=back
+=head2 Plugin C<dbi>
+
+This plugin uses the "B<dbi>" library (L<http://libdbi.sourceforge.net/>) to
+connect to various databases, execute SQL statements and read back the results.
+You can configure how each column is to be interpreted and the plugin will
+generate one data set from each row returned according to these rules.
+
+Because the plugin is very generic, the configuration is a little more complex
+than those of other plugins. It usually looks something like this:
+
+ <Plugin dbi>
+ <Query "out_of_stock">
+ Statement "SELECT category, COUNT(*) AS value FROM products WHERE in_stock = 0 GROUP BY category"
+ Type "gauge"
+ InstancesFrom "category"
+ ValuesFrom "value"
+ </Query>
+ <Database "product_information">
+ Driver "mysql"
+ DriverOption "host" "localhost"
+ DriverOption "username" "collectd"
+ DriverOption "password" "aZo6daiw"
+ DriverOption "dbname" "prod_info"
+ SelectDB "prod_info"
+ Query "out_of_stock"
+ </Database>
+ </Plugin>
+
+The configuration above defines one query and one database. The query is then
+linked to the database with the B<Query> option I<within> the
+B<E<lt>DatabaseE<gt>> block. You can have any number of queries and databases
+and you can also use the B<Include> statement to split up the configuration
+file in multiple, smaller files. However, the B<E<lt>QueryE<gt>> block I<must>
+precede the B<E<lt>DatabaseE<gt>> blocks, because the file is interpreted from
+top to bottom!
+
+The following is a complete list of options:
+
+=head3 B<Query> blocks
+
+Query blocks define SQL statements and how the returned data should be
+interpreted. They are identified by the name that is given in the opening line
+of the block. Thus the name needs to be unique. Other than that, the name is
+not used in collectd.
+
+=over 4
+
+=item B<Statement> I<SQL>
+
+Sets the statement that should be executed on the server. This is B<not>
+interpreted by collectd, but simply passed to the database server. Therefore,
+the SQL dialect that's used depends on the server collectd is connected to.
+
+The query has to return at least two columns, one for the instance and one
+value. You cannot omit the instance, even if the statement is guaranteed to
+always return exactly one line. In that case, you can usually specify something
+like this:
+
+ Statement "SELECT \"instance\", COUNT(*) AS value FROM table"
+
+(That works with MySQL but may not be valid SQL according to the spec. If you
+use a more strict database server, you may have to select from a dummy table or
+something.)
+
+=item B<Type> I<Type>
+
+The B<type> that's used for each line returned. See L<types.db(5)> for more
+details on how types are defined. In short: A type is a predefined layout of
+data and the number of values and type of values has to match the type
+definition.
+
+If you specify "temperature" here, you need exactly one gauge column. If you
+specify "if_octets", you will need two counter columns. See the B<ValuesFrom>
+setting below.
+
+=item B<InstancesFrom> I<column0> [I<column1> ...]
+
+Specifies the columns whose values will be used to create the "TypeInstance"
+for each row. You need to specify at least one column for each query. If you
+specify more than one column, the value of all columns will be join together
+with the hyphen as separation character.
+
+The plugin itself does not check whether or not all built instances are
+different. It's your responsibility to assure that each is unique.
+
+=item B<ValuesFrom> I<column0> [I<column1> ...]
+
+Names the columns whose content is used as the actual data for the data sets
+that are dispatched to the daemon. How many such columns you need is determined
+by the B<Type> setting above. If you specify too many or not enough columns,
+the plugin will complain about that and no data will be submitted to the
+daemon.
+
+The actual data type in the columns is not that important. The plugin will
+automatically cast the values to the right type if it know how to do that. So
+it should be able to handle integer an floating point types, as well as strings
+(if they include a number at the beginning).
+
+=back
+
+=head3 B<Database> blocks
+
+Database blocks define a connection to a database and which queries should be
+sent to that database. Since the used "dbi" library can handle a wide variety
+of databases, the configuration is very generic. If in doubt, refer to libdbi's
+documentationE<nbsp>- we stick as close to the terminology used there.
+
+Each database needs a "name" as string argument in the starting tag of the
+block. This name will be used as "PluginInstance" in the values submitted to
+the daemon. Other than that, that name is not used.
+
+=over 4
+
+=item B<Driver> I<Driver>
+
+Specifies the driver to use to connect to the database. In many cases those
+drivers are named after the database they can connect to, but this is not a
+technical necessity. These drivers are sometimes referred to as "DBD",
+B<D>ataB<B>ase B<D>river, and some distributions ship them in separate
+packages. Drivers for the "dbi" library are developed by the B<libdbi-drivers>
+project at L<http://libdbi-drivers.sourceforge.net/>.
+
+You need to give the driver name as expected by the "dbi" library here. You
+should be able to find that in the documentation for each driver. If you
+mistype the driver name, the plugin will dump a list of all known driver names
+to the log.
+
+=item B<DriverOption> I<Key> I<Value>
+
+Sets driver-specific options. What option a driver supports can be found in the
+documentation for each driver, somewhere at
+L<http://libdbi-drivers.sourceforge.net/>. However, the options "host",
+"username", "password", and "dbname" seem to be deE<nbsp>facto standards.
+
+Unfortunately, drivers are not too keen to report errors when an unknown option
+is passed to them, so invalid settings here may go unnoticed. This is not the
+plugin's fault, it will report errors if it gets them from the libraryE<nbsp>/
+the driver. If a driver complains about an option, the plugin will dump a
+complete list of all options understood by that driver to the log.
+
+=item B<SelectDB> I<Database>
+
+In some cases, the database name you connect with is not the database name you
+want to use for querying data. If this option is set, the plugin will "select"
+(switch to) that database after the connection is established.
+
+=item B<Query> I<QueryName>
+
+Associates the query named I<QueryName> with this database connection. The
+query needs to be defined I<before> this statement, i.E<nbsp>e. all query
+blocks you want to refer to must be placed above the database block you want to
+refer to them from.
+
+=back
+
=head2 Plugin C<df>
=over 4
=back
+=head2 Plugin C<filecount>
+
+The C<filecount> plugin counts the number of files in a certain directory (and
+its subdirectories) and their combined size. The configuration is very straight
+forward:
+
+ <Plugin "filecount">
+ <Directory "/var/qmail/queue/mess">
+ Instance "qmail-message"
+ </Directory>
+ <Directory "/var/qmail/queue/todo">
+ Instance "qmail-todo"
+ </Directory>
+ <Directory "/var/lib/php5">
+ Instance "php5-sessions"
+ Name "sess_*"
+ </Directory>
+ </Plugin>
+
+The example above counts the number of files in QMail's queue directories and
+the number of PHP5 sessions. Jfiy: The "todo" queue holds the messages that
+QMail has not yet looked at, the "message" queue holds the messages that were
+classified into "local" and "remote".
+
+As you can see, the configuration consists of one or more C<Directory> blocks,
+each of which specifies a directory in which to count the files. Within those
+blocks, the following options are recognized:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item B<Instance> I<Instance>
+
+Sets the plugin instance to I<Instance>. That instance name must be unique, but
+it's your responsibility, the plugin doesn't check for that. If not given, the
+instance is set to the directory name with all slashes replaced by underscores
+and all leading underscores removed.
+
+=item B<Name> I<Pattern>
+
+Only count files that match I<Pattern>, where I<Pattern> is a shell-like
+wildcard as understood by L<fnmatch(3)>. Only the B<filename> is checked
+against the pattern, not the entire path. In case this makes it easier for you:
+This option has been named after the B<-name> parameter to L<find(1)>.
+
+=item B<MTime> I<Age>
+
+Count only files of a specific age: If I<Age> is greater than zero, only files
+that haven't been touched in the last I<Age> seconds are counted. If I<Age> is
+a negative number, this is inversed. For example, if B<-60> is specified, only
+files that have been modified in the last minute will be counted.
+
+The number can also be followed by a "multiplier" to easily specify a larger
+timespan. When given in this notation, the argument must in quoted, i.E<nbsp>e.
+must be passed as string. So the B<-60> could also be written as B<"-1m"> (one
+minute). Valid multipliers are C<s> (second), C<m> (minute), C<h> (hour), C<d>
+(day), C<w> (week), and C<y> (year). There is no "month" multiplier. You can
+also specify fractional numbers, e.E<nbsp>g. B<"0.5d"> is identical to
+B<"12h">.
+
+=item B<Size> I<Size>
+
+Count only files of a specific size. When I<Size> is a positive number, only
+files that are at least this big are counted. If I<Size> is a negative number,
+this is inversed, i.E<nbsp>e. only files smaller than the absolute value of
+I<Size> are counted.
+
+As with the B<MTime> option, a "multiplier" may be added. For a detailed
+description see above. Valid multipliers here are C<b> (byte), C<k> (kilobyte),
+C<m> (megabyte), C<g> (gigabyte), C<t> (terabyte), and C<p> (petabyte). Please
+note that there are 1000 bytes in a kilobyte, not 1024.
+
+=back
+
=head2 Plugin C<hddtemp>
To get values from B<hddtemp> collectd connects to B<localhost> (127.0.0.1),
=back
+=head2 Plugin C<ipmi>
+
+=over 4
+
+=item B<Sensor> I<Sensor>
+
+Selects sensors to collect or to ignore, depending on B<IgnoreSelected>.
+
+=item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
+
+If no configuration if given, the B<ipmi> plugin will collect data from all
+sensors found of type "temperature", "voltage", "current" and "fanspeed".
+This option enables you to do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to I<true>
+the effect of B<Sensor> is inverted: All selected sensors are ignored and
+all other sensors are collected.
+
+=item B<NotifySensorAdd> I<true>|I<false>
+
+If a sensor appears after initialization time of a minute a notification
+is sent.
+
+=item B<NotifySensorRemove> I<true>|I<false>
+
+If a sensor disappears a notification is sent.
+
+=item B<NotifySensorNotPresent> I<true>|I<false>
+
+If you have for example dual power supply and one of them is (un)plugged then
+a notification is sent.
+
+=back
+
=head2 Plugin C<iptables>
=over 4
=head2 Plugin C<onewire>
+B<EXPERIMENTAL!> See notes below.
+
The C<onewire> plugin uses the B<owcapi> library from the B<owfs> project
L<http://owfs.org/> to read sensors connected via the onewire bus.
+Currently only temperature sensors (sensors with the family code C<10>,
+e.E<nbsp>g. DS1820, DS18S20, DS1920) can be read. If you have other sensors you
+would like to have included, please send a sort request to the mailing list.
+
+Hubs (the DS2409 chips) are working, but read the note, why this plugin is
+experimental, below.
+
=over 4
=item B<Device> I<Device>
Device "-s localhost:4304"
</Plugin>
+This directive is B<required> and does not have a default value.
+
=item B<Sensor> I<Sensor>
Selects sensors to collect or to ignore, depending on B<IgnoreSelected>, see
=back
+B<EXPERIMENTAL!> The C<onewire> plugin is experimental, because it doesn't yet
+work with big setups. It works with one sensor being attached to one
+controller, but as soon as you throw in a couple more senors and maybe a hub
+or two, reading all values will take more than ten seconds (the default
+interval). We will probably add some separate thread for reading the sensors
+and some cache or something like that, but it's not done yet. We will try to
+maintain backwards compatibility in the future, but we can't probmise. So in
+short: If it works for you: Great! But kaap in mind that the config I<might>
+change, though this is unlikely. Oh, and if you want to help improving this
+plugin, just send a short notice to the mailing list. ThanksE<nbsp>:)
+
=head2 Plugin C<perl>
This plugin embeds a Perl-interpreter into collectd and provides an interface
=back
+Please note that parameters are only supported by PostgreSQL's protocol
+version 3 and above which was introduced in version 7.4 of PostgreSQL.
+
=item B<Column> I<type> [I<type instance>]
Specify the I<type> and optional I<type instance> used to dispatch the value
configuration can be found in L<types.db(5)>. The number and order of the
B<Column> options has to match the columns of the query result.
+=item B<MinPGVersion> I<version>
+
+=item B<MaxPGVersion> I<version>
+
+Specify the minimum or maximum version of PostgreSQL that this query should be
+used with. Some statistics might only be available with certain versions of
+PostgreSQL. This allows you to specify multiple queries with the same name but
+which apply to different versions, thus allowing you to use the same
+configuration in a heterogeneous environment.
+
+The I<version> has to be specified as the concatenation of the major, minor
+and patch-level versions, each represented as two-decimal-digit numbers. For
+example, version 8.2.3 will become 80203.
+
=back
-The following predefined queries are available:
+The following predefined queries are available (the definitions can be found
+in the F<postgresql_default.conf> file which, by default, is available at
+C<I<prefix>/share/collectd/>):
=over 4
-=item B<database>
+=item B<backends>
+
+This query collects the number of backends, i.E<nbsp>e. the number of
+connected clients.
+
+=item B<transactions>
+
+This query collects the numbers of committed and rolled-back transactions of
+the user tables.
+
+=item B<queries>
+
+This query collects the numbers of various table modifications (i.E<nbsp>e.
+insertions, updates, deletions) of the user tables.
+
+=item B<query_plans>
+
+This query collects the numbers of various table scans and returned tuples of
+the user tables.
-This query collects general database statistics, i.E<nbsp>e. the number of
-backends and committed and rolled-back transactions.
+=item B<table_states>
-=item B<user_tables>
+This query collects the numbers of live and dead rows in the user tables.
-This query collects user-table usage statistics, i.E<nbsp>e. the numbers of
-various table scans and the numbers of various table modifications.
+=item B<disk_io>
-=item B<io_user_tables>
+This query collects disk block access counts for user tables.
-This query collects block access counts for user-tables.
+=item B<disk_usage>
+
+This query collects the on-disk size of the database in bytes.
=back
Specify a I<query> which should be executed for the database connection. This
may be any of the predefined or user-defined queries. If no such option is
-given, it defaults to "database", "user_tables" and "io_user_tables". Else,
-the specified queries are used only.
+given, it defaults to "backends", "transactions", "queries", "query_plans",
+"table_states", "disk_io" and "disk_usage". Else, the specified queries are
+used only.
=back
=item B<Socket> I<Path>
Configures the path to the UNIX domain socket to be used when connecting to the
-daemon. By default C</var/run/pdns.controlsocket> will be used for an
-authoritative server and C</var/run/pdns_recursor.controlsocket> will be used
-for the recursor.
+daemon. By default C<${localstatedir}/run/pdns.controlsocket> will be used for
+an authoritative server and C<${localstatedir}/run/pdns_recursor.controlsocket>
+will be used for the recursor.
=back
=back
+=head2 Plugin C<rrdcached>
+
+The C<rrdcached> plugin uses the RRDTool accelerator daemon, L<rrdcached(1)>,
+to store values to RRD files in an efficient manner. The combination of the
+C<rrdcached> B<plugin> and the C<rrdcached> B<daemon> is very similar to the
+way the C<rrdtool> plugin works (see below). The added abstraction layer
+provides a number of benefits, though: Because the cache is not within
+C<collectd> anymore, it does not need to be flushed when C<collectd> is to be
+restarted. This results in much shorter (if any) gaps in graphs, especially
+under heavy load. Also, the C<rrdtool> command line utility is aware of the
+daemon so that it can flush values to disk automatically when needed. This
+allows to integrate automated flushing of values into graphing solutions much
+more easily.
+
+There are disadvantages, though: The daemon may reside on a different host, so
+it may not be possible for C<collectd> to create the appropriate RRD files
+anymore. And even if C<rrdcached> runs on the same host, it may run in a
+different base directory, so relative paths may do weird stuff if you're not
+careful.
+
+So the B<recommended configuration> is to let C<collectd> and C<rrdcached> run
+on the same host, communicating via a UNIX domain socket. The B<DataDir>
+setting should be set to an absolute path, so that a changed base directory
+does not result in RRD files being createdE<nbsp>/ expected in the wrong place.
+
+=over 4
+
+=item B<DaemonAddress> I<Address>
+
+Address of the daemon as understood by the C<rrdc_connect> function of the RRD
+library. See L<rrdcached(1)> for details. Example:
+
+ <Plugin "rrdcached">
+ DaemonAddress "unix:/var/run/rrdcached.sock"
+ </Plugin>
+
+=item B<DataDir> I<Directory>
+
+Set the base directory in which the RRD files reside. If this is a relative
+path, it is relative to the working base directory of the C<rrdcached> daemon!
+Use of an absolute path is recommended.
+
+=item B<CreateFiles> B<true>|B<false>
+
+Enables or disables the creation of RRD files. If the daemon is not running
+locally, or B<DataDir> is set to a relative path, this will not work as
+expected. Default is B<true>.
+
+=back
+
=head2 Plugin C<rrdtool>
You can use the settings B<StepSize>, B<HeartBeat>, B<RRARows>, and B<XFF> to
=item B<CacheFlush> I<Seconds>
-When the C<rrdtool plugin> uses a cache (by setting B<CacheTimeout>, see below)
+When the C<rrdtool> plugin uses a cache (by setting B<CacheTimeout>, see below)
it writes all values for a certain RRD-file if the oldest value is older than
(or equal to) the number of seconds specified. If some RRD-file is not updated
anymore for some reason (the computer was shut down, the network is broken,
The trade off is that the graphs kind of "drag behind" and that more memory is
used.
+=item B<WritesPerSecond> B<Updates>
+
+When collecting many statistics with collectd and the C<rrdtool> plugin, you
+will run serious performance problems. The B<CacheFlush> setting and the
+internal update queue assert that collectd continues to work just fine even
+under heavy load, but the system may become very unresponsive and slow. This is
+a problem especially if you create graphs from the RRD files on the same
+machine, for example using the C<graph.cgi> script included in the
+C<contrib/collection3/> directory.
+
+This setting is designed for very large setups. Setting this option to a value
+between 25 and 80 updates per second, depending on your hardware, will leave
+the server responsive enough to draw graphs even while all the cached values
+are written to disk. Flushed values, i.E<nbsp>e. values that are forced to disk
+by the B<FLUSH> command, are B<not> effected by this limit. They are still
+written as fast as possible, so that web frontends have up to date data when
+generating graphs.
+
+For example: If you have 100,000 RRD files and set B<WritesPerSecond> to 30
+updates per second, writing all values to disk will take approximately
+56E<nbsp>minutes. Together with the flushing ability that's integrated into
+"collection3" you'll end up with a responsive and fast system, up to date
+graphs and basically a "backup" of your values every hour.
+
=back
=head2 Plugin C<sensors>
<Match>
Regex "\\<R=local_user\\>"
DSType "CounterInc"
- Type "email_count"
+ Type "counter"
Instance "local_user"
</Match>
</File>
use quotes around it! If no such statement is given only global information
will be collected.
+=back
+
=head2 Plugin C<tcpconns>
The C<tcpconns plugin> counts the number of currently established TCP
=over 4
-=back
-
=item B<ListeningPorts> I<true>|I<false>
If this option is set to I<true>, statistics for all local ports for which a
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.
+When a value comes within range again or is received after it was missing, an
+"OKAY-notification" is dispatched.
+
Here is a configuration example to get you started. Read below for more
information.