an SNMP walk.
This option has no effect on SNMP GETs.
SQL
SQL (more specifically, MySQL) tests are useful when you have data
that is otherwise in-accessable, or takes a long time to gather.
Rather than making the netmrg-gatherer run a script test that will
take a long time, consider writing the script to run periodically
(out of Cron, for example) and dumping its output into a MySQL
database for NetMRG to gather later. This greatly reduces NetMRG's
runtime.
Edit
* Name - An description used to identify the test.
* Host - The host running the MySQL server you wish to connect to.
* User - The MySQL user to connect as.
* Password - The password for the MySQL user.
* Query - The SQL query to perform.
Note: No default database is specified, so be sure to include the
database name in the table names that you use in your query.
* Column Number - The column to return. NetMRG will collect the
value from this column in the first row of the result set.
Internal
Internal tests are compiled into the gatherer. These tests typically
start as script tests, and are then migrated to the gatherer for
efficiency. At the moment, the gatherer source code is the only
documentation for such tests, however some are obvious. The
intention is to expand this category to include DSO-based test
packages.
Notifications
Name
Notifications -- Configuration for notifying users when events
occur.
Description
Edit
* Name - A name used to identifiy the notification.
* Command - A shell-interpreted command to run to notify the user
of an event. Parameter expansions will be made to this field as
outlined below.
* Disabled - When selected, the specified will not be run. Useful
for temporary suspension of notifications.
Variable Substitutions
The following parameters will be substituted in the command field:
* %dev_name% - The device's name
* %ip% - The IP or host name for the device
* %event_name% - The name of the triggered event causing the
notification.
* %situation% - The situation of the triggered event (Normal,
Warning, etc.)
* %current_value% - The monitor's last gathered value.
* %delta_value% - The change between the monitor's last gathered
value and the previous.
* %rate_value% - The rate-of-change based on the last two gathered
values and the time difference between them.
* %last_value% - The value from the gathering period before last.
Admin
Name
Admin -- Administrative functions not related to the reporting or
gathering of information.
Description
Users
The area where you manage users that are allowed to view or modify
graphs and parameters in NetMRG. If you're using External Auth, you
will also need to come here to create users to setup permissions for
them to access your NetMRG installation.
Prefs
Preferences for your users (such as auto-scroll in the Slide Show,
or changing your password). If you're an admin, you will be able to
change your users' prefs here, or you will only be able to change
your own.
Logout
Logout of NetMRG. NetMRG will keep its session active for 24 hours;
this may allow other users to come and use your computer to view or
modify your graphs if you don't close your browser. Logging out of
NetMRG will prevent accidental (or malevolent) activities in your
NetMRG installation.
Help
Name
Help -- How to get assistance with NetMRG.
Description
About
Some basic information about NetMRG, its authors, the license, and
credits to noteworthy contributors.
Manual
A link to the NetMRG Manual.
Forum
A link to the best place to go for useability questions.
Bugs
If you think you have found a bug, submit it here.
_________________________________________________________
Chapter 15. Contact Information
We have great aspirations for what NetMRG could become, but as with
all open-source software, such aspriations can only be achieved with
the active participation of the open-source community. Please do
your part and support software that you use by helping to answer
support questions on forums and report bugs to developers. Thanks!
* Main Website - http://www.netmrg.net/
* Support Forum - http://lists.netmrg.net/
* Bug Reporting and Tracking - http://bugs.netmrg.net/
|