Cacti data template step

Again, click Add as described above:. Provide a short Field [Output] name and a more meaningful Friendly Name. As you will want to save those data, select Update RRDfile.

Create to see:. Now you want to tell Cacti, how to store the data retrieved from this script. Please go to Data Templates and click Add. Fill in the Data Templates Name with a reasonable text. This name will be used to find this Template among others.

Then fill in the Data Source Name. This is the name given to the host-specific Data Source. This is to distinguish Data Sources for different devices. The Data Input Method is a drop down containing all known scripts and the like. Select the Data Input Method you just created.

The Associated RRA's is filled by default. At the moment there's no need to change this. The lower part of the screen looks like:.

The Internal Data Source Name may be defined at your wish. There's no need to use the same name as the Output Field of the Data Input Method , but it may look nicer. Notice the new drop down Output Field. Click Save and you're done. Now you want to tell Cacti, how to present the data retrieved from this script. Please go to Graph Templates and click Add. Fill in Name and Title.

Keep the rest as is and Create. You want to fill in a Text Format that will be shown underneath the Graph as a legend. Again, Create :. Don't bother with that now. Lets fill some more nice legends, see:. Notice, that the Data Source is filled in automagically. Now go to the Devices and select the one of your choice. See the Associated Graph Templates in the middle of this page:. The reason for this is that Cacti now automatically creates Graphs automatically, unless disabled.

Click this link to see:. Create the needed Graph Description from the Graph Template. Check, whether the output is as expected. If not, check your script e. If OK, proceed to next step. This procedure may be replaced by running the poller manually for the failing host only. If you're using cmd. This procedure allows for repeated tests without waiting for the next polling interval. And there's no need to manually search for the failing host between hundreds of lines of output. In most cases, this step can be skipped.

You may want to return to this step if the next one fails e. On very rare occasions, this will fail. This may as well be done from some tool like phpMyAdmin. Check the SQL return code. RRDfiles should be created by the poller. If it does not create them, it will not fill them either. If it does check your Poller Cache from Utilities and search for your target. Does the query show up here? If RRDfiles were created e. You're perhaps wondering about this step, if the former was OK.

For a ds. If you run into this, not only should you update the data source definition within the Data Template, but also perform a:. At this step, it is wise to check step and heartbeat of the RRDfile as well. If a single update is missing and the next one occurs in less than seconds from the last one, RRDtool will interpolate the missing update.

What is Spine? Support Cacti Report an Issue. Release 1. Templates The real strength of Cacti is unleashed by using templates. There are five different types of templates with the basic Cacti installation: Device Templates - Define a Collection of Graph Templates and Data Queries that belong to a class of Devices Graph Templates - Define how to paint the Graph, it size, legend, left and right Axis and it Canvas Data Templates - Define how data is to be stored in the RRDfile and how often to collect that data Aggregate Templates - A special class of Graph Template that allows you to combine elements from multiple Graph of a common Template into one Graph Color Templates - A collection of color rotations to use for Aggregate Graphs While it is perfectly fine to define all Data Sources and Graphs without using Templates at all, the burden of this approach is high.

Table There are several replacement values available to you when using a Template. The resulting Data Source can still be used on Graphs , but no data will be fed to it until it is made active again.

Minimum Value Here is where you specify the minimum value that is expected for this data source in the RRDfile. If a value lower than the minimum is given, it will be stored as Unknown U. Maximum Value Here is where you specify the maximum value that is expected for this data source in the RRDfile.

If a value higher than the maximum is given, it will be stored as Unknown U. The update function takes the overflow into account. The counter is stored as a per-second rate. When the counter overflows, RRDtool checks if the overflow happened at the bit or bit border and acts accordingly by adding an appropriate value to the result. GAUGE: numbers that are not continuously incrementing, e. Floating point numbers are accepted. This field is usually '' or 2 data gathering intervals".

Height The height of the Graph Canvas in pixels. This is not the height of the overall Graph, just the Graph Canvas. Width The width of the Graph Canvas in pixels Base Value Should be set to for memory values and for traffic measurements.

Slope Mode RRDtool graphs are composed of stair case curves by default. This is in line with the way RRDtool calculates its data.

Some people favor a more "organic" look for their graphs. Auto Scale Enable auto scale for the graph. This option must be check to use the next two options.

Auto Scale Options Choose whether you would like to use --alt-autoscale ignoring given limits , --alt-autoscale-max accepting a lower limit , --alt-autoscale-min accepting an upper limit. Logarithmic Scaling Choose if you want logarithmic y-axis scaling. But for logarithmic graphs, exponential notation is default.

Choose if you want logarithmic y-axis scaling and scientific units. Rigid Boundaries Mode From the RRDtool manual "Normally rrdgraph will automatically expand the lower and upper limit if the graph contains a value outside the valid range.

With this option you can disable this behavior". Auto Padding If you have ever created RRDtool based graphs manually, you may have realized how annoying it can be to get text to line up properly. With this option Cacti will do its best to make the columns on your graph legend line up.

This option works best when your graph legend has a consistent number of columns. Upper Limit The maximum value that will be displayed on the y-axis. This value is ignored is auto-scaling is turned on. Lower Limit The minimum value that will be displayed on the y-axis. Base Value Whether you want to base the y-axis labels on or This field will typically be set to for memory and for traffic measurements. Unit Grid Value Sets the unit value for the y-axis --y-grid.

You should probably keep the unit short as to keep it readable. Valid values for this field are between and For example, you could use 3 to display everything in 'k' kilo or -6 to display everything in 'u' micro.

Vertical Label The text to print on the left edge of the graph. Usually is the units the data on the graph is measured in. Auto-scaling Options Explained Relative to Auto-scale Options, the RRDtool graph manual says: Limits [-u --upper-limit value] [-l --lower-limit value] [-r --rigid] By default the graph will be auto-scaling so that it will adjust the y-axis to the range of the data.

You can change this behavior by explicitly setting the limits. The displayed y-axis will then range at least from lower-limit to upper-limit. Auto-scaling will still permit those boundaries to be stretched unless the rigid option is set. This option calculates the minimum and maximum y-axis from the actual minimum and maximum data values.

Our example would display slightly less than " The maximum value, if not defined on the command line, will be 0. This option can be useful when graphing router traffic when the WAN line uses compression, and thus the throughput may be higher than the WAN line speed. The minimum value, if not defined on the command line, will be 0. Keep in mind that not all graph items have a data source.

Color Depending on the graph item type, you can select a color for the graph item. This option is not available with RRDtool Graph Item Type This field is important because it defines what kind of graph item this is. Consolidation Function This tells RRDtool which consolidation function to use when representing this data on the graph. Check out the CDEF section of the manual for more information. Text Format You can enter text to be displayed on the legend here.

Hard Return Check this box to force graph items onto the next line. There are various fields that must be filled in for every graph item input: Table Description Optional This description will be displayed on the Graph edit page of any Graph using this Graph Template if specified. Field Type You must choose the field that you are going to associate with one or more Graph Item.