controls which plugins to load. These plugins ultimately define collectd's
behavior.
-The syntax of this config file is similar to the config file of the famos
+The syntax of this config file is similar to the config file of the famous
B<Apache Webserver>. Each line contains either a key-value-pair or a
section-start or -end. Empty lines and everything after the hash-symbol `#' is
ignored. Values are either string, enclosed in double-quotes,
B<false>. String containing of only alphanumeric characters and underscores do
not need to be quoted.
+Plugins are loaded in the order listed in this config file. It is a good idea
+to load any logging plugins first in order to catch messages from plugins
+during configuration.
+
=head1 GLOBAL OPTIONS
=over 4
Loads the plugin I<Plugin>. There must be at least one such line or B<collectd>
will be mostly useless.
+=item B<Include> I<File>
+
+Includes the file I<File> as if it was copy and pasted here. To prevent loops
+and shooting yourself in the foot in interesting ways the nesting is limited to
+a depth of 8E<nbsp>levels, which should be sufficient for most uses.
+
+It is no problem to have a block like C<E<lt>Plugin fooE<gt>> in more than one
+file, but you cannot include files from within blocks.
+
=item B<PIDFile> I<File>
Sets where to write the PID file to. This file is overwritten when it exists
=item B<Interval> I<Seconds>
Configures the interval in which to query the read plugins. Obviously smaller
-values lead to a higher system load produces by collectd, while higher values
+values lead to a higher system load produced by collectd, while higher values
lead to more coarse statistics.
=item B<ReadThreads> I<Num>
-Number of threads to start for reading plugins. The default value if B<5>, but
+Number of threads to start for reading plugins. The default value is B<5>, but
you may want to increase this if you have more than five plugins that take a
long time to read. Mostly those are plugin that do network-IO. Setting this to
a value higher than the number of plugins you've loaded is totally useless.
+=item B<Hostname> I<Name>
+
+Sets the hostname that identifies a host. If you omit this setting, the
+hostname will be determinded using the L<gethostname(2)> system call.
+
+=item B<FQDNLookup> B<true|false>
+
+If B<Hostname> is determined automatically this setting controls whether or not
+the daemon should try to figure out the "fully qualified domain name", FQDN.
+This is done using a lookup of the name returned by C<gethostname>.
+
+Using this feature (i.E<nbsp>e. setting this option to B<true>) is recommended.
+However, to preserve backwards compatibility the default is set to B<false>.
+The sample config file that is installed with C<makeE<nbsp>install> includes a
+line which sets this option, though, so that default installations will have
+this setting enabled.
+
=back
=head1 PLUGIN OPTIONS
=item B<DataDir> I<Directory>
-Set the directory to store RRD-files under. Per default RRD-files are generated
+Set the directory to store CSV-files under. Per default CSV-files are generated
beneath the daemon's working directory, i.E<nbsp>e. the B<BaseDir>.
+=item B<StoreRates> B<true|false>
+
+If set to B<true>, convert counter values to rates. If set to B<false> (the
+default) counter values are stored as is, i.E<nbsp>e. as an increasing integer
+number.
+
=back
=head2 Plugin C<df>
=item B<SocketGroup> I<Group>
-If running as root change the group of the UNIX-socket after it has been
+If running as root change the group of the UNIX-socket after it has been
created. Defaults to B<collectd>.
=item B<SocketPerms> I<Permissions>
=item B<Exec> I<User>[:[I<Group>]] I<Executable>
Execute the executable I<Executable> as user I<User>. If the user name is
-followed by a colon and a group name, the program is executed as the specified
-group. If only the colon follows the user name the group defaults to the
-user's login group.
+followed by a colon and a group name, the effective group is set to that group.
+The real group and saved-set group will be set to the default group of that
+user. If no group is given the effective group ID will be the same as the real
+group ID.
+
+Please note that in order to change the user and/or group the daemon needs
+superuser privileges. If the daemon is run as an unprivileged user you must
+specify the same user/group here. If the daemon is run with superuser
+privileges, you must supply a non-root user here.
=back
=back
+=head2 Plugin C<libvirt>
+
+This plugin allows CPU, disk and network load to be collected for virtualized
+guests on the machine. This means that these characteristics can be collected
+for guest systems without installing any software on them - collectd only runs
+on the hosting system. The statistics are collected through libvirt
+(L<http://libvirt.org/>).
+
+Only I<Connection> is required.
+
+=over 4
+
+=item B<Connection> I<uri>
+
+Connect to the hypervisor given by I<uri>. For example if using Xen use:
+
+ Connection "xen:///"
+
+Details which URIs allowed are given at L<http://libvirt.org/uri.html>.
+
+=item B<RefreshInterval> I<seconds>
+
+Refresh the list of domains and devices every I<seconds>. The default is 60
+seconds. Setting this to be the same or smaller than the I<Interval> will cause
+the list of domains and devices to be refreshed on every iteration.
+
+Refreshing the devices in particular is quite a costly operation, so if your
+virtualization setup is static you might consider increasing this.
+
+=item B<Domain> I<name>
+
+=item B<BlockDevice> I<name:dev>
+
+=item B<InterfaceDevice> I<name:dev>
+
+=item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
+
+Select which domains and devices are collected.
+
+If I<IgnoreSelected> is not given or I<false> then only the listed domains and
+disk/network devices are collected.
+
+If I<IgnoreSelected> is I<true> then the test is reversed and the listed
+domains and disk/network devices are ignored, while the rest are collected.
+
+The domain name and device names may use a regular expression, if the name is
+surrounded by I</.../> and collectd was compiled with support for regexps.
+
+The default is to collect statistics for all domains and all their devices.
+
+Example:
+
+ BlockDevice "/:hdb/"
+ IgnoreSelected "true"
+
+Ignore all I<hdb> devices on any domain, but other block devices (eg. I<hda>)
+will be collected.
+
+=item B<HostnameFormat> B<name|uuid|hostname|...>
+
+When the libvirt plugin logs data, it sets the hostname of the collected data
+according to this setting. The default is to use the guest name as provided by
+the hypervisor, which is equal to setting B<name>.
+
+B<uuid> means use the guest's UUID. This is useful if you want to track the
+same guest across migrations.
+
+B<hostname> means to use the global B<Hostname> setting, which is probably not
+useful on its own because all guests will appear to have the same name.
+
+You can also specify combinations of these fields. For example B<name uuid>
+means to concatenate the guest name and UUID (with a literal colon character
+between, thus I<"foo:1234-1234-1234-1234">).
+
+=back
+
=head2 Plugin C<logfile>
=over 4
channels, respectively. This, of course, only makes much sense when collectd is
running in foreground- or non-daemon-mode.
+=item B<Timestamp> B<true>|B<false>
+
+Prefix all lines printed by the current time. Defaults to B<true>.
+
=back
=head2 Plugin C<mbmon>
The C<mbmon plugin> uses mbmon to retrieve temperature, voltage, etc.
-Be default collectd connects to B<localhost> (127.0.0.1), port B<411/tcp>. The
+Be default collectd connects to B<localhost> (127.0.0.1), port B<411/tcp>. The
B<Host> and B<Port> options can be used to change these values, see below.
C<mbmon> has to be running to work correctly. If C<mbmon> is not running
timeouts may appear which may interfere with other statistics..
=back
+=head2 Plugin C<memcached>
+
+The C<memcached plugin> connects to a memcached server and queries statistics
+about cache utilization, memory and bandwidth used.
+L<http://www.danga.com/memcached/>
+
+=over 4
+
+=item B<Host> I<Hostname>
+
+Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
+
+=item B<Port> I<Port>
+
+TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<11211>.
+
+=back
+
=head2 Plugin C<mysql>
The C<mysql plugin> requires B<mysqlclient> to be installed. It connects to the
database when started and keeps the connection up as long as possible. When the
connection is interrupted for whatever reason it will try to re-connect. The
-plugin logs loud complaints in case anything goes wrong.
+plugin will complaint loudly in case anything goes wrong.
This plugin issues C<SHOW STATUS> and evaluates C<Bytes_{received,sent}>,
C<Com_*> and C<Handler_*> which correspond to F<mysql_octets.rrd>,
Filters don't necessarily have a handle, therefore the parent's handle is used.
The notation used in collectd differs from that used in tc(1) in that it
doesn't skip the major or minor number if it's zero and doesn't print special
-ids by their name. So, for example, a qdisc may be identified by
+ids by their name. So, for example, a qdisc may be identified by
C<pfifo_fast-1:0> even though the minor number of B<all> qdiscs is zero and
thus not displayed by tc(1).
=back
+=head2 Plugin C<nginx>
+
+This plugin collects the number of connections and requests handled by the
+C<nginx daemon> (speak: engineE<nbsp>X), a HTTP and mail server/proxy. It
+queries the page provided by the C<ngx_http_stub_status_module> module, which
+isn't compiled by default. Please refer to
+L<http://wiki.codemongers.com/NginxStubStatusModule> for more information on
+how to compile and configure nginx and this module.
+
+The following options are accepted by the C<nginx plugin>:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item B<URL> I<http://host/nginx_status>
+
+Sets the URL of the C<ngx_http_stub_status_module> output.
+
+=item B<User> I<Username>
+
+Optional user name needed for authentication.
+
+=item B<Password> I<Password>
+
+Optional password needed for authentication.
+
+=item B<CACert> I<File>
+
+File that holds one or more SSL certificates. If you want to use HTTPS you will
+possibly need this option. What CA certificates come bundled with C<libcurl>
+and are checked by default depends on the distribution you use.
+
+=back
+
=head2 Plugin C<ntpd>
=over 4
UDP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<123>.
+=item B<ReverseLookups> B<true>|B<false>
+
+Sets wether or not to perform reverse lookups on peers. Since the name or
+IP-address may be used in a filename it is recommended to disable reverse
+lookups. The default is to do reverse lookups to preserve backwards
+compatibility, though.
+
=back
=head2 Plugin C<nut>
=head2 Plugin C<perl>
-=over 4
-
-=item B<LoadPlugin> I<Plugin>
-
-Loads the Perl plugin I<Plugin>. This does basically the same as B<use> would
-do in a Perl program.
-
-=item B<BaseName> I<Name>
-
-Prepends I<Name>B<::> to all plugin names loaded after this option. This is
-provided for convenience to keep plugin names short.
-
-=item B<IncludeDir> I<Dir>
-
-Adds I<Dir> to the B<@INC> array. This is the same as using the B<-IDir>
-command line option or B<use lib Dir> in the source code.
-
-=back
+This plugin embeds a Perl-interpreter into collectd and provides an interface
+to collectd's plugin system. See L<collectd-perl(5)> for its documentation.
=head2 Plugin C<ping>
=item B<StepSize> I<Seconds>
-Sets the stepsize of newly created RRD-files. Ideally (and per default) this
-setting is identical to the global B<Interval>-option and should not be
-smaller. If unsure, don't set this option.
+B<Force> the stepsize of newly created RRD-files. Ideally (and per default)
+this setting is unset and the stepsize is set to the interval in which the data
+is collected. Do not use this option unless you absolutely have to for some
+reason. Setting this option may cause problems with the C<snmp plugin>, the
+C<exec plugin> or when the daemon is set up to receive data from other hosts.
=item B<HeartBeat> I<Seconds>
-Sets the heartbeat of newly created RRD-files. Ideally this setting is bigger
-than the B<Interval>-setting, by default it's twice the B<Interval>-setting. If
-unsure, don't set this option.
+B<Force> the heartbeat of newly created RRD-files. This setting should be unset
+in which case the heartbeat is set to twice the B<StepSize> which should equal
+the interval in which data is collected. Do not set this option unless you have
+a very good reason to do so.
=item B<RRARows> I<NumRows>
=back
+=head2 Plugin C<tcpconns>
+
+The C<tcpconns plugin> counts the number of currently established TCP
+connections based on the local port and/or the remote port. Since there may be
+a lot of connections the default if to count all connections with a local port,
+for which a listening socket is opened. You can use the following options to
+fine-tune the ports you are interested in:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item B<ListeningPorts> I<true>|I<false>
+
+If this option is set to I<true>, statistics for all local ports for which a
+listening socket exists are collected. The default depends on B<LocalPort> and
+B<RemotePort> (see below): If no port at all is specifically selected, the
+default is to collect listening ports. If specific ports (no matter if local or
+remote ports) are selected, this option defaults to I<false>, i.E<nbsp>e. only
+the selected ports will be collected unless this option is set to I<true>
+specifically.
+
+=item B<LocalPort> I<Port>
+
+Count the connections to a specific local port. This can be used to see how
+many connections are handled by a specific daemon, e.E<nbsp>g. the mailserver.
+You have to specify the port in numeric form, so for the mailserver example
+you'd need to set B<25>.
+
+=item B<RemotePort> I<Port>
+
+Count the connections to a specific remote port. This is useful to see how
+much a remote service is used. This is most useful if you want to know how many
+connections a local service has opened to remote services, e.E<nbsp>g. how many
+connections a mail server or news server has to other mail or news servers, or
+how many connections a web proxy holds to web servers. You have to give the
+port in numeric form.
+
+=back
+
=head2 Plugin C<unixsock>
=over 4
=item B<SocketGroup> I<Group>
-If running as root change the group of the UNIX-socket after it has been
+If running as root change the group of the UNIX-socket after it has been
created. Defaults to B<collectd>.
=item B<SocketPerms> I<Permissions>
=back
+=head2 Plugin C<uuid>
+
+This plugin, if loaded, causes the Hostname to be taken from the machine's
+UUID. The UUID is a universally unique designation for the machine, usually
+taken from the machine's BIOS. This is most useful if the machine is running in
+a virtual environment such as Xen, in which case the UUID is preserved across
+shutdowns and migration.
+
+The following methods are used to find the machine's UUID, in order:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item
+
+Check I</etc/uuid> (or I<UUIDFile>).
+
+=item
+
+Check for UUID from HAL (L<http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/hal>) if
+present.
+
+=item
+
+Check for UUID from C<dmidecode> / SMBIOS.
+
+=item
+
+Check for UUID from Xen hypervisor.
+
+=back
+
+If no UUID can be found then the hostname is not modified.
+
+=over 4
+
+=item B<UUIDFile> I<Path>
+
+Take the UUID from the given file (default I</etc/uuid>).
+
+=back
+
=head2 Plugin C<vserver>
This plugin doesn't have any options. B<VServer> support is only available for
The B<VServer> homepage can be found at L<http://linux-vserver.org/>.
+=head1 THRESHOLD CONFIGURATION
+
+Starting with version C<4.3.0> collectd has support for B<monitoring>. By that
+we mean that the values are not only stored or sent somewhere, but that they
+are judged and, if a problem is recognized, acted upon. The only action
+collectd takes itself is to generate and dispatch a "notification". Plugins can
+register to receive notifications and perform appropriate further actions.
+
+Since systems and what you expect them to do differ a lot, you can configure
+B<thresholds> for your values freely. This gives you a lot of flexibility but
+also a lot of responsibility.
+
+Every time a value is out of range a notification is dispatched. This means
+that the idle percentage of your CPU needs to be less then the configured
+threshold only once for a notification to be generated. There's no such thing
+as a moving average or similar - at least not now.
+
+Also, all values that match a threshold are considered to be relevant or
+"interesting". As a consequence collectd will issue a notification if they are
+not received for twice the last timeout of the values. If, for example, some
+hosts sends it's CPU statistics to the server every 60 seconds, a notification
+will be dispatched after about 120 seconds. It may take a little longer because
+the timeout is checked only once each B<Interval> on the server.
+
+Here is a configuration example to get you started. Read below for more
+information.
+
+ <Threshold>
+ <Type "foo">
+ Min 0.00
+ Max 1000.00
+ Invert false
+ Instance "bar"
+ </Type>
+
+ <Plugin "interface">
+ Instance "eth0"
+ <Type "if_octets">
+ Max 10000000
+ </Type>
+ </Plugin>
+
+ <Host "hostname">
+ <Type "cpu">
+ Instance "idle"
+ Min 10
+ </Type>
+
+ <Plugin "memory">
+ <Type "memory">
+ Instance "cached"
+ Min 100000000
+ </Type>
+ </Plugin>
+ </Host>
+ </Threshold>
+
+There are basically two types of configuration statements: The C<Host>,
+C<Plugin>, and C<Type> blocks select the value for which a threshold should be
+configured. The C<Plugin> and C<Type> blocks may be specified further using the
+C<Instance> option. You can combine the block by nesting the blocks, though
+they must be nested in the above order, i.E<nbsp>e. C<Host> may contain either
+C<Plugin> and C<Type> blocks, C<Plugin> may only contain C<Type> blocks and
+C<Type> may not contain other blocks. If multiple blocks apply to the same
+value the most specific block is used.
+
+The other statements specify the threshold to configure. They B<must> be
+included in a C<Type> block. Currently the following statements are recognized:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item B<Max> I<Value>
+
+Sets the upper bound of acceptable values. If unset defaults to positive
+infinity.
+
+=item B<Min> I<Value>
+
+Sets the lower bound of acceptable values. If unset defaults to negative
+infinity.
+
+=item B<Invert> B<true>|B<false>
+
+If set to B<true> the range of acceptable values is inverted, i.E<nbsp>e.
+values between B<Min> and B<Max> are not okay. Defaults, of course, to
+B<false>.
+
+=item B<Persist> B<true>|B<false>
+
+Sets how often notifications are generated. If set to B<true> one notification
+will be generated for each value that is out of the acceptable range. If set to
+B<false> (the default) then a notification is only generated if a value is out
+of range but the previous value was okay.
+
+This applies to missing values, too: If set to B<true> a notification about a
+missing value is generated once every B<Interval> seconds. If set to B<false>
+only one such notification is generated until the value appears again.
+
+=back
+
=head1 SEE ALSO
L<collectd(1)>,
L<collectd-exec(5)>,
+L<collectd-perl(5)>,
L<collectd-unixsock(5)>,
L<hddtemp(8)>,
L<kstat(3KSTAT)>,
projects / collectd.git / blobdiff