=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<filter_pcre>
+
+This plugin allows you to filter value lists based on Perl-compatible regular
+expressions whose syntax and semantics are as close as possible to those of
+the Perl 5 language. See L<pcre(3)> for details.
+
+ <Plugin filter_pcre>
+ <RegEx>
+ Host "^mail\d+$"
+ Plugin "^tcpconns$"
+ TypeInstance "^SYN_"
+
+ Action NoWrite
+ </Plugin>
+
+The configuration consists of one or more C<RegEx> blocks, each of which
+specifies a regular expression identifying a set of value lists and how to
+handle successful matches. A value list keeps the values of a single data-set
+and is identified by the tuple (host, plugin, plugin instance, type, type
+instance). The plugin and type instances are optional components. If they are
+missing they are treated as empty strings. Within those blocks, the following
+options are recognized:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item B<Host> I<regex>
+
+=item B<Plugin> I<regex>
+
+=item B<PluginInstance> I<regex>
+
+=item B<Type> I<regex>
+
+=item B<TypeInstance> I<regex>
+
+Specifies the regular expression for each component of the identifier. If any
+of these options is missing it is interpreted as a pattern which matches any
+string. All five components of a value list have to match the appropriate
+regular expression to trigger the specified action.
+
+=item B<Action> I<NoWrite>|I<NoThresholdCheck>|I<Ignore>
+
+Specify how to handle successful matches:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item B<NoWrite>
+
+Do not send the value list to any output (a.k.a. write) plugins.
+
+=item B<NoThresholdCheck>
+
+Skip threshold checking for this value list.
+
+=item B<Ignore>
+
+Completely ignore this value list.
+
+=back
+
+Two or more actions may be combined by specifying multiple B<Action> options.
+
+=back
+
=head2 Plugin C<hddtemp>
To get values from B<hddtemp> collectd connects to B<localhost> (127.0.0.1),
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<oracle>
+
+The "oracle" plugin uses the Oracle® Call Interface (OCI) to connect to an
+Oracle® Database and lets you execute SQL statements there. It is very similar
+to the "dbi" plugin, because it was written around the same time. See the "dbi"
+plugin's documentation above for details.
+
+ <Plugin oracle>
+ <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">
+ ConnectID "db01"
+ Username "oracle"
+ Password "secret"
+ Query "out_of_stock"
+ </Database>
+ </Plugin>
+
+=head3 B<Query> blocks
+
+The Query blocks are handled identically to the Query blocks of the "dbi"
+plugin. Please see its documentation above for details on how to specify
+queries.
+
+=head3 B<Database> blocks
+
+Database blocks define a connection to a database and which queries should be
+sent to that database. 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<ConnectID> I<ID>
+
+Defines the "database alias" or "service name" to connect to. Usually, these
+names are defined in the file named C<$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/tnsnames.ora>.
+
+=item B<Username> I<Username>
+
+Username used for authentication.
+
+=item B<Password> I<Password>
+
+Password used for authentication.
+
+=item B<Query> I<QueryName>
+
+Associates the query named I<QueryName> with this database connection. The
+query needs to be defined I<before> this statement, i.E<nbsp>e. all query
+blocks you want to refer to must be placed above the database block you want to
+refer to them from.
+
+=back
+
=head2 Plugin C<perl>
This plugin embeds a Perl-interpreter into collectd and provides an interface
=item B<Socket> I<Path>
Configures the path to the UNIX domain socket to be used when connecting to the
-daemon. By default C</var/run/pdns.controlsocket> will be used for an
-authoritative server and C</var/run/pdns_recursor.controlsocket> will be used
-for the recursor.
+daemon. By default C<${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
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 create graphs from the RRD files on the same machine,
-for example using the C<graph.cgi> script included in the
+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
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.
L<hddtemp(8)>,
L<kstat(3KSTAT)>,
L<mbmon(1)>,
+L<pcre(3)>,
L<psql(1)>,
L<rrdtool(1)>,
L<sensors(1)>
projects / collectd.git / blobdiff