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 LogFile "/path/to/logfile/collectd.log"
10 Server "123.123.123.123" 12345
23 This config file controls how the system statistics collection daemon
24 B<collectd> behaves. The most significant option is B<LoadPlugin>, which
25 controls which plugins to load. These plugins ultimately define collectd's
28 The syntax of this config file is similar to the config file of the famos
29 B<Apache Webserver>. Each line containes either a key-value-pair or a
30 section-start or -end. Empty lines and everything after the hash-symbol `#' is
31 ignored. Values are either string, enclosed in double-quotes,
32 (floating-point-)numbers or a boolean extression, i.E<nbsp>e. either B<true> or
33 B<false>. String containing of only alphanumeric characters and underscores do
34 not need to be quoted.
40 =item B<BaseDir> I<Directory>
42 Sets the base directory. This is the directory beneath all RRD-files are
43 created. Possibly more subdirectories are created. This is also the working
44 directory for the daemon.
46 =item B<LoadPlugin> I<Plugin>
48 Loads the plugin I<Plugin>. There must be at least one such line or B<collectd>
49 will be mostly useless. The names of the plugins are listed in L<collectd(1)>.
51 =item B<PIDFile> I<File>
53 Sets where to write the PID file to. This file is overwritten when it exists
54 and deleted when the program ist stopped. Some init-scripts might override this
55 setting using the B<-P> commandline option.
57 =item B<Interval> I<Seconds>
59 Configures the interval in which to query the read plugins. Obviously smaller
60 values lead to a higher system load produces by collectd, while higher values
61 lead to more coarse statistics.
67 Some Plugins may register own options. These options must be inclosed in a
68 C<Plugin>-Section. Which options exist depends on the plugin used:
70 =head2 Plugin C<apache>
72 To configure the C<apache>-plugin you first need to configure the Apache
73 webserver correctly. The Apache-plugin C<mod_status> needs to be loaded and
74 working and the C<ExtendedStatus> directive needs to be B<enabled>. You can use
75 the following snipped to base your Apache config upon:
78 <IfModule mod_status.c>
79 <Location /mod_status>
80 SetHandler server-status
84 Since it's C<mod_status> module is very similar to Apache's, B<lighttpd> is
85 also supported. It introduces a new field, called C<BusyServers>, to count the
86 number of currently connected clients. This field is also supported.
88 The following options are accepted by the C<apache>-plugin:
92 =item B<URL> I<http://host/mod_status?auto>
94 Sets the URL of the C<mod_status> output. This needs to be the output generated
95 by C<ExtendedStatus on> and it needs to be the machine readable output
96 generated by appending the C<?auto> argument.
98 =item B<User> I<Username>
100 Optional user name needed for authentication.
102 =item B<Password> I<Password>
104 Optional password needed for authentication.
106 =item B<CACert> I<File>
108 File that holds one or more SSL certificates. If you want to use HTTPS you will
109 possibly need this option. What CA certificates come bundeled with C<libcurl>
110 and are checked by default depends on the distribution you use.
114 =head2 Plugin C<apcups>
118 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
120 Hostname of the host running B<apcupsd>. Defaults to B<localhost>. Please note
121 that IPv6 support has been disabled unless someone can confirm or decline that
122 B<apcupsd> can handle it.
124 =item B<Port> I<Port>
126 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<3551>.
134 =item B<DataDir> I<Directory>
136 Set the directory to store RRD-files under. Per default RRD-files are generated
137 beneath the daemon's working directory, i.E<nbsp>e. the B<BaseDir>.
145 =item B<Device> I<Device>
147 Select partitions based on the devicename.
149 =item B<MountPoint> I<Directory>
151 Select partitions based on the mountpoint.
153 =item B<FSType> I<FSType>
155 Select partitions based on the filesystem type.
157 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
159 Invert the selection: If set to true, all partitions B<except> the ones that
160 match any one of the criteria are collected. By default only selected
161 partitions are collected if a selection is made. If no selection is conifured
162 at all, B<all> partitions are selected.
170 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
172 The dns plugin uses B<libpcap> to capture dns traffic and analyses it. This
173 option sets the interface that should be used. If this option is not set, or
174 set to "any", the plugin will try to get packets from B<all> interfaces. This
175 may not work on certain platforms, such as MacE<nbsp>OSE<nbsp>X.
177 =item B<IgnoreSource> I<IP-address>
179 Ignore packets that originate from this address.
183 =head2 Plugin C<email>
187 =item B<SocketGroup> I<Group>
189 If running as root change the group of the UNIX-socket after it has been
190 created. Defaults to B<collectd>.
192 =item B<SocketPerms> I<Permissions>
194 Change the file permissions of the UNIX-socket after it has been created. The
195 permissions must be given as a numeric, octal value as you would pass to
196 L<chmod(1)>. Defaults to B<0770>.
198 =item B<MaxConns> I<Number>
200 Sets the maximum number of connections that can be handled in parallel. Since
201 this many threads will be started immediately setting this to a very high
202 value will waste valuable resources. Defaults to B<5> and will be forced to be
203 at most B<16384> to prevent typos and dumb mistakes.
207 =head2 Plugin C<hddtemp>
211 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
213 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
215 =item B<Port> I<Port>
217 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<7634>.
227 Select this irq. By default these irqs will then be collected. For a more
228 detailed description see B<IgnoreSelected> below.
230 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
232 If no configuration if given, the B<irq>-plugin will collect data from all
233 irqs. This may not be practical, especially if no interrupts happen. Thus, you
234 can use the B<Irq>-option to pick the interupt you're interested in.
235 Sometimes, however, it's easier/prefered to collect all interupts I<except> a
236 few ones. This option enables you to do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to
237 I<true> the effect of B<Irq> is inversed: All selected interupts are ignored
238 and all other interupts are collected.
242 =head2 Plugin C<mbmon>
246 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
248 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
250 =item B<Port> I<Port>
252 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<411>.
256 =head2 Plugin C<mysql>
260 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
262 Hostname of the database server. Defaults to B<localhost>.
264 =item B<User> I<Username>
266 Username to use when connecting to the database.
268 =item B<Password> I<Password>
270 Password needed to log into the database.
272 =item B<Database> I<Database>
274 Select this database. Defaults to I<no database> which is a perfecly reasonable
275 option for what this plugin does.
279 =head2 Plugin C<network>
283 =item B<Listen> I<Host> [I<Port>]
285 =item B<Server> I<Host> [I<Port>]
287 The B<Server> statement sets the server to send datagrams B<to>. The statement
288 may occur multiple times to send each datagram to multiple destinations.
290 The B<Listen> statement sets the interfaces to bind to. When multiple
291 statements are found the daemon will bind to multiple interfaces.
293 The argument I<Host> may be a hostname, an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address. If
294 the argument is a multicast address the daemon will join that multicast group.
296 If no B<Listen> statement is found the server tries join both, the default IPv6
297 multicast group and the default IPv4 multicast group. If no B<Server> statement
298 is found the client will try to send data to the IPv6 multicast group first. If
299 that failes the client will try the IPv4 multicast group.
301 The default IPv6 multicast group is C<ff18::efc0:4a42>. The default IPv4
302 multicast group is C<239.192.74.66>.
304 The optional I<Port> argument sets the port to use. It can either be given
305 using a numeric port number or a service name. If the argument is omited the
306 default port B<25826> is assumed.
308 =item B<TimeToLive> I<1-255>
310 Set the time-to-live of sent packets. This applies to all, unicast and
311 multicast, and IPv4 and IPv6 packets. The default is to not change this value.
312 That means that multicast packets will be sent with a TTL of C<1> (one) on most
317 =head2 Plugin C<ntpd>
321 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
323 Hostname of the host running B<ntpd>. Defaults to B<localhost>.
325 =item B<Port> I<Port>
327 UDP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<123>.
331 =head2 Plugin C<ping>
335 =item B<Host> I<IP-address>
337 Host to ping periodically. This option may be repeated several times to ping
340 =item B<TTL> I<0-255>
342 Sets the Time-To-Live of generated ICMP packets.
346 =head2 Plugin C<rrdtool>
348 You can use the settings B<StepSize>, B<HeartBeat>, B<RRARows>, and B<XFF> to
349 finetune your RRD-files. Please read L<rrdcreate(1)> if you encounter problems
350 using these settings. If you don't want to dive into the depths of RRDTool, you
351 can savely ignore these settings.
355 =item B<DataDir> I<Directory>
357 Set the directory to store CSV-files under. Per default CSV-files are generated
358 beneath the daemon's working directory, i.E<nbsp>e. the B<BaseDir>.
360 =item B<StepSize> I<Seconds>
362 Sets the stepsize of newly created RRD-files. Ideally (and per default) this
363 setting is identical to the global B<Interval>-option and should not be
364 smaller. If unsure, don't set this option.
366 =item B<HeartBeat> I<Seconds>
368 Sets the heartbeat of newly created RRD-files. Ideally this setting is bigger
369 than the B<Interval>-setting, by default it's twice the B<Interval>-setting. If
370 unsure, don't set this option.
372 =item B<RRARows> I<NumRows>
374 The C<rrdtool plugin> calculates the number of PDPs per CDP based on the
375 B<StepSize>, this setting and a timespan. This plugin creates RRD-files with
376 three times five RRAs, i. e. five RRAs with the CFs B<MIN>, B<AVERAGE>, and
377 B<MAX>. The five RRAs are optimized for graphs covering one hour, one day, one
378 week, one month, and one year.
380 So for each timespan, it calculates how many PDPs need to be consolidated into
381 one CDP by calculating:
382 number of PDPs = timespan / (stepsize * rrarows)
384 Bottom line is, set this no smaller than the width of you graphs in pixels. The
387 =item B<XFF> I<Factor>
389 Set the "XFiles Factor". The default is 0.1. If unsure, don't set this option.
391 =item B<CacheFlush> I<Seconds>
393 When the C<rrdtool plugin> uses a cache (by setting B<CacheTimeout>, see below)
394 it writes all values for a certain RRD-file if the oldest value is older than
395 (or equal to) the number of seconds specified. If some RRD-file is not updated
396 anymore for some reason (the computer was shut down, the network is broken,
397 etc.) some values may still be in the cache. If B<CacheFlush> is set, then the
398 entire cache is searched for entries older than B<CacheTimeout> seconds and
399 written to disk every I<Seconds> seconds. Since this is kind of expensive and
400 does nothing under normal circumstances, this value should not be too small.
401 900 seconds might be a good value, though setting this to 7200 seconds doesn't
402 normally do much harm either.
404 =item B<CacheTimeout> I<Seconds>
406 If this option is set to a value greater than zero, the C<rrdtool plugin> will
407 save values in a cache, as described above. Writing multiple values at once
408 reduces IO-operations and thus lessens the load produced by updating the files.
409 The tradeoff is that the graphs kind of "drag behind" and that more memory is
414 =head2 Plugin C<sensors>
418 =item B<Sensor> I<chip-bus-address/type-feature>
420 Selects the name of the sensor which you want to collect or ignore, depending
421 on the B<IgnoreSelected> below. For example, the option "B<Sensor>
422 I<it8712-isa-0290/voltage-in1>" will cause collectd to gather data for the
423 voltage sensor I<in1> of the I<it8712> on the isa bus at the address 0290.
425 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
427 If no configuration if given, the B<sensors>-plugin will collect data from all
428 sensors. This may not be practical, especially for uninteresting sensors.
429 Thus, you can use the B<Sensor>-option to pick the sensors you're interested
430 in. Sometimes, however, it's easier/prefered to collect all sensors I<except> a
431 few ones. This option enables you to do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to
432 I<true> the effect of B<Sensor> is inversed: All selected sensors are ignored
433 and all other sensors are collected.
437 =head2 Plugin C<traffic>
441 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
443 Select this interface. By default these interfaces will then be collected. For a more detailed description see B<IgnoreSelected> below.
445 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
447 If no configuration if given, the B<traffic>-plugin will collect data from
448 all interfaces. This may not be practical, especially for loopback- and
449 similar interfaces. Thus, you can use the B<Interface>-option to pick the
450 interfaces you're interested in. Sometimes, however, it's easier/prefered
451 to collect all interfaces I<except> a few ones. This option enables you to
452 do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to I<true> the effect of
453 B<Interface> is inversed: All selected interfaces are ignored and all
454 other interfaces are collected.
464 Florian Forster E<lt>octo@verplant.orgE<gt>