1MRTG-REFERENCE(1) mrtg MRTG-REFERENCE(1)
2
6 mrtg-reference - MRTG 2.16.4 configuration reference
7
9 The runtime behaviour of MRTG is governed by a configuration file.
10 Run-of-the-mill configuration files can be generated with cfgmaker.
11 (Check cfgmaker). But for more elaborate configurations some hand-
12 tuning is required.
13 This document describes all the configuration options understood by the
15 mrtg software.
16
18 MRTG configuration file syntax follows some simple rules:
19 · Keywords must start at the beginning of a line.
21 · Lines which follow a keyword line which start with a blank are
23 appended to the keyword line
24 · Empty Lines are ignored
26 · Lines starting with a # sign are comments.
28 · You can add other files into the configuration file using
30 Include: file
32 Example:
34 Include: base-options.inc
36 If included files are specified with relative paths, both the
38 current working directory and the directory containing the main
39 config file will be searched for the files.
40
42 WorkDir
43 WorkDir specifies where the logfiles and the webpages should be
44 created.
45 Example:
47 WorkDir: /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg
49
51 HtmlDir
52 HtmlDir specifies the directory where the html (or shtml, but we'll get
53 on to those later) lives.
54 NOTE: Workdir overrides the settings for htmldir, imagedir and logdir.
56 Example:
58 Htmldir: /www/mrtg/
60 ImageDir
62 ImageDir specifies the directory where the images live. They should be
63 under the html directory.
64 Example:
66 Imagedir: /www/mrtg/images
68 LogDir
70 LogDir specifies the directory where the logs are stored. This need
71 not be under htmldir directive.
72 Example:
74 Logdir: /www/mrtg/logs
76 Forks (UNIX only)
78 With system that supports fork (UNIX for example), mrtg can fork itself
79 into multiple instances while it is acquiring data via snmp.
80 For situations with high latency or a great number of devices this will
82 speed things up considerably. It will not make things faster, though,
83 if you query a single switch sitting next door.
84 As far as I know NT can not fork so this option is not available on NT.
86 Example:
88 Forks: 4
90 EnableIPv6
92 When set to yes, IPv6 support is enabled if the required libraries are
93 present (see the mrtg-ipv6 manpage). When IPv6 is enabled, mrtg can
94 talk to routers using SNMP over IPv6 and targets may be specified by
95 their numeric IPv6 addresses as well as by hostname or IPv4 address.
96 If IPv6 is enabled and the target is a hostname, mrtg will try to
98 resolve the hostname to an IPv6 address and, if this fails, to an IPv4
99 address. Note that mrtg will only use IPv4 if you specify an IPv4
100 address or a hostname with no corresponding IPv6 address; it will not
101 fall back to IPv4 if it simply fails to communicate with the target
102 using IPv6. This is by design.
103 Note that many routers do not currently support SNMP over IPv6. Use the
105 IPv4Only per target option for these routers.
106 IPv6 is disabled by default.
108 Example:
110 EnableIPv6: Yes
112 EnableSnmpV3
114 When set to yes, uses the Net::SNMP module instead of the SNMP_SESSION
115 module for generating snmp queries. This allows the use of SNMPv3 if
116 other snmpv3 parameters are set.
117 SNMPv3 is disabled by default.
119 Example:
121 EnableSnmpV3: yes
123 Refresh
125 How many seconds apart should the browser (Netscape) be instructed to
126 reload the page? If this is not defined, the default is 300 seconds (5
127 minutes).
128 Example:
130 Refresh: 600
132 Interval
134 How often do you call mrtg? The default is 5 minutes. If you call it
135 less often, you should specify it here. This does two things:
136 · The generated HTML page contains the right information about the
138 calling interval ...
139 · A META header in the generated HTML page will instruct caches about
141 the time-to-live of this page .....
142 In this example, we tell mrtg that we will be calling it every 10
144 minutes. If you are calling mrtg every 5 minutes, you can leave this
145 line commented out.
146 Example:
148 Interval: 10
150 Note that unless you are using rrdtool you can not set Interval to less
152 than 5 minutes. If you are using rrdtool you can set interval in the
153 format
154 Interval: MM[:SS]
156 Down to 1 second. Note though, setting the Interval for an rrdtool/mrtg
158 setup will influence the initial creation of the database. If you
159 change the interval later, all existing databases will remain at the
160 resolution they were initially created with. Also note that you must
161 make sure that your mrtg-rrd Web-frontend can deal with this kind of
162 Interval setting.
163 MaxAge
165 MRTG relies heavily on the real time clock of your computer. If the
166 time is set to a wrong value, especially if it is advanced far into the
167 future, this will cause mrtg to expire lots of supposedly old data from
168 the log files.
169 To prevent this, you can add a 'reasonability' check by specifying a
171 maximum age for log files. If a file seems to be older, mrtg will not
172 touch it but complain instead, giving you a chance to investigate the
173 cause.
174 Example:
176 MaxAge: 7200
178 The example above will make mrtg refuse to update log files older than
180 2 hours (7200 seconds).
181 WriteExpires
183 With this switch mrtg will generate .meta files for CERN and Apache
184 servers which contain Expiration tags for the html and gif files. The
185 *.meta files will be created in the same directory as the other files,
186 so you will have to set "MetaDir ." and "MetaFiles on" in your
187 apache.conf or .htaccess file for this to work
188 NOTE: If you are running Apache-1.2 or later, you can use the
190 mod_expire to achieve the same effect ... see the file htaccess.txt
191 Example:
193 WriteExpires: Yes
195 NoMib2
197 Normally we ask the SNMP device for 'sysUptime' and 'sysName'
198 properties. Some do not have these. If you want to avoid getting
199 complaints from mrtg about these missing properties, specify the nomib2
200 option.
201 An example of agents which do not implement base mib2 attributes are
203 Computer Associates - Unicenter TNG Agents. CA relies on using the
204 base OS SNMP agent in addition to its own agents to supplement the
205 management of a system.
206 Example:
208 NoMib2: Yes
210 SingleRequest
212 Some SNMP implementations can not deal with requests asking for
213 multiple snmp variables in one go. Set this in your cfg file to force
214 mrtg to only ask for one variable per request.
215 Examples
217 SingleRequest: Yes
219 SnmpOptions
221 Apart from the per target timeout options, you can also configure the
222 behaviour of the snmpget process on a more profound level. SnmpOptions
223 accepts a hash of options. The following options are currently
224 supported:
225 timeout => $default_timeout,
227 retries => $default_retries,
228 backoff => $default_backoff,
229 default_max_repetitions => $max_repetitions,
230 use_16bit_request_ids => 1,
231 lenient_source_port_matching => 0,
232 lenient_source_address_matching => 1
233 The values behind the options indicate the current default value. Note
235 that these settings OVERRIDE the per target timeout settings.
236 A per-target SnmpOptions[] keyword will override the global settings.
238 That keyword is primarily for SNMPv3.
239 The 16bit request ids are the only way to query the broken SNMP
241 implementation of SMC Barricade routers.
242 Example:
244 SnmpOptions: retries => 2, only_ip_address_matching => 0
246 Note that AS/400 snmp seems to be broken in a way which prevents mrtg
248 from working with it unless
249 SnmpOptions: lenient_source_port_matching => 1
251 is set.
253 IconDir
255 If you want to keep the mrtg icons in someplace other than the working
256 (or imagedir) directory, use the IconDir variable for defining the url
257 of the icons directory.
258 Example:
260 IconDir: /mrtgicons/
262 LoadMIBs
264 Load the MIB file(s) specified and make its OIDs available as symbolic
265 names. For better efficiancy, a cache of MIBs is maintained in the
266 WorkDir.
267 Example:
269 LoadMIBs: /dept/net/mibs/netapp.mib,/usr/local/lib/ft100m.mib
271 Language
273 Switch output format to the selected Language (Check the translate
274 directory to see which languages are supported at the moment. In this
275 directory you can also find instructions on how to create new
276 translations).
277 Currently the following laguages are supported:
279 big5 brazilian bulgarian catalan chinese croatian czech danish dutch
281 eucjp french galician gb gb2312 german greek hungarian icelandic
282 indonesia iso2022jp italian korean lithuanian malay norwegian polish
283 portuguese romanian russian russian1251 serbian slovak slovenian
284 spanish swedish turkish ukrainian
285 Example:
287 Language: danish
289 LogFormat
291 Setting LogFormat to 'rrdtool' in your mrtg.cfg file enables rrdtool
292 mode. In rrdtool mode, mrtg relies on rrdtool to do its logging. See
293 mrtg-rrd.
294 Example:
296 LogFormat: rrdtool
298 LibAdd
300 If you are using rrdtool mode and your rrdtool Perl module (RRDs.pm) is
301 not installed in a location where perl can find it on its own, you can
302 use LibAdd to supply an appropriate path.
303 Example:
305 LibAdd: /usr/local/rrdtool/lib/perl/
307 PathAdd
309 If the rrdtool executable can not be found in the normal "PATH", you
310 can use this keyword to add a suitable directory to your path.
311 Example:
313 PathAdd: /usr/local/rrdtool/bin/
315 RunAsDaemon
317 The RunAsDaemon keyword enables daemon mode operation. The purpose of
318 daemon mode is that MRTG is launched once and not repeatedly (as it is
319 with cron). This behavior saves computing resourses as loading and
320 parsing of configuration files happens only once.
321 Using daemon mode MRTG itself is responible for timing the measurement
323 intervals. Therfore its important to set the Interval keyword to an
324 apropiate value.
325 Note that when using daemon mode MRTG should no longer be started from
327 cron as each new process runs forever. Instead MRTG should be started
328 from the command prompt or by a system startup script.
329 If you want mrtg to run under a particular user and group (it is not
331 recomended to run MRTG as root) then you can use the --user=user_name
332 and --group=group_name options on the mrtg commandline.
333 mrtg --user=mrtg_user --group=mrtg_group mrtg.cfg
335 Also note that in daemon mode restarting the process is required in
337 order to activate changes in the config file.
338 Under UNIX, the Daemon switch causes mrtg to fork into background after
340 checking its config file. On Windows NT the MRTG process will detach
341 from the console, but because the NT/2000 shell waits for its children
342 you have to use this special start sequence when you launch the
343 program:
344 start /b perl mrtg mrtg.cfg
346 You may have to add path information equal to what you add when you run
348 mrtg from the commandline.
349 Example
351 RunAsDaemon: Yes
353 Interval: 5
354 This makes MRTG run as a daemon beginning data collection every 5
356 minutes
357 If you are daemontools and still want to run mrtg as a daemon you can
359 additionally specify
360 NoDetach: Yes
362 this will make mrtg run but without detaching it from the terminal.
364 ConversionCode
366 Some devices may produce non-numeric values that would nevertheless be
367 useful to graph with MRTG if those values could be converted to
368 numbers. The ConversionCode keyword specifies the path to a file
369 containing Perl code to perform such conversions. The code in this file
370 must consist of one or more Perl subroutines. Each subroutine must
371 accept a single string argument and return a single numeric value. When
372 RRDtool is in use, a decimal value may be returned. When the name of
373 one of these subroutines is specified in a target definition (see
374 below), MRTG calls it twice for that target, once to convert the the
375 input value being monitored and a second time to convert the output
376 value. The subroutine must return an undefined value if the conversion
377 fails. In case of failure, a warning may be posted to the MRTG log file
378 using Perl's warn function. MRTG imports the subroutines into a
379 separate name space (package MRTGConversion), so the user need not
380 worry about pollution of MRTG's global name space. MRTG automatically
381 prepends this package declaration to the user-supplied code.
382 Example: Suppose a particular OID returns a character string whose
384 length is proportional to the value to be monitored. To convert this
385 string to a number that can be graphed by MRTG, create a file
386 arbitrarily named "MyConversions.pl" containing the following code:
387 # Return the length of the string argument
389 sub Length2Int {
390 my $value = shift;
391 return length( $value );
392 }
393 Then include the following global keyword in the MRTG configuration
395 file (assuming that the conversion code file is saved in the mrtg/bin
396 directory along with mrtg itself):
397 ConversionCode: MyConversions.pl
399 This will cause MRTG to include the definition of the subroutine
401 Length2Int in its execution environment. Length2Int can then be invoked
402 on any target by appending "|Length2Int" to the target definition as
403 follows:
404 Target[myrouter]: 1.3.6.1.4.1.999.1&1.3.6.1.4.1.999.1:public@mydevice|Length2Int
406 See "Extended Host Name Syntax" below for complete target definition
408 syntax information.
409
411 Each monitoring target must be identified by a unique name. This name
412 must be appended to each parameter belonging to the same target. The
413 name will also be used for naming the generated webpages, logfiles and
414 images for this target.
415 Target
417 With the Target keyword you tell mrtg what it should monitor. The
418 Target keyword takes arguments in a wide range of formats:
419 Basic
421 The most basic format is "port:community@router" This will generate
422 a traffic graph for the interface 'port' of the host 'router' (dns
423 name or IP address) and it will use the community 'community' (snmp
424 password) for the snmp query.
425 Example:
427 Target[myrouter]: 2:public@wellfleet-fddi.domain
429 If your community contains a "@" or a " " these characters must be
431 escaped with a "\".
432 Target[bla]: 2:stu\ pi\@d@router
434 SNMPv2c
436 If you have a fast router you might want to try to poll the ifHC*
437 counters. This feature gets activated by switching to SNMPv2c.
438 Unfortunately not all devices support SNMPv2c yet. If it works,
439 this will prevent your counters from wraping within the 5 minute
440 polling interval, since we now use 64 bit instead of the normal 32
441 bit.
442 Example:
444 Target[myrouter]: 2:public@router1:::::2
446 SNMPv3
448 As an alternative to SNMPv2c, SNMPv3 provides access to the ifHC*
449 counters, along with encryption. Not all devices support SNMPv3,
450 and you will also need the perl Net::SNMP library in order to use
451 it. It is recommended that cfgmaker be used to generate
452 configurations involving SNMPv3, as it will check if the Net::SNMP
453 library is loadable, and will switch to SNMPv2c if v3 is
454 unavailable.
455 SNMP v3 requires additional authentication parameters, passed using
457 the SnmpOptions[] per-target keyword.
458 Example:
460 Target[myrouter]: 2:router1:::::3
461 SnmpOptions[myrouter]: username=>'user1'
462 noHC
464 Not all routers that support SNMPv2 or SNMPv3 provide the ifHC*
465 counters on every interface. The noHC[] per-target keyword signals
466 that the low-speed counters ifInOctets and ifOutOctets should be
467 queried instead. cfgmaker will automatically insert this tag if
468 SNMPv2 or SNMPv3 is specified but the ifHC* counters are
469 unavailable.
470 Example:
472 Target[myrouter]: #Bri0:router1:::::3
473 SnmpOptions[myrouter]: username=>'user1'
474 noHC[myrouter]: yes
475 Reversing
477 Sometimes you are sitting on the wrong side of the link, and you
478 would like to have mrtg report Incoming traffic as Outgoing and
479 vice versa. This can be achieved by adding the '-' sign in front of
480 the "Target" description. It flips the incoming and outgoing
481 traffic rates.
482 Example:
484 Target[ezci]: -1:public@ezci-ether.domain
486 Explicit OIDs
488 You can also explicitly define which OID to query by using the
489 following syntax 'OID_1&OID_2:community@router' The following
490 example will retrieve error counts for input and output on
491 interface 1. MRTG needs to graph two variables, so you need to
492 specify two OID's such as temperature and humidity or error input
493 and error output.
494 Example:
496 Target[myrouter]: 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.14.1&1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.20.1:public@myrouter
498 MIB Variables
500 MRTG knows a number of symbolic SNMP variable names. See the file
501 mibhelp.txt for a list of known names. One example are the
502 ifInErrors and ifOutErrors. This means you can specify the above
503 as:
504 Example:
506 Target[myrouter]: ifInErrors.1&ifOutErrors.1:public@myrouter
508 SnmpWalk
510 It may be that you want to monitor an snmp object that is only
511 reachable by 'walking'. You can get mrtg to walk by prepending the
512 OID with the string WaLK or if you want a particular entry from the
513 table returned by the walk you can use WaLKx where x is a number
514 starting from 0 (!).
515 Example:
517 Target[myrouter]: WaLKstrangeOid.1&WaLKstrangeOid.2:public@myrouter
519 Target[myrouter]: WaLK3strangeOid.1&WaLK4strangeOid.2:public@myrouter
521 SnmpGetNext
523 A special case of an snmp object that is only reachable by
524 'walking' occurs when a single snmpgetnext will return the correct
525 value, but snmpwalk fails. This may occur with snmp V2 or V3, as
526 the snmpgetbulk method is used in these versions. You can get mrtg
527 to use getnext instead of getbulk by prepending the OID with the
528 string GeTNEXT.
529 Example:
531 Target[myrouter]: GeTNEXTstrangeOid&GeTNEXTstrangeOid:public@myrouter
533 Counted SNMP Walk
535 In other situations, an snmpwalk is needed to count rows, but the
536 actual data is uninteresting. For example, counting the number of
537 mac-addresses in a CAM table, or the number of simultaneous dialup
538 sessions. You can get MRTG to count the number of instances by
539 prepending the OID with the string CnTWaLK. The following will
540 retrieve the number of simultaneous VOIP calls on some routers:
541 Example:
543 Target[myrouter]: CnTWaLK1.3.6.1.4.1.9.10.55.1.1.1.1.3&CnTWaLK1.3.6.1.4.1.9.10.55.1.1.1.1.3:public@myrouter
545 Interface by IP
547 Sometimes SNMP interface index can change, like when new interfaces
548 are added or removed. This can cause all Target entries in your
549 config file to become offset, causing MRTG to graphs wrong
550 instances etc. MRTG supports IP address instead of ifindex in
551 target definition. Then MRTG will query snmp device and try to map
552 IP address to the current ifindex. You can use IP addresses in
553 every type of target definition by adding IP address of the
554 numbered interface after OID and separation char '/'.
555 Make sure that the given IP address is used on your same target
557 router, especially when graphing two different OIDs and/or
558 interface split by '&' delimiter.
559 You can tell cfgmaker to generate such references with the option
561 --ifref=ip.
562 Example:
564 Target[myrouter]: /1.2.3.4:public@wellfleet-fddi.domain
566 Target[ezci]: -/1.2.3.4:public@ezci-ether.domain
567 Target[myrouter]: ifInErrors/1.2.3.4&ifOutErrors/1.2.3.4:public@myrouter
568 Interface by Description
570 If you can not use IP addresses you might want to use the interface
571 names. This works similar to the IP address aproach except that the
572 prefix to use is a \ instead of a /
573 You can tell cfgmaker to generate such references with the option
575 --ifref=descr.
576 Example:
578 Target[myrouter]: \My-Interface2:public@wellfleet-fddi.domain
580 Target[ezci]: -\My-Interface2:public@ezci-ether.domain
581 Target[myrouter]: ifInErrors\My-If2&ifOutErrors\My-If3:public@myrouter
582 If your description contains a "&", a ":", a "@" or a " " you can
584 include them but you must escape with a backlash:
585 Target[myrouter]: \fun\:\ ney\&ddd:public@hello.router
587 Interface by Name
589 This is the only sensible way to reference the interfaces of your
590 switches.
591 You can tell cfgmaker to generate such references with the option
593 --ifref=name.
594 Example:
596 Target[myrouter]: #2/11:public@wellfleet-fddi.domain
598 Target[ezci]: -#2/11:public@ezci-ether.domain
599 Target[myrouter]: ifInErrors#3/7&ifOutErrors#3/7:public@myrouter
600 If your description contains a "&", a ":", a "@" or a " " you can
602 include them but you must escape with a backlash:
603 Target[myrouter]: #\:\ fun:public@hello.router
605 Note that the # sign will be interpreted as a comment character if
607 it is the first non white-space character on the line.
608 Interface by Ethernet Address
610 When the SNMP interface index changes, you can key that interface
611 by its 'Physical Address', sometimes called a 'hard address', which
612 is the SNMP variable 'ifPhysAddress'. Internally, MRTG matches the
613 Physical Address from the *.cfg file to its current index, and then
614 uses that index for the rest of the session.
615 You can use the Physical Address in every type of target definition
617 by adding the Physical Address after the OID and the separation
618 char '!' (analogous to the IP address option). The Physical
619 address is specified as '-' delimited octets, such as
620 "0a-0-f1-5-23-18" (omit the double quotes). Note that some routers
621 use the same Hardware Ethernet Address for all of their Interfaces
622 which prevents unique interface identification. Mrtg will notice
623 such problems and alert you.
624 You can tell cfgmaker to generate configuration files with hardware
626 ethernet address references by using the option --ifref=eth.
627 Example:
629 Target[myrouter]: !0a-0b-0c-0d:public@wellfleet-fddi.domain
631 Target[ezci]: -!0-f-bb-05-71-22:public@ezci-ether.domain
632 Target[myrouter]: 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.14!0a-00-10-23-44-51& *BREAK*
633 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.14!0a-00-10-23-44-51:public@myrouter
634 Target[myrouter]: ifInErrors!0a-00-10-23-44-51& *BREAK*
635 ifOutErrors!0a-00-10-23-44-51:public@myrouter
636 Join the lines at *BREAK* ...
638 Interface by Type
640 It seems that there are devices that try to defy all monitoring
641 efforts: the interesting interfaces have neither ifName nor a
642 constant ifDescr not to mention a persistent ifIndex. The only way
643 to get a constant mapping is by looking at the interface type,
644 because the interface you are interested in is unique in the device
645 you are looking at ...
646 You can tell cfgmaker to generate such references with the option
648 --ifref=type.
649 Example:
651 Target[myrouter]: %13:public@wellfleet-fddi.domain
653 Target[ezci]: -%13:public@ezci-ether.domain
654 Target[myrouter]: ifInErrors%13&ifOutErrors%14:public@myrouter
655 Extended positioning of ifIndex
657 There are OIDs that contain the interface index at some inner
658 position within the OID. To use the above mentioned Interface by
659 IP/Description/Name/Type methods in the target definition the
660 keyword 'IndexPOS' can be used to indicate the position of ifIndex.
661 If 'IndexPOS' is not used the ifIndex will be appended at the end
662 of the OID.
663 Example:
665 Target[myrouter]: OID.IndexPOS.1/1.2.3.4&OID.IndexPOS.1/1.2.3.4:public@myrouter
667 Replace OID by your numeric OID.
669 Extended Host Name Syntax
671 In all places where ``community@router'' is accepted, you can add
672 additional parameters for the SNMP communication using colon-
673 separated suffixes. You can also append a pipe symbol ( | ) and the
674 name of a numeric conversion subroutine as described under the
675 global keyword "ConversionCode" above. The full syntax is as
676 follows:
677 community@router[:[port][:[timeout][:[retries][:[backoff][:[version]][|name]]]]]
679 where the meaning of each parameter is as follows:
681 port
683 the UDP port under which to contact the SNMP agent (default:
684 161)
685 The complete syntax of the port parameter is
687 remote_port[!local_address[!local_port]]
689 Some machines have additional security features that only allow
691 SNMP queries to come from certain IP addresses. If the host
692 doing the query has multiple interface, it may be necessary to
693 specify the interface the query should come from.
694 The port parameter allows the specification of the port of the
696 machine being queried. In addition, the IP address (or
697 hostname) and port of the machine doing the query may be
698 specified.
699 Examples:
701 somehost
703 somehost:161
704 somehost:161!192.168.2.4!4000 use 192.168.2.4 and port 4000 as source
705 somehost:!192.168.2.4 use 192.168.2.4 as source
706 somehost:!!4000 use port 4000 as source
707 timeout
709 initial timeout for SNMP queries, in seconds (default: 2.0)
710 retries
712 number of times a timed-out request will be retried (default:
713 5)
714 backoff
716 factor by which the timeout is multiplied on every retry
717 (default: 1.0).
718 version
720 for SNMP version. If you have a fast router you might want to
721 put a '2' here. For authenticated or encrypted SNMP, you can
722 try to put a '3' here. This will make mrtg try to poll the 64
723 bit counters and thus prevent excessive counter wrapping. Not
724 all routers support this though. SNMP v3 requires additional
725 setup, see SnmpOptions[] for full details.
726 Example:
728 3:public@router1:::::2
730 name
732 the name of the subroutine that MRTG will call to convert the
733 input and output values to integers. See the complete example
734 under the global keyword "ConversionCode" above.
735 Example:
737 1.3.6.1.4.1.999.1&1.3.6.1.4.1.999.2:public@mydevice:161::::2|Length2Int
739 This would retrieve values from the OID 1.3.6.1.4.1.999.1 for
741 input and .2 for output on mydevice using UDP port 161 and SNMP
742 version 2, and would execute the user-defined numeric
743 conversion subroutine Length2Int to convert those values to
744 integers.
745 A value that equals the default value can be omitted. Trailing
747 colons can be omitted, too. The pipe symbol followed by the name
748 parameter, if present, must come at the end. There must be no
749 spaces around the colons or pipe symbol.
750 Example:
752 Target[ezci]: 1:public@ezci-ether.domain:9161::4
754 This would refer to the input/output octet counters for the
756 interface with ifIndex 1 on ezci-ether.domain, as known by the SNMP
757 agent listening on UDP port 9161. The standard initial timeout
758 (2.0 seconds) is used, but the number of retries is set to four.
759 The backoff value is the default.
760 Numeric IPv6 addresses
762 If IPv6 is enabled you may also specify a target using its IPv6
763 address. To avoid ambiguity with the port number, numeric IPv6
764 addresses must be placed in square brackets.
765 Example:
767 Target[IPv6test]: 2:public@[2001:760:4::]:6161::4
769 External Monitoring Scripts
771 If you want to monitor something which does not provide data via
772 snmp you can use some external program to do the data gathering.
773 The external command must return 4 lines of output:
775 Line 1
777 current state of the first variable, normally 'incoming bytes
778 count'
779 Line 2
781 current state of the second variable, normally 'outgoing bytes
782 count'
783 Line 3
785 string (in any human readable format), telling the uptime of
786 the target.
787 Line 4
789 string, telling the name of the target.
790 Depending on the type of data your script returns you might want to
792 use the 'gauge' or 'absolute' arguments for the Options keyword.
793 Example:
795 Target[myrouter]: `/usr/local/bin/df2mrtg /dev/dsk/c0t2d0s0`
797 Note the use of the backticks (`), not apostrophes (') around the
799 command.
800 If you want to use a backtick in the command name this can be done
802 but you must escape it with a backslash ...
803 If your script does not have any data to return but does not want
805 mrtg to complain about invalid data, it can return 'UNKNOWN'
806 instead of a number. Note though that only rrdtool is realy
807 equipped to handle unknown data well.
808 Multi Target Syntax
810 You can also combine several target definitions in a mathematical
811 expression. Any syntactically correct expression that the Perl
812 interpreter can evaluate to will work. An expression could be used,
813 for example, to aggregate both B channels in an ISDN connection or
814 to calculate the percentage hard disk utilization of a server from
815 the absolute used space and total capacity.
816 Examples:
818 Target[myrouter]: 2:public@wellfleetA + 1:public@wellfleetA
820 Target[myrouter]: .1.3.6.1.4.1.999.1&.1.3.6.1.4.1.999.2:public@mydevice /
822 .1.3.6.1.4.1.999.3&.1.3.6.1.4.1.999.4:public@mydevice * 100
823 Note that whitespace must surround each target definition in the
825 expression. Target definitions themselves must not contain
826 whitespace, except in interface descriptions and interface names,
827 where each whitespace character is escaped by a backslash.
828 MRTG automatically rounds the result of the expression to an
830 integer unless RRDTool logging is in use and the gauge option is in
831 effect for the target. Internally MRTG uses Perl's Math::BigFloat
832 package to calculate the result of the expression with 40 digits of
833 precision. Even in extreme cases, where, for example, you take the
834 difference of two 64-bit integers, the result of the expression
835 should be accurate.
836 SNMP Request Optimization
838 MRTG is designed to economize on its SNMP requests. Where a target
839 definition appears more than once in the configuration file, MRTG
840 requests the data from the device only once per round of data
841 collection and uses the collected data for each instance of a
842 particular target. Recognition of two target definitions as being
843 identical is based on a simple string match rather than any kind of
844 deeper semantic analysis.
845 Example:
847 Target[Targ1]: 1:public@CiscoA
849 Target[Targ2]: 2:public@CiscoA
850 Target[Targ3]: 1:public@CiscoA + 2:public@CiscoA
851 Target[Targ4]: 1:public@CISCOA
852 This results in a total of three SNMP requests. Data for
854 1:public@CiscoA and 2:public@CiscoA are requested only once each,
855 and used for Targ1, Targ2, and Targ3. Targ4 causes another SNMP
856 request for 1:public@CISCOA, which is not recognized as being
857 identical to 1:public@CiscoA.
858 MaxBytes
860 The maximum value either of the two variables monitored are allowed to
861 reach. For monitoring router traffic this is normally the bytes per
862 second this interface port can carry.
863 If a number higher than MaxBytes is returned, it is ignored. Also read
865 the section on AbsMax for further info. The MaxBytes value is also
866 used in calculating the Y range for unscaled graphs (see the section on
867 Unscaled).
868 Since most links are rated in bits per second, you need to divide their
870 maximum bandwidth (in bits) by eight (8) in order to get bytes per
871 second. This is very important to make your unscaled graphs display
872 realistic information. T1 = 193000, 56K = 7000, 10 MB Ethernet =
873 1250000, 100 MB Ethernet = 12500000. The MaxBytes value will be used by
874 mrtg to decide whether it got a valid response from the router.
875 If you need two different MaxBytes values for the two monitored
877 variables, you can use MaxBytes1 and MaxBytes2 instead of MaxBytes.
878 Example:
880 MaxBytes[myrouter]: 1250000
882 Title
884 Title for the HTML page which gets generated for the graph.
885 Example:
887 Title[myrouter]: Traffic Analysis for Our Nice Company
889
891 PageTop
892 Things to add to the top of the generated HTML page. Note that you can
893 have several lines of text as long as the first column is empty.
894 Note that the continuation lines will all end up on the same line in
896 the html page. If you want linebreaks in the generated html use the
897 '\n' sequence.
898 Example:
900 PageTop[myrouter]: <H1>Traffic Analysis for ETZ C95.1</H1>
902 Our Campus Backbone runs over an FDDI line\n
903 with a maximum transfer rate of 12.5 megabytes per
904 Second.
905 RouterUptime
907 In cases where you calculate the used bandwidth from several interfaces
908 you normaly don't get the router uptime and router name displayed on
909 the web page.
910 If these interfaces are on the same router and the uptime and name
912 should be displayed you have to specify its community and address again
913 with the RouterUptime keyword.
914 If you want to use a special OID for queriing the router uptime, use
916 prepend the oid.
917 Example:
919 Target[kacisco.comp.edu]: 1:public@194.64.66.250 + 2:public@194.64.66.250
921 RouterUptime[kacisco.comp.edu]: public@194.64.66.250
922 RouterUptime[kacisco.comp.edu]: hrSystemUptime.0:public@194.64.66.250
924 RouterName
926 If the default name of the router is incorrect/uninformative, you can
927 use RouterName to specify a different OID on either the same or a
928 different host.
929 A practical example: sysName on BayTech DS72 units always display
931 "ds72", no matter what you set the Unit ID to be. Instead, the Unit ID
932 is stored at 1.3.6.1.4.1.4779.1.1.3.0, so we can have MRTG display this
933 instead of sysName.
934 Example:
936 RouterName[kacisco.comp.edu]: 1.3.6.1.4.1.4779.1.1.3.0
938 A different OID on a different host can also be specified:
940 RouterName[kacisco.comp.edu]: 1.3.6.1.4.1.4779.1.1.3.0:public@194.64.66.251
942 MaxBytes1
944 Same as MaxBytes, for variable 1.
945 MaxBytes2
947 Same as MaxBytes, for variable 2.
948 IPv4Only
950 Many IPv6 routers do not currently support SNMP over IPv6 and must be
951 monitored using IPv4. The IPv4Only option forces mrtg to use IPv4 when
952 communicating with the target, even if IPv6 is enabled. This is useful
953 if the target is a hostname with both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses; without
954 the IPv4Only keyword, monitoring such a router will not work if IPv6 is
955 enabled.
956 If set to no (the default), mrtg will use IPv6 unless the target has no
958 IPv6 addresses, in which case it will use IPv4. If set to yes, mrtg
959 will only use IPv4.
960 Note that if this option is set to yes and the target does not have an
962 IPv4 address, communication with the target will fail.
963 This option has no effect if IPv6 is not enabled.
965 Example:
967 Target[v4onlyrouter_1]: 1:public@v4onlyrouter
969 IPv4Only[v4onlyrouter_1]: Yes
970 SnmpOptions (V3)
972 SNMPv3 requires a fairly rich set of options. This per-target keyword
973 allows access to the User Security Model of SNMPv3. Options are listed
974 in the same syntax as a perl hash.
975 Security Modes
977 SNMPv3 has three security modes, defined on the device being polled.
979 For example, on Cisco routers the security mode is defined by the snmp-
980 server group global configuration command.
981 NoAuthNoPriv
983 Neither Authentication nor Privacy is defined. Only the Username
984 option is specified for this mode.
985 Example:
987 SnmpOptions[myrouter]: username=>'user1'
989 AuthNoPriv
991 Uses a Username and a password. The password can be hashed using
992 the snmpkey application, or passed in plain text along with the
993 ContextEngineID
994 Example:
996 SnmpOptions[myrouter]: username=>'user1',authpassword=>'example',
998 contextengineid=>'80000001110000004000000'
999 Priv
1001 Both Authentication and Privacy is defined. The default privacy
1002 protocol is des.
1003 Example:
1005 SnmpOptions[myrouter]:
1006 authkey=>'0x1e93ab5a396e2af234c8920e61cfe2028072c0e2',
1007 authprotocol=>'sha',privprotocol=>'des',username=>'user1',
1008 privkey=>'0x498d74940c5872ed387201d74b9b25e2'
1009 snmp options
1011 The following option keywords are recognized:
1013 username
1015 The user associated with the User Security Model
1016 contextname
1018 An SNMP agent can define multiple contexts. This keyword allows
1019 them to be polled.
1020 contextengineid
1022 A unique 24-byte string identifying the snmp-agent.
1023 authpassword
1025 The plaintext password for a user in either AuthNoPriv or Priv
1026 mode.
1027 authkey
1029 A md5 or sha hash of the plain-text password, along with the
1030 engineid. Use the snmpkey commandline program to generate this
1031 hash, or use Net::SNMP::Security::USM in a script.
1032 authprotocol {sha|md5}
1034 The hashing algorithm defined on the SNMP client. Defaults to md5.
1035 privpassword
1037 A plaintext pre-shared key for encrypting snmp packets in Priv
1038 mode.
1039 privkey
1041 A hash of the plain-text pre-shared key, along with the engineid.
1042 Use the snmpkey commandline program to generate this hash, or use
1043 Net::SNMP::Security::USM in a script.
1044 privprotocol {des|3desede|aescfb128|aescfb192|aescfb256}
1046 Specifies the encryption method defined on the snmp agent. The
1047 default is des.
1048 PageFoot
1050 Things to add to the bottom of the generated HTML page. Note that you
1051 can have several lines of text as long as the first column is empty.
1052 Note that the continuation lines will all end up on the same line in
1054 the html page. If you want linebreaks in the generated html use the
1055 '\n' sequence.
1056 The material will be added just before the </BODY> tag:
1058 Example:
1060 PageFoot[myrouter]: Contact <A HREF="mailto:peter@x.yz">Peter</A>
1062 if you have questions regarding this page
1063 AddHead
1065 Use this tag like the PageTop header, but its contents will be added
1066 between </TITLE> and </HEAD>.
1067 Example:
1069 AddHead[myrouter]: <link rev="made" href="mailto:mrtg@blabla.edu">
1071 BodyTag
1073 BodyTag lets you supply your very own <body ...> tag for the generated
1074 webpages.
1075 Example:
1077 BodyTag[myrouter]: <BODY LEFTMARGIN="1" TOPMARGIN="1"
1079 BACKGROUND="/stats/images/bg.neo2.gif">
1080 AbsMax
1082 If you are monitoring a link which can handle more traffic than the
1083 MaxBytes value. Eg, a line which uses compression or some frame relay
1084 link, you can use the AbsMax keyword to give the absolute maximum value
1085 ever to be reached. We need to know this in order to sort out
1086 unrealistic values returned by the routers. If you do not set AbsMax,
1087 rateup will ignore values higher than MaxBytes.
1088 Example:
1090 AbsMax[myrouter]: 2500000
1092 Unscaled
1094 By default each graph is scaled vertically to make the actual data
1095 visible even when it is much lower than MaxBytes. With the Unscaled
1096 variable you can suppress this. It's argument is a string, containing
1097 one letter for each graph you don't want to be scaled: d=day w=week
1098 m=month y=year. There is also a special case to unset the variable
1099 completely: n=none. This could be useful in the event you need to
1100 override a global configuration. In the example scaling for the yearly
1101 and the monthly graph are suppressed.
1102 Example:
1104 Unscaled[myrouter]: ym
1106 WithPeak
1108 By default the graphs only contain the average values of the monitored
1109 variables - normally the transfer rates for incoming and outgoing
1110 traffic. The following option instructs mrtg to display the peak 5
1111 minute values in the [w]eekly, [m]onthly and [y]early graph. In the
1112 example we define the monthly and the yearly graph to contain peak as
1113 well as average values.
1114 Examples:
1116 WithPeak[myrouter]: ym
1118 Suppress
1120 By default mrtg produces 4 graphs. With this option you can suppress
1121 the generation of selected graphs. The option value syntax is
1122 analogous to the above two options. In this example we suppress the
1123 yearly graph as it is quite empty in the beginning.
1124 Example:
1126 Suppress[myrouter]: y
1128 Extension
1130 By default, mrtg creates .html files. Use this option to tell mrtg to
1131 use a different extension. For example you could set the extension to
1132 php3, then you will be able to enclose PHP tags into the output (useful
1133 for getting a router name out of a database).
1134 Example:
1136 Extension[myrouter]: phtml
1138 Directory
1140 By default, mrtg puts all the files that it generates for each target
1141 (the GIFs, the HTML page, the log file, etc.) in WorkDir.
1142 If the Directory option is specified, the files are instead put into a
1144 directory under WorkDir or Log-, Image- and HtmlDir). (For example the
1145 Directory option below would cause all the files for a target myrouter
1146 to be put into directory /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg/myrouter/ .)
1147 The directory must already exist; mrtg will not create it.
1149 Example:
1151 WorkDir: /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg
1153 Directory[myrouter]: myrouter
1154 NOTE: the Directory option must always be 'relative' or bad things will
1156 happen.
1157 Clonedirectory
1159 If the Directory option is specified, the Clonedirectory option will
1160 copy all the contents of Directory to the Clonedirectory.
1161 Example:
1163 WorkDir: /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg
1165 Directory[myrouter]: myrouter
1166 Clonedirectory[myrouter]: myclonedirectory
1167 Optionally the target name can be changed in the cloning process.
1169 Example:
1171 WorkDir: /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg
1173 Directory[myrouter]: myrouter
1174 Clonedirectory[myrouter]: myclonedirectory mynewtarget
1175 NOTE1: The clone directory must already exist; mrtg will not create it.
1177 NOTE2: The Clonedirectory option must also always be 'relative' or bad
1179 things will happen.
1180 NOTE3: This requires the File::Copy module
1182 XSize and YSize
1184 By default mrtgs graphs are 100 by 400 pixels wide (plus some more for
1185 the labels. In the example we get almost square graphs ...
1186 Note: XSize must be between 20 and 600; YSize must be larger than 20
1188 Example:
1190 XSize[myrouter]: 300
1192 YSize[myrouter]: 300
1193 XZoom and YZoom
1195 If you want your graphs to have larger pixels, you can "Zoom" them.
1196 Example:
1198 XZoom[myrouter]: 2.0
1200 YZoom[myrouter]: 2.0
1201 XScale and YScale
1203 If you want your graphs to be actually scaled use XScale and YScale.
1204 (Beware: while this works, the results look ugly (to be frank) so if
1205 someone wants to fix this: patches are welcome.
1206 Example:
1208 XScale[myrouter]: 1.5
1210 YScale[myrouter]: 1.5
1211 YTics and YTicsFactor
1213 If you want to show more than 4 lines per graph, use YTics. If you
1214 want to scale the value used for the YLegend of these tics, use
1215 YTicsFactor. The default value for YTics is 4 and the default value
1216 for YTicsFactor is 1.0 .
1217 Example:
1219 Suppose you get values ranging from 0 to 700. You want to plot 7 lines
1221 and want to show 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 instead of 0, 100, 200, 300,
1222 400, 500, 600, 700. You should write then:
1223 YTics[myrouter]: 7
1225 YTicsFactor[myrouter]: 0.01
1226 Factor
1228 If you want to multiply all numbers shown below the graph with a
1229 constant factor, use this directive to define it ..
1230 Example:
1232 Factor[as400]: 4096
1234 Step
1236 Change the default step from 5 * 60 seconds to something else (I have
1237 not tested this much ...)
1238 Example:
1240 Step[myrouter]: 60
1242 PNGTitle
1244 When using rateup for graph generation, this will print the given title
1245 in the graph it generates.
1246 Example:
1248 PNGTitle[myrouter]: WAN Link UK-US
1250 Options
1252 The Options Keyword allows you to set some boolean switches:
1253 growright
1255 The graph grows to the left by default. This option flips the
1256 direction of growth causing the current time to be at the right
1257 edge of the graph and the history values to the left of it.
1258 bits
1260 All the monitored variable values are multiplied by 8 (i.e. shown
1261 in bits instead of bytes) ... looks much more impressive :-) It
1262 also affects the 'factory default' labeling and units for the given
1263 target.
1264 perminute
1266 All the monitored variable values are multiplied by 60 (i.e. shown
1267 in units per minute instead of units per second) in case of small
1268 values more accurate graphs are displayed. It also affects the
1269 'factory default' labeling and units for the given target.
1270 perhour
1272 All the monitored variable values are multiplied by 3600 (i.e.
1273 shown in units per hour instead of units per second) in case of
1274 small values more accurate graphs are displayed. It also affects
1275 the 'factory default' labeling and units for the given target.
1276 noinfo
1278 Suppress the information about uptime and device name in the
1279 generated webpage.
1280 nopercent
1282 Don't print usage percentages.
1283 transparent
1285 Make the background of the generated gifs transparent.
1286 integer
1288 Print summary lines below graph as integers without commas.
1289 dorelpercent
1291 The relative percentage of IN-traffic to OUT-traffic is calculated
1292 and displayed in the graph as an additional line. Note: Only a
1293 fixed scale is available (from 0 to 100%). Therefore if IN-traffic
1294 is greater than OUT-traffic then 100% is displayed. If you suspect
1295 that your IN-traffic is not always less than or equal to your OUT-
1296 traffic you are urged to not use this options. Note: If you use
1297 this option in combination with the Colours options, a fifth
1298 colour-name colour-value pair is required there.
1299 avgpeak
1301 There are some ISPs who use the average Peak values to bill their
1302 customers. Using this option MRTG displays these values for each
1303 graph. The value is built by averaging the max 5 minute traffic
1304 average for each 'step' shown in the graph. For the Weekly graph
1305 this means that it builds the average of all 2 hour intervals 5
1306 minute peak values. (Confused? Thought so!)
1307 gauge
1309 Treat the values gathered from target as 'current status'
1310 measurements and not as ever incrementing counters. This would be
1311 useful to monitor things like disk space, processor load,
1312 temperature, and the like ...
1313 In the absence of 'gauge' or 'absolute' options, MRTG treats
1315 variables as a counters and calculates the difference between the
1316 current and the previous value and divides that by the elapsed time
1317 between the last two readings to get the value to be plotted.
1318 absolute
1320 This is for counter type data sources which reset their value when
1321 they are read. This means that rateup does not have to build the
1322 difference between the current and the last value read from the
1323 data source. The value obtained is still divided by the elapsed
1324 time between the current and the last reading, which makes it
1325 different from the 'gauge' option. Useful for external data
1326 gatherers.
1327 derive
1329 If you are using rrdtool as logger/grapher you can use a third type
1330 of data source. Derive is like counter, except that it is not
1331 required to go UP all the time. It is useful for situations where
1332 the change of some value should be graphed.
1333 unknaszero
1335 Log unknown data as zero instead of the default behaviour of
1336 repeating the last value seen. Be careful with this, often a flat
1337 line in the graph is much more obvious than a line at 0.
1338 withzeroes
1340 Normally we ignore all values which are zero when calculating the
1341 average transfer rate on a line. If this is not desirable use this
1342 option.
1343 noborder
1345 If you are using rateup to log data, MRTG will create the graph
1346 images. Normally these images have a shaded border around them. If
1347 you do not want the border to be drawn, enable this option. This
1348 option has no effect if you are not using rateup.
1349 noarrow
1351 As with the option above, this effects rateup graph generation
1352 only. Normally rateup will generate graphs with a small arrow
1353 showing the direction of the data. If you do not want this arrow to
1354 be drawn, enable this option. This option has no effect if you are
1355 not using rateup.
1356 noi When using rateup for graph generation, you can use this option to
1358 stop rateup drawing a graph for the 'I' or first variable. This
1359 also removes entries for this variable in the HTML page MRTG
1360 generates, and will remove the peaks for this variable if they are
1361 enabled. This allows you to hide this data, or can be very useful
1362 if you are only graphing one line of data rather than two. This
1363 option is not destructive - any data received for the the variable
1364 continued to be logged, it just isn't shown.
1365 noo Same as above, except relating to the 'O' or second variable.
1367 nobanner
1369 When using rateup for graph generation, this option disables MRTG
1370 adding the MRTG banner to the HTML pages it generates.
1371 nolegend
1373 When using rateup for graph generation, this option will stop MRTG
1374 from creating a legend at the bottom of the HTML pages it
1375 generates.
1376 printrouter
1378 When using rateup for graph generation, this option will print the
1379 router name in the graph it generates. This option is overridden
1380 by the value of PNGTitle if one is given
1381 pngdate
1383 When using rateup for graph generation, this option will print a
1384 timestamp in the graph it generates, including a timezone if one is
1385 specified by the 'Timezone' parameter.
1386 logscale
1388 The logscale option causes rateup to display the data with the Y
1389 axis scaled logarithmically. Doing so allows the normal traffic to
1390 occupy the majority of the vertical range, while still showing any
1391 spikes at their full height.
1392 logscale displays all the available data and will always produce
1394 well-behaved graphs. People often consider a logarithmically
1395 scaled graph counterintuitive, however, and thus hard to interpret.
1396 expscale
1398 The expscale option causes rateup to display the data with the Y
1399 axis scaled exponentially. Doing so emphasizes small changes at
1400 the top of the scale; this can be useful when graphing values that
1401 fluctuate by a small amount near the top of the scale, such as line
1402 voltage.
1403 expscale is essentially the inverse of logscale.
1405 secondmean
1407 The secondmean option sets the maximum value on the graph to the
1408 mean of the data greater than the mean of all data. This produces
1409 a graph that focuses more on the typical data, while clipping large
1410 peaks.
1411 Using secondmean will give a more intutive linearly scaled graph,
1413 but can result in a uselessly high or low scale in some rare
1414 situations (specifically, when the data includes a large portion of
1415 values far from the actual mean)
1416 If a target includes both logscale and secondmean in the options,
1418 the secondmean takes precedence.
1419 Example:
1421 Options[myrouter]: growright, bits
1423 kilo
1425 Use this option to change the multiplier value for building prefixes.
1426 Defaultvalue is 1000. This tag is for the special case that 1kB =
1427 1024B, 1MB = 1024kB and so far.
1428 Example:
1430 kilo[myrouter]: 1024
1432 kMG
1434 Change the default multiplier prefixes (,k,M,G,T,P). In the tag
1435 ShortLegend define only the basic units. Format: Comma separated list
1436 of prefixed. Two consecutive commas or a comma at start or end of the
1437 line gives no prefix on this item. If you do not want prefixes, just
1438 put two consecutive commas. If you want to skip a magnitude select '-'
1439 as value.
1440 Example: velocity in nm/s (nanometers per second) displayed in nm/h.
1442 ShortLegend[myrouter]: m/h
1444 kMG[myrouter]: n,u,m,,k,M,G,T,P
1445 options[myrouter]: perhour
1446 Colours
1448 The Colours tag allows you to override the default colour scheme.
1449 Note: All 4 of the required colours must be specified here. The colour
1450 name ('Colourx' below) is the legend name displayed, while the RGB
1451 value is the real colour used for the display, both on the graph and in
1452 the html doc.
1453 Format is: Col1#RRGGBB,Col2#RRGGBB,Col3#RRGGBB,Col4#RRGGBB
1455 Important: If you use the dorelpercent options tag a fifth colour name
1457 colour value pair is required:
1458 Col1#RRGGBB,Col2#RRGGBB,Col3#RRGGBB,Col4#RRGGBB,Col5#RRGGBB
1459 Colour1
1461 First variable (normally Input) on default graph.
1462 Colour2
1464 Second variable (normally Output) on default graph.
1465 Colour3
1467 Max first variable (input).
1468 Colour4
1470 Max second variable (output).
1471 RRGGBB
1473 2 digit hex values for Red, Green and Blue.
1474 Example:
1476 Colours[myrouter]: GREEN#00eb0c,BLUE#1000ff,DARK GREEN#006600,VIOLET#ff00ff
1478 Background
1480 With the Background tag you can configure the background colour of the
1481 generated HTML page.
1482 Example:
1484 Background[myrouter]: #a0a0a0a
1486 YLegend, ShortLegend, Legend[1234]
1488 The following keywords allow you to override the text displayed for the
1489 various legends of the graph and in the HTML document:
1490 YLegend
1492 The Y-axis label of the graph. Note that a text which is too long
1493 to fit in the graph will be silently ignored.
1494 ShortLegend
1496 The units string (default 'b/s') used for Max, Average and Current
1497 Legend[1234IO]
1499 The strings for the colour legend.
1500 Example:
1502 YLegend[myrouter]: Bits per Second
1504 ShortLegend[myrouter]: b/s
1505 Legend1[myrouter]: Incoming Traffic in Bits per Second
1506 Legend2[myrouter]: Outgoing Traffic in Bits per Second
1507 Legend3[myrouter]: Maximal 5 Minute Incoming Traffic
1508 Legend4[myrouter]: Maximal 5 Minute Outgoing Traffic
1509 LegendI[myrouter]: In:
1510 LegendO[myrouter]: Out:
1511 Note, if LegendI or LegendO are set to an empty string with
1513 LegendO[myrouter]:
1515 The corresponding line below the graph will not be printed at all.
1517 Timezone
1519 If you live in an international world, you might want to generate the
1520 graphs in different timezones. This is set in the TZ variable. Under
1521 certain operating systems like Solaris, this will provoke the localtime
1522 call to give the time in the selected timezone.
1523 Example:
1525 Timezone[myrouter]: Japan
1527 The Timezone is the standard timezone of your system, ie Japan,
1529 Hongkong, GMT, GMT+1 etc etc.
1530 Weekformat
1532 By default, mrtg (actually rateup) uses the strftime(3) '%V' option to
1533 format week numbers in the monthly graphs. The exact semantics of this
1534 format option vary between systems. If you find that the week numbers
1535 are wrong, and your system's strftime(3) routine supports it, you can
1536 try another format option. The POSIX '%V' option correspond to the
1537 widely used ISO 8601 week numbering standard. The week format
1538 character should be specified as a single letter; either W, V, or U.
1539 The UNIX version of rateup uses the libc implementation of strftime.
1541 On Windows, the native strftime implementation does not know about %V.
1542 So there we use a different implementation of strftime that does
1543 support %V.
1544 Example:
1546 Weekformat[myrouter]: W
1548 RRDRowCount
1550 This affects the creation of new rrd files. By default rrds are created
1551 to hold about 1 day's worth of high resolution data. (plus 1 week of 30
1552 minute data, 2 months of 2 hour data and 2 years of 1 day data). With
1553 this Keyword you can change the number of base interval entries
1554 configured for new rrds as they get created. Note that you must take
1555 the interval time into account.
1556 Example:
1558 RRDRowCount[myrouter]: 1600
1560 RRDRowCount30m
1562 As per RRDRowCount, but for the RRA's -typically- used for 30 minute
1563 data. Even so, you must still take the base interval into account.
1564 Leaving out this keyword will force the old default of 800 rows.
1565 Example:
1567 RRDRowCount30m[myrouter]: 800
1569 RRDRowCount2h
1571 As per RRDRowCount, but for the RRA's -typically- used for 2 hour data.
1572 Even so, you must still take the base interval into account. Leaving
1573 out this keyword will force the old default of 800 rows.
1574 Example:
1576 RRDRowCount2h[myrouter]: 400
1578 RRDRowCount1d
1580 As per RRDRowCount, but for the RRA's -typically- used for 1 day data.
1581 Even so, you must still take the base interval into account. Leaving
1582 out this keyword will force the old default of 800 rows.
1583 Example:
1585 RRDRowCount1d[myrouter]: 200
1587 RRDHWRRAs
1589 Normally the RRDs created by MRTG will just contain the information
1590 gathered directly from the respective target. With this option you can
1591 tap into rrdtools advanced aberrant behaviour detection module based on
1592 Holt-Winters forecasting. The RRDHWRRAs property specifies the Holt-
1593 Winters RRAs as described in the rrdcreate manual page.
1594 Note, this setting will only affect newly created RRDs (targets).
1596 Example:
1598 RRDHWRRAs[myrouter]: RRA:HWPREDICT:1440:0.1:0.0035:288
1600 TimeStrPos
1602 This defines placement of the timestamp string on the image. Possible
1603 values are RU, LU, RL, LL (which stand, respectively, for RightUpper,
1604 LeftUpper, RightLower and LeftLower corner) and NO (for no timestamp).
1605 By default, no timestamp is placed on the image.
1606 Example:
1608 TimeStrPos[myrouter]: RU
1610 TimeStrFmt
1612 Using this keyword you may specify format of the timestamp to be placed
1613 on the image (if enabled by the TimeStrPos keyword). Specified string
1614 will be used by the strftime() function - see strftime(3) documentation
1615 for conversion specifiers available on your system. Default format:
1616 %Y-%m-%d %H:%M
1617 Example:
1619 TimeStrFmt[myrouter]: %H:%M:%S
1621
1623 Through its threshold checking functionality mrtg is able to detect
1624 threshold problems for the various targets and can call external
1625 scripts to handle those problems (e.g. send email or a page to an
1626 administrator).
1627 Threshold checking is configured through the following parameters:
1629 ThreshDir (GLOBAL)
1631 By defining ThreshDir to point to a writable directory, MRTG will only
1632 alert you when a threshold boundery has been crossed.
1633 Example:
1635 ThreshDir: /var/mrtg/thresh
1637 ThreshHyst (GLOBAL)
1639 If a threshold is broken, and you have a threshdir defined, then mrtg
1640 will send mail once the threshold becomes 'unborken' to avoid
1641 situations where broken and un-broken messages get sent in close
1642 succession, we only send an unbroken message once the curent value is
1643 0.1 (10%) away from the threshold. using the ThreshHyst config
1644 variable you can customize this value.
1645 Example for 5%:
1647 ThreshHyst: 0.05
1649 ThreshMailServer (GLOBAL)
1651 Adderss of an SMTP server which is going to accept mail about
1652 Thresholds being broken and unbroken.
1653 ThreshMailSender (GLOBAL)
1655 What is the sender address of the threshold mail.
1656 Example:
1658 ThreshMailSender: mrtg@example.com
1660 ThreshMailAddress (PER TARGET)
1662 Email address for Threshold related Mails. This will only work if a
1663 mailserver has been configured.
1664 Example:
1666 ThreshMailAddress[_]: admin@example.com
1668 ThreshMailAddress[router]:
1669 This would bring threshold releaed mail to all but the target called
1671 'router'.
1672 ThreshMinI (PER TARGET)
1674 This is the minimum acceptable value for the Input (first) parameter.
1675 If the parameter falls below this value, the program specified in
1676 ThreshProgI will be run and a mail will be sent to the
1677 ThreshMailAddress if specified. If the value ends in '%' then the
1678 threshold is defined relative to MaxBytes.
1679 ThreshMaxI (PER TARGET)
1681 Works the same as TheshMinI but it acts when the value is higher than
1682 ThreshMaxI.
1683 ThreshDesc (PER TARGET)
1685 Its value will be assigned to the environment variable THRESH_DESC
1686 before any of the programs mentioned below are called. The programs can
1687 use the value of this variable to produce more user-friendly output.
1688 ThreshProgI (PER TARGET)
1690 This defines a program to be run if ThreshMinI or ThreshMaxI is broken.
1691 MRTG passes 3 arguments: the $router variable, the threshold value
1692 broken, and the current parameter value.
1693 ThreshProgOKI (PER TARGET)
1695 This defines a program to be run if the parameter is currently OK
1696 (based on ThreshMinI and ThreshMaxI), but wasn't OK on the previous
1697 running -- based on the files found in ThreshDir. MRTG passes 3
1698 arguments: the $router variable the unbroken threshold value, and the
1699 current parameter value.
1700 ThreshMinO, ThreshMaxO, ThreshProgO, and ThreshProgOKO
1702 These work the same as their *I counterparts, except on the Output
1703 (second) parameter.
1704 SetEnv
1706 When calling threshold scripts from within your cfg file you might want
1707 to pass some data on to the script. This can be done with the SetEnv
1708 configuration option which takes a series of environment variable
1709 assignments. Note that the quotes are mandatory. This does not work for
1710 external scripts. It is not possible to set environment variables per
1711 target.
1712 Example:
1714 SetEnv[myrouter]: EMAIL="contact_email@someplace.net"
1716 HOST="www.some_server.net"
1717 HW Failure Bassed Threshold Checking
1719 When using rrd based logging with HW RRAs defined. You can use the
1720 confidence bounds violations stored in the FAILURES RRA for threshold
1721 based alerts.
1722 There the all target specific threshold variables have a Hold-Winters
1724 counterpart:
1725 ThreshMailAddress -> HWThreshMailAddress
1727 ThreshMinI -> HWThreshMinI
1728 ...
1729 The global variables for threshold checking are shared except for the
1731 ThreshHyst -> HWThreshHyst
1733 And HWThreshDesc sets the HWTHRESH_DESC variable.
1735
1737 Pre- and Postfix
1738 To save yourself some typing you can define a target called '^'. The
1739 text of every Keyword you define for this target will be PREPENDED to
1740 the corresponding Keyword of all the targets defined below this line.
1741 The same goes for a Target called '$' but its text will be APPENDED.
1742 Note that a space is inserted between the prepended text and the
1744 Keyword value, as well as between the Keyword value and the appended
1745 text. This works well for text-valued Keywords, but is not very useful
1746 for other Keywords. See the "default" target description below.
1747 The example will make mrtg use a common header and a common contact
1749 person in all the pages generated from targets defined later in this
1750 file.
1751 Example:
1753 PageTop[^]: <H1>NoWhere Unis Traffic Stats</H1><HR>
1755 PageTop[$]: Contact Peter Norton if you have any questions<HR>
1756 To remove the prepend/append value, specify an empty value, e.g.:
1758 PageTop[^]:
1760 PageTop[$]:
1761 NoSpaceChar
1763 With PREPEND and APPEND (see below) there is normally a space inserted
1764 between the local value and the PRE- or APPEND value. Sometimes this is
1765 not desirable. You can use the global option NoSpaceChar to define a
1766 character which can be mentioned at the end of a $ or ^ definition in
1767 order to supress the space.
1768 Example:
1770 NoSpaceChar: ~
1772 Target[^]: 1.3.6.1.4.1.482.50.2.4.20.0&1.3.6.1.4.1.482.50.2.4.21.0:get@~
1773 Target[a]: a.tolna.net
1774 Target[b]: b.tolna.net
1775 Target[c]: c.tolna.net
1776 Target[d]: d.tolna.net
1777 Default Values
1779 The target name '_' specifies a default value for that Keyword. In the
1780 absence of explicit Keyword value, the prepended and the appended
1781 keyword value, the default value will be used.
1782 Example:
1784 YSize[_]: 150
1786 Options[_]: growright,bits,nopercent
1787 WithPeak[_]: ymw
1788 Suppress[_]: y
1789 MaxBytes[_]: 1250000
1790 To remove the default value and return to the 'factory default',
1792 specify an empty value, e.g.:
1793 YLegend[_]:
1795 There can be several instances of setting the default/prepend/append
1797 values in the configuration file. The later setting replaces the
1798 previous one for the rest of the configuration file. The
1799 default/prepend/append values used for a given keyword/target pair are
1800 the ones that were in effect at the point in the configuration file
1801 where the target was mentioned for the first time.
1802 Example:
1804 MaxBytes[_]: 1250000
1806 Target[myrouter.somplace.edu.2]: 2:public@myrouter.somplace.edu
1807 MaxBytes[_]: 8000
1808 Title[myrouter.somplace.edu.2]: Traffic Analysis for myrouter.somplace.edu IF 2
1809 The default MaxBytes for the target myrouter.someplace.edu.2 in the
1811 above example will be 1250000, which was in effect where the target
1812 name myrouter.someplace.edu.2 first appeared in the config file.
1813
1815 --user username and --group groupname
1816 Run as the given user and/or group. (Unix Only)
1817 --lock-file filename
1819 Use an alternate lock-file (the default is to use the
1820 configuration-file appended with "_l").
1821 --confcache-file filename
1823 Use an alternate confcache-file (the default is to use the
1824 configuration-file appended with ".ok")
1825 --logging filename|eventlog
1827 If this is set to writable filename, all output from mrtg
1828 (warnings, debug messages, errors) will go to filename. If you are
1829 running on Win32 you can specify eventlog instead of a filename
1830 which will send all error to the windows event log.
1831 NOTE: Note, there is no Message DLL for mrtg included with mrtg.
1833 This has the side effect that the windows event logger will display
1834 a nice message with every entry in the event log, complaing about
1835 the fact that mrtg has no message dll. If you go to the mrtg
1836 contrib download area (on the website) you will find the
1837 mrtg-message-dll.zip which does contain such a thing.
1838 --daemon
1840 Put MRTG into the background, running as a daemon. This works the
1841 same way as the config file option, but the switch is required for
1842 proper FHS operation (because /var/run is writable only by root)
1843 --fhs
1845 Configure all mrtg paths to conform to the FHS specification;
1846 http://www.pathname.com/fhs/
1847 --check
1849 Only check the cfg file for errors. Do not do anything.
1850 --pid-file=s
1852 Define the name and path of the pid file for mrtg running as a
1853 daemon
1854 --debug=s
1856 Enable debug options. The argument of the debug option is a comma
1857 separated list of debug values:
1858 cfg - watch the config file reading
1860 dir - directory mangeling
1861 base - basic program flow
1862 tarp - target parser
1863 snpo - snmp polling
1864 coca - confcache operations
1865 fork - forking view
1866 time - some timing info
1867 log - logging of data via rateup or rrdtool
1868 eval - print eval strings before evaluting them
1869 prof - add hires timing info the rrd calls
1870 Example:
1872 --debug="cfg,snpo"
1874
1876 An exit code of 0 indicates that all targets were successful.
1877 Generally speaking, most codes greater than 0 indicate that there was
1878 an unrecoverable problem. One exception to this is code 91, which
1879 indicates that at least one of the targets was successful. A partial
1880 listing of the codes follows:
1881 0: All targets sucessful
1883 2: Config error (can't read, fatal error in config, etc)
1885 17: Another MRTG process is processing config
1886 91: At least one target sucessful
1888 92: No targets were sucessful
1889
1891 Minimal mrtg.cfg
1892 WorkDir: /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg
1893 Target[r1]: 2:public@myrouter.somplace.edu
1894 MaxBytes[r1]: 8000
1895 Title[r1]: Traffic Analysis ISDN
1896 PageTop[r1]: <H1>Stats for our ISDN Line</H1>
1897 Cfg for several Routers.
1899 WorkDir: /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg
1900 Title[^]: Traffic Analysis for
1901 PageTop[^]: <H1>Stats for
1902 PageTop[$]: Contact The Chief if you notice anybody<HR>
1903 MaxBytes[_]: 8000
1904 Options[_]: growright
1905 Title[isdn]: our ISDN Line
1907 PageTop[isdn]: our ISDN Line</H1>
1908 Target[isdn]: 2:public@router.somplace.edu
1909 Title[backb]: our Campus Backbone
1911 PageTop[backb]: our Campus Backbone</H1>
1912 Target[backb]: 1:public@router.somplace.edu
1913 MaxBytes[backb]: 1250000
1914 # the following line removes the default prepend value
1916 # defined above
1917 Title[^]:
1919 Title[isdn2]: Traffic for the Backup ISDN Line
1921 PageTop[isdn2]: our ISDN Line</H1>
1922 Target[isdn2]: 3:public@router.somplace.edu
1923
1925 Tobias Oetiker <tobi@oetiker.ch> and many contributors
19262.16.4 2010-05-17 MRTG-REFERENCE(1)