


mrtg                                                  MRTG-RRD(1)



NNNNAAAAMMMMEEEE
     mrtg-rrd - How to use RRDtool with MRTG

SSSSYYYYNNNNOOOOPPPPSSSSIIIISSSS
     After using MRTG for some time you may find some
     limitations. Mostly in the areas of performance and graphing
     flexibility. These are exactly the areas addressed by
     rrdtool. To learn more about RRDtool check out its website
     on

      http://ee-staff.ethz.ch/~oetiker/webtools/rrdtool


RRRRRRRRDDDDTTTTOOOOOOOOLLLL IIIINNNNTTTTEEEEGGGGRRRRAAAATTTTIIIIOOOONNNN
     When using mrtg with RRDtool you are replacing _r_a_t_e_u_p with
     the RRDtool perl modlue _R_R_D_s_._p_m. To enable RRDtool support
     in mrtg you have to add the line

      LogFormat: rrdtool

     MRTG needs access to both the RRDtool perl module RRRRRRRRDDDDssss....ppppmmmm
     and to the rrrrrrrrddddttttoooooooollll executable.

     If these two items are not installed in locations where perl
     can find them on its own, then you can use the following two
     parameters to supply the appropriate directories.

     For the location of the rrrrrrrrddddttttoooooooollll executable you put

      PathAdd: /usr/local/rrdtool/bin/

     or

      PathAdd: c:\rrdtool\bin

     For the location of the perl module it would be:

      LibAdd: /usr/local/rrdtool/lib/perl/

     or

      LibAdd: c:\rrdtool\bin\lib\perl

     When you have made this modification to the configuration
     file, several things will happen when you run mrtg again
     with the new config file:

     1.  mrtg will take all your old `.log' files and ccccoooonnnnvvvveeeerrrrtttt
         them to `.rrd' format. (The `.log' files don't get
         touched in the process, so if things don't work out they
         are still there.)




2000-10-27              Last change: 2.9.4                      1






mrtg                                                  MRTG-RRD(1)



     2.  mrtg will use rrrrrrrrddddttttoooooooollll to update its databases. These
         will have a new format called _r_r_d which is totally
         different than the native _l_o_g format of the classic
         mrtg.

     3.  mrtg will nnnnooootttt create any webpages of graphs anymore.  It
         will only query the routers for traffic information and
         update its _r_r_d databases.

     The advantage of whole thing is that the mrtg will become
     mmmmuuuucccchhhh faster. Expect the runtime to drop to 20% of the
     previous value. (I would like to get some feedback on this
     from folks with large installations)

     Mind you though, while the logging process of RRDtool is
     vvvveeeerrrryyyy fast, you are also gaining some time by neither
     creating graphs nor updating webpages.  The idea behind this
     is that it is more efficient to create graphs and webpages
     on demmand. Using a cgi script.

     At the moment there is no ooooffffffffiiiicccciiiiaaaallll script to do this, but
     two contributers have created such scripts:

     11114444aaaallllllll....ccccggggiiii
         Was the first program to take over the webpage creation
         and graphing task.  It has been developed by
         Rainer Bawidamann <Rainer.Bawidamann@informatik.uni-
         ulm.de>. You can find a copy in

          mrtg-2.9.4/contrib/14all

         or on Rainers website:

          http://www.uni-ulm.de/~rbawidam/mrtg-rrd/

         The program comes with its own documentation

     rrrroooouuuutttteeeerrrrssss....ccccggggiiii
         Is another cgi frontend to mrtg running with rrdtool.
         Its main difference to 14all is that the web pages it
         creates are much more stylish than the ones from mrtg.
         rrrroooouuuutttteeeerrrrssss....ccccggggiiii has been written by
         Steve Shipway <steve.shipway@adsweu.com>. You can find a
         copy in

          mrtg-2.9.4/contrib/routers

         The script comes with its own installation instructions.

         A sample website showing off rrrroooouuuutttteeeerrrrssss....ccccggggiiii can be found on

          http://ukpavu99.adsweu.com/cgi-bin/routers.cgi



2000-10-27              Last change: 2.9.4                      2






mrtg                                                  MRTG-RRD(1)



FFFFUUUUTTTTUUUURRRREEEE
     Just as a side note: MRTG-3 will be based entirely on
     rrdtool technology.  But don't wait for it ... get going
     nnnnoooowwww!

AAAAUUUUTTTTHHHHOOOORRRR
     Tobias Oetiker <oetiker@ee.ethz.ch>
















































2000-10-27              Last change: 2.9.4                      3



