3 collectd.conf - Configuration for the system statistics collection daemon B<collectd>
7 BaseDir "/path/to/data/"
8 PIDFile "/path/to/pidfile/collectd.pid"
9 Server "123.123.123.123" 12345
22 This config file controls how the system statistics collection daemon
23 B<collectd> behaves. The most significant option is B<LoadPlugin>, which
24 controls which plugins to load. These plugins ultimately define collectd's
27 The syntax of this config file is similar to the config file of the famous
28 B<Apache Webserver>. Each line contains either a key-value-pair or a
29 section-start or -end. Empty lines and everything after the hash-symbol `#' is
30 ignored. Values are either string, enclosed in double-quotes,
31 (floating-point-)numbers or a boolean expression, i.E<nbsp>e. either B<true> or
32 B<false>. String containing of only alphanumeric characters and underscores do
33 not need to be quoted.
35 Plugins are loaded in the order listed in this config file. It is a good idea
36 to load any logging plugins first in order to catch messages from plugins
39 The configuration is read and processed in order, i.E<nbsp>e. from top to
40 bottom. So the plugins are loaded in the order listed in this config file. It
41 is a good idea to load any logging plugins first in order to catch messages
42 from plugins during configuration. Also, the C<LoadPlugin> option B<must> occur
43 B<before> the C<E<lt>Plugin ...E<gt>> block.
49 =item B<BaseDir> I<Directory>
51 Sets the base directory. This is the directory beneath all RRD-files are
52 created. Possibly more subdirectories are created. This is also the working
53 directory for the daemon.
55 =item B<LoadPlugin> I<Plugin>
57 Loads the plugin I<Plugin>. There must be at least one such line or B<collectd>
58 will be mostly useless.
60 =item B<Include> I<File>
62 Includes the file I<File> as if it was copy and pasted here. To prevent loops
63 and shooting yourself in the foot in interesting ways the nesting is limited to
64 a depth of 8E<nbsp>levels, which should be sufficient for most uses.
66 It is no problem to have a block like C<E<lt>Plugin fooE<gt>> in more than one
67 file, but you cannot include files from within blocks.
69 =item B<PIDFile> I<File>
71 Sets where to write the PID file to. This file is overwritten when it exists
72 and deleted when the program is stopped. Some init-scripts might override this
73 setting using the B<-P> command-line option.
75 =item B<PluginDir> I<Directory>
77 Path to the plugins (shared objects) of collectd.
79 =item B<TypesDB> I<File>
81 Set the file that contains the data-set descriptions.
83 =item B<Interval> I<Seconds>
85 Configures the interval in which to query the read plugins. Obviously smaller
86 values lead to a higher system load produced by collectd, while higher values
87 lead to more coarse statistics.
89 =item B<ReadThreads> I<Num>
91 Number of threads to start for reading plugins. The default value is B<5>, but
92 you may want to increase this if you have more than five plugins that take a
93 long time to read. Mostly those are plugin that do network-IO. Setting this to
94 a value higher than the number of plugins you've loaded is totally useless.
96 =item B<Hostname> I<Name>
98 Sets the hostname that identifies a host. If you omit this setting, the
99 hostname will be determinded using the L<gethostname(2)> system call.
101 =item B<FQDNLookup> B<true|false>
103 If B<Hostname> is determined automatically this setting controls whether or not
104 the daemon should try to figure out the "fully qualified domain name", FQDN.
105 This is done using a lookup of the name returned by C<gethostname>.
107 Using this feature (i.E<nbsp>e. setting this option to B<true>) is recommended.
108 However, to preserve backwards compatibility the default is set to B<false>.
109 The sample config file that is installed with C<makeE<nbsp>install> includes a
110 line which sets this option, though, so that default installations will have
111 this setting enabled.
115 =head1 PLUGIN OPTIONS
117 Some plugins may register own options. These options must be enclosed in a
118 C<Plugin>-Section. Which options exist depends on the plugin used. Some plugins
119 require external configuration, too. The C<apache plugin>, for example,
120 required C<mod_status> to be configured in the webserver you're going to
121 collect data from. These plugins are listed below as well, even if they don't
122 require any configuration within collectd's configfile.
124 A list of all plugins and a short summary for each plugin can be found in the
125 F<README> file shipped with the sourcecode and hopefully binary packets as
128 =head2 Plugin C<apache>
130 To configure the C<apache>-plugin you first need to configure the Apache
131 webserver correctly. The Apache-plugin C<mod_status> needs to be loaded and
132 working and the C<ExtendedStatus> directive needs to be B<enabled>. You can use
133 the following snipped to base your Apache config upon:
136 <IfModule mod_status.c>
137 <Location /mod_status>
138 SetHandler server-status
142 Since its C<mod_status> module is very similar to Apache's, B<lighttpd> is
143 also supported. It introduces a new field, called C<BusyServers>, to count the
144 number of currently connected clients. This field is also supported.
146 The following options are accepted by the C<apache>-plugin:
150 =item B<URL> I<http://host/mod_status?auto>
152 Sets the URL of the C<mod_status> output. This needs to be the output generated
153 by C<ExtendedStatus on> and it needs to be the machine readable output
154 generated by appending the C<?auto> argument.
156 =item B<User> I<Username>
158 Optional user name needed for authentication.
160 =item B<Password> I<Password>
162 Optional password needed for authentication.
164 =item B<CACert> I<File>
166 File that holds one or more SSL certificates. If you want to use HTTPS you will
167 possibly need this option. What CA certificates come bundled with C<libcurl>
168 and are checked by default depends on the distribution you use.
172 =head2 Plugin C<apcups>
176 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
178 Hostname of the host running B<apcupsd>. Defaults to B<localhost>. Please note
179 that IPv6 support has been disabled unless someone can confirm or decline that
180 B<apcupsd> can handle it.
182 =item B<Port> I<Port>
184 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<3551>.
188 =head2 Plugin C<cpufreq>
190 This plugin doesn't have any options. It reads
191 F</sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq> (for the first CPU
192 installed) to get the current CPU frequency. If this file does not exist make
193 sure B<cpufreqd> (L<http://cpufreqd.sourceforge.net/>) or a similar tool is
194 installed and an "cpu governor" (that's a kernel module) is loaded.
200 =item B<DataDir> I<Directory>
202 Set the directory to store CSV-files under. Per default CSV-files are generated
203 beneath the daemon's working directory, i.E<nbsp>e. the B<BaseDir>.
205 =item B<StoreRates> B<true|false>
207 If set to B<true>, convert counter values to rates. If set to B<false> (the
208 default) counter values are stored as is, i.E<nbsp>e. as an increasing integer
217 =item B<Device> I<Device>
219 Select partitions based on the devicename.
221 =item B<MountPoint> I<Directory>
223 Select partitions based on the mountpoint.
225 =item B<FSType> I<FSType>
227 Select partitions based on the filesystem type.
229 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
231 Invert the selection: If set to true, all partitions B<except> the ones that
232 match any one of the criteria are collected. By default only selected
233 partitions are collected if a selection is made. If no selection is configured
234 at all, B<all> partitions are selected.
242 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
244 The dns plugin uses B<libpcap> to capture dns traffic and analyses it. This
245 option sets the interface that should be used. If this option is not set, or
246 set to "any", the plugin will try to get packets from B<all> interfaces. This
247 may not work on certain platforms, such as MacE<nbsp>OSE<nbsp>X.
249 =item B<IgnoreSource> I<IP-address>
251 Ignore packets that originate from this address.
255 =head2 Plugin C<email>
259 =item B<SocketFile> I<Path>
261 Sets the socket-file which is to be created.
263 =item B<SocketGroup> I<Group>
265 If running as root change the group of the UNIX-socket after it has been
266 created. Defaults to B<collectd>.
268 =item B<SocketPerms> I<Permissions>
270 Change the file permissions of the UNIX-socket after it has been created. The
271 permissions must be given as a numeric, octal value as you would pass to
272 L<chmod(1)>. Defaults to B<0770>.
274 =item B<MaxConns> I<Number>
276 Sets the maximum number of connections that can be handled in parallel. Since
277 this many threads will be started immediately setting this to a very high
278 value will waste valuable resources. Defaults to B<5> and will be forced to be
279 at most B<16384> to prevent typos and dumb mistakes.
283 =head2 Plugin C<exec>
285 Please make sure to read L<collectd-exec(5)> before using this plugin. It
286 contains valuable information on when the executable is executed and the
287 output that is expected from it.
291 =item B<Exec> I<User>[:[I<Group>]] I<Executable>
293 Execute the executable I<Executable> as user I<User>. If the user name is
294 followed by a colon and a group name, the effective group is set to that group.
295 The real group and saved-set group will be set to the default group of that
296 user. If no group is given the effective group ID will be the same as the real
299 Please note that in order to change the user and/or group the daemon needs
300 superuser privileges. If the daemon is run as an unprivileged user you must
301 specify the same user/group here. If the daemon is run with superuser
302 privileges, you must supply a non-root user here.
306 =head2 Plugin C<hddtemp>
308 To get values from B<hddtemp> collectd connects to B<localhost> (127.0.0.1),
309 port B<7634/tcp>. The B<Host> and B<Port> options can be used to change these
310 default values, see below. C<hddtemp> has to be running to work correctly. If
311 C<hddtemp> is not running timeouts may appear which may interfere with other
314 The B<hddtemp> homepage can be found at
315 L<http://www.guzu.net/linux/hddtemp.php>.
319 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
321 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
323 =item B<Port> I<Port>
325 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<7634>.
329 =head2 Plugin C<interface>
333 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
335 Select this interface. By default these interfaces will then be collected. For
336 a more detailed description see B<IgnoreSelected> below.
338 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
340 If no configuration if given, the B<traffic>-plugin will collect data from
341 all interfaces. This may not be practical, especially for loopback- and
342 similar interfaces. Thus, you can use the B<Interface>-option to pick the
343 interfaces you're interested in. Sometimes, however, it's easier/preferred
344 to collect all interfaces I<except> a few ones. This option enables you to
345 do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to I<true> the effect of
346 B<Interface> is inversed: All selected interfaces are ignored and all
347 other interfaces are collected.
351 =head2 Plugin C<iptables>
355 =item B<Chain> I<Table> I<Chain> [I<Comment|Number> [I<Name>]]
357 Select the rules to count. If only I<Table> and I<Chain> are given, this plugin
358 will collect the counters of all rules which have a comment-match. The comment
359 is then used as type-instance.
361 If I<Comment> or I<Number> is given, only the rule with the matching comment or
362 the I<n>th rule will be collected. Again, the comment (or the number) will be
363 used as the type-instance.
365 If I<Name> is supplied, it will be used as the type-instance instead of the
366 comment or the number.
376 Select this irq. By default these irqs will then be collected. For a more
377 detailed description see B<IgnoreSelected> below.
379 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
381 If no configuration if given, the B<irq>-plugin will collect data from all
382 irqs. This may not be practical, especially if no interrupts happen. Thus, you
383 can use the B<Irq>-option to pick the interrupt you're interested in.
384 Sometimes, however, it's easier/preferred to collect all interrupts I<except> a
385 few ones. This option enables you to do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to
386 I<true> the effect of B<Irq> is inversed: All selected interrupts are ignored
387 and all other interrupts are collected.
391 =head2 Plugin C<libvirt>
393 This plugin allows CPU, disk and network load to be collected for virtualized
394 guests on the machine. This means that these characteristics can be collected
395 for guest systems without installing any software on them - collectd only runs
396 on the hosting system. The statistics are collected through libvirt
397 (L<http://libvirt.org/>).
399 Only I<Connection> is required.
403 =item B<Connection> I<uri>
405 Connect to the hypervisor given by I<uri>. For example if using Xen use:
409 Details which URIs allowed are given at L<http://libvirt.org/uri.html>.
411 =item B<RefreshInterval> I<seconds>
413 Refresh the list of domains and devices every I<seconds>. The default is 60
414 seconds. Setting this to be the same or smaller than the I<Interval> will cause
415 the list of domains and devices to be refreshed on every iteration.
417 Refreshing the devices in particular is quite a costly operation, so if your
418 virtualization setup is static you might consider increasing this.
420 =item B<Domain> I<name>
422 =item B<BlockDevice> I<name:dev>
424 =item B<InterfaceDevice> I<name:dev>
426 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
428 Select which domains and devices are collected.
430 If I<IgnoreSelected> is not given or I<false> then only the listed domains and
431 disk/network devices are collected.
433 If I<IgnoreSelected> is I<true> then the test is reversed and the listed
434 domains and disk/network devices are ignored, while the rest are collected.
436 The domain name and device names may use a regular expression, if the name is
437 surrounded by I</.../> and collectd was compiled with support for regexps.
439 The default is to collect statistics for all domains and all their devices.
444 IgnoreSelected "true"
446 Ignore all I<hdb> devices on any domain, but other block devices (eg. I<hda>)
449 =item B<HostnameFormat> B<name|uuid|hostname|...>
451 When the libvirt plugin logs data, it sets the hostname of the collected data
452 according to this setting. The default is to use the guest name as provided by
453 the hypervisor, which is equal to setting B<name>.
455 B<uuid> means use the guest's UUID. This is useful if you want to track the
456 same guest across migrations.
458 B<hostname> means to use the global B<Hostname> setting, which is probably not
459 useful on its own because all guests will appear to have the same name.
461 You can also specify combinations of these fields. For example B<name uuid>
462 means to concatenate the guest name and UUID (with a literal colon character
463 between, thus I<"foo:1234-1234-1234-1234">).
467 =head2 Plugin C<logfile>
471 =item B<LogLevel> B<debug|info|notice|warning|err>
473 Sets the log-level. If, for example, set to B<notice>, then all events with
474 severity B<notice>, B<warning>, or B<err> will be written to the logfile.
476 =item B<File> I<File>
478 Sets the file to write log messages to. The special strings B<stdout> and
479 B<stderr> can be used to write to the standard output and standard error
480 channels, respectively. This, of course, only makes much sense when collectd is
481 running in foreground- or non-daemon-mode.
483 =item B<Timestamp> B<true>|B<false>
485 Prefix all lines printed by the current time. Defaults to B<true>.
489 =head2 Plugin C<mbmon>
491 The C<mbmon plugin> uses mbmon to retrieve temperature, voltage, etc.
493 Be default collectd connects to B<localhost> (127.0.0.1), port B<411/tcp>. The
494 B<Host> and B<Port> options can be used to change these values, see below.
495 C<mbmon> has to be running to work correctly. If C<mbmon> is not running
496 timeouts may appear which may interfere with other statistics..
498 C<mbmon> must be run with the -r option ("print TAG and Value format");
499 Debian's F</etc/init.d/mbmon> script already does this, other people
500 will need to ensure that this is the case.
504 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
506 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
508 =item B<Port> I<Port>
510 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<411>.
514 =head2 Plugin C<memcached>
516 The C<memcached plugin> connects to a memcached server and queries statistics
517 about cache utilization, memory and bandwidth used.
518 L<http://www.danga.com/memcached/>
522 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
524 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
526 =item B<Port> I<Port>
528 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<11211>.
532 =head2 Plugin C<mysql>
534 The C<mysql plugin> requires B<mysqlclient> to be installed. It connects to the
535 database when started and keeps the connection up as long as possible. When the
536 connection is interrupted for whatever reason it will try to re-connect. The
537 plugin will complaint loudly in case anything goes wrong.
539 This plugin issues C<SHOW STATUS> and evaluates C<Bytes_{received,sent}>,
540 C<Com_*> and C<Handler_*> which correspond to F<mysql_octets.rrd>,
541 F<mysql_commands-*.rrd> and F<mysql_handler-*.rrd>. Also, the values of
542 C<Qcache_*> are put in F<mysql_qcache.rrd> and values of C<Threads_*> are put
543 in F<mysql_threads.rrd>. Please refer to the B<MySQL reference manual>,
544 I<5.2.4. Server Status Variables> for an explanation of these values.
546 Use the following options to configure the plugin:
550 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
552 Hostname of the database server. Defaults to B<localhost>.
554 =item B<User> I<Username>
556 Username to use when connecting to the database.
558 =item B<Password> I<Password>
560 Password needed to log into the database.
562 =item B<Database> I<Database>
564 Select this database. Defaults to I<no database> which is a perfectly reasonable
565 option for what this plugin does.
569 =head2 Plugin C<netlink>
571 The C<netlink> plugin uses a netlink socket to query the Linux kernel about
572 statistics of various interface and routing aspects.
576 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
578 =item B<VerboseInterface> I<Interface>
580 Instruct the plugin to collect interface statistics. This is basically the same
581 as the statistics provided by the C<interface> plugin (see above) but
582 potentially much more detailed.
584 When configuring with B<Interface> only the basic statistics will be collected,
585 namely octets, packets, and errors. These statistics are collected by
586 the C<interface> plugin, too, so using both at the same time is no benefit.
588 When configured with B<VerboseInterface> all counters B<except> the basic ones,
589 so that no data needs to be collected twice if you use the C<interface> plugin.
590 This includes dropped packets, received multicast packets, collisions and a
591 whole zoo of differentiated RX and TX errors. You can try the following command
592 to get an idea of what awaits you:
596 If I<Interface> is B<All>, all interfaces will be selected.
598 =item B<QDisc> I<Interface> [I<QDisc>]
600 =item B<Class> I<Interface> [I<Class>]
602 =item B<Filter> I<Interface> [I<Filter>]
604 Collect the octets and packets that pass a certain qdisc, class or filter.
606 QDiscs and classes are identified by their type and handle (or classid).
607 Filters don't necessarily have a handle, therefore the parent's handle is used.
608 The notation used in collectd differs from that used in tc(1) in that it
609 doesn't skip the major or minor number if it's zero and doesn't print special
610 ids by their name. So, for example, a qdisc may be identified by
611 C<pfifo_fast-1:0> even though the minor number of B<all> qdiscs is zero and
612 thus not displayed by tc(1).
614 If B<QDisc>, B<Class>, or B<Filter> is given without the second argument,
615 i.E<nbsp>.e. without an identifier, all qdiscs, classes, or filters that are
616 associated with that interface will be collected.
618 Since a filter itself doesn't necessarily have a handle, the parent's handle is
619 used. This may lead to problems when more than one filter is attached to a
620 qdisc or class. This isn't nice, but we don't know how this could be done any
621 better. If you have a idea, please don't hesitate to tell us.
623 As with the B<Interface> option you can specify B<All> as the interface,
624 meaning all interfaces.
626 Here are some examples to help you understand the above text more easily:
629 VerboseInterface "All"
630 QDisc "eth0" "pfifo_fast-1:0"
632 Class "ppp0" "htb-1:10"
633 Filter "ppp0" "u32-1:0"
636 =item B<IgnoreSelected>
638 The behaviour is the same as with all other similar plugins: If nothing is
639 selected at all, everything is collected. If some things are selected using the
640 options described above, only these statistics are collected. If you set
641 B<IgnoreSelected> to B<true>, this behavior is inversed, i.E<nbsp>e. the
642 specified statistics will not be collected.
646 =head2 Plugin C<network>
650 =item B<Listen> I<Host> [I<Port>]
652 =item B<Server> I<Host> [I<Port>]
654 The B<Server> statement sets the server to send datagrams B<to>. The statement
655 may occur multiple times to send each datagram to multiple destinations.
657 The B<Listen> statement sets the interfaces to bind to. When multiple
658 statements are found the daemon will bind to multiple interfaces.
660 The argument I<Host> may be a hostname, an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address. If
661 the argument is a multicast address the daemon will join that multicast group.
663 If no B<Listen> statement is found the server tries join both, the default IPv6
664 multicast group and the default IPv4 multicast group. If no B<Server> statement
665 is found the client will try to send data to the IPv6 multicast group first. If
666 that fails the client will try the IPv4 multicast group.
668 The default IPv6 multicast group is C<ff18::efc0:4a42>. The default IPv4
669 multicast group is C<239.192.74.66>.
671 The optional I<Port> argument sets the port to use. It can either be given
672 using a numeric port number or a service name. If the argument is omitted the
673 default port B<25826> is assumed.
675 =item B<TimeToLive> I<1-255>
677 Set the time-to-live of sent packets. This applies to all, unicast and
678 multicast, and IPv4 and IPv6 packets. The default is to not change this value.
679 That means that multicast packets will be sent with a TTL of C<1> (one) on most
682 =item B<Forward> I<true|false>
684 If set to I<true>, write packets that were received via the network plugin to
685 the sending sockets. This should only be activated when the B<Listen>- and
686 B<Server>-statements differ. Otherwise packets may be send multiple times to
687 the same multicast group. While this results in more network traffic than
688 necessary it's not a huge problem since the plugin has a duplicate detection,
689 so the values will not loop.
691 =item B<CacheFlush> I<Seconds>
693 For each host/plugin/type combination the C<network plugin> caches the time of
694 the last value being sent or received. Every I<Seconds> seconds the plugin
695 searches and removes all entries that are older than I<Seconds> seconds, thus
696 freeing the unused memory again. Since this process is somewhat expensive and
697 normally doesn't do much, this value should not be too small. The default is
698 1800 seconds, but setting this to 86400 seconds (one day) will not do much harm
703 =head2 Plugin C<nginx>
705 This plugin collects the number of connections and requests handled by the
706 C<nginx daemon> (speak: engineE<nbsp>X), a HTTP and mail server/proxy. It
707 queries the page provided by the C<ngx_http_stub_status_module> module, which
708 isn't compiled by default. Please refer to
709 L<http://wiki.codemongers.com/NginxStubStatusModule> for more information on
710 how to compile and configure nginx and this module.
712 The following options are accepted by the C<nginx plugin>:
716 =item B<URL> I<http://host/nginx_status>
718 Sets the URL of the C<ngx_http_stub_status_module> output.
720 =item B<User> I<Username>
722 Optional user name needed for authentication.
724 =item B<Password> I<Password>
726 Optional password needed for authentication.
728 =item B<CACert> I<File>
730 File that holds one or more SSL certificates. If you want to use HTTPS you will
731 possibly need this option. What CA certificates come bundled with C<libcurl>
732 and are checked by default depends on the distribution you use.
736 =head2 Plugin C<ntpd>
740 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
742 Hostname of the host running B<ntpd>. Defaults to B<localhost>.
744 =item B<Port> I<Port>
746 UDP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<123>.
748 =item B<ReverseLookups> B<true>|B<false>
750 Sets wether or not to perform reverse lookups on peers. Since the name or
751 IP-address may be used in a filename it is recommended to disable reverse
752 lookups. The default is to do reverse lookups to preserve backwards
753 compatibility, though.
761 =item B<UPS> I<upsname>B<@>I<hostname>[B<:>I<port>]
763 Add a UPS to collect data from. The format is identical to the one accepted by
768 =head2 Plugin C<perl>
770 This plugin embeds a Perl-interpreter into collectd and provides an interface
771 to collectd's plugin system. See L<collectd-perl(5)> for its documentation.
773 =head2 Plugin C<ping>
777 =item B<Host> I<IP-address>
779 Host to ping periodically. This option may be repeated several times to ping
782 =item B<TTL> I<0-255>
784 Sets the Time-To-Live of generated ICMP packets.
788 =head2 Plugin C<processes>
792 =item B<Process> I<Name>
794 Select more detailed statistics of processes matching this name. The statistics
795 collected for these selected processes are size of the resident segment size
796 (RSS), user- and system-time used, number of processes and number of threads,
797 and minor and major pagefaults.
801 =head2 Plugin C<rrdtool>
803 You can use the settings B<StepSize>, B<HeartBeat>, B<RRARows>, and B<XFF> to
804 fine-tune your RRD-files. Please read L<rrdcreate(1)> if you encounter problems
805 using these settings. If you don't want to dive into the depths of RRDTool, you
806 can safely ignore these settings.
810 =item B<DataDir> I<Directory>
812 Set the directory to store RRD-files under. Per default RRD-files are generated
813 beneath the daemon's working directory, i.E<nbsp>e. the B<BaseDir>.
815 =item B<StepSize> I<Seconds>
817 B<Force> the stepsize of newly created RRD-files. Ideally (and per default)
818 this setting is unset and the stepsize is set to the interval in which the data
819 is collected. Do not use this option unless you absolutely have to for some
820 reason. Setting this option may cause problems with the C<snmp plugin>, the
821 C<exec plugin> or when the daemon is set up to receive data from other hosts.
823 =item B<HeartBeat> I<Seconds>
825 B<Force> the heartbeat of newly created RRD-files. This setting should be unset
826 in which case the heartbeat is set to twice the B<StepSize> which should equal
827 the interval in which data is collected. Do not set this option unless you have
828 a very good reason to do so.
830 =item B<RRARows> I<NumRows>
832 The C<rrdtool plugin> calculates the number of PDPs per CDP based on the
833 B<StepSize>, this setting and a timespan. This plugin creates RRD-files with
834 three times five RRAs, i. e. five RRAs with the CFs B<MIN>, B<AVERAGE>, and
835 B<MAX>. The five RRAs are optimized for graphs covering one hour, one day, one
836 week, one month, and one year.
838 So for each timespan, it calculates how many PDPs need to be consolidated into
839 one CDP by calculating:
840 number of PDPs = timespan / (stepsize * rrarows)
842 Bottom line is, set this no smaller than the width of you graphs in pixels. The
845 =item B<RRATimespan> I<Seconds>
847 Adds an RRA-timespan, given in seconds. Use this option multiple times to have
848 more then one RRA. If this option is never used, the built-in default of (3600,
849 86400, 604800, 2678400, 31622400) is used.
851 For more information on how RRA-sizes are calculated see B<RRARows> above.
853 =item B<XFF> I<Factor>
855 Set the "XFiles Factor". The default is 0.1. If unsure, don't set this option.
857 =item B<CacheFlush> I<Seconds>
859 When the C<rrdtool plugin> uses a cache (by setting B<CacheTimeout>, see below)
860 it writes all values for a certain RRD-file if the oldest value is older than
861 (or equal to) the number of seconds specified. If some RRD-file is not updated
862 anymore for some reason (the computer was shut down, the network is broken,
863 etc.) some values may still be in the cache. If B<CacheFlush> is set, then the
864 entire cache is searched for entries older than B<CacheTimeout> seconds and
865 written to disk every I<Seconds> seconds. Since this is kind of expensive and
866 does nothing under normal circumstances, this value should not be too small.
867 900 seconds might be a good value, though setting this to 7200 seconds doesn't
868 normally do much harm either.
870 =item B<CacheTimeout> I<Seconds>
872 If this option is set to a value greater than zero, the C<rrdtool plugin> will
873 save values in a cache, as described above. Writing multiple values at once
874 reduces IO-operations and thus lessens the load produced by updating the files.
875 The trade off is that the graphs kind of "drag behind" and that more memory is
880 =head2 Plugin C<sensors>
882 The C<sensors plugin> uses B<lm_sensors> to retrieve sensor-values. This means
883 that all the needed modules have to be loaded and lm_sensors has to be
884 configured (most likely by editing F</etc/sensors.conf>. Read
885 L<sensors.conf(5)> for details.
887 The B<lm_sensors> homepage can be found at
888 L<http://secure.netroedge.com/~lm78/>.
892 =item B<Sensor> I<chip-bus-address/type-feature>
894 Selects the name of the sensor which you want to collect or ignore, depending
895 on the B<IgnoreSelected> below. For example, the option "B<Sensor>
896 I<it8712-isa-0290/voltage-in1>" will cause collectd to gather data for the
897 voltage sensor I<in1> of the I<it8712> on the isa bus at the address 0290.
899 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
901 If no configuration if given, the B<sensors>-plugin will collect data from all
902 sensors. This may not be practical, especially for uninteresting sensors.
903 Thus, you can use the B<Sensor>-option to pick the sensors you're interested
904 in. Sometimes, however, it's easier/preferred to collect all sensors I<except> a
905 few ones. This option enables you to do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to
906 I<true> the effect of B<Sensor> is inversed: All selected sensors are ignored
907 and all other sensors are collected.
911 =head2 Plugin C<snmp>
913 Since the configuration of the C<snmp plugin> is a little more complicated than
914 other plugins, its documentation has been moved to an own manpage,
915 L<collectd-snmp(5)>. Please see there for details.
917 =head2 Plugin C<syslog>
921 =item B<LogLevel> B<debug|info|notice|warning|err>
923 Sets the log-level. If, for example, set to B<notice>, then all events with
924 severity B<notice>, B<warning>, or B<err> will be submitted to the
929 =head2 Plugin C<tcpconns>
931 The C<tcpconns plugin> counts the number of currently established TCP
932 connections based on the local port and/or the remote port. Since there may be
933 a lot of connections the default if to count all connections with a local port,
934 for which a listening socket is opened. You can use the following options to
935 fine-tune the ports you are interested in:
939 =item B<ListeningPorts> I<true>|I<false>
941 If this option is set to I<true>, statistics for all local ports for which a
942 listening socket exists are collected. The default depends on B<LocalPort> and
943 B<RemotePort> (see below): If no port at all is specifically selected, the
944 default is to collect listening ports. If specific ports (no matter if local or
945 remote ports) are selected, this option defaults to I<false>, i.E<nbsp>e. only
946 the selected ports will be collected unless this option is set to I<true>
949 =item B<LocalPort> I<Port>
951 Count the connections to a specific local port. This can be used to see how
952 many connections are handled by a specific daemon, e.E<nbsp>g. the mailserver.
953 You have to specify the port in numeric form, so for the mailserver example
954 you'd need to set B<25>.
956 =item B<RemotePort> I<Port>
958 Count the connections to a specific remote port. This is useful to see how
959 much a remote service is used. This is most useful if you want to know how many
960 connections a local service has opened to remote services, e.E<nbsp>g. how many
961 connections a mail server or news server has to other mail or news servers, or
962 how many connections a web proxy holds to web servers. You have to give the
963 port in numeric form.
967 =head2 Plugin C<unixsock>
971 =item B<SocketFile> I<Path>
973 Sets the socket-file which is to be created.
975 =item B<SocketGroup> I<Group>
977 If running as root change the group of the UNIX-socket after it has been
978 created. Defaults to B<collectd>.
980 =item B<SocketPerms> I<Permissions>
982 Change the file permissions of the UNIX-socket after it has been created. The
983 permissions must be given as a numeric, octal value as you would pass to
984 L<chmod(1)>. Defaults to B<0770>.
988 =head2 Plugin C<uuid>
990 This plugin, if loaded, causes the Hostname to be taken from the machine's
991 UUID. The UUID is a universally unique designation for the machine, usually
992 taken from the machine's BIOS. This is most useful if the machine is running in
993 a virtual environment such as Xen, in which case the UUID is preserved across
994 shutdowns and migration.
996 The following methods are used to find the machine's UUID, in order:
1002 Check I</etc/uuid> (or I<UUIDFile>).
1006 Check for UUID from HAL (L<http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/hal>) if
1011 Check for UUID from C<dmidecode> / SMBIOS.
1015 Check for UUID from Xen hypervisor.
1019 If no UUID can be found then the hostname is not modified.
1023 =item B<UUIDFile> I<Path>
1025 Take the UUID from the given file (default I</etc/uuid>).
1029 =head2 Plugin C<vserver>
1031 This plugin doesn't have any options. B<VServer> support is only available for
1032 Linux. It cannot yet be found in a vanilla kernel, though. To make use of this
1033 plugin you need a kernel that has B<VServer> support built in, i.E<nbsp>e. you
1034 need to apply the patches and compile your own kernel, which will then provide
1035 the F</proc/virtual> filesystem that is required by this plugin.
1037 The B<VServer> homepage can be found at L<http://linux-vserver.org/>.
1039 =head1 THRESHOLD CONFIGURATION
1041 Starting with version C<4.3.0> collectd has support for B<monitoring>. By that
1042 we mean that the values are not only stored or sent somewhere, but that they
1043 are judged and, if a problem is recognized, acted upon. The only action
1044 collectd takes itself is to generate and dispatch a "notification". Plugins can
1045 register to receive notifications and perform appropriate further actions.
1047 Since systems and what you expect them to do differ a lot, you can configure
1048 B<thresholds> for your values freely. This gives you a lot of flexibility but
1049 also a lot of responsibility.
1051 Every time a value is out of range a notification is dispatched. This means
1052 that the idle percentage of your CPU needs to be less then the configured
1053 threshold only once for a notification to be generated. There's no such thing
1054 as a moving average or similar - at least not now.
1056 Also, all values that match a threshold are considered to be relevant or
1057 "interesting". As a consequence collectd will issue a notification if they are
1058 not received for twice the last timeout of the values. If, for example, some
1059 hosts sends it's CPU statistics to the server every 60 seconds, a notification
1060 will be dispatched after about 120 seconds. It may take a little longer because
1061 the timeout is checked only once each B<Interval> on the server.
1063 Here is a configuration example to get you started. Read below for more
1074 <Plugin "interface">
1096 There are basically two types of configuration statements: The C<Host>,
1097 C<Plugin>, and C<Type> blocks select the value for which a threshold should be
1098 configured. The C<Plugin> and C<Type> blocks may be specified further using the
1099 C<Instance> option. You can combine the block by nesting the blocks, though
1100 they must be nested in the above order, i.E<nbsp>e. C<Host> may contain either
1101 C<Plugin> and C<Type> blocks, C<Plugin> may only contain C<Type> blocks and
1102 C<Type> may not contain other blocks. If multiple blocks apply to the same
1103 value the most specific block is used.
1105 The other statements specify the threshold to configure. They B<must> be
1106 included in a C<Type> block. Currently the following statements are recognized:
1110 =item B<Max> I<Value>
1112 Sets the upper bound of acceptable values. If unset defaults to positive
1115 =item B<Min> I<Value>
1117 Sets the lower bound of acceptable values. If unset defaults to negative
1120 =item B<Invert> B<true>|B<false>
1122 If set to B<true> the range of acceptable values is inverted, i.E<nbsp>e.
1123 values between B<Min> and B<Max> are not okay. Defaults, of course, to
1126 =item B<Persist> B<true>|B<false>
1128 Sets how often notifications are generated. If set to B<true> one notification
1129 will be generated for each value that is out of the acceptable range. If set to
1130 B<false> (the default) then a notification is only generated if a value is out
1131 of range but the previous value was okay.
1133 This applies to missing values, too: If set to B<true> a notification about a
1134 missing value is generated once every B<Interval> seconds. If set to B<false>
1135 only one such notification is generated until the value appears again.
1142 L<collectd-exec(5)>,
1143 L<collectd-perl(5)>,
1144 L<collectd-unixsock(5)>,
1153 Florian Forster E<lt>octo@verplant.orgE<gt>