1MRTG-REFERENCE(1) mrtg MRTG-REFERENCE(1)
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6 mrtg-reference - MRTG 2.17.10 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. The current working
40 directory will be searched first.
41 If the included filename contains an asterisk, then this is taken
43 as a wildcard for zero or more characters, and all matching files
44 are included. Thus, you can use this statement to include all
45 files in a specified subdirectory.
46 Example:
48 Include: servers/*.cfg
50 In this case, you should be very careful that your wildcard pattern
52 does not find a match relative to the current working directory if
53 you mean it to be relative to the main config file directory, since
54 the working directory is checked for a match first (as with a
55 normal Include directive). Therefore, use of something like '*/*'
56 is discouraged.
57
59 WorkDir
60 WorkDir specifies where the logfiles and the webpages should be
61 created.
62 Example:
64 WorkDir: /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg
66
68 HtmlDir
69 HtmlDir specifies the directory where the html (or shtml, but we'll get
70 on to those later) lives.
71 NOTE: Workdir overrides the settings for htmldir, imagedir and logdir.
73 Example:
75 Htmldir: /www/mrtg/
77 ImageDir
79 ImageDir specifies the directory where the images live. They should be
80 under the html directory.
81 Example:
83 Imagedir: /www/mrtg/images
85 LogDir
87 LogDir specifies the directory where the logs are stored. This need
88 not be under htmldir directive.
89 Example:
91 Logdir: /www/mrtg/logs
93 Forks (UNIX only)
95 With system that supports fork (UNIX for example), mrtg can fork itself
96 into multiple instances while it is acquiring data via snmp.
97 For situations with high latency or a great number of devices this will
99 speed things up considerably. It will not make things faster, though,
100 if you query a single switch sitting next door.
101 As far as I know NT can not fork so this option is not available on NT.
103 Example:
105 Forks: 4
107 EnableIPv6
109 When set to yes, IPv6 support is enabled if the required libraries are
110 present (see the mrtg-ipv6 manpage). When IPv6 is enabled, mrtg can
111 talk to routers using SNMP over IPv6 and targets may be specified by
112 their numeric IPv6 addresses as well as by hostname or IPv4 address.
113 If IPv6 is enabled and the target is a hostname, mrtg will try to
115 resolve the hostname to an IPv6 address and, if this fails, to an IPv4
116 address. Note that mrtg will only use IPv4 if you specify an IPv4
117 address or a hostname with no corresponding IPv6 address; it will not
118 fall back to IPv4 if it simply fails to communicate with the target
119 using IPv6. This is by design.
120 Note that many routers do not currently support SNMP over IPv6. Use the
122 IPv4Only per target option for these routers.
123 IPv6 is disabled by default.
125 Example:
127 EnableIPv6: Yes
129 EnableSnmpV3
131 When set to yes, uses the Net::SNMP module instead of the SNMP_SESSION
132 module for generating snmp queries. This allows the use of SNMPv3 if
133 other snmpv3 parameters are set.
134 SNMPv3 is disabled by default.
136 Example:
138 EnableSnmpV3: yes
140 Refresh
142 How many seconds apart should the browser (Netscape) be instructed to
143 reload the page? If this is not defined, the default is 300 seconds (5
144 minutes).
145 Example:
147 Refresh: 600
149 Interval
151 How often do you call mrtg? The default is 5 minutes. If you call it
152 less often, you should specify it here. This does two things:
153 • The generated HTML page contains the right information about the
155 calling interval ...
156 • A META header in the generated HTML page will instruct caches about
158 the time-to-live of this page .....
159 In this example, we tell mrtg that we will be calling it every 10
161 minutes. If you are calling mrtg every 5 minutes, you can leave this
162 line commented out.
163 Example:
165 Interval: 10
167 Note that unless you are using rrdtool you can not set Interval to less
169 than 5 minutes. If you are using rrdtool you can set interval in the
170 format
171 Interval: MM[:SS]
173 Down to 1 second. Note though, setting the Interval for an rrdtool/mrtg
175 setup will influence the initial creation of the database. If you
176 change the interval later, all existing databases will remain at the
177 resolution they were initially created with. Also note that you must
178 make sure that your mrtg-rrd Web-frontend can deal with this kind of
179 Interval setting.
180 MaxAge
182 MRTG relies heavily on the real time clock of your computer. If the
183 time is set to a wrong value, especially if it is advanced far into the
184 future, this will cause mrtg to expire lots of supposedly old data from
185 the log files.
186 To prevent this, you can add a 'reasonability' check by specifying a
188 maximum age for log files. If a file seems to be older, mrtg will not
189 touch it but complain instead, giving you a chance to investigate the
190 cause.
191 Example:
193 MaxAge: 7200
195 The example above will make mrtg refuse to update log files older than
197 2 hours (7200 seconds).
198 WriteExpires
200 With this switch mrtg will generate .meta files for CERN and Apache
201 servers which contain Expiration tags for the html and gif files. The
202 *.meta files will be created in the same directory as the other files,
203 so you will have to set "MetaDir ." and "MetaFiles on" in your
204 apache.conf or .htaccess file for this to work
205 NOTE: If you are running Apache-1.2 or later, you can use the
207 mod_expire to achieve the same effect ... see the file htaccess.txt
208 Example:
210 WriteExpires: Yes
212 NoMib2
214 Normally we ask the SNMP device for 'sysUptime' and 'sysName'
215 properties. Some do not have these. If you want to avoid getting
216 complaints from mrtg about these missing properties, specify the nomib2
217 option.
218 An example of agents which do not implement base mib2 attributes are
220 Computer Associates - Unicenter TNG Agents. CA relies on using the
221 base OS SNMP agent in addition to its own agents to supplement the
222 management of a system.
223 Example:
225 NoMib2: Yes
227 SingleRequest
229 Some SNMP implementations can not deal with requests asking for
230 multiple snmp variables in one go. Set this in your cfg file to force
231 mrtg to only ask for one variable per request.
232 Examples
234 SingleRequest: Yes
236 SnmpOptions
238 Apart from the per target timeout options, you can also configure the
239 behaviour of the snmpget process on a more profound level. SnmpOptions
240 accepts a hash of options. The following options are currently
241 supported:
242 timeout => $default_timeout,
244 retries => $default_retries,
245 backoff => $default_backoff,
246 default_max_repetitions => $max_repetitions,
247 use_16bit_request_ids => 1,
248 lenient_source_port_matching => 0,
249 lenient_source_address_matching => 1
250 The values behind the options indicate the current default value. Note
252 that these settings OVERRIDE the per target timeout settings.
253 A per-target SnmpOptions[] keyword will override the global settings.
255 That keyword is primarily for SNMPv3.
256 The 16bit request ids are the only way to query the broken SNMP
258 implementation of SMC Barricade routers.
259 Example:
261 SnmpOptions: retries => 2, only_ip_address_matching => 0
263 Note that AS/400 snmp seems to be broken in a way which prevents mrtg
265 from working with it unless
266 SnmpOptions: lenient_source_port_matching => 1
268 is set.
270 IconDir
272 If you want to keep the mrtg icons in someplace other than the working
273 (or imagedir) directory, use the IconDir variable for defining the url
274 of the icons directory.
275 Example:
277 IconDir: /mrtgicons/
279 LoadMIBs
281 Load the MIB file(s) specified and make its OIDs available as symbolic
282 names. For better efficiency, a cache of MIBs is maintained in the
283 WorkDir.
284 Example:
286 LoadMIBs: /dept/net/mibs/netapp.mib,/usr/local/lib/ft100m.mib
288 Language
290 Switch output format to the selected Language (Check the translate
291 directory to see which languages are supported at the moment. In this
292 directory you can also find instructions on how to create new
293 translations).
294 Currently the following languages are supported:
296 big5 brazilian bulgarian catalan chinese croatian czech danish dutch
298 eucjp french galician gb gb2312 german greek hungarian icelandic
299 indonesia iso2022jp italian korean lithuanian malay norwegian polish
300 portuguese romanian russian russian1251 serbian slovak slovenian
301 spanish swedish turkish ukrainian
302 Example:
304 Language: danish
306 LogFormat
308 Setting LogFormat to 'rrdtool' in your mrtg.cfg file enables rrdtool
309 mode. In rrdtool mode, mrtg relies on rrdtool to do its logging. See
310 mrtg-rrd.
311 Example:
313 LogFormat: rrdtool
315 LibAdd
317 If you are using rrdtool mode and your rrdtool Perl module (RRDs.pm) is
318 not installed in a location where perl can find it on its own, you can
319 use LibAdd to supply an appropriate path.
320 Example:
322 LibAdd: /usr/local/rrdtool/lib/perl/
324 PathAdd
326 If the rrdtool executable can not be found in the normal "PATH", you
327 can use this keyword to add a suitable directory to your path.
328 Example:
330 PathAdd: /usr/local/rrdtool/bin/
332 RRDCached
334 If you are running RRDTool 1.4 or later with rrdcached, then you can
335 configure MRTG to take advantage of this for updates, either by using
336 the RRDCACHED_ADDRESS environment variable, or by setting the RRDCached
337 keyword in the configuration file. Note that, if both are set, the
338 configuration file keyword will take precedence.
339 Only UNIX domain sockets are fully supported prior to RRDTool v1.5, and
341 you should note that using RRDCached mode will disable all Threshold
342 checking normally done by MRTG. Appropriate warning messages will be
343 printed if necessary.
344 Examples:
346 RRDCached: unix:/var/tmp/rrdcached.sock
348 RRDCached: localhost:42217
350 RunAsDaemon
352 The RunAsDaemon keyword enables daemon mode operation. The purpose of
353 daemon mode is that MRTG is launched once and not repeatedly (as it is
354 with cron). This behavior saves computing resources as loading and
355 parsing of configuration files happens only once on startup, and if the
356 configuration file is modified.
357 Using daemon mode MRTG itself is responsible for timing the measurement
359 intervals. Therefore its important to set the Interval keyword to an
360 appropriate value.
361 Note that when using daemon mode MRTG should no longer be started from
363 cron as each new process runs forever. Instead MRTG should be started
364 from the command prompt or by a system startup script.
365 If you want mrtg to run under a particular user and group (it is not
367 recommended to run MRTG as root) then you can use the --user=user_name
368 and --group=group_name options on the mrtg commandline.
369 mrtg --user=mrtg_user --group=mrtg_group mrtg.cfg
371 Also note that in daemon mode restarting the process is required in
373 order to activate changes in the config file.
374 Under UNIX, the Daemon switch causes mrtg to fork into background after
376 checking its config file. On Windows NT the MRTG process will detach
377 from the console, but because the NT/2000 shell waits for its children
378 you have to use this special start sequence when you launch the
379 program:
380 start /b perl mrtg mrtg.cfg
382 You may have to add path information equal to what you add when you run
384 mrtg from the commandline.
385 Example
387 RunAsDaemon: Yes
389 Interval: 5
390 This makes MRTG run as a daemon beginning data collection every 5
392 minutes
393 If you are daemontools and still want to run mrtg as a daemon you can
395 additionally specify
396 NoDetach: Yes
398 this will make mrtg run but without detaching it from the terminal.
400 If the modification date on the configuration file changes during
402 operation, then MRTG will re-read the configuration on the next polling
403 cycle. Note that sub-files which are included from the main
404 configuration do not have their modification times monitored, only the
405 top-level file is so checked.
406 ConversionCode
408 Some devices may produce non-numeric values that would nevertheless be
409 useful to graph with MRTG if those values could be converted to
410 numbers. The ConversionCode keyword specifies the path to a file
411 containing Perl code to perform such conversions. The code in this file
412 must consist of one or more Perl subroutines. Each subroutine must
413 accept a single string argument and return a single numeric value. When
414 RRDtool is in use, a decimal value may be returned. When the name of
415 one of these subroutines is specified in a target definition (see
416 below), MRTG calls it twice for that target, once to convert the the
417 input value being monitored and a second time to convert the output
418 value. The subroutine must return an undefined value if the conversion
419 fails. In case of failure, a warning may be posted to the MRTG log file
420 using Perl's warn function. MRTG imports the subroutines into a
421 separate name space (package MRTGConversion), so the user need not
422 worry about pollution of MRTG's global name space. MRTG automatically
423 prepends this package declaration to the user-supplied code.
424 Example: Suppose a particular OID returns a character string whose
426 length is proportional to the value to be monitored. To convert this
427 string to a number that can be graphed by MRTG, create a file
428 arbitrarily named "MyConversions.pl" containing the following code:
429 # Return the length of the string argument
431 sub Length2Int {
432 my $value = shift;
433 return length( $value );
434 }
435 Then include the following global keyword in the MRTG configuration
437 file (assuming that the conversion code file is saved in the mrtg/bin
438 directory along with mrtg itself):
439 ConversionCode: MyConversions.pl
441 This will cause MRTG to include the definition of the subroutine
443 Length2Int in its execution environment. Length2Int can then be invoked
444 on any target by appending "|Length2Int" to the target definition as
445 follows:
446 Target[myrouter]: 1.3.6.1.4.1.999.1&1.3.6.1.4.1.999.1:public@mydevice|Length2Int
448 See "Extended Host Name Syntax" below for complete target definition
450 syntax information.
451 SendToGraphite
453 If you want to send a copy of the collected data into a Graphite
454 database in addition to storing it in the RRDfile, you can provide your
455 Graphite database name/ip and port number here.
456 This requires the Net::Graphite perl module which is available from
458 CPAN.
459 Examples:
461 # If your Graphite receiver is running on the same host as the MRTG daemon and using the default port
463 SendToGraphite: 127.0.0.1,2003
464 # If your Graphite receiver is running on 192.168.100.50 port 5000
466 SendToGraphite: 192.168.100.50,5000
467 # If your Graphite receiver is running on graphite.mydomain.com port 2003
469 SendToGraphite: graphite.mydomain.com,2003
470 Graphite's namespace has a number of restrictions on what characters
472 are allowed. The SendToGraphite functionality makes an attempt to
473 convert the MRTG target name and, if specified, the Legendi and Legendo
474 values to Graphite namespace friendly values. Specifically, the
475 following conversion rules apply:
476 • Underscores in the target_name are converted to periods which are
478 Graphite namespace delimiters.
479 • Comma characters are not allowed so they are removed.
481 • The string "m2g" for MRTG to Graphite is prepended onto the
483 Graphite namespace variable.
484 Example MRTG target to Graphite namespace conversion:
486 # Our MRTG target name from mrtg.cfg is as follows
488 Target[switch_GigabitEthernet0_5]: \GigabitEthernet0/5:public1@switch:::::2
489 After the conversion you will end up with these Graphite namespace
491 values
492 m2g.switch.gigabitethernet0.5.in
494 m2g.switch.gigabitethernet0.5.out
495 Next is a more complicated example because Legendi and Legendo are in
497 use to denote min and max voltage values that pertain to some APC UPS
498 SNMP OIDs
499 # Target, Legendi, and Legendo are specified in mrtg.cfg as follows
501 Target[apc_minmaxline]: 1.3.6.1.4.1.318.1.1.1.3.2.3.0&1.3.6.1.4.1.318.1.1.1.3.2.2.0:public@apc:
502 LegendI[apc_minmaxline]: upsAdvInputMinLineVoltage
503 LegendO[apc_minmaxline]: upsAdvInputMaxLineVoltage
504 After the conversion you will end up with these Graphite namespace
506 values
507 m2g.apc.minmaxline.upsAdvInputMinLineVoltage
509 m2g.apc.minmaxline.upsAdvInputMaxLineVoltage
510 If you don't see the data showing up in Graphite, chances are there are
512 invalid characters in the namespace. To debug this, use the
513 DEBUG=qw(log) directive at the top of the MRTG script to find out what
514 is happening with the MRTG to Graphite namespace conversion.
515 DEBUG=qw(log) will generate some output similar to what appears below
517 2016-10-13 06:08:39 -- --log: RRDs::update(/var/www/mrtg/switch/switch_gigabitethernet0_5.rrd, '1476356919:2738746035:2927936327')
519 2016-10-13 06:08:39 -- --log: graphite->send(m2g.switch.gigabitethernet0.5.in,2738746035,1476356919)
520 2016-10-13 06:08:39 -- --log: graphite->send(m2g.switch.gigabitethernet0.5.out,2927936327,1476356919)
522 2016-10-13 06:09:25 -- --log: RRDs::update(/var/www/mrtg/apc/apc_minmaxline.rrd, '1476356965:122:123')
524 2016-10-13 06:09:25 -- --log: graphite->send(m2g.apc.minmaxline.upsAdvInputMinLineVoltage,122,1476356965)
525 2016-10-13 06:09:25 -- --log: graphite->send(m2g.apc.minmaxline.upsAdvInputMaxLineVoltage,123,1476356965)
527 If the MRTG log output looks reasonable, then take a look at Graphite's
529 carbon-cache logs.
530
532 Each monitoring target must be identified by a unique name. This name
533 must be appended to each parameter belonging to the same target. The
534 name will also be used for naming the generated webpages, logfiles and
535 images for this target.
536 Target
538 With the Target keyword you tell mrtg what it should monitor. The
539 Target keyword takes arguments in a wide range of formats:
540 Basic
542 The most basic format is "port:community@router" This will generate
543 a traffic graph for the interface 'port' of the host 'router' (dns
544 name or IP address) and it will use the community 'community' (snmp
545 password) for the snmp query.
546 Example:
548 Target[myrouter]: 2:public@wellfleet-fddi.domain
550 If your community contains a "@" or a " " these characters must be
552 escaped with a "\".
553 Target[bla]: 2:stu\ pi\@d@router
555 SNMPv2c
557 If you have a fast router you might want to try to poll the ifHC*
558 counters. This feature gets activated by switching to SNMPv2c.
559 Unfortunately not all devices support SNMPv2c yet. If it works,
560 this will prevent your counters from wrapping within the 5 minute
561 polling interval, since we now use 64 bit instead of the normal 32
562 bit.
563 Example:
565 Target[myrouter]: 2:public@router1:::::2
567 SNMPv3
569 As an alternative to SNMPv2c, SNMPv3 provides access to the ifHC*
570 counters, along with encryption. Not all devices support SNMPv3,
571 and you will also need the perl Net::SNMP library in order to use
572 it. It is recommended that cfgmaker be used to generate
573 configurations involving SNMPv3, as it will check if the Net::SNMP
574 library is loadable, and will switch to SNMPv2c if v3 is
575 unavailable.
576 SNMP v3 requires additional authentication parameters, passed using
578 the SnmpOptions[] per-target keyword.
579 Example:
581 Target[myrouter]: 2:router1:::::3
582 SnmpOptions[myrouter]: username=>'user1'
583 noHC
585 Not all routers that support SNMPv2 or SNMPv3 provide the ifHC*
586 counters on every interface. The noHC[] per-target keyword signals
587 that the low-speed counters ifInOctets and ifOutOctets should be
588 queried instead. cfgmaker will automatically insert this tag if
589 SNMPv2 or SNMPv3 is specified but the ifHC* counters are
590 unavailable.
591 Example:
593 Target[myrouter]: #Bri0:router1:::::3
594 SnmpOptions[myrouter]: username=>'user1'
595 noHC[myrouter]: yes
596 Reversing
598 Sometimes you are sitting on the wrong side of the link, and you
599 would like to have mrtg report Incoming traffic as Outgoing and
600 vice versa. This can be achieved by adding the '-' sign in front of
601 the "Target" description. It flips the incoming and outgoing
602 traffic rates.
603 Example:
605 Target[ezci]: -1:public@ezci-ether.domain
607 Explicit OIDs
609 You can also explicitly define which OID to query by using the
610 following syntax 'OID_1&OID_2:community@router' The following
611 example will retrieve error counts for input and output on
612 interface 1. MRTG needs to graph two variables, so you need to
613 specify two OID's such as temperature and humidity or error input
614 and error output.
615 Example:
617 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
619 MIB Variables
621 MRTG knows a number of symbolic SNMP variable names. See the file
622 mibhelp.txt for a list of known names. One example are the
623 ifInErrors and ifOutErrors. This means you can specify the above
624 as:
625 Example:
627 Target[myrouter]: ifInErrors.1&ifOutErrors.1:public@myrouter
629 SnmpWalk
631 It may be that you want to monitor an snmp object that is only
632 reachable by 'walking'. You can get mrtg to walk by prepending the
633 OID with the string WaLK or if you want a particular entry from the
634 table returned by the walk you can use WaLKx where x is a number
635 starting from 0 (!).
636 Example:
638 Target[myrouter]: WaLKstrangeOid.1&WaLKstrangeOid.2:public@myrouter
640 Target[myrouter]: WaLK3strangeOid.1&WaLK4strangeOid.2:public@myrouter
642 SnmpGetNext
644 A special case of an snmp object that is only reachable by
645 'walking' occurs when a single snmpgetnext will return the correct
646 value, but snmpwalk fails. This may occur with snmp V2 or V3, as
647 the snmpgetbulk method is used in these versions. You can get mrtg
648 to use getnext instead of getbulk by prepending the OID with the
649 string GeTNEXT.
650 Example:
652 Target[myrouter]: GeTNEXTstrangeOid&GeTNEXTstrangeOid:public@myrouter
654 Counted SNMP Walk
656 In other situations, an snmpwalk is needed to count rows, but the
657 actual data is uninteresting. For example, counting the number of
658 mac-addresses in a CAM table, or the number of simultaneous dialup
659 sessions. You can get MRTG to count the number of instances by
660 prepending the OID with the string CnTWaLK. The following will
661 retrieve the number of simultaneous VOIP calls on some routers:
662 Example:
664 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
666 Interface by IP
668 Sometimes SNMP interface index can change, like when new interfaces
669 are added or removed. This can cause all Target entries in your
670 config file to become offset, causing MRTG to graphs wrong
671 instances etc. MRTG supports IP address instead of ifindex in
672 target definition. Then MRTG will query snmp device and try to map
673 IP address to the current ifindex. You can use IP addresses in
674 every type of target definition by adding IP address of the
675 numbered interface after OID and separation char '/'.
676 Make sure that the given IP address is used on your same target
678 router, especially when graphing two different OIDs and/or
679 interface split by '&' delimiter.
680 You can tell cfgmaker to generate such references with the option
682 --ifref=ip.
683 Example:
685 Target[myrouter]: /1.2.3.4:public@wellfleet-fddi.domain
687 Target[ezci]: -/1.2.3.4:public@ezci-ether.domain
688 Target[myrouter]: ifInErrors/1.2.3.4&ifOutErrors/1.2.3.4:public@myrouter
689 Interface by Description
691 If you can not use IP addresses you might want to use the interface
692 names. This works similar to the IP address approach except that
693 the prefix to use is a \ instead of a /
694 You can tell cfgmaker to generate such references with the option
696 --ifref=descr.
697 Example:
699 Target[myrouter]: \My-Interface2:public@wellfleet-fddi.domain
701 Target[ezci]: -\My-Interface2:public@ezci-ether.domain
702 Target[myrouter]: ifInErrors\My-If2&ifOutErrors\My-If3:public@myrouter
703 If your description contains a "&", a ":", a "@" or a " " you can
705 include them but you must escape with a backlash:
706 Target[myrouter]: \fun\:\ ney\&ddd:public@hello.router
708 Interface by Name
710 This is the only sensible way to reference the interfaces of your
711 switches.
712 You can tell cfgmaker to generate such references with the option
714 --ifref=name.
715 Example:
717 Target[myrouter]: #2/11:public@wellfleet-fddi.domain
719 Target[ezci]: -#2/11:public@ezci-ether.domain
720 Target[myrouter]: ifInErrors#3/7&ifOutErrors#3/7:public@myrouter
721 If your description contains a "&", a ":", a "@" or a " " you can
723 include them but you must escape with a backlash:
724 Target[myrouter]: #\:\ fun:public@hello.router
726 Note that the # sign will be interpreted as a comment character if
728 it is the first non white-space character on the line.
729 Interface by Ethernet Address
731 When the SNMP interface index changes, you can key that interface
732 by its 'Physical Address', sometimes called a 'hard address', which
733 is the SNMP variable 'ifPhysAddress'. Internally, MRTG matches the
734 Physical Address from the *.cfg file to its current index, and then
735 uses that index for the rest of the session.
736 You can use the Physical Address in every type of target definition
738 by adding the Physical Address after the OID and the separation
739 char '!' (analogous to the IP address option). The Physical
740 address is specified as '-' delimited octets, such as
741 "0a-0-f1-5-23-18" (omit the double quotes). Note that some routers
742 use the same Hardware Ethernet Address for all of their Interfaces
743 which prevents unique interface identification. Mrtg will notice
744 such problems and alert you.
745 You can tell cfgmaker to generate configuration files with hardware
747 ethernet address references by using the option --ifref=eth.
748 Example:
750 Target[myrouter]: !0a-0b-0c-0d:public@wellfleet-fddi.domain
752 Target[ezci]: -!0-f-bb-05-71-22:public@ezci-ether.domain
753 Target[myrouter]: 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.14!0a-00-10-23-44-51& *BREAK*
754 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.14!0a-00-10-23-44-51:public@myrouter
755 Target[myrouter]: ifInErrors!0a-00-10-23-44-51& *BREAK*
756 ifOutErrors!0a-00-10-23-44-51:public@myrouter
757 Join the lines at *BREAK* ...
759 Interface by Type
761 It seems that there are devices that try to defy all monitoring
762 efforts: the interesting interfaces have neither ifName nor a
763 constant ifDescr not to mention a persistent ifIndex. The only way
764 to get a constant mapping is by looking at the interface type,
765 because the interface you are interested in is unique in the device
766 you are looking at ...
767 You can tell cfgmaker to generate such references with the option
769 --ifref=type.
770 Example:
772 Target[myrouter]: %13:public@wellfleet-fddi.domain
774 Target[ezci]: -%13:public@ezci-ether.domain
775 Target[myrouter]: ifInErrors%13&ifOutErrors%14:public@myrouter
776 Extended positioning of ifIndex
778 There are OIDs that contain the interface index at some inner
779 position within the OID. To use the above mentioned Interface by
780 IP/Description/Name/Type methods in the target definition the
781 keyword 'IndexPOS' can be used to indicate the position of ifIndex.
782 If 'IndexPOS' is not used the ifIndex will be appended at the end
783 of the OID.
784 Example:
786 Target[myrouter]: OID.IndexPOS.1/1.2.3.4&OID.IndexPOS.1/1.2.3.4:public@myrouter
788 Replace OID by your numeric OID.
790 Extended Host Name Syntax
792 In all places where ``community@router'' is accepted, you can add
793 additional parameters for the SNMP communication using colon-
794 separated suffixes. You can also append a pipe symbol ( | ) and the
795 name of a numeric conversion subroutine as described under the
796 global keyword "ConversionCode" above. The full syntax is as
797 follows:
798 community@router[:[port][:[timeout][:[retries][:[backoff][:[version]]]]][|name]
800 where the meaning of each parameter is as follows:
802 port
804 the UDP port under which to contact the SNMP agent (default:
805 161)
806 The complete syntax of the port parameter is
808 remote_port[!local_address[!local_port]]
810 Some machines have additional security features that only allow
812 SNMP queries to come from certain IP addresses. If the host
813 doing the query has multiple interface, it may be necessary to
814 specify the interface the query should come from.
815 The port parameter allows the specification of the port of the
817 machine being queried. In addition, the IP address (or
818 hostname) and port of the machine doing the query may be
819 specified.
820 Examples:
822 somehost
824 somehost:161
825 somehost:161!192.168.2.4!4000 use 192.168.2.4 and port 4000 as source
826 somehost:!192.168.2.4 use 192.168.2.4 as source
827 somehost:!!4000 use port 4000 as source
828 timeout
830 initial timeout for SNMP queries, in seconds (default: 2.0)
831 retries
833 number of times a timed-out request will be retried (default:
834 5)
835 backoff
837 factor by which the timeout is multiplied on every retry
838 (default: 1.0).
839 version
841 for SNMP version. If you have a fast router you might want to
842 put a '2' here. For authenticated or encrypted SNMP, you can
843 try to put a '3' here. This will make mrtg try to poll the 64
844 bit counters and thus prevent excessive counter wrapping. Not
845 all routers support this though. SNMP v3 requires additional
846 setup, see SnmpOptions[] for full details.
847 Example:
849 3:public@router1:::::2
851 name
853 the name of the subroutine that MRTG will call to convert the
854 input and output values to integers. See the complete example
855 under the global keyword "ConversionCode" above.
856 Example:
858 1.3.6.1.4.1.999.1&1.3.6.1.4.1.999.2:public@mydevice:161::::2|Length2Int
860 This would retrieve values from the OID 1.3.6.1.4.1.999.1 for
862 input and .2 for output on mydevice using UDP port 161 and SNMP
863 version 2, and would execute the user-defined numeric
864 conversion subroutine Length2Int to convert those values to
865 integers.
866 A value that equals the default value can be omitted. Trailing
868 colons can be omitted, too. The pipe symbol followed by the name
869 parameter, if present, must come at the end. There must be no
870 spaces around the colons or pipe symbol.
871 Example:
873 Target[ezci]: 1:public@ezci-ether.domain:9161::4
875 This would refer to the input/output octet counters for the
877 interface with ifIndex 1 on ezci-ether.domain, as known by the SNMP
878 agent listening on UDP port 9161. The standard initial timeout
879 (2.0 seconds) is used, but the number of retries is set to four.
880 The backoff value is the default.
881 Numeric IPv6 addresses
883 If IPv6 is enabled you may also specify a target using its IPv6
884 address. To avoid ambiguity with the port number, numeric IPv6
885 addresses must be placed in square brackets.
886 Example:
888 Target[IPv6test]: 2:public@[2001:760:4::]:6161::4
890 External Monitoring Scripts
892 If you want to monitor something which does not provide data via
893 snmp you can use some external program to do the data gathering.
894 The external command must return 4 lines of output:
896 Line 1
898 current state of the first variable, normally 'incoming bytes
899 count'
900 Line 2
902 current state of the second variable, normally 'outgoing bytes
903 count'
904 Line 3
906 string (in any human readable format), telling the uptime of
907 the target.
908 Line 4
910 string, telling the name of the target.
911 Depending on the type of data your script returns you might want to
913 use the 'gauge' or 'absolute' arguments for the Options keyword.
914 Example:
916 Target[myrouter]: `/usr/local/bin/df2mrtg /dev/dsk/c0t2d0s0`
918 Note the use of the backticks (`), not apostrophes (') around the
920 command.
921 If you want to use a backtick in the command name this can be done
923 but you must escape it with a backslash ...
924 If your script does not have any data to return but does not want
926 mrtg to complain about invalid data, it can return 'UNKNOWN'
927 instead of a number. Note though that only rrdtool is really
928 equipped to handle unknown data well.
929 Multi Target Syntax
931 You can also combine several target definitions in a mathematical
932 expression. Any syntactically correct expression that the Perl
933 interpreter can evaluate to will work. An expression could be used,
934 for example, to aggregate both B channels in an ISDN connection or
935 to calculate the percentage hard disk utilization of a server from
936 the absolute used space and total capacity.
937 Examples:
939 Target[myrouter]: 2:public@wellfleetA + 1:public@wellfleetA
941 Target[myrouter]: .1.3.6.1.4.1.999.1&.1.3.6.1.4.1.999.2:public@mydevice /
943 .1.3.6.1.4.1.999.3&.1.3.6.1.4.1.999.4:public@mydevice * 100
944 Note that whitespace must surround each target definition in the
946 expression. Target definitions themselves must not contain
947 whitespace, except in interface descriptions and interface names,
948 where each whitespace character is escaped by a backslash.
949 MRTG automatically rounds the result of the expression to an
951 integer unless RRDTool logging is in use and the gauge option is in
952 effect for the target. Internally MRTG uses Perl's Math::BigFloat
953 package to calculate the result of the expression with 40 digits of
954 precision. Even in extreme cases, where, for example, you take the
955 difference of two 64-bit integers, the result of the expression
956 should be accurate.
957 SNMP Request Optimization
959 MRTG is designed to economize on its SNMP requests. Where a target
960 definition appears more than once in the configuration file, MRTG
961 requests the data from the device only once per round of data
962 collection and uses the collected data for each instance of a
963 particular target. Recognition of two target definitions as being
964 identical is based on a simple string match rather than any kind of
965 deeper semantic analysis.
966 Example:
968 Target[Targ1]: 1:public@CiscoA
970 Target[Targ2]: 2:public@CiscoA
971 Target[Targ3]: 1:public@CiscoA + 2:public@CiscoA
972 Target[Targ4]: 1:public@CISCOA
973 This results in a total of three SNMP requests. Data for
975 1:public@CiscoA and 2:public@CiscoA are requested only once each,
976 and used for Targ1, Targ2, and Targ3. Targ4 causes another SNMP
977 request for 1:public@CISCOA, which is not recognized as being
978 identical to 1:public@CiscoA.
979 MaxBytes
981 The maximum value either of the two variables monitored are allowed to
982 reach. For monitoring router traffic this is normally the bytes per
983 second this interface port can carry.
984 If a number higher than MaxBytes is returned, it is ignored. Also read
986 the section on AbsMax for further info. The MaxBytes value is also
987 used in calculating the Y range for unscaled graphs (see the section on
988 Unscaled).
989 Since most links are rated in bits per second, you need to divide their
991 maximum bandwidth (in bits) by eight (8) in order to get bytes per
992 second. This is very important to make your unscaled graphs display
993 realistic information. T1 = 193000, 56K = 7000, 10 MB Ethernet =
994 1250000, 100 MB Ethernet = 12500000. The MaxBytes value will be used by
995 mrtg to decide whether it got a valid response from the router.
996 If you need two different MaxBytes values for the two monitored
998 variables, you can use MaxBytes1 and MaxBytes2 instead of MaxBytes.
999 Example:
1001 MaxBytes[myrouter]: 1250000
1003 Title
1005 Title for the HTML page which gets generated for the graph.
1006 Example:
1008 Title[myrouter]: Traffic Analysis for Our Nice Company
1010
1012 PageTop
1013 Things to add to the top of the generated HTML page. Note that you can
1014 have several lines of text as long as the first column is empty.
1015 Note that the continuation lines will all end up on the same line in
1017 the html page. If you want linebreaks in the generated html use the
1018 '\n' sequence.
1019 Example:
1021 PageTop[myrouter]: <H1>Traffic Analysis for ETZ C95.1</H1>
1023 Our Campus Backbone runs over an FDDI line\n
1024 with a maximum transfer rate of 12.5 megabytes per
1025 Second.
1026 RouterUptime
1028 In cases where you calculate the used bandwidth from several interfaces
1029 you normally don't get the router uptime and router name displayed on
1030 the web page.
1031 If these interfaces are on the same router and the uptime and name
1033 should be displayed you have to specify its community and address again
1034 with the RouterUptime keyword.
1035 If you want to use a special OID for querying the router uptime, use
1037 prepend the oid.
1038 Example:
1040 Target[kacisco.comp.edu]: 1:public@194.64.66.250 + 2:public@194.64.66.250
1042 RouterUptime[kacisco.comp.edu]: public@194.64.66.250
1043 RouterUptime[kacisco.comp.edu]: hrSystemUptime.0:public@194.64.66.250
1045 RouterName
1047 If the default name of the router is incorrect/uninformative, you can
1048 use RouterName to specify a different OID on either the same or a
1049 different host.
1050 A practical example: sysName on BayTech DS72 units always display
1052 "ds72", no matter what you set the Unit ID to be. Instead, the Unit ID
1053 is stored at 1.3.6.1.4.1.4779.1.1.3.0, so we can have MRTG display this
1054 instead of sysName.
1055 Example:
1057 RouterName[kacisco.comp.edu]: 1.3.6.1.4.1.4779.1.1.3.0
1059 A different OID on a different host can also be specified:
1061 RouterName[kacisco.comp.edu]: 1.3.6.1.4.1.4779.1.1.3.0:public@194.64.66.251
1063 MaxBytes1
1065 Same as MaxBytes, for variable 1.
1066 MaxBytes2
1068 Same as MaxBytes, for variable 2.
1069 IPv4Only
1071 Many IPv6 routers do not currently support SNMP over IPv6 and must be
1072 monitored using IPv4. The IPv4Only option forces mrtg to use IPv4 when
1073 communicating with the target, even if IPv6 is enabled. This is useful
1074 if the target is a hostname with both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses; without
1075 the IPv4Only keyword, monitoring such a router will not work if IPv6 is
1076 enabled.
1077 If set to no (the default), mrtg will use IPv6 unless the target has no
1079 IPv6 addresses, in which case it will use IPv4. If set to yes, mrtg
1080 will only use IPv4.
1081 Note that if this option is set to yes and the target does not have an
1083 IPv4 address, communication with the target will fail.
1084 This option has no effect if IPv6 is not enabled.
1086 Example:
1088 Target[v4onlyrouter_1]: 1:public@v4onlyrouter
1090 IPv4Only[v4onlyrouter_1]: Yes
1091 SnmpOptions (V3)
1093 SNMPv3 requires a fairly rich set of options. This per-target keyword
1094 allows access to the User Security Model of SNMPv3. Options are listed
1095 in the same syntax as a perl hash.
1096 Security Modes
1098 SNMPv3 has three security modes, defined on the device being polled.
1100 For example, on Cisco routers the security mode is defined by the snmp-
1101 server group global configuration command.
1102 NoAuthNoPriv
1104 Neither Authentication nor Privacy is defined. Only the Username
1105 option is specified for this mode.
1106 Example:
1108 SnmpOptions[myrouter]: username=>'user1'
1110 AuthNoPriv
1112 Uses a Username and a password. The password can be hashed using
1113 the snmpkey application, or passed in plain text along with the
1114 ContextEngineID
1115 Example:
1117 SnmpOptions[myrouter]: username=>'user1',authpassword=>'example',
1119 contextengineid=>'80000001110000004000000'
1120 Priv
1122 Both Authentication and Privacy is defined. The default privacy
1123 protocol is des.
1124 Example:
1126 SnmpOptions[myrouter]:
1127 authkey=>'0x1e93ab5a396e2af234c8920e61cfe2028072c0e2',
1128 authprotocol=>'sha',privprotocol=>'des',username=>'user1',
1129 privkey=>'0x498d74940c5872ed387201d74b9b25e2'
1130 snmp options
1132 The following option keywords are recognized:
1134 username
1136 The user associated with the User Security Model
1137 contextname
1139 An SNMP agent can define multiple contexts. This keyword allows
1140 them to be polled.
1141 contextengineid
1143 A unique 24-byte string identifying the snmp-agent.
1144 authpassword
1146 The plaintext password for a user in either AuthNoPriv or Priv
1147 mode.
1148 authkey
1150 A md5 or sha hash of the plain-text password, along with the
1151 engineid. Use the snmpkey commandline program to generate this
1152 hash, or use Net::SNMP::Security::USM in a script.
1153 authprotocol {sha|md5}
1155 The hashing algorithm defined on the SNMP client. Defaults to md5.
1156 privpassword
1158 A plaintext pre-shared key for encrypting snmp packets in Priv
1159 mode.
1160 privkey
1162 A hash of the plain-text pre-shared key, along with the engineid.
1163 Use the snmpkey commandline program to generate this hash, or use
1164 Net::SNMP::Security::USM in a script.
1165 privprotocol {des|3desede|aescfb128|aescfb192|aescfb256}
1167 Specifies the encryption method defined on the snmp agent. The
1168 default is des.
1169 PageFoot
1171 Things to add to the bottom of the generated HTML page. Note that you
1172 can have several lines of text as long as the first column is empty.
1173 Note that the continuation lines will all end up on the same line in
1175 the html page. If you want linebreaks in the generated html use the
1176 '\n' sequence.
1177 The material will be added just before the </BODY> tag:
1179 Example:
1181 PageFoot[myrouter]: Contact <A HREF="mailto:peter@x.yz">Peter</A>
1183 if you have questions regarding this page
1184 AddHead
1186 Use this tag like the PageTop header, but its contents will be added
1187 between </TITLE> and </HEAD>.
1188 Example:
1190 AddHead[myrouter]: <link rev="made" href="mailto:mrtg@blabla.edu">
1192 BodyTag
1194 BodyTag lets you supply your very own <body ...> tag for the generated
1195 webpages.
1196 Example:
1198 BodyTag[myrouter]: <BODY LEFTMARGIN="1" TOPMARGIN="1"
1200 BACKGROUND="/stats/images/bg.neo2.gif">
1201 AbsMax
1203 If you are monitoring a link which can handle more traffic than the
1204 MaxBytes value. Eg, a line which uses compression or some frame relay
1205 link, you can use the AbsMax keyword to give the absolute maximum value
1206 ever to be reached. We need to know this in order to sort out
1207 unrealistic values returned by the routers. If you do not set AbsMax,
1208 rateup will ignore values higher than MaxBytes.
1209 Example:
1211 AbsMax[myrouter]: 2500000
1213 Unscaled
1215 By default each graph is scaled vertically to make the actual data
1216 visible even when it is much lower than MaxBytes. With the Unscaled
1217 variable you can suppress this. It's argument is a string, containing
1218 one letter for each graph you don't want to be scaled: d=day w=week
1219 m=month y=year. There is also a special case to unset the variable
1220 completely: n=none. This could be useful in the event you need to
1221 override a global configuration. In the example scaling for the yearly
1222 and the monthly graph are suppressed.
1223 Example:
1225 Unscaled[myrouter]: ym
1227 WithPeak
1229 By default the graphs only contain the average values of the monitored
1230 variables - normally the transfer rates for incoming and outgoing
1231 traffic. The following option instructs mrtg to display the peak 5
1232 minute values in the [w]eekly, [m]onthly and [y]early graph. In the
1233 example we define the monthly and the yearly graph to contain peak as
1234 well as average values.
1235 Examples:
1237 WithPeak[myrouter]: ym
1239 Suppress
1241 By default mrtg produces 4 graphs. With this option you can suppress
1242 the generation of selected graphs. The option value syntax is
1243 analogous to the above two options. In this example we suppress the
1244 yearly graph as it is quite empty in the beginning.
1245 Example:
1247 Suppress[myrouter]: y
1249 Extension
1251 By default, mrtg creates .html files. Use this option to tell mrtg to
1252 use a different extension. For example you could set the extension to
1253 php3, then you will be able to enclose PHP tags into the output (useful
1254 for getting a router name out of a database).
1255 Example:
1257 Extension[myrouter]: phtml
1259 Directory
1261 By default, mrtg puts all the files that it generates for each target
1262 (the GIFs, the HTML page, the log file, etc.) in WorkDir.
1263 If the Directory option is specified, the files are instead put into a
1265 directory under WorkDir or Log-, Image- and HtmlDir). (For example the
1266 Directory option below would cause all the files for a target myrouter
1267 to be put into directory /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg/myrouter/ .)
1268 The directory must already exist; mrtg will not create it.
1270 Example:
1272 WorkDir: /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg
1274 Directory[myrouter]: myrouter
1275 NOTE: the Directory option must always be 'relative' or bad things will
1277 happen.
1278 Clonedirectory
1280 If the Directory option is specified, the Clonedirectory option will
1281 copy all the contents of Directory to the Clonedirectory.
1282 Example:
1284 WorkDir: /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg
1286 Directory[myrouter]: myrouter
1287 Clonedirectory[myrouter]: myclonedirectory
1288 Optionally the target name can be changed in the cloning process.
1290 Example:
1292 WorkDir: /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg
1294 Directory[myrouter]: myrouter
1295 Clonedirectory[myrouter]: myclonedirectory mynewtarget
1296 NOTE1: The clone directory must already exist; mrtg will not create it.
1298 NOTE2: The Clonedirectory option must also always be 'relative' or bad
1300 things will happen.
1301 NOTE3: This requires the File::Copy module
1303 XSize and YSize
1305 By default mrtgs graphs are 100 by 400 pixels wide (plus some more for
1306 the labels. In the example we get almost square graphs ...
1307 Note: XSize must be between 20 and 600; YSize must be larger than 20
1309 Example:
1311 XSize[myrouter]: 300
1313 YSize[myrouter]: 300
1314 XZoom and YZoom
1316 If you want your graphs to have larger pixels, you can "Zoom" them.
1317 Example:
1319 XZoom[myrouter]: 2.0
1321 YZoom[myrouter]: 2.0
1322 XScale and YScale
1324 If you want your graphs to be actually scaled use XScale and YScale.
1325 (Beware: while this works, the results look ugly (to be frank) so if
1326 someone wants to fix this: patches are welcome.
1327 Example:
1329 XScale[myrouter]: 1.5
1331 YScale[myrouter]: 1.5
1332 YTics and YTicsFactor
1334 If you want to show more than 4 lines per graph, use YTics. If you
1335 want to scale the value used for the YLegend of these tics, use
1336 YTicsFactor. The default value for YTics is 4 and the default value
1337 for YTicsFactor is 1.0 .
1338 Example:
1340 Suppose you get values ranging from 0 to 700. You want to plot 7 lines
1342 and want to show 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 instead of 0, 100, 200, 300,
1343 400, 500, 600, 700. You should write then:
1344 YTics[myrouter]: 7
1346 YTicsFactor[myrouter]: 0.01
1347 Factor
1349 If you want to multiply all numbers shown below the graph with a
1350 constant factor, use this directive to define it ..
1351 Example:
1353 Factor[as400]: 4096
1355 Step
1357 Change the default step from 5 * 60 seconds to something else (I have
1358 not tested this much ...)
1359 Example:
1361 Step[myrouter]: 60
1363 PNGTitle
1365 When using rateup for graph generation, this will print the given title
1366 in the graph it generates.
1367 Example:
1369 PNGTitle[myrouter]: WAN Link UK-US
1371 Options
1373 The Options Keyword allows you to set some boolean switches:
1374 growright
1376 The graph grows to the left by default. This option flips the
1377 direction of growth causing the current time to be at the right
1378 edge of the graph and the history values to the left of it.
1379 bits
1381 All the monitored variable values are multiplied by 8 (i.e. shown
1382 in bits instead of bytes) ... looks much more impressive :-) It
1383 also affects the 'factory default' labeling and units for the given
1384 target.
1385 perminute
1387 All the monitored variable values are multiplied by 60 (i.e. shown
1388 in units per minute instead of units per second) in case of small
1389 values more accurate graphs are displayed. It also affects the
1390 'factory default' labeling and units for the given target.
1391 perhour
1393 All the monitored variable values are multiplied by 3600 (i.e.
1394 shown in units per hour instead of units per second) in case of
1395 small values more accurate graphs are displayed. It also affects
1396 the 'factory default' labeling and units for the given target.
1397 noinfo
1399 Suppress the information about uptime and device name in the
1400 generated webpage.
1401 nopercent
1403 Don't print usage percentages.
1404 transparent
1406 Make the background of the generated gifs transparent.
1407 integer
1409 Print summary lines below graph as integers without commas.
1410 dorelpercent
1412 The relative percentage of IN-traffic to OUT-traffic is calculated
1413 and displayed in the graph as an additional line. Note: Only a
1414 fixed scale is available (from 0 to 100%). Therefore if IN-traffic
1415 is greater than OUT-traffic then 100% is displayed. If you suspect
1416 that your IN-traffic is not always less than or equal to your OUT-
1417 traffic you are urged to not use this options. Note: If you use
1418 this option in combination with the Colours options, a fifth
1419 colour-name colour-value pair is required there.
1420 avgpeak
1422 There are some ISPs who use the average Peak values to bill their
1423 customers. Using this option MRTG displays these values for each
1424 graph. The value is built by averaging the max 5 minute traffic
1425 average for each 'step' shown in the graph. For the Weekly graph
1426 this means that it builds the average of all 2 hour intervals 5
1427 minute peak values. (Confused? Thought so!)
1428 gauge
1430 Treat the values gathered from target as 'current status'
1431 measurements and not as ever incrementing counters. This would be
1432 useful to monitor things like disk space, processor load,
1433 temperature, and the like ...
1434 In the absence of 'gauge' or 'absolute' options, MRTG treats
1436 variables as a counters and calculates the difference between the
1437 current and the previous value and divides that by the elapsed time
1438 between the last two readings to get the value to be plotted.
1439 absolute
1441 This is for counter type data sources which reset their value when
1442 they are read. This means that rateup does not have to build the
1443 difference between the current and the last value read from the
1444 data source. The value obtained is still divided by the elapsed
1445 time between the current and the last reading, which makes it
1446 different from the 'gauge' option. Useful for external data
1447 gatherers.
1448 derive
1450 If you are using rrdtool as logger/grapher you can use a third type
1451 of data source. Derive is like counter, except that it is not
1452 required to go UP all the time. It is useful for situations where
1453 the change of some value should be graphed.
1454 unknaszero
1456 Log unknown data as zero instead of the default behaviour of
1457 repeating the last value seen. Be careful with this, often a flat
1458 line in the graph is much more obvious than a line at 0.
1459 withzeroes
1461 Normally we ignore all values which are zero when calculating the
1462 average transfer rate on a line. If this is not desirable use this
1463 option.
1464 noborder
1466 If you are using rateup to log data, MRTG will create the graph
1467 images. Normally these images have a shaded border around them. If
1468 you do not want the border to be drawn, enable this option. This
1469 option has no effect if you are not using rateup.
1470 noarrow
1472 As with the option above, this effects rateup graph generation
1473 only. Normally rateup will generate graphs with a small arrow
1474 showing the direction of the data. If you do not want this arrow to
1475 be drawn, enable this option. This option has no effect if you are
1476 not using rateup.
1477 noi When using rateup for graph generation, you can use this option to
1479 stop rateup drawing a graph for the 'I' or first variable. This
1480 also removes entries for this variable in the HTML page MRTG
1481 generates, and will remove the peaks for this variable if they are
1482 enabled. This allows you to hide this data, or can be very useful
1483 if you are only graphing one line of data rather than two. This
1484 option is not destructive - any data received for the the variable
1485 continued to be logged, it just isn't shown.
1486 noo Same as above, except relating to the 'O' or second variable.
1488 nobanner
1490 When using rateup for graph generation, this option disables MRTG
1491 adding the MRTG banner to the HTML pages it generates.
1492 nolegend
1494 When using rateup for graph generation, this option will stop MRTG
1495 from creating a legend at the bottom of the HTML pages it
1496 generates.
1497 printrouter
1499 When using rateup for graph generation, this option will print the
1500 router name in the graph it generates. This option is overridden
1501 by the value of PNGTitle if one is given
1502 pngdate
1504 When using rateup for graph generation, this option will print a
1505 timestamp in the graph it generates, including a timezone if one is
1506 specified by the 'Timezone' parameter. This is equivalent to
1507 setting TimeStrPost[x]: RU
1508 logscale
1510 The logscale option causes rateup to display the data with the Y
1511 axis scaled logarithmically. Doing so allows the normal traffic to
1512 occupy the majority of the vertical range, while still showing any
1513 spikes at their full height.
1514 logscale displays all the available data and will always produce
1516 well-behaved graphs. People often consider a logarithmically
1517 scaled graph counterintuitive, however, and thus hard to interpret.
1518 expscale
1520 The expscale option causes rateup to display the data with the Y
1521 axis scaled exponentially. Doing so emphasizes small changes at
1522 the top of the scale; this can be useful when graphing values that
1523 fluctuate by a small amount near the top of the scale, such as line
1524 voltage.
1525 expscale is essentially the inverse of logscale.
1527 secondmean
1529 The secondmean option sets the maximum value on the graph to the
1530 mean of the data greater than the mean of all data. This produces
1531 a graph that focuses more on the typical data, while clipping large
1532 peaks.
1533 Using secondmean will give a more intuitive linearly scaled graph,
1535 but can result in a uselessly high or low scale in some rare
1536 situations (specifically, when the data includes a large portion of
1537 values far from the actual mean)
1538 If a target includes both logscale and secondmean in the options,
1540 the secondmean takes precedence.
1541 Example:
1543 Options[myrouter]: growright, bits
1545 kilo
1547 Use this option to change the multiplier value for building prefixes.
1548 Defaultvalue is 1000. This tag is for the special case that 1kB =
1549 1024B, 1MB = 1024kB and so far.
1550 Example:
1552 kilo[myrouter]: 1024
1554 kMG
1556 Change the default multiplier prefixes (,k,M,G,T,P). In the tag
1557 ShortLegend define only the basic units. Format: Comma separated list
1558 of prefixed. Two consecutive commas or a comma at start or end of the
1559 line gives no prefix on this item. If you do not want prefixes, just
1560 put two consecutive commas. If you want to skip a magnitude select '-'
1561 as value.
1562 Example: velocity in nm/s (nanometers per second) displayed in nm/h.
1564 ShortLegend[myrouter]: m/h
1566 kMG[myrouter]: n,u,m,,k,M,G,T,P
1567 options[myrouter]: perhour
1568 Colours
1570 The Colours tag allows you to override the default colour scheme.
1571 Note: All 4 of the required colours must be specified here. The colour
1572 name ('Colourx' below) is the legend name displayed, while the RGB
1573 value is the real colour used for the display, both on the graph and in
1574 the html doc.
1575 Format is: Col1#RRGGBB,Col2#RRGGBB,Col3#RRGGBB,Col4#RRGGBB
1577 Important: If you use the dorelpercent options tag a fifth colour name
1579 colour value pair is required:
1580 Col1#RRGGBB,Col2#RRGGBB,Col3#RRGGBB,Col4#RRGGBB,Col5#RRGGBB
1581 Colour1
1583 First variable (normally Input) on default graph.
1584 Colour2
1586 Second variable (normally Output) on default graph.
1587 Colour3
1589 Max first variable (input).
1590 Colour4
1592 Max second variable (output).
1593 RRGGBB
1595 2 digit hex values for Red, Green and Blue.
1596 Example:
1598 Colours[myrouter]: GREEN#00eb0c,BLUE#1000ff,DARK GREEN#006600,VIOLET#ff00ff
1600 Background
1602 With the Background tag you can configure the background colour of the
1603 generated HTML page.
1604 Example:
1606 Background[myrouter]: #a0a0a0a
1608 TextColor
1610 With the TextColor tag you can configure the text colour of the
1611 generated HTML page.
1612 Example:
1614 TextColor[myrouter]: #a0a0a0a
1616 YLegend, ShortLegend, Legend[1234]
1618 The following keywords allow you to override the text displayed for the
1619 various legends of the graph and in the HTML document:
1620 YLegend
1622 The Y-axis label of the graph. Note that a text which is too long
1623 to fit in the graph will be silently ignored.
1624 ShortLegend
1626 The units string (default 'b/s') used for Max, Average and Current
1627 Legend[1234IO]
1629 The strings for the colour legend.
1630 Example:
1632 YLegend[myrouter]: Bits per Second
1634 ShortLegend[myrouter]: b/s
1635 Legend1[myrouter]: Incoming Traffic in Bits per Second
1636 Legend2[myrouter]: Outgoing Traffic in Bits per Second
1637 Legend3[myrouter]: Maximal 5 Minute Incoming Traffic
1638 Legend4[myrouter]: Maximal 5 Minute Outgoing Traffic
1639 LegendI[myrouter]: In:
1640 LegendO[myrouter]: Out:
1641 Note, if LegendI or LegendO are set to an empty string with
1643 LegendO[myrouter]:
1645 The corresponding line below the graph will not be printed at all.
1647 Timezone
1649 If you live in an international world, you might want to generate the
1650 graphs in different timezones. This is set in the TZ variable. Under
1651 certain operating systems like Solaris, this will provoke the localtime
1652 call to give the time in the selected timezone.
1653 Example:
1655 Timezone[myrouter]: Japan
1657 The Timezone is the standard timezone of your system, ie Japan,
1659 Hongkong, GMT, GMT+1 etc etc.
1660 Weekformat
1662 By default, mrtg (actually rateup) uses the strftime(3) '%V' option to
1663 format week numbers in the monthly graphs. The exact semantics of this
1664 format option vary between systems. If you find that the week numbers
1665 are wrong, and your system's strftime(3) routine supports it, you can
1666 try another format option. The POSIX '%V' option correspond to the
1667 widely used ISO 8601 week numbering standard. The week format
1668 character should be specified as a single letter; either W, V, or U.
1669 The UNIX version of rateup uses the libc implementation of strftime.
1671 On Windows, the native strftime implementation does not know about %V.
1672 So there we use a different implementation of strftime that does
1673 support %V.
1674 Example:
1676 Weekformat[myrouter]: W
1678 RRDRowCount
1680 This affects the creation of new rrd files. By default rrds are created
1681 to hold about 1 day's worth of high resolution data. (plus 1 week of 30
1682 minute data, 2 months of 2 hour data and 2 years of 1 day data). With
1683 this Keyword you can change the number of base interval entries
1684 configured for new rrds as they get created. Note that you must take
1685 the interval time into account.
1686 Example:
1688 RRDRowCount[myrouter]: 1600
1690 RRDRowCount30m
1692 As per RRDRowCount, but for the RRA's -typically- used for 30 minute
1693 data. Even so, you must still take the base interval into account.
1694 Leaving out this keyword will force the old default of 800 rows.
1695 Example:
1697 RRDRowCount30m[myrouter]: 800
1699 RRDRowCount2h
1701 As per RRDRowCount, but for the RRA's -typically- used for 2 hour data.
1702 Even so, you must still take the base interval into account. Leaving
1703 out this keyword will force the old default of 800 rows.
1704 Example:
1706 RRDRowCount2h[myrouter]: 400
1708 RRDRowCount1d
1710 As per RRDRowCount, but for the RRA's -typically- used for 1 day data.
1711 Even so, you must still take the base interval into account. Leaving
1712 out this keyword will force the old default of 800 rows.
1713 Example:
1715 RRDRowCount1d[myrouter]: 200
1717 RRDHWRRAs
1719 Normally the RRDs created by MRTG will just contain the information
1720 gathered directly from the respective target. With this option you can
1721 tap into rrdtools advanced aberrant behaviour detection module based on
1722 Holt-Winters forecasting. The RRDHWRRAs property specifies the Holt-
1723 Winters RRAs as described in the rrdcreate manual page.
1724 Note, this setting will only affect newly created RRDs (targets).
1726 Example:
1728 RRDHWRRAs[myrouter]: RRA:HWPREDICT:1440:0.1:0.0035:288
1730 TimeStrPos
1732 This defines placement of the timestamp string on the image. Possible
1733 values are RU, LU, RL, LL (which stand, respectively, for RightUpper,
1734 LeftUpper, RightLower and LeftLower corner) and NO (for no timestamp).
1735 By default, no timestamp is placed on the image.
1736 Example:
1738 TimeStrPos[myrouter]: RU
1740 TimeStrFmt
1742 Using this keyword you may specify format of the timestamp to be placed
1743 on the image (if enabled by the TimeStrPos keyword). Specified string
1744 will be used by the strftime() function - see strftime(3) documentation
1745 for conversion specifiers available on your system. Default format:
1746 %Y-%m-%d %H:%M
1747 Example:
1749 TimeStrFmt[myrouter]: %H:%M:%S
1751
1753 Through its threshold checking functionality mrtg is able to detect
1754 threshold problems for the various targets and can call external
1755 scripts to handle those problems (e.g. send email or a page to an
1756 administrator).
1757 Threshold checking is configured through the following parameters:
1759 ThreshDir (GLOBAL)
1761 By defining ThreshDir to point to a writable directory, MRTG will only
1762 alert you when a threshold boundary has been crossed.
1763 Example:
1765 ThreshDir: /var/mrtg/thresh
1767 ThreshHyst (GLOBAL)
1769 If a threshold is broken, and you have a threshdir defined, then mrtg
1770 will send mail once the threshold becomes 'unborken' to avoid
1771 situations where broken and unbroken messages get sent in close
1772 succession, we only send an unbroken message once the current value is
1773 0.1 (10%) away from the threshold. using the ThreshHyst config
1774 variable you can customize this value.
1775 Example for 5%:
1777 ThreshHyst: 0.05
1779 ThreshMailServer (GLOBAL)
1781 Address of an SMTP server which is going to accept mail about
1782 Thresholds being broken and unbroken.
1783 ThreshMailSender (GLOBAL)
1785 What is the sender address of the threshold mail.
1786 Example:
1788 ThreshMailSender: mrtg@example.com
1790 ThreshMailAddress (PER TARGET)
1792 Email address for Threshold related Mails. This will only work if a
1793 mailserver has been configured.
1794 Example:
1796 ThreshMailAddress[_]: admin@example.com
1798 ThreshMailAddress[router]:
1799 This would bring threshold released mail to all but the target called
1801 'router'.
1802 ThreshMinI (PER TARGET)
1804 This is the minimum acceptable value for the Input (first) parameter.
1805 If the parameter falls below this value, the program specified in
1806 ThreshProgI will be run and a mail will be sent to the
1807 ThreshMailAddress if specified. If the value ends in '%' then the
1808 threshold is defined relative to MaxBytes.
1809 ThreshMaxI (PER TARGET)
1811 Works the same as TheshMinI but it acts when the value is higher than
1812 ThreshMaxI.
1813 ThreshDesc (PER TARGET)
1815 Its value will be assigned to the environment variable THRESH_DESC
1816 before any of the programs mentioned below are called. The programs can
1817 use the value of this variable to produce more user-friendly output.
1818 ThreshProgI (PER TARGET)
1820 This defines a program to be run if ThreshMinI or ThreshMaxI is broken.
1821 MRTG passes 3 arguments: the $router variable, the threshold value
1822 broken, and the current parameter value.
1823 ThreshProgOKI (PER TARGET)
1825 This defines a program to be run if the parameter is currently OK
1826 (based on ThreshMinI and ThreshMaxI), but wasn't OK on the previous
1827 running -- based on the files found in ThreshDir. MRTG passes 3
1828 arguments: the $router variable the unbroken threshold value, and the
1829 current parameter value.
1830 ThreshMinO, ThreshMaxO, ThreshProgO, and ThreshProgOKO
1832 These work the same as their *I counterparts, except on the Output
1833 (second) parameter.
1834 SetEnv
1836 When calling threshold scripts from within your cfg file you might want
1837 to pass some data on to the script. This can be done with the SetEnv
1838 configuration option which takes a series of environment variable
1839 assignments. Note that the quotes are mandatory. This does not work for
1840 external scripts. It is not possible to set environment variables per
1841 target.
1842 Example:
1844 SetEnv[myrouter]: EMAIL="contact_email@someplace.net"
1846 HOST="www.some_server.net"
1847 HW Failure Based Threshold Checking
1849 When using rrd based logging with HW RRAs defined. You can use the
1850 confidence bounds violations stored in the FAILURES RRA for threshold
1851 based alerts.
1852 There the all target specific threshold variables have a Hold-Winters
1854 counterpart:
1855 ThreshMailAddress -> HWThreshMailAddress
1857 ThreshMinI -> HWThreshMinI
1858 ...
1859 The global variables for threshold checking are shared except for the
1861 ThreshHyst -> HWThreshHyst
1863 And HWThreshDesc sets the HWTHRESH_DESC variable.
1865
1867 Pre- and Postfix
1868 To save yourself some typing you can define a target called '^'. The
1869 text of every Keyword you define for this target will be PREPENDED to
1870 the corresponding Keyword of all the targets defined below this line.
1871 The same goes for a Target called '$' but its text will be APPENDED.
1872 Note that a space is inserted between the prepended text and the
1874 Keyword value, as well as between the Keyword value and the appended
1875 text. This works well for text-valued Keywords, but is not very useful
1876 for other Keywords. See the "default" target description below.
1877 The example will make mrtg use a common header and a common contact
1879 person in all the pages generated from targets defined later in this
1880 file.
1881 Example:
1883 PageTop[^]: <H1>NoWhere Unis Traffic Stats</H1><HR>
1885 PageTop[$]: Contact Peter Norton if you have any questions<HR>
1886 To remove the prepend/append value, specify an empty value, e.g.:
1888 PageTop[^]:
1890 PageTop[$]:
1891 NoSpaceChar
1893 With PREPEND and APPEND (see below) there is normally a space inserted
1894 between the local value and the PRE- or APPEND value. Sometimes this is
1895 not desirable. You can use the global option NoSpaceChar to define a
1896 character which can be mentioned at the end of a $ or ^ definition in
1897 order to suppress the space.
1898 Example:
1900 NoSpaceChar: ~
1902 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@~
1903 Target[a]: a.tolna.net
1904 Target[b]: b.tolna.net
1905 Target[c]: c.tolna.net
1906 Target[d]: d.tolna.net
1907 Default Values
1909 The target name '_' specifies a default value for that Keyword. In the
1910 absence of explicit Keyword value, the prepended and the appended
1911 keyword value, the default value will be used.
1912 Example:
1914 YSize[_]: 150
1916 Options[_]: growright,bits,nopercent
1917 WithPeak[_]: ymw
1918 Suppress[_]: y
1919 MaxBytes[_]: 1250000
1920 To remove the default value and return to the 'factory default',
1922 specify an empty value, e.g.:
1923 YLegend[_]:
1925 There can be several instances of setting the default/prepend/append
1927 values in the configuration file. The later setting replaces the
1928 previous one for the rest of the configuration file. The
1929 default/prepend/append values used for a given keyword/target pair are
1930 the ones that were in effect at the point in the configuration file
1931 where the target was mentioned for the first time.
1932 Example:
1934 MaxBytes[_]: 1250000
1936 Target[myrouter.somplace.edu.2]: 2:public@myrouter.somplace.edu
1937 MaxBytes[_]: 8000
1938 Title[myrouter.somplace.edu.2]: Traffic Analysis for myrouter.somplace.edu IF 2
1939 The default MaxBytes for the target myrouter.someplace.edu.2 in the
1941 above example will be 1250000, which was in effect where the target
1942 name myrouter.someplace.edu.2 first appeared in the config file.
1943
1945 --user username and --group groupname
1946 Run as the given user and/or group. (Unix Only)
1947 --lock-file filename
1949 Use an alternate lock-file (the default is to use the
1950 configuration-file appended with "_l").
1951 --confcache-file filename
1953 Use an alternate confcache-file (the default is to use the
1954 configuration-file appended with ".ok")
1955 --logging filename|eventlog
1957 If this is set to writable filename, all output from mrtg
1958 (warnings, debug messages, errors) will go to filename. If you are
1959 running on Win32 you can specify eventlog instead of a filename
1960 which will send all error to the windows event log.
1961 NOTE: Note, there is no Message DLL for mrtg included with mrtg.
1963 This has the side effect that the windows event logger will display
1964 a nice message with every entry in the event log, complaining about
1965 the fact that mrtg has no message dll. If you go to the mrtg
1966 contrib download area (on the website) you will find the
1967 mrtg-message-dll.zip which does contain such a thing.
1968 --daemon
1970 Put MRTG into the background, running as a daemon. This works the
1971 same way as the config file option, but the switch is required for
1972 proper FHS operation (because /var/run is writable only by root)
1973 --fhs
1975 Configure all mrtg paths to conform to the FHS specification;
1976 http://www.pathname.com/fhs/
1977 --check
1979 Only check the cfg file for errors. Do not do anything.
1980 --pid-file=s
1982 Define the name and path of the pid file for mrtg running as a
1983 daemon
1984 --debug=s
1986 Enable debug options. The argument of the debug option is a comma
1987 separated list of debug values:
1988 cfg - watch the config file reading
1990 dir - directory mangeling
1991 base - basic program flow
1992 tarp - target parser
1993 snpo - snmp polling
1994 coca - confcache operations
1995 fork - forking view
1996 time - some timing info
1997 log - logging of data via rateup or rrdtool
1998 eval - print eval strings before evaluating them
1999 prof - add hires timing info the rrd calls
2000 Example:
2002 --debug="cfg,snpo"
2004
2006 An exit code of 0 indicates that all targets were successful.
2007 Generally speaking, most codes greater than 0 indicate that there was
2008 an unrecoverable problem. One exception to this is code 91, which
2009 indicates that at least one of the targets was successful. A partial
2010 listing of the codes follows:
2011 0: All targets successful
2013 2: Config error (can't read, fatal error in config, etc)
2015 17: Another MRTG process is processing config
2016 91: At least one target successful
2018 92: No targets were successful
2019
2021 Minimal mrtg.cfg
2022 WorkDir: /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg
2023 Target[r1]: 2:public@myrouter.somplace.edu
2024 MaxBytes[r1]: 8000
2025 Title[r1]: Traffic Analysis ISDN
2026 PageTop[r1]: <H1>Stats for our ISDN Line</H1>
2027 Cfg for several Routers.
2029 WorkDir: /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg
2030 Title[^]: Traffic Analysis for
2031 PageTop[^]: <H1>Stats for
2032 PageTop[$]: Contact The Chief if you notice anybody<HR>
2033 MaxBytes[_]: 8000
2034 Options[_]: growright
2035 Title[isdn]: our ISDN Line
2037 PageTop[isdn]: our ISDN Line</H1>
2038 Target[isdn]: 2:public@router.somplace.edu
2039 Title[backb]: our Campus Backbone
2041 PageTop[backb]: our Campus Backbone</H1>
2042 Target[backb]: 1:public@router.somplace.edu
2043 MaxBytes[backb]: 1250000
2044 # the following line removes the default prepend value
2046 # defined above
2047 Title[^]:
2049 Title[isdn2]: Traffic for the Backup ISDN Line
2051 PageTop[isdn2]: our ISDN Line</H1>
2052 Target[isdn2]: 3:public@router.somplace.edu
2053
2055 Tobias Oetiker <tobi@oetiker.ch> and many contributors
20562.17.10 2022-01-19 MRTG-REFERENCE(1)