conference on nagios: reinhard scheck on cacti

the complete rrdtoolbased graphing solutionthe complete rrdtoolbased graphing solutionCactiCacti

Cacti

Open Source Performance Monitoring

2the complete rrdtoolbased graphing solutionthe complete rrdtoolbased graphing solutionCactiCacti

Why?


The Theory

FCAPS ITILFault Service Support Incident, Problem MgmtConfiguration Service Support Configuration MgmtAccounting Service Delivery Financial MgmtPerformance Service Delivery Capacity, Service Level MgmtSecurity Service Delivery Security Mgmt

Cacti Core FunctionalityProvided via PluginsNot provided by Cacti


The Goal

● FAULT management: “operations” must have

● SERVICE LEVEL management: “customer” must have

● PERFORMANCE management:“budget” must have

● no fault = no problem?


An Example

measure itor

forget it!


The Agenda

● Why?● Cacti Architecture● Templates● Plugins● The Future


Cacti Architecture: The EcoSystem


Cacti

The Architecture

Browser Poller

Router

42 Application

Server

MySQL

42

rrdrrdrrd

PBX


The Architecture

CactiBrowser Poller

Router

42 Application

Server

MySQL

PBX


The Features

● Single server setup, agentless● Browser based for admin and user● Fast, extensible data collector● Template engine, template repository● Plugin Architecture, plugin repository● Scalable 400k data sources


The User Interface


Templates


Templates why?

● easily handle multiple devices of same type● Router, Switch, Firewall, Loadbalancer, ...● File Server, Filer, NAS, SAN, ...● DNS, DHCP, Web Server, ...

● don't repeat administrative tasks over and over again

● define global properties as a single template● propagate changes to all targets

in one click


Network Traffic Template

Daily

Weekly

Monthly


Templates for NonNetwork Systems

Fax ServerPrinter


Templates – where to get them

● hundreds of templates available, e.g.● DNS, DHCP, Radius, httpd, squid, Tomcat, ...● Router, Switches, Load Balancers, Filers, ...● Temperature, Weather Sensors, ...

● Cacti “Scripts and Templates” forumhttp://forums.cacti.net/forum12.html

and “Template Repository”http://docs.cacti.net/templates

● Download ... import ... GO!

http://forums.cacti.net/forum-12.html

http://docs.cacti.net/templates


Plugins


The Plugin Architecture

● defines hooks● embedding into menu structure● allows access to Cacti SQL tables● hooks into the poller● extends Cacti to suite your needs● Download ... enable ... GO!


THOLD – Threshold Monitoring

Host status floatingthresholds

absolutethresholds


Reportit – report tabular data

● Tabular representation; daily, weekly, quarterly ...● Custom calculations, multiple sort options● Multitude of Charts available● Scales up to thousands of data sources


Autom8 – creates Graphs and Trees

● Rule based flexible matching● One Click Administration


Weathermap

Custom backgrounds

Hoveringgraphs


Plugins – where to get them

● The Cacti Community shares dozens of plugins● MacTrack – tracks MAC and IP addresses● Nectar – emails your favorite graphs● QuickTree – a shopping basket for graphs● Syslog – centralized logging● ...

● Cacti “Plugin Announcement” forumhttp://forums.cacti.net/forum19.html

and “Plugin Repository”http://docs.cacti.net/plugins

http://forums.cacti.net/forum-19.html

http://docs.cacti.net/plugins


The Future


Large Scale Installations

● Cacti goes (extremely) large scale● Multiple installations > 100,000 data sources● Biggest known > 400,000 data sources● Polling interval = 5 minutes!

● required resources:● BOOST plugin, predecessor of rrdcached

fast bulk rrd updates (disk performance!)

● Use of MySQL memory tables


Integration

● Builtin Plugin Architecture, finally!● Command Line Interface

● Completely rewritten CLI support to e.g. allow interfacing a CMDB

● Works on Data queries, Devices, Graphs, Trees● User and permission support● Template Import


Web 2.0 – AJAX and CSS

● Cacti 0.8.8 uses jQuery● e.g. colorpicker

● Improved admin performance● Autocomplete fields

to avoid loading e.g. 100s devices in a dropdown● Drag n' drop item reordering

● Tabbed views● Resizable menu and columns● new tree design


Internationalization

● Available now in● English, Bulgarian, French, German, Spanish,

Swedish, Russian, Japanese, Trad. Chinese, unfortunately not yet in ItalianTranslators welcome!

● Automatic language detection● Time zone support


Full RRDTool Support

● Goal: support almost any available RRDTool feature with next major Cacti release

● Cacti 0.8.8 will support e.g.● Right axis, manual/automatic scaling, gridfitting● Every colortag, full font support, watermarks, ...● Templated xgrid support (time axis)● Dash support, borders, font smoothing,

pango markup● COMPUTE data source


Roadmap Cacti 0.8.9

● Full support for multiple polling intervals● RRA templates/grouping (still designing)

● Online Repository/Warehouse● Template packages● More data query XML resources into the database● Import scripts along with templates in one go● Support author information and version checking


Roadmap Cacti 0.9.0

● Integration of Boost into base code● Event management sub system● Logging to database● Introduce the site concept● Distributed polling● More to come, stay tuned ...


Vibrant User Community


Vibrant User Community

● ~ 60.000 Visitors/month● ~ 26.000 registered users● ~ 185.000 Posts● > 200 Doc Pages


Links● Main Site http://www.cacti.net

● Documentation http://docs.cacti.net

● Forum http://forums.cacti.net

● Bug Tracker http://bugs.cacti.net

● Resources http://docs.cacti.net/templatehttp://docs.cacti.net/plugins

● CactiEZ http://cactiuser.org/

http://www.cacti.net/

http://docs.cacti.net/

http://forums.cacti.net/

http://bugs.cacti.net/

http://docs.cacti.net/template

http://docs.cacti.net/plugins

http://cactiuser.org/


The TeamJ.P. Pasnak Larry J. Adams

Reinhard Scheck

Ian Berry Tony RomanJimmy Conner

Not shown:● Andreas Braun

● Chris Bell● Marlene Weiss


Questions, please!


Implement Custom Scripts

● protocols● e.g. wget, SOAP,

telnet, ssh, ...● programming

language● e.g. Shell, Perl,

PHP, Java ...


Templates defined – The Data Template

● MIN, MAX acceptable value

● Interval size● type:

GAUGE, COUNTER, ...


Templates defined – The Graph Template

● Title, x and yaxis

● Legends● Lines, areas,

colors, horizontal rules

● ...


Templates defined – The Host Template

● Related Graph Templates

● Data Queries

conference on nagios: reinhard scheck on cacti

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