1 =for changes please consult me first. Thanks, Alex
5 rrdtutorial - Alex van den Bogaerdt's RRDtool tutorial
9 RRDtool is written by Tobias Oetiker E<lt>tobi@oetiker.chE<gt> with
10 contributions from many people all around the world. This document is
11 written by Alex van den Bogaerdt E<lt>alex@vandenbogaerdt.nlE<gt> to help you
12 understand what RRDtool is and what it can do for you.
14 The documentation provided with RRDtool can be too technical for some
15 people. This tutorial is here to help you understand the basics of
16 RRDtool. It should prepare you to read the documentation yourself.
17 It also explains the general things about statistics with a focus on
24 Please don't skip ahead in this document! The first part of this
25 document explains the basics and may be boring. But if you don't
26 understand the basics, the examples will not be as meaningful to you.
28 Sometimes things change. This example used to provide numbers like
29 "0.04" in stead of "4.00000e-02". Those are really the same numbers,
30 just written down differently. Don't be alarmed if a future version
31 of rrdtool displays a slightly different form of output. The examples
32 in this document are correct for version 1.2.0 of RRDtool.
34 Also, sometimes bugs do occur. They may also influence the outcome of
35 the examples. Example speed4.png was suffering from this (the handling
36 of unknown data in an if-statement was wrong). Normal data will be
37 just fine (a bug in rrdtool wouldn't last long) but special cases like
38 NaN, INF and so on may last a bit longer. Try another version if you
39 can, or just live with it.
41 I fixed the speed4.png example (and added a note). There may be other
42 examples which suffer from the same or a similar bug. Try to fix it
43 yourself, which is a great excercise. But please do not submit your
44 result as a fix to the source of this document. Discuss it on the
45 user's list, or write to me.
47 =head2 What is RRDtool?
49 RRDtool refers to Round Robin Database tool.
50 Round robin is a technique that works with a fixed amount of data, and a
51 pointer to the current element. Think of a circle with some dots plotted
52 on the edge. These dots are the places where data can be stored. Draw an
53 arrow from the center of the circle to one of the dots; this is the pointer.
54 When the current data is read or written, the pointer moves to the next
55 element. As we are on a circle there is neither a beginning nor an end, you can
56 go on and on and on. After a while, all the available places will be used and
57 the process automatically reuses old locations. This way, the dataset
58 will not grow in size and therefore requires no maintenance.
59 RRDtool works with Round Robin Databases (RRDs). It stores and retrieves
62 =head2 What data can be put into an RRD?
64 You name it, it will probably fit as long as it is some sort of
65 time-series data. This means you have to be able to measure some value
66 at several points in time and provide this information to RRDtool. If
67 you can do this, RRDtool will be able to store it. The values must be
68 numerical but don't have to be integers, as is the case with MRTG (the
69 next section will give more details on this more specialized application).
71 Many examples below talk about SNMP which is an acronym for Simple Network
72 Management Protocol. "Simple" refers to the protocol. It does not
73 mean it is simple to manage or monitor a network. After working your
74 way through this document, you should know enough to be able to
75 understand what people are talking about. For now, just realize that
76 SNMP can be used to query devices for the values of counters they keep. It
77 is the value from those counters that we want to store in the RRD.
79 =head2 What can I do with this tool?
81 RRDtool originated from MRTG (Multi Router Traffic Grapher). MRTG
82 started as a tiny little script for graphing the use of a university's
83 connection to the Internet. MRTG was later (ab-)used as a tool for
84 graphing other data sources including temperature, speed, voltage,
85 number of printouts and the like.
87 Most likely you will start to use RRDtool to store and process data
88 collected via SNMP. The data will most likely be bytes (or bits)
89 transferred from and to a network or a computer. But it can also be
90 used to display tidal waves, solar radiation, power consumption,
91 number of visitors at an exhibition, noise levels near an airport,
92 temperature on your favorite holiday location, temperature in the
93 fridge and whatever your imagination can come up with.
95 You only need a sensor to measure the data and be able to feed the
96 numbers into RRDtool. RRDtool then lets you create a database, store
97 data in it, retrieve that data and create graphs in PNG format for
98 display on a web browser. Those PNG images are dependent on the data
99 you collected and could be, for instance, an overview of the average
100 network usage, or the peaks that occurred.
102 =head2 What if I still have problems after reading this document?
104 First of all: read it again! You may have missed something.
105 If you are unable to compile the sources and you have a fairly common
106 OS, it will probably not be the fault of RRDtool. There may be pre-compiled
107 versions around on the Internet. If they come from trusted sources, get
110 If on the other hand the program works but does not give you the
111 expected results, it will be a problem with configuring it. Review
112 your configuration and compare it with the examples that follow.
114 There is a mailing list and an archive of it. Read the list for a few
115 weeks and search the archive. It is considered rude to just ask
116 a question without searching the archives: your problem may already have been
117 solved for somebody else! This is true for most, if not all, mailing lists
118 and not only for this particular one. Look in the documentation that
119 came with RRDtool for the location and usage of the list.
121 I suggest you take a moment to subscribe to the mailing list right now
122 by sending an email to E<lt>rrd-users-request@lists.oetiker.chE<gt> with a
123 subject of "subscribe". If you ever want to leave this list, just write
124 an email to the same address but now with a subject of "unsubscribe".
126 =head2 How will you help me?
128 By giving you some detailed descriptions with detailed examples.
129 I assume that following the instructions in the order presented
130 will give you enough knowledge of RRDtool to experiment for yourself.
131 If it doesn't work the first time, don't give up. Reread the stuff that
132 you did understand, you may have missed something.
134 By following the examples you get some hands-on experience and, even
135 more important, some background information of how it works.
137 You will need to know something about hexadecimal numbers. If you don't
138 then start with reading L<bin_dec_hex> before you continue here.
140 =head2 Your first Round Robin Database
142 In my opinion the best way to learn something is to actually do it.
143 Why not start right now? We will create a database, put some values
144 in it and extract this data again. Your output should be the same
145 as the output that is included in this document.
147 We will start with some easy stuff and compare a car with a router,
148 or compare kilometers (miles if you wish) with bits and bytes. It's
149 all the same: some number over some time.
151 Assume we have a device that transfers bytes to and from the Internet.
152 This device keeps a counter that starts at zero when it is turned on,
153 increasing with every byte that is transferred. This counter will probably have
154 a maximum value. If this value is reached and an extra byte is counted,
155 the counter starts over at zero. This is the same as many counters
156 in the world such as the mileage counter in a car.
158 Most discussions about networking talk about bits per second so lets
159 get used to that right away. Assume a byte is eight bits and start to
160 think in bits not bytes. The counter, however, still counts bytes!
161 In the SNMP world most of the counters are 32 bits. That means they are
162 counting from 0 to 4294967295. We will use these values in the examples.
163 The device, when asked, returns the current value of the counter. We
164 know the time that has passes since we last asked so we now know how
165 many bytes have been transferred ***on average*** per second. This is
166 not very hard to calculate. First in words, then in calculations:
172 Take the current counter, subtract the previous value from it.
176 Do the same with the current time and the previous time (in seconds).
180 Divide the outcome of (1) by the outcome of (2), the result is
181 the amount of bytes per second. Multiply by eight to get the
182 number of bits per second (bps).
186 bps = (counter_now - counter_before) / (time_now - time_before) * 8
188 For some people it may help to translate this to an automobile example.
189 Do not try this example, and if you do, don't blame me for the results!
191 People who are not used to think in kilometers per hour can translate
192 most into miles per hour by dividing km by 1.6 (close enough).
193 I will use the following abbreviations:
196 km: kilometer (= 1000 meters).
199 km/h: kilometers per hour
200 m/s: meters per second
202 You are driving a car. At 12:05 you read the counter in the dashboard
203 and it tells you that the car has moved 12345 km until that moment.
204 At 12:10 you look again, it reads 12357 km. This means you have
205 traveled 12 km in five minutes. A scientist would translate that
206 into meters per second and this makes a nice comparison toward the
207 problem of (bytes per five minutes) versus (bits per second).
209 We traveled 12 kilometers which is 12000 meters. We did that in five
210 minutes or 300 seconds. Our speed is 12000m / 300s or 40 m/s.
212 We could also calculate the speed in km/h: 12 times 5 minutes
213 is an hour, so we have to multiply 12 km by 12 to get 144 km/h.
214 For our native English speaking friends: that's 90 mph so don't
215 try this example at home or where I live :)
217 Remember: these numbers are averages only. There is no way to figure out
218 from the numbers, if you drove at a constant speed. There is an example
219 later on in this tutorial that explains this.
221 I hope you understand that there is no difference in calculating m/s or
222 bps; only the way we collect the data is different. Even the k from kilo
223 is the same as in networking terms k also means 1000.
225 We will now create a database where we can keep all these interesting
226 numbers. The method used to start the program may differ slightly from
227 OS to OS, but I assume you can figure it out if it works different on
228 your's. Make sure you do not overwrite any file on your system when
229 executing the following command and type the whole line as one long
230 line (I had to split it for readability)
231 and skip all of the '\' characters.
233 rrdtool create test.rrd \
235 DS:speed:COUNTER:600:U:U \
236 RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:1:24 \
239 (So enter: C<rrdtool create test.rrd --start 920804400 DS ...>)
241 =head2 What has been created?
243 We created the round robin database called test (test.rrd) which starts at
244 noon the day I started writing this document, 7th of March, 1999 (this date
245 translates to 920804400 seconds as explained below). Our database holds
246 one data source (DS) named "speed" that represents a counter. This counter
247 is read every five minutes (this is the default therefore you don't have to
248 put C<--step=300>). In the same database two round robin archives (RRAs)
249 are kept, one averages the data every time it is read (e.g., there's nothing
250 to average) and keeps 24 samples (24 times 5 minutes is 2 hours). The other
251 averages 6 values (half hour) and contains 10 such averages (e.g. 5 hours).
253 RRDtool works with special time stamps coming from the UNIX world.
254 This time stamp is the number of seconds that passed since January
255 1st 1970 UTC. The time stamp value is translated into local time and
256 it will therefore look different for different time zones.
258 Chances are that you are not in the same part of the world as I am.
259 This means your time zone is different. In all examples where I talk
260 about time, the hours may be wrong for you. This has little effect on
261 the results of the examples, just correct the hours while reading.
262 As an example: where I will see "12:05" the UK folks will see "11:05".
264 We now have to fill our database with some numbers. We'll pretend to
265 have read the following numbers:
283 We fill the database as follows:
285 rrdtool update test.rrd 920804700:12345 920805000:12357 920805300:12363
286 rrdtool update test.rrd 920805600:12363 920805900:12363 920806200:12373
287 rrdtool update test.rrd 920806500:12383 920806800:12393 920807100:12399
288 rrdtool update test.rrd 920807400:12405 920807700:12411 920808000:12415
289 rrdtool update test.rrd 920808300:12420 920808600:12422 920808900:12423
291 This reads: update our test database with the following numbers
293 time 920804700, value 12345
294 time 920805000, value 12357
298 As you can see, it is possible to feed more than one value into the
299 database in one command. I had to stop at three for readability but
300 the real maximum per line is OS dependent.
302 We can now retrieve the data from our database using "rrdtool fetch":
304 rrdtool fetch test.rrd AVERAGE --start 920804400 --end 920809200
306 It should return the following output:
311 920805000: 4.0000000000e-02
312 920805300: 2.0000000000e-02
313 920805600: 0.0000000000e+00
314 920805900: 0.0000000000e+00
315 920806200: 3.3333333333e-02
316 920806500: 3.3333333333e-02
317 920806800: 3.3333333333e-02
318 920807100: 2.0000000000e-02
319 920807400: 2.0000000000e-02
320 920807700: 2.0000000000e-02
321 920808000: 1.3333333333e-02
322 920808300: 1.6666666667e-02
323 920808600: 6.6666666667e-03
324 920808900: 3.3333333333e-03
328 Note that you might get more rows than you expect. The reason for this is
329 that you ask for a time range that ends on 920809200. The number that is
330 written behind 920809200: in the list above covers the time range from
331 920808900 to 920809200, EXCLUDING 920809200. Hence to be on the sure side,
332 you receive the entry from 920809200 to 920809500 as well since it INCLUDES
333 920809200. You may also see "NaN" instead of "nan" this is OS dependent.
334 "NaN" stands for "Not A Number". If your OS writes "U" or "UNKN" or
335 something similar that's okay. If something else is wrong, it will probably
336 be due to an error you made (assuming that my tutorial is correct of course
337 :-). In that case: delete the database and try again.
340 The meaning of the above output will become clear below.
342 =head2 Time to create some graphics
344 Try the following command:
346 rrdtool graph speed.png \
347 --start 920804400 --end 920808000 \
348 DEF:myspeed=test.rrd:speed:AVERAGE \
351 This will create speed.png which starts at 12:00 and ends at 13:00.
352 There is a definition of a variable called myspeed, using the data from RRA
353 "speed" out of database "test.rrd". The line drawn is 2 pixels high
354 and represents the variable myspeed. The color is red (specified by
355 its rgb-representation, see below).
357 You'll notice that the start of the graph is not at 12:00 but at 12:05.
358 This is because we have insufficient data to tell the average before
359 that time. This will only happen when you miss some samples, this will
360 not happen a lot, hopefully.
362 If this has worked: congratulations! If not, check what went wrong.
365 The colors are built up from red, green and blue. For each of the
366 components, you specify how much to use in hexadecimal where 00 means
367 not included and FF means fully included.
368 The "color" white is a mixture of red, green and blue: FFFFFF
369 The "color" black is all colors off: 000000
374 magenta #FF00FF (mixed red with blue)
375 gray #555555 (one third of all components)
377 Additionally you can (with a recent RRDtool) add an alpha channel
378 (transparency). The default will be "FF" which means non-transparent.
380 The PNG you just created can be displayed using your favorite image
381 viewer. Web browsers will display the PNG via the URL
382 "file:///the/path/to/speed.png"
384 =head2 Graphics with some math
386 When looking at the image, you notice that the horizontal axis is labeled
387 12:10, 12:20, 12:30, 12:40 and 12:50. Sometimes a label doesn't fit (12:00
388 and 13:00 would be likely candidates) so they are skipped.
390 The vertical axis displays the range we entered. We provided
391 kilometers and when divided by 300 seconds, we get very small
392 numbers. To be exact, the first value was 12 (12357-12345) and divided
393 by 300 this makes 0.04, which is displayed by RRDtool as "40 m"
394 meaning "40/1000". The "m" (milli) has nothing to do with meters (also m),
395 kilometers or millimeters! RRDtool doesn't know about the physical
396 units of our data, it just works with dimensionless numbers.
398 If we had measured our distances in meters, this would have been
399 (12357000-12345000)/300 = 12000/300 = 40.
401 As most people have a better feel for numbers in this range, we'll
402 correct that. We could recreate our database and store the correct
403 data, but there is a better way: we do some calculations while creating
406 rrdtool graph speed2.png \
407 --start 920804400 --end 920808000 \
408 --vertical-label m/s \
409 DEF:myspeed=test.rrd:speed:AVERAGE \
410 CDEF:realspeed=myspeed,1000,\* \
411 LINE2:realspeed#FF0000
413 Note: I need to escape the multiplication operator * with a backslash.
414 If I don't, the operating system may interpret it and use it for file
415 name expansion. You could also place the line within quotation marks
418 "CDEF:realspeed=myspeed,1000,*" \
420 It boils down to: it is RRDtool which should see *, not your shell.
421 And it is your shell interpreting \, not RRDtool. You may need to
422 adjust examples accordingly if you happen to use an operating
423 system or shell which behaves differently.
425 After viewing this PNG, you notice the "m" (milli) has
426 disappeared. This it what the correct result would be. Also, a label
427 has been added to the image. Apart from the things mentioned above,
428 the PNG should look the same.
430 The calculations are specified in the CDEF part above and are in
431 Reverse Polish Notation ("RPN"). What we requested RRDtool to do is:
432 "take the data source myspeed and the number 1000; multiply
433 those". Don't bother with RPN yet, it will be explained later on in
434 more detail. Also, you may want to read my tutorial on CDEFs and Steve
435 Rader's tutorial on RPN. But first finish this tutorial.
437 Hang on! If we can multiply values with 1000, it should also be possible
438 to display kilometers per hour from the same data!
440 To change a value that is measured in meters per second:
442 Calculate meters per hour: value * 3600
443 Calculate kilometers per hour: value / 1000
444 Together this makes: value * (3600/1000) or value * 3.6
446 In our example database we made a mistake and we need to compensate for
447 this by multiplying with 1000. Applying that correction:
449 value * 3.6 * 1000 == value * 3600
451 Now let's create this PNG, and add some more magic ...
453 rrdtool graph speed3.png \
454 --start 920804400 --end 920808000 \
455 --vertical-label km/h \
456 DEF:myspeed=test.rrd:speed:AVERAGE \
457 "CDEF:kmh=myspeed,3600,*" \
458 CDEF:fast=kmh,100,GT,kmh,0,IF \
459 CDEF:good=kmh,100,GT,0,kmh,IF \
460 HRULE:100#0000FF:"Maximum allowed" \
461 AREA:good#00FF00:"Good speed" \
462 AREA:fast#FF0000:"Too fast"
464 Note: here we use another means to escape the * operator by enclosing
465 the whole string in double quotes.
467 This graph looks much better. Speed is shown in km/h and there is even
468 an extra line with the maximum allowed speed (on the road I travel
469 on). I also changed the colors used to display speed and changed it
470 from a line into an area.
472 The calculations are more complex now. For speed measurements within
473 the speed limit they are:
475 Check if kmh is greater than 100 ( kmh,100 ) GT
476 If so, return 0, else kmh ((( kmh,100 ) GT ), 0, kmh) IF
478 For values above the speed limit:
480 Check if kmh is greater than 100 ( kmh,100 ) GT
481 If so, return kmh, else return 0 ((( kmh,100) GT ), kmh, 0) IF
483 =head2 Graphics Magic
485 I like to believe there are virtually no limits to how RRDtool graph
486 can manipulate data. I will not explain how it works, but look at the
489 rrdtool graph speed4.png \
490 --start 920804400 --end 920808000 \
491 --vertical-label km/h \
492 DEF:myspeed=test.rrd:speed:AVERAGE \
493 CDEF:nonans=myspeed,UN,0,myspeed,IF \
494 CDEF:kmh=nonans,3600,* \
495 CDEF:fast=kmh,100,GT,100,0,IF \
496 CDEF:over=kmh,100,GT,kmh,100,-,0,IF \
497 CDEF:good=kmh,100,GT,0,kmh,IF \
498 HRULE:100#0000FF:"Maximum allowed" \
499 AREA:good#00FF00:"Good speed" \
500 AREA:fast#550000:"Too fast" \
501 STACK:over#FF0000:"Over speed"
503 Remember the note in the beginning? I had to remove unknown data from
504 this example. The 'nonans' CDEF is new, and the 6th line (which used to
505 be the 5th line) used to read 'CDEF:kmh=myspeed,3600,*'
507 Let's create a quick and dirty HTML page to view the three PNGs:
509 <HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Speed</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>
510 <IMG src="speed2.png" alt="Speed in meters per second">
512 <IMG src="speed3.png" alt="Speed in kilometers per hour">
514 <IMG src="speed4.png" alt="Traveled too fast?">
517 Name the file "speed.html" or similar, and look at it in your web browser.
519 Now, all you have to do is measure the values regularly and update the
520 database. When you want to view the data, recreate the PNGs and make
521 sure to refresh them in your browser. (Note: just clicking reload may
522 not be enough, especially when proxies are involved. Try shift-reload
525 =head2 Updates in Reality
527 We've already used the C<update> command: it took one or more
528 parameters in the form of "<time>:<value>". You'll be glad to know
529 that you can specify the current time by filling in a "N" as the time.
530 Or you could use the "time" function in Perl (the shortest example in
533 perl -e 'print time, "\n" '
535 How to run a program on regular intervals is OS specific. But here is
536 an example in pseudo code:
538 - Get the value and put it in variable "$speed"
539 - rrdtool update speed.rrd N:$speed
541 (do not try this with our test database, we'll use it in further examples)
543 This is all. Run the above script every five minutes. When you need to know
544 what the graphs look like, run the examples above. You could put them
545 in a script as well. After running that script, view the page
546 index.html we created above.
548 =head2 Some words on SNMP
550 I can imagine very few people that will be able to get real data from
551 their car every five minutes. All other people will have to settle for
552 some other kind of counter. You could measure the number of pages
553 printed by a printer, for example, the cups of coffee made by the
554 coffee machine, a device that counts the electricity used,
555 whatever. Any incrementing counter can be monitored and graphed using
556 the stuff you learned so far. Later on we will also be able to monitor
557 other types of values like temperature.
559 Many people interested in RRDtool will use the counter that keeps track
560 of octets (bytes) transferred by a network device. So let's do just
561 that next. We will start with a description of how to collect data.
563 Some people will make a remark that there are tools which can do this data
564 collection for you. They are right! However, I feel it is important that
565 you understand they are not necessary. When you have to determine why
566 things went wrong you need to know how they work.
568 One tool used in the example has been talked about very briefly in the
569 beginning of this document, it is called SNMP. It is a way of talking
570 to networked equipment. The tool I use below is called "snmpget" and
571 this is how it works:
573 snmpget device password OID
577 snmpget -v[version] -c[password] device OID
579 For device you substitute the name, or the IP address, of your device.
580 For password you use the "community read string" as it is called in the
581 SNMP world. For some devices the default of "public" might work, however
582 this can be disabled, altered or protected for privacy and security
583 reasons. Read the documentation that comes with your device or program.
585 Then there is this parameter, called OID, which means "object identifier".
587 When you start to learn about SNMP it looks very confusing. It isn't
588 all that difficult when you look at the Management Information Base
589 ("MIB"). It is an upside-down tree that describes data, with a single node
590 as the root and from there a number of branches. These branches end
591 up in another node, they branch out, etc. All the branches have a name
592 and they form the path that we follow all the way down. The branches
593 that we follow are named: iso, org, dod, internet, mgmt and mib-2.
594 These names can also be written down as numbers and are 1 3 6 1 2 1.
596 iso.org.dod.internet.mgmt.mib-2 (1.3.6.1.2.1)
598 There is a lot of confusion about the leading dot that some programs
599 use. There is *no* leading dot in an OID. However, some programs
600 can use the above part of OIDs as a default. To indicate the difference
601 between abbreviated OIDs and full OIDs they need a leading dot when
602 you specify the complete OID. Often those programs will leave out
603 the default portion when returning the data to you. To make things
604 worse, they have several default prefixes ...
606 Ok, lets continue to the start of our OID: we had 1.3.6.1.2.1
607 From there, we are especially interested in the branch "interfaces"
608 which has number 2 (e.g., 1.3.6.1.2.1.2 or 1.3.6.1.2.1.interfaces).
610 First, we have to get some SNMP program. First look if there is a
611 pre-compiled package available for your OS. This is the preferred way.
612 If not, you will have to get the sources yourself and compile those.
613 The Internet is full of sources, programs etc. Find information using
614 a search engine or whatever you prefer.
616 Assume you got the program. First try to collect some data that is
617 available on most systems. Remember: there is a short name for the
618 part of the tree that interests us most in the world we live in!
620 I will give an example which can be used on Fedora Core 3. If it
621 doesn't work for you, work your way through the manual of snmp and
622 adapt the example to make it work.
624 snmpget -v2c -c public myrouter system.sysDescr.0
626 The device should answer with a description of itself, perhaps an
627 empty one. Until you got a valid answer from a device, perhaps using a
628 different "password", or a different device, there is no point in
631 snmpget -v2c -c public myrouter interfaces.ifNumber.0
633 Hopefully you get a number as a result, the number of interfaces.
634 If so, you can carry on and try a different program called "snmpwalk".
636 snmpwalk -v2c -c public myrouter interfaces.ifTable.ifEntry.ifDescr
638 If it returns with a list of interfaces, you're almost there.
640 [user@host /home/alex]$ snmpwalk -v2c -c public cisco 2.2.1.2
642 interfaces.ifTable.ifEntry.ifDescr.1 = "BRI0: B-Channel 1"
643 interfaces.ifTable.ifEntry.ifDescr.2 = "BRI0: B-Channel 2"
644 interfaces.ifTable.ifEntry.ifDescr.3 = "BRI0" Hex: 42 52 49 30
645 interfaces.ifTable.ifEntry.ifDescr.4 = "Ethernet0"
646 interfaces.ifTable.ifEntry.ifDescr.5 = "Loopback0"
648 On this cisco equipment, I would like to monitor the "Ethernet0"
649 interface and from the above output I see that it is number four. I try:
651 [user@host /home/alex]$ snmpget -v2c -c public cisco 2.2.1.10.4 2.2.1.16.4
653 interfaces.ifTable.ifEntry.ifInOctets.4 = 2290729126
654 interfaces.ifTable.ifEntry.ifOutOctets.4 = 1256486519
656 So now I have two OIDs to monitor and they are (in full, this time):
664 both with an interface number of 4.
666 Don't get fooled, this wasn't my first try. It took some time for me too
667 to understand what all these numbers mean. It does help a lot when they
668 get translated into descriptive text... At least, when people are talking
669 about MIBs and OIDs you know what it's all about.
670 Do not forget the interface number (0 if it is not interface dependent)
671 and try snmpwalk if you don't get an answer from snmpget.
673 If you understand the above section and get numbers from your device, continue
674 on with this tutorial. If not, then go back and re-read this part.
676 =head2 A Real World Example
678 Let the fun begin. First, create a new database. It contains data from
679 two counters, called input and output. The data is put into archives
680 that average it. They take 1, 6, 24 or 288 samples at a time.
681 They also go into archives that keep the maximum numbers. This will be
682 explained later on. The time in-between samples is 300 seconds, a good
683 starting point, which is the same as five minutes.
685 1 sample "averaged" stays 1 period of 5 minutes
686 6 samples averaged become one average on 30 minutes
687 24 samples averaged become one average on 2 hours
688 288 samples averaged become one average on 1 day
690 Lets try to be compatible with MRTG which stores about the following
693 600 5-minute samples: 2 days and 2 hours
694 600 30-minute samples: 12.5 days
695 600 2-hour samples: 50 days
696 732 1-day samples: 732 days
698 These ranges are appended, so the total amount of data stored in the
699 database is approximately 797 days. RRDtool stores the data
700 differently, it doesn't start the "weekly" archive where the "daily"
701 archive stopped. For both archives the most recent data will be near
702 "now" and therefore we will need to keep more data than MRTG does!
706 600 samples of 5 minutes (2 days and 2 hours)
707 700 samples of 30 minutes (2 days and 2 hours, plus 12.5 days)
708 775 samples of 2 hours (above + 50 days)
709 797 samples of 1 day (above + 732 days, rounded up to 797)
711 rrdtool create myrouter.rrd \
712 DS:input:COUNTER:600:U:U \
713 DS:output:COUNTER:600:U:U \
714 RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:1:600 \
715 RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:6:700 \
716 RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:24:775 \
717 RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:288:797 \
723 Next thing to do is to collect data and store it. Here is an example.
724 It is written partially in pseudo code, you will have to find out what
725 to do exactly on your OS to make it work.
727 while not the end of the universe
730 snmpget router community 2.2.1.10.4
733 snmpget router community 2.2.1.16.4
736 rrdtool update myrouter.rrd N:$in:$out
741 Then, after collecting data for a day, try to create an image using:
743 rrdtool graph myrouter-day.png --start -86400 \
744 DEF:inoctets=myrouter.rrd:input:AVERAGE \
745 DEF:outoctets=myrouter.rrd:output:AVERAGE \
746 AREA:inoctets#00FF00:"In traffic" \
747 LINE1:outoctets#0000FF:"Out traffic"
749 This should produce a picture with one day worth of traffic.
750 One day is 24 hours of 60 minutes of 60 seconds: 24*60*60=86400, we
751 start at now minus 86400 seconds. We define (with DEFs) inoctets and
752 outoctets as the average values from the database myrouter.rrd and draw
753 an area for the "in" traffic and a line for the "out" traffic.
755 View the image and keep logging data for a few more days.
756 If you like, you could try the examples from the test database and
757 see if you can get various options and calculations to work.
759 Suggestion: Display in bytes per second and in bits per second. Make
760 the Ethernet graphics go red if they are over four megabits per
763 =head2 Consolidation Functions
765 A few paragraphs back I mentioned the possibility of keeping
766 the maximum values instead of the average values. Let's go
767 into this a bit more.
769 Recall all the stuff about the speed of the car. Suppose we drove at 144
770 km/h during 5 minutes and then were stopped by the police for 25 minutes.
771 At the end of the lecture we would take our laptop and create and view the
772 image taken from the database. If we look at the second RRA we did
773 create, we would have the average from 6 samples. The samples measured
774 would be 144+0+0+0+0+0=144, divided by 30 minutes, corrected for the
775 error by 1000, translated into km/h, with a result of 24 km/h.
776 I would still get a ticket but not for speeding anymore :)
778 Obviously, in this case we shouldn't look at the averages. In some
779 cases they are handy. If you want to know how many km you had traveled,
780 the averaged picture would be the right one to look at. On the other hand, for
781 the speed that we traveled at, the maximum numbers seen is much more
782 interesting. Later we will see more types.
784 It is the same for data. If you want to know the amount, look at the
785 averages. If you want to know the rate, look at the maximum.
786 Over time, they will grow apart more and more. In the last database
787 we have created, there are two archives that keep data per day. The
788 archive that keeps averages will show low numbers, the archive that
789 shows maxima will have higher numbers.
791 For my car this would translate in averages per day of 96/24=4 km/h
792 (as I travel about 94 kilometers on a day) during working days, and
793 maxima of 120 km/h (my top speed that I reach every day).
795 Big difference. Do not look at the second graph to estimate the
796 distances that I travel and do not look at the first graph to
797 estimate my speed. This will work if the samples are close together,
798 as they are in five minutes, but not if you average.
800 On some days, I go for a long ride. If I go across Europe and travel
801 for 12 hours, the first graph will rise to about 60 km/h. The second
802 one will show 180 km/h. This means that I traveled a distance of 60
803 km/h times 24 h = 1440 km. I did this with a higher speed and a
804 maximum around 180 km/h. However, it probably doesn't mean that I
805 traveled for 8 hours at a constant speed of 180 km/h!
807 This is a real example: go with the flow through Germany (fast!) and stop
808 a few times for gas and coffee. Drive slowly through Austria and the
809 Netherlands. Be careful in the mountains and villages. If you would
810 look at the graphs created from the five-minute averages you would
811 get a totally different picture. You would see the same values on the
812 average and maximum graphs (provided I measured every 300 seconds).
813 You would be able to see when I stopped, when I was in top gear, when
814 I drove over fast highways etc. The granularity of the data is much
815 higher, so you can see more. However, this takes 12 samples per hour,
816 or 288 values per day, so it would be a lot of data over a longer
817 period of time. Therefore we average it, eventually to one value per
818 day. From this one value, we cannot see much detail, of course.
820 Make sure you understand the last few paragraphs. There is no value
821 in only a line and a few axis, you need to know what they mean and
822 interpret the data in an appropriate way. This is true for all data.
824 The biggest mistake you can make is to use the collected data for
825 something that it is not suitable for. You would be better off if
826 you didn't have the graph at all.
829 =head2 Let's review what you now should know
831 You know how to create a database and can put data in it. You can get
832 the numbers out again by creating an image, do math on the data from
833 the database and view the result instead of the raw data. You know
834 about the difference between averages and maximum, and when to use
835 which (or at least you should have an idea).
837 RRDtool can do more than what we have learned up to now. Before you
838 continue with the rest of this doc, I recommend that you reread from
839 the start and try some modifications on the examples. Make sure you
840 fully understand everything. It will be worth the effort and helps
841 you not only with the rest of this tutorial, but also in your day to day
842 monitoring long after you read this introduction.
844 =head2 Data Source Types
846 All right, you feel like continuing. Welcome back and get ready
847 for an increased speed in the examples and explanations.
849 You know that in order to view a counter over time, you have to
850 take two numbers and divide the difference of them between the
851 time lapsed. This makes sense for the examples I gave you but there
852 are other possibilities. For instance, I'm able to retrieve the
853 temperature from my router in three places namely the inlet, the
854 so called hot-spot and the exhaust. These values are not counters.
855 If I take the difference of the two samples and divide that by
856 300 seconds I would be asking for the temperature change per second.
857 Hopefully this is zero! If not, the computer room is probably on fire :)
859 So, what can we do? We can tell RRDtool to store the values we measure
860 directly as they are (this is not entirely true but close enough). The
861 graphs we make will look much better, they will show a rather constant
862 value. I know when the router is busy (it
863 works -> it uses more electricity -> it generates more heat -> the
864 temperature rises). I know when the doors are left open (the room is
865 air conditioned) -> the warm air from the rest of the building flows into the
866 computer room -> the inlet temperature rises). Etc. The data type we
867 use when creating the database before was counter, we now have a
868 different data type and thus a different name for it. It is called
869 GAUGE. There are more such data types:
871 - COUNTER we already know this one
872 - GAUGE we just learned this one
876 The two additional types are DERIVE and ABSOLUTE. Absolute can be used like
877 counter with one difference: RRDtool assumes the counter is reset when
878 it's read. That is: its delta is known without calculation by RRDtool
879 whereas RRDtool needs to calculate it for the counter type.
880 Example: our first example (12345, 12357, 12363, 12363) would read:
881 unknown, 12, 6, 0. The rest of the calculations stay the same.
882 The other one, derive, is like counter. Unlike counter, it can also
883 decrease so it can have a negative delta. Again, the rest of the
884 calculations stay the same.
888 rrdtool create all.rrd --start 978300900 \
889 DS:a:COUNTER:600:U:U \
891 DS:c:DERIVE:600:U:U \
892 DS:d:ABSOLUTE:600:U:U \
894 rrdtool update all.rrd \
895 978301200:300:1:600:300 \
896 978301500:600:3:1200:600 \
897 978301800:900:5:1800:900 \
898 978302100:1200:3:2400:1200 \
899 978302400:1500:1:2400:1500 \
900 978302700:1800:2:1800:1800 \
901 978303000:2100:4:0:2100 \
902 978303300:2400:6:600:2400 \
903 978303600:2700:4:600:2700 \
904 978303900:3000:2:1200:3000
905 rrdtool graph all1.png -s 978300600 -e 978304200 -h 400 \
906 DEF:linea=all.rrd:a:AVERAGE LINE3:linea#FF0000:"Line A" \
907 DEF:lineb=all.rrd:b:AVERAGE LINE3:lineb#00FF00:"Line B" \
908 DEF:linec=all.rrd:c:AVERAGE LINE3:linec#0000FF:"Line C" \
909 DEF:lined=all.rrd:d:AVERAGE LINE3:lined#000000:"Line D"
911 =head2 RRDtool under the Microscope
917 Line A is a COUNTER type, so it should continuously increment and RRDtool
918 must calculate the differences. Also, RRDtool needs to divide the
919 difference by the amount of time lapsed. This should end up as a
920 straight line at 1 (the deltas are 300, the time is 300).
924 Line B is of type GAUGE. These are "real" values so they should match
925 what we put in: a sort of a wave.
929 Line C is of type DERIVE. It should be a counter that can decrease. It does
930 so between 2400 and 0, with 1800 in-between.
934 Line D is of type ABSOLUTE. This is like counter but it works on
935 values without calculating the difference. The numbers are the same
936 and as you can see (hopefully) this has a different result.
940 This translates in the following values, starting at 23:10 and ending
941 at 00:10 the next day (where "u" means unknown/unplotted):
943 - Line A: u u 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 u
944 - Line B: u 1 3 5 3 1 2 4 6 4 2 u
945 - Line C: u u 2 2 2 0 -2 -6 2 0 2 u
946 - Line D: u 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 u
948 If your PNG shows all this, you know you have entered the data correctly,
949 the RRDtool executable is working properly, your viewer doesn't fool you,
950 and you successfully entered the year 2000 :)
952 You could try the same example four times, each time with only one of
955 Let's go over the data again:
961 Line A: 300,600,900 and so on. The counter delta is a constant 300 and
962 so is the time delta. A number divided by itself is always 1 (except
963 when dividing by zero which is undefined/illegal).
965 Why is it that the first point is unknown? We do know what we put into
966 the database, right? True, But we didn't have a value to calculate the delta
967 from, so we don't know where we started. It would be wrong to assume we
968 started at zero so we don't!
972 Line B: There is nothing to calculate. The numbers are as they are.
976 Line C: Again, the start-out value is unknown. The same story is holds
977 as for line A. In this case the deltas are not constant, therefore the line
978 is not either. If we would put the same numbers in the database as we did for
979 line A, we would have gotten the same line. Unlike type counter,
980 this type can decrease and I hope to show you later on why
981 this makes a difference.
985 Line D: Here the device calculates the deltas. Therefore we DO know the
986 first delta and it is plotted. We had the same input as with line A, but
987 the meaning of this input is different and thus the line is different.
988 In this case the deltas increase each time with 300. The time delta
989 stays at a constant 300 and therefore the division of the two gives
996 There are a few more basics to show. Some important options are still to
997 be covered and we haven't look at counter wraps yet. First the counter wrap:
998 In our car we notice that the counter shows 999987. We travel 20 km and
999 the counter should go to 1000007. Unfortunately, there are only six digits
1000 on our counter so it really shows 000007. If we would plot that on a type
1001 DERIVE, it would mean that the counter was set back 999980 km. It wasn't,
1002 and there has to be some protection for this. This protection is only
1003 available for type COUNTER which should be used for this kind of counter
1004 anyways. How does it work? Type counter should never decrease and
1005 therefore RRDtool must assume it wrapped if it does decrease!
1006 If the delta is negative, this can be compensated for by adding the
1007 maximum value of the counter + 1. For our car this would be:
1009 Delta = 7 - 999987 = -999980 (instead of 1000007-999987=20)
1011 Real delta = -999980 + 999999 + 1 = 20
1013 At the time of writing this document, RRDtool knows of counters that
1014 are either 32 bits or 64 bits of size. These counters can handle the
1015 following different values:
1017 - 32 bits: 0 .. 4294967295
1018 - 64 bits: 0 .. 18446744073709551615
1020 If these numbers look strange to you, you can view them in
1021 their hexadecimal form:
1023 - 32 bits: 0 .. FFFFFFFF
1024 - 64 bits: 0 .. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
1026 RRDtool handles both counters the same. If an overflow occurs and
1027 the delta would be negative, RRDtool first adds the maximum of a small
1028 counter + 1 to the delta. If the delta is still negative, it had to be
1029 the large counter that wrapped. Add the maximum possible value of the
1030 large counter + 1 and subtract the erroneously added small value.
1032 There is a risk in this: suppose the large counter wrapped while adding
1033 a huge delta, it could happen, theoretically, that adding the smaller value
1034 would make the delta positive. In this unlikely case the results would
1035 not be correct. The increase should be nearly as high as the maximum
1036 counter value for that to happen, so chances are you would have several
1037 other problems as well and this particular problem would not even be
1038 worth thinking about. Even though, I did include an example, so you
1039 can judge for yourself.
1041 The next section gives you some numerical examples for counter-wraps.
1042 Try to do the calculations yourself or just believe me if your calculator
1043 can't handle the numbers :)
1047 - 32 bits: (4294967295 + 1) = 4294967296
1048 - 64 bits: (18446744073709551615 + 1)
1049 - correction1 = 18446744069414584320
1053 Should become: 4294967300
1056 Correction1: -4294967196 + 4294967296 = 100
1058 Before: 18446744073709551000
1060 Should become: 18446744073709551800
1062 Delta: -18446744073709550816
1063 Correction1: -18446744073709550816
1064 + 4294967296 = -18446744069414583520
1065 Correction2: -18446744069414583520
1066 + 18446744069414584320 = 800
1068 Before: 18446744073709551615 ( maximum value )
1069 Increase: 18446744069414584320 ( absurd increase, minimum for
1070 Should become: 36893488143124135935 this example to work )
1071 But really is: 18446744069414584319
1073 Correction1: -4294967296 + 4294967296 = 0
1074 (not negative -> no correction2)
1076 Before: 18446744073709551615 ( maximum value )
1077 Increase: 18446744069414584319 ( one less increase )
1078 Should become: 36893488143124135934
1079 But really is: 18446744069414584318
1081 Correction1: -4294967297 + 4294967296 = -1
1082 Correction2: -1 + 18446744069414584320 = 18446744069414584319
1084 As you can see from the last two examples, you need strange numbers
1085 for RRDtool to fail (provided it's bug free of course), so this should
1086 not happen. However, SNMP or whatever method you choose to collect the
1087 data, might also report wrong numbers occasionally. We can't prevent all
1088 errors, but there are some things we can do. The RRDtool "create" command
1089 takes two special parameters for this. They define
1090 the minimum and maximum allowed values. Until now, we used "U", meaning
1091 "unknown". If you provide values for one or both of them and if RRDtool
1092 receives data points that are outside these limits, it will ignore those
1093 values. For a thermometer in degrees Celsius, the absolute minimum is
1094 just under -273. For my router, I can assume this minimum is much higher
1095 so I would set it to 10, where as the maximum temperature I would
1096 set to 80. Any higher and the device would be out of order.
1098 For the speed of my car, I would never expect negative numbers and
1099 also I would not expect a speed higher than 230. Anything else,
1100 and there must have been an error. Remember: the opposite is not true,
1101 if the numbers pass this check, it doesn't mean that they are
1102 correct. Always judge the graph with a healthy dose of suspicion if it
1105 =head2 Data Resampling
1107 One important feature of RRDtool has not been explained yet: it is
1108 virtually impossible to collect data and feed it into RRDtool on exact
1109 intervals. RRDtool therefore interpolates the data, so they are stored
1110 on exact intervals. If you do not know what this means or how it
1111 works, then here's the help you seek:
1113 Suppose a counter increases by exactly one for every second. You want
1114 to measure it in 300 seconds intervals. You should retrieve values
1115 that are exactly 300 apart. However, due to various circumstances you
1116 are a few seconds late and the interval is 303. The delta will also be
1117 303 in that case. Obviously, RRDtool should not put 303 in the database
1118 and make you believe that the counter increased by 303 in 300 seconds.
1119 This is where RRDtool interpolates: it alters the 303 value as if it
1120 would have been stored earlier and it will be 300 in 300 seconds.
1121 Next time you are at exactly the right time. This means that the current
1122 interval is 297 seconds and also the counter increased by 297. Again,
1123 RRDtool interpolates and stores 300 as it should be.
1125 in the RRD in reality
1127 time+000: 0 delta="U" time+000: 0 delta="U"
1128 time+300: 300 delta=300 time+300: 300 delta=300
1129 time+600: 600 delta=300 time+603: 603 delta=303
1130 time+900: 900 delta=300 time+900: 900 delta=297
1132 Let's create two identical databases. I've chosen the time range 920805000
1133 to 920805900 as this goes very well with the example numbers.
1135 rrdtool create seconds1.rrd \
1137 DS:seconds:COUNTER:600:U:U \
1138 RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:1:24
1142 for Unix: cp seconds1.rrd seconds2.rrd
1143 for Dos: copy seconds1.rrd seconds2.rrd
1144 for vms: how would I know :)
1148 rrdtool update seconds1.rrd \
1149 920805000:000 920805300:300 920805600:600 920805900:900
1150 rrdtool update seconds2.rrd \
1151 920805000:000 920805300:300 920805603:603 920805900:900
1155 rrdtool graph seconds1.png \
1156 --start 920804700 --end 920806200 \
1158 --upper-limit 1.05 --lower-limit 0.95 --rigid \
1159 DEF:seconds=seconds1.rrd:seconds:AVERAGE \
1160 CDEF:unknown=seconds,UN \
1161 LINE2:seconds#0000FF \
1163 rrdtool graph seconds2.png \
1164 --start 920804700 --end 920806200 \
1166 --upper-limit 1.05 --lower-limit 0.95 --rigid \
1167 DEF:seconds=seconds2.rrd:seconds:AVERAGE \
1168 CDEF:unknown=seconds,UN \
1169 LINE2:seconds#0000FF \
1172 View both images together (add them to your index.html file)
1173 and compare. Both graphs should show the same, despite the
1174 input being different.
1178 It's time now to wrap up this tutorial. We covered all the basics for
1179 you to be able to work with RRDtool and to read the additional
1180 documentation available. There is plenty more to discover about
1181 RRDtool and you will find more and more uses for this package. You can
1182 easily create graphs using just the examples provided and using only
1183 RRDtool. You can also use one of the front ends to RRDtool that are
1188 Remember to subscribe to the RRDtool mailing list. Even if you are not
1189 answering to mails that come by, it helps both you and the rest of the
1190 users. A lot of the stuff that I know about MRTG (and therefore about
1191 RRDtool) I've learned while just reading the list without posting to
1192 it. I did not need to ask the basic questions as they are answered in
1193 the FAQ (read it!) and in various mails by other users. With
1194 thousands of users all over the world, there will always be people who
1195 ask questions that you can answer because you read this and other
1196 documentation and they didn't.
1200 The RRDtool manpages
1204 I hope you enjoyed the examples and their descriptions. If you do, help
1205 other people by pointing them to this document when they are asking
1206 basic questions. They will not only get their answers, but at the same
1207 time learn a whole lot more.
1209 Alex van den Bogaerdt
1210 E<lt>alex@vandenbogaerdt.nlE<gt>
projects / rrdtool.git / blob