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. Lines may be wrapped by using `\' as the last character
34 before the newline. This allows long lines to be split into multiple lines.
35 Quoted strings may be wrapped as well. However, those are treated special in
36 that whitespace at the beginning of the following lines will be ignored, which
37 allows for nicely indenting the wrapped lines.
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<Path>
62 If I<Path> points to a file, includes that file. If I<Path> points to a
63 directory, recursively includes all files within that directory and its
64 subdirectories. If the C<wordexp> function is available on your system,
65 shell-like wildcards are expanded before files are included. This means you can
66 use statements like the following:
68 Include "/etc/collectd.d/*.conf"
70 If more than one files are included by a single B<Include> option, the files
71 will be included in lexicographical order (as defined by the C<strcmp>
72 function). Thus, you can e.E<nbsp>g. use numbered prefixes to specify the
73 order in which the files are loaded.
75 To prevent loops and shooting yourself in the foot in interesting ways the
76 nesting is limited to a depth of 8E<nbsp>levels, which should be sufficient for
77 most uses. Since symlinks are followed it is still possible to crash the daemon
78 by looping symlinks. In our opinion significant stupidity should result in an
79 appropriate amount of pain.
81 It is no problem to have a block like C<E<lt>Plugin fooE<gt>> in more than one
82 file, but you cannot include files from within blocks.
84 =item B<PIDFile> I<File>
86 Sets where to write the PID file to. This file is overwritten when it exists
87 and deleted when the program is stopped. Some init-scripts might override this
88 setting using the B<-P> command-line option.
90 =item B<PluginDir> I<Directory>
92 Path to the plugins (shared objects) of collectd.
94 =item B<TypesDB> I<File> [I<File> ...]
96 Set one or more files that contain the data-set descriptions. See
97 L<types.db(5)> for a description of the format of this file.
99 =item B<Interval> I<Seconds>
101 Configures the interval in which to query the read plugins. Obviously smaller
102 values lead to a higher system load produced by collectd, while higher values
103 lead to more coarse statistics.
105 =item B<ReadThreads> I<Num>
107 Number of threads to start for reading plugins. The default value is B<5>, but
108 you may want to increase this if you have more than five plugins that take a
109 long time to read. Mostly those are plugin that do network-IO. Setting this to
110 a value higher than the number of plugins you've loaded is totally useless.
112 =item B<Hostname> I<Name>
114 Sets the hostname that identifies a host. If you omit this setting, the
115 hostname will be determinded using the L<gethostname(2)> system call.
117 =item B<FQDNLookup> B<true|false>
119 If B<Hostname> is determined automatically this setting controls whether or not
120 the daemon should try to figure out the "fully qualified domain name", FQDN.
121 This is done using a lookup of the name returned by C<gethostname>.
123 Using this feature (i.E<nbsp>e. setting this option to B<true>) is recommended.
124 However, to preserve backwards compatibility the default is set to B<false>.
125 The sample config file that is installed with C<makeE<nbsp>install> includes a
126 line which sets this option, though, so that default installations will have
127 this setting enabled.
129 =item B<PreCacheChain> I<ChainName>
131 =item B<PostCacheChain> I<ChainName>
133 Configure the name of the "pre-cache chain" and the "post-cache chain". Please
134 see L<FILTER CONFIGURATION> below on information on chains and how these
135 setting change the daemon's behavior.
139 =head1 PLUGIN OPTIONS
141 Some plugins may register own options. These options must be enclosed in a
142 C<Plugin>-Section. Which options exist depends on the plugin used. Some plugins
143 require external configuration, too. The C<apache plugin>, for example,
144 required C<mod_status> to be configured in the webserver you're going to
145 collect data from. These plugins are listed below as well, even if they don't
146 require any configuration within collectd's configfile.
148 A list of all plugins and a short summary for each plugin can be found in the
149 F<README> file shipped with the sourcecode and hopefully binary packets as
152 =head2 Plugin C<apache>
154 To configure the C<apache>-plugin you first need to configure the Apache
155 webserver correctly. The Apache-plugin C<mod_status> needs to be loaded and
156 working and the C<ExtendedStatus> directive needs to be B<enabled>. You can use
157 the following snipped to base your Apache config upon:
160 <IfModule mod_status.c>
161 <Location /mod_status>
162 SetHandler server-status
166 Since its C<mod_status> module is very similar to Apache's, B<lighttpd> is
167 also supported. It introduces a new field, called C<BusyServers>, to count the
168 number of currently connected clients. This field is also supported.
170 The following options are accepted by the C<apache>-plugin:
174 =item B<URL> I<http://host/mod_status?auto>
176 Sets the URL of the C<mod_status> output. This needs to be the output generated
177 by C<ExtendedStatus on> and it needs to be the machine readable output
178 generated by appending the C<?auto> argument.
180 =item B<User> I<Username>
182 Optional user name needed for authentication.
184 =item B<Password> I<Password>
186 Optional password needed for authentication.
188 =item B<VerifyPeer> B<true|false>
190 Enable or disable peer SSL certificate verification. See
191 L<http://curl.haxx.se/docs/sslcerts.html> for details. Enabled by default.
193 =item B<VerifyHost> B<true|false>
195 Enable or disable peer host name verification. If enabled, the plugin checks
196 if the C<Common Name> or a C<Subject Alternate Name> field of the SSL
197 certificate matches the host name provided by the B<URL> option. If this
198 identity check fails, the connection is aborted. Obviously, only works when
199 connecting to a SSL enabled server. Enabled by default.
201 =item B<CACert> I<File>
203 File that holds one or more SSL certificates. If you want to use HTTPS you will
204 possibly need this option. What CA certificates come bundled with C<libcurl>
205 and are checked by default depends on the distribution you use.
209 =head2 Plugin C<apcups>
213 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
215 Hostname of the host running B<apcupsd>. Defaults to B<localhost>. Please note
216 that IPv6 support has been disabled unless someone can confirm or decline that
217 B<apcupsd> can handle it.
219 =item B<Port> I<Port>
221 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<3551>.
225 =head2 Plugin C<ascent>
227 This plugin collects information about an Ascent server, a free server for the
228 "World of Warcraft" game. This plugin gathers the information by fetching the
229 XML status page using C<libcurl> and parses it using C<libxml2>.
231 The configuration options are the same as for the C<apache> plugin above:
235 =item B<URL> I<http://localhost/ascent/status/>
237 Sets the URL of the XML status output.
239 =item B<User> I<Username>
241 Optional user name needed for authentication.
243 =item B<Password> I<Password>
245 Optional password needed for authentication.
247 =item B<VerifyPeer> B<true|false>
249 Enable or disable peer SSL certificate verification. See
250 L<http://curl.haxx.se/docs/sslcerts.html> for details. Enabled by default.
252 =item B<VerifyHost> B<true|false>
254 Enable or disable peer host name verification. If enabled, the plugin checks
255 if the C<Common Name> or a C<Subject Alternate Name> field of the SSL
256 certificate matches the host name provided by the B<URL> option. If this
257 identity check fails, the connection is aborted. Obviously, only works when
258 connecting to a SSL enabled server. Enabled by default.
260 =item B<CACert> I<File>
262 File that holds one or more SSL certificates. If you want to use HTTPS you will
263 possibly need this option. What CA certificates come bundled with C<libcurl>
264 and are checked by default depends on the distribution you use.
268 =head2 Plugin C<bind>
270 Starting with BIND 9.5.0, the most widely used DNS server software provides
271 extensive statistics about queries, responses and lots of other information.
272 The bind plugin retrieves this information that's encoded in XML and provided
273 via HTTP and submits the values to collectd.
275 To use this plugin, you first need to tell BIND to make this information
276 available. This is done with the C<statistics-channels> configuration option:
278 statistics-channels {
279 inet localhost port 8053;
282 The configuration follows the grouping that can be seen when looking at the
283 data with an XSLT compatible viewer, such as a modern web browser. It's
284 probably a good idea to make yourself familiar with the provided values, so you
285 can understand what the collected statistics actually mean.
290 URL "http://localhost:8053/"
304 Zone "127.in-addr.arpa/IN"
308 The bind plugin accepts the following configuration options:
314 URL from which to retrieve the XML data. If not specified,
315 C<http://localhost:8053/> will be used.
317 =item B<OpCodes> I<true>|I<false>
319 When enabled, statistics about the I<"OpCodes">, for example the number of
320 C<QUERY> packets, are collected.
324 =item B<QTypes> I<true>|I<false>
326 When enabled, the number of I<incoming> queries by query types (for example
327 C<A>, C<MX>, C<AAAA>) is collected.
331 =item B<ServerStats> I<true>|I<false>
333 Collect global server statistics, such as requests received over IPv4 and IPv6,
334 successful queries, and failed updates.
338 =item B<ZoneMaintStats> I<true>|I<false>
340 Collect zone maintenance statistics, mostly information about notifications
341 (zone updates) and zone transfers.
345 =item B<ResolverStats> I<true>|I<false>
347 Collect resolver statistics, i.E<nbsp>e. statistics about outgoing requests
348 (e.E<nbsp>g. queries over IPv4, lame servers). Since the global resolver
349 counters apparently were removed in BIND 9.5.1 and 9.6.0, this is disabled by
350 default. Use the B<ResolverStats> option within a B<View "_default"> block
351 instead for the same functionality.
357 Collect global memory statistics.
361 =item B<View> I<Name>
363 Collect statistics about a specific I<"view">. BIND can behave different,
364 mostly depending on the source IP-address of the request. These different
365 configurations are called "views". If you don't use this feature, you most
366 likely are only interested in the C<_default> view.
368 Within a E<lt>B<View>E<nbsp>I<name>E<gt> block, you can specify which
369 information you want to collect about a view. If no B<View> block is
370 configured, no detailed view statistics will be collected.
374 =item B<QTypes> I<true>|I<false>
376 If enabled, the number of I<outgoing> queries by query type (e.E<nbsp>g. C<A>,
381 =item B<ResolverStats> I<true>|I<false>
383 Collect resolver statistics, i.E<nbsp>e. statistics about outgoing requests
384 (e.E<nbsp>g. queries over IPv4, lame servers).
388 =item B<CacheRRSets> I<true>|I<false>
390 If enabled, the number of entries (I<"RR sets">) in the view's cache by query
391 type is collected. Negative entries (queries which resulted in an error, for
392 example names that do not exist) are reported with a leading exclamation mark,
397 =item B<Zone> I<Name>
399 When given, collect detailed information about the given zone in the view. The
400 information collected if very similar to the global B<ServerStats> information
403 You can repeat this option to collect detailed information about multiple
406 By default no detailed zone information is collected.
412 =head2 Plugin C<cpufreq>
414 This plugin doesn't have any options. It reads
415 F</sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq> (for the first CPU
416 installed) to get the current CPU frequency. If this file does not exist make
417 sure B<cpufreqd> (L<http://cpufreqd.sourceforge.net/>) or a similar tool is
418 installed and an "cpu governor" (that's a kernel module) is loaded.
424 =item B<DataDir> I<Directory>
426 Set the directory to store CSV-files under. Per default CSV-files are generated
427 beneath the daemon's working directory, i.E<nbsp>e. the B<BaseDir>.
428 The special strings B<stdout> and B<stderr> can be used to write to the standard
429 output and standard error channels, respectively. This, of course, only makes
430 much sense when collectd is running in foreground- or non-daemon-mode.
432 =item B<StoreRates> B<true|false>
434 If set to B<true>, convert counter values to rates. If set to B<false> (the
435 default) counter values are stored as is, i.E<nbsp>e. as an increasing integer
440 =head2 Plugin C<curl>
442 The curl plugin uses the B<libcurl> (L<http://curl.haxx.se/>) to read web pages
443 and the match infrastructure (the same code used by the tail plugin) to use
444 regular expressions with the received data.
446 The following example will read the current value of AMD stock from google's
447 finance page and dispatch the value to collectd.
450 <Page "stock_quotes">
451 URL "http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3AAMD"
455 Regex "<span +class=\"pr\"[^>]*> *([0-9]*\\.[0-9]+) *</span>"
456 DSType "GaugeAverage"
457 # Note: `stock_value' is not a standard type.
464 In the B<Plugin> block, there may be one or more B<Page> blocks, each defining
465 a web page and one or more "matches" to be performed on the returned data. The
466 string argument to the B<Page> block is used as plugin instance.
468 The following options are valid within B<Page> blocks:
474 URL of the web site to retrieve. Since a regular expression will be used to
475 extract information from this data, non-binary data is a big plus here ;)
477 =item B<User> I<Name>
479 Username to use if authorization is required to read the page.
481 =item B<Password> I<Password>
483 Password to use if authorization is required to read the page.
485 =item B<VerifyPeer> B<true>|B<false>
487 Enable or disable peer SSL certificate verification. See
488 L<http://curl.haxx.se/docs/sslcerts.html> for details. Enabled by default.
490 =item B<VerifyHost> B<true>|B<false>
492 Enable or disable peer host name verification. If enabled, the plugin checks if
493 the C<Common Name> or a C<Subject Alternate Name> field of the SSL certificate
494 matches the host name provided by the B<URL> option. If this identity check
495 fails, the connection is aborted. Obviously, only works when connecting to a
496 SSL enabled server. Enabled by default.
498 =item B<CACert> I<file>
500 File that holds one or more SSL certificates. If you want to use HTTPS you will
501 possibly need this option. What CA certificates come bundled with C<libcurl>
502 and are checked by default depends on the distribution you use.
504 =item B<E<lt>MatchE<gt>>
506 One or more B<Match> blocks that define how to match information in the data
507 returned by C<libcurl>. The C<curl> plugin uses the same infrastructure that's
508 used by the C<tail> plugin, so please see the documentation of the C<tail>
509 plugin below on how matches are defined.
515 This plugin uses the B<dbi> library (L<http://libdbi.sourceforge.net/>) to
516 connect to various databases, execute I<SQL> statements and read back the
517 results. I<dbi> is an acronym for "database interface" in case you were
518 wondering about the name. You can configure how each column is to be
519 interpreted and the plugin will generate one or more data sets from each row
520 returned according to these rules.
522 Because the plugin is very generic, the configuration is a little more complex
523 than those of other plugins. It usually looks something like this:
526 <Query "out_of_stock">
527 Statement "SELECT category, COUNT(*) AS value FROM products WHERE in_stock = 0 GROUP BY category"
528 # Use with MySQL 5.0.0 or later
532 InstancePrefix "out_of_stock"
533 InstancesFrom "category"
537 <Database "product_information">
539 DriverOption "host" "localhost"
540 DriverOption "username" "collectd"
541 DriverOption "password" "aZo6daiw"
542 DriverOption "dbname" "prod_info"
548 The configuration above defines one query with one result and one database. The
549 query is then linked to the database with the B<Query> option I<within> the
550 B<E<lt>DatabaseE<gt>> block. You can have any number of queries and databases
551 and you can also use the B<Include> statement to split up the configuration
552 file in multiple, smaller files. However, the B<E<lt>QueryE<gt>> block I<must>
553 precede the B<E<lt>DatabaseE<gt>> blocks, because the file is interpreted from
556 The following is a complete list of options:
558 =head3 B<Query> blocks
560 Query blocks define I<SQL> statements and how the returned data should be
561 interpreted. They are identified by the name that is given in the opening line
562 of the block. Thus the name needs to be unique. Other than that, the name is
563 not used in collectd.
565 In each B<Query> block, there is one or more B<Result> blocks. B<Result> blocks
566 define which column holds which value or instance information. You can use
567 multiple B<Result> blocks to create multiple values from one returned row. This
568 is especially useful, when queries take a long time and sending almost the same
569 query again and again is not desirable.
573 <Query "environment">
574 Statement "select station, temperature, humidity from environment"
577 # InstancePrefix "foo"
578 InstancesFrom "station"
579 ValuesFrom "temperature"
583 InstancesFrom "station"
584 ValuesFrom "humidity"
588 The following options are accepted:
592 =item B<Statement> I<SQL>
594 Sets the statement that should be executed on the server. This is B<not>
595 interpreted by collectd, but simply passed to the database server. Therefore,
596 the SQL dialect that's used depends on the server collectd is connected to.
598 The query has to return at least two columns, one for the instance and one
599 value. You cannot omit the instance, even if the statement is guaranteed to
600 always return exactly one line. In that case, you can usually specify something
603 Statement "SELECT \"instance\", COUNT(*) AS value FROM table"
605 (That works with MySQL but may not be valid SQL according to the spec. If you
606 use a more strict database server, you may have to select from a dummy table or
609 =item B<MinVersion> I<Version>
611 =item B<MaxVersion> I<Value>
613 Only use this query for the specified database version. You can use these
614 options to provide multiple queries with the same name but with a slightly
615 different syntax. The plugin will use only those queries, where the specified
616 minimum and maximum versions fit the version of the database in use.
618 The database version is determined by C<dbi_conn_get_engine_version>, see the
619 L<libdbi documentation|http://libdbi.sourceforge.net/docs/programmers-guide/reference-conn.html#DBI-CONN-GET-ENGINE-VERSION>
620 for details. Basically, each part of the version is assumed to be in the range
621 from B<00> to B<99> and all dots are removed. So version "4.1.2" becomes
622 "40102", version "5.0.42" becomes "50042".
624 B<Warning:> The plugin will use B<all> matching queries, so if you specify
625 multiple queries with the same name and B<overlapping> ranges, weird stuff will
626 happen. Don't to it! A valid example would be something along these lines:
637 In the above example, there are three ranges that don't overlap. The last one
638 goes from version "5.1.0" to infinity, meaning "all later versions". Versions
639 before "4.0.0" are not specified.
641 =item B<Type> I<Type>
643 The B<type> that's used for each line returned. See L<types.db(5)> for more
644 details on how types are defined. In short: A type is a predefined layout of
645 data and the number of values and type of values has to match the type
648 If you specify "temperature" here, you need exactly one gauge column. If you
649 specify "if_octets", you will need two counter columns. See the B<ValuesFrom>
652 There must be exactly one B<Type> option inside each B<Result> block.
654 =item B<InstancePrefix> I<prefix>
656 Prepends I<prefix> to the type instance. If B<InstancesFrom> (see below) is not
657 given, the string is simply copied. If B<InstancesFrom> is given, I<prefix> and
658 all strings returned in the appropriate columns are concatenated together,
659 separated by dashes I<("-")>.
661 =item B<InstancesFrom> I<column0> [I<column1> ...]
663 Specifies the columns whose values will be used to create the "type-instance"
664 for each row. If you specify more than one column, the value of all columns
665 will be join together with the dashes I<("-")> as separation character.
667 The plugin itself does not check whether or not all built instances are
668 different. It's your responsibility to assure that each is unique. This is
669 especially true, if you do not specify B<InstancesFrom>: B<You> have to make
670 sure that only one row is returned in this case.
672 If neither B<InstancePrefix> nor B<InstancesFrom> is given, the type-instance
675 =item B<ValuesFrom> I<column0> [I<column1> ...]
677 Names the columns whose content is used as the actual data for the data sets
678 that are dispatched to the daemon. How many such columns you need is determined
679 by the B<Type> setting above. If you specify too many or not enough columns,
680 the plugin will complain about that and no data will be submitted to the
683 The actual data type in the columns is not that important. The plugin will
684 automatically cast the values to the right type if it know how to do that. So
685 it should be able to handle integer an floating point types, as well as strings
686 (if they include a number at the beginning).
688 There must be at least one B<ValuesFrom> option inside each B<Result> block.
692 =head3 B<Database> blocks
694 Database blocks define a connection to a database and which queries should be
695 sent to that database. Since the used "dbi" library can handle a wide variety
696 of databases, the configuration is very generic. If in doubt, refer to libdbi's
697 documentationE<nbsp>- we stick as close to the terminology used there.
699 Each database needs a "name" as string argument in the starting tag of the
700 block. This name will be used as "PluginInstance" in the values submitted to
701 the daemon. Other than that, that name is not used.
705 =item B<Driver> I<Driver>
707 Specifies the driver to use to connect to the database. In many cases those
708 drivers are named after the database they can connect to, but this is not a
709 technical necessity. These drivers are sometimes referred to as "DBD",
710 B<D>ataB<B>ase B<D>river, and some distributions ship them in separate
711 packages. Drivers for the "dbi" library are developed by the B<libdbi-drivers>
712 project at L<http://libdbi-drivers.sourceforge.net/>.
714 You need to give the driver name as expected by the "dbi" library here. You
715 should be able to find that in the documentation for each driver. If you
716 mistype the driver name, the plugin will dump a list of all known driver names
719 =item B<DriverOption> I<Key> I<Value>
721 Sets driver-specific options. What option a driver supports can be found in the
722 documentation for each driver, somewhere at
723 L<http://libdbi-drivers.sourceforge.net/>. However, the options "host",
724 "username", "password", and "dbname" seem to be deE<nbsp>facto standards.
726 Unfortunately, drivers are not too keen to report errors when an unknown option
727 is passed to them, so invalid settings here may go unnoticed. This is not the
728 plugin's fault, it will report errors if it gets them from the libraryE<nbsp>/
729 the driver. If a driver complains about an option, the plugin will dump a
730 complete list of all options understood by that driver to the log.
732 =item B<SelectDB> I<Database>
734 In some cases, the database name you connect with is not the database name you
735 want to use for querying data. If this option is set, the plugin will "select"
736 (switch to) that database after the connection is established.
738 =item B<Query> I<QueryName>
740 Associates the query named I<QueryName> with this database connection. The
741 query needs to be defined I<before> this statement, i.E<nbsp>e. all query
742 blocks you want to refer to must be placed above the database block you want to
751 =item B<Device> I<Device>
753 Select partitions based on the devicename.
755 =item B<MountPoint> I<Directory>
757 Select partitions based on the mountpoint.
759 =item B<FSType> I<FSType>
761 Select partitions based on the filesystem type.
763 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
765 Invert the selection: If set to true, all partitions B<except> the ones that
766 match any one of the criteria are collected. By default only selected
767 partitions are collected if a selection is made. If no selection is configured
768 at all, B<all> partitions are selected.
772 =head2 Plugin C<disk>
774 The C<disk> plugin collects information about the usage of physical disks and
775 logical disks (partitions). Values collected are the number of octets written
776 to and read from a disk or partition, the number of read/write operations
777 issued to the disk and a rather complex "time" it took for these commands to be
780 Using the following two options you can ignore some disks or configure the
781 collection only of specific disks.
785 =item B<Disk> I<Name>
787 Select the disk I<Name>. Whether it is collected or ignored depends on the
788 B<IgnoreSelected> setting, see below. As with other plugins that use the
789 daemon's ignorelist functionality, a string that starts and ends with a slash
790 is interpreted as a regular expression. Examples:
795 =item B<IgnoreSelected> B<true>|B<false>
797 Sets whether selected disks, i.E<nbsp>e. the ones matches by any of the B<Disk>
798 statements, are ignored or if all other disks are ignored. The behavior
799 (hopefully) is intuitive: If no B<Disk> option is configured, all disks are
800 collected. If at least one B<Disk> option is given and no B<IgnoreSelected> or
801 set to B<false>, B<only> matching disks will be collected. If B<IgnoreSelected>
802 is set to B<true>, all disks are collected B<except> the ones matched.
810 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
812 The dns plugin uses B<libpcap> to capture dns traffic and analyses it. This
813 option sets the interface that should be used. If this option is not set, or
814 set to "any", the plugin will try to get packets from B<all> interfaces. This
815 may not work on certain platforms, such as MacE<nbsp>OSE<nbsp>X.
817 =item B<IgnoreSource> I<IP-address>
819 Ignore packets that originate from this address.
823 =head2 Plugin C<email>
827 =item B<SocketFile> I<Path>
829 Sets the socket-file which is to be created.
831 =item B<SocketGroup> I<Group>
833 If running as root change the group of the UNIX-socket after it has been
834 created. Defaults to B<collectd>.
836 =item B<SocketPerms> I<Permissions>
838 Change the file permissions of the UNIX-socket after it has been created. The
839 permissions must be given as a numeric, octal value as you would pass to
840 L<chmod(1)>. Defaults to B<0770>.
842 =item B<MaxConns> I<Number>
844 Sets the maximum number of connections that can be handled in parallel. Since
845 this many threads will be started immediately setting this to a very high
846 value will waste valuable resources. Defaults to B<5> and will be forced to be
847 at most B<16384> to prevent typos and dumb mistakes.
851 =head2 Plugin C<exec>
853 Please make sure to read L<collectd-exec(5)> before using this plugin. It
854 contains valuable information on when the executable is executed and the
855 output that is expected from it.
859 =item B<Exec> I<User>[:[I<Group>]] I<Executable> [I<E<lt>argE<gt>> [I<E<lt>argE<gt>> ...]]
861 =item B<NotificationExec> I<User>[:[I<Group>]] I<Executable> [I<E<lt>argE<gt>> [I<E<lt>argE<gt>> ...]]
863 Execute the executable I<Executable> as user I<User>. If the user name is
864 followed by a colon and a group name, the effective group is set to that group.
865 The real group and saved-set group will be set to the default group of that
866 user. If no group is given the effective group ID will be the same as the real
869 Please note that in order to change the user and/or group the daemon needs
870 superuser privileges. If the daemon is run as an unprivileged user you must
871 specify the same user/group here. If the daemon is run with superuser
872 privileges, you must supply a non-root user here.
874 The executable may be followed by optional arguments that are passed to the
875 program. Please note that due to the configuration parsing numbers and boolean
876 values may be changed. If you want to be absolutely sure that something is
877 passed as-is please enclose it in quotes.
879 The B<Exec> and B<NotificationExec> statements change the semantics of the
880 programs executed, i.E<nbsp>e. the data passed to them and the response
881 expected from them. This is documented in great detail in L<collectd-exec(5)>.
885 =head2 Plugin C<filecount>
887 The C<filecount> plugin counts the number of files in a certain directory (and
888 its subdirectories) and their combined size. The configuration is very straight
892 <Directory "/var/qmail/queue/mess">
893 Instance "qmail-message"
895 <Directory "/var/qmail/queue/todo">
896 Instance "qmail-todo"
898 <Directory "/var/lib/php5">
899 Instance "php5-sessions"
904 The example above counts the number of files in QMail's queue directories and
905 the number of PHP5 sessions. Jfiy: The "todo" queue holds the messages that
906 QMail has not yet looked at, the "message" queue holds the messages that were
907 classified into "local" and "remote".
909 As you can see, the configuration consists of one or more C<Directory> blocks,
910 each of which specifies a directory in which to count the files. Within those
911 blocks, the following options are recognized:
915 =item B<Instance> I<Instance>
917 Sets the plugin instance to I<Instance>. That instance name must be unique, but
918 it's your responsibility, the plugin doesn't check for that. If not given, the
919 instance is set to the directory name with all slashes replaced by underscores
920 and all leading underscores removed.
922 =item B<Name> I<Pattern>
924 Only count files that match I<Pattern>, where I<Pattern> is a shell-like
925 wildcard as understood by L<fnmatch(3)>. Only the B<filename> is checked
926 against the pattern, not the entire path. In case this makes it easier for you:
927 This option has been named after the B<-name> parameter to L<find(1)>.
929 =item B<MTime> I<Age>
931 Count only files of a specific age: If I<Age> is greater than zero, only files
932 that haven't been touched in the last I<Age> seconds are counted. If I<Age> is
933 a negative number, this is inversed. For example, if B<-60> is specified, only
934 files that have been modified in the last minute will be counted.
936 The number can also be followed by a "multiplier" to easily specify a larger
937 timespan. When given in this notation, the argument must in quoted, i.E<nbsp>e.
938 must be passed as string. So the B<-60> could also be written as B<"-1m"> (one
939 minute). Valid multipliers are C<s> (second), C<m> (minute), C<h> (hour), C<d>
940 (day), C<w> (week), and C<y> (year). There is no "month" multiplier. You can
941 also specify fractional numbers, e.E<nbsp>g. B<"0.5d"> is identical to
944 =item B<Size> I<Size>
946 Count only files of a specific size. When I<Size> is a positive number, only
947 files that are at least this big are counted. If I<Size> is a negative number,
948 this is inversed, i.E<nbsp>e. only files smaller than the absolute value of
951 As with the B<MTime> option, a "multiplier" may be added. For a detailed
952 description see above. Valid multipliers here are C<b> (byte), C<k> (kilobyte),
953 C<m> (megabyte), C<g> (gigabyte), C<t> (terabyte), and C<p> (petabyte). Please
954 note that there are 1000 bytes in a kilobyte, not 1024.
956 =item B<Recursive> I<true>|I<false>
958 Controls whether or not to recurse into subdirectories. Enabled by default.
962 =head2 Plugin C<filter_pcre>
964 This plugin allows you to filter and rewrite value lists based on
965 Perl-compatible regular expressions whose syntax and semantics are as close as
966 possible to those of the Perl 5 language. See L<pcre(3)> for details.
979 PluginInstance "^Some Weird Sensor Chip Name Prefix"
981 SubstitutePluginInstance "foo"
985 The configuration consists of one or more C<RegEx> blocks, each of which
986 specifies a regular expression identifying a set of value lists and how to
987 handle successful matches. A value list keeps the values of a single data-set
988 and is identified by the tuple (host, plugin, plugin instance, type, type
989 instance). The plugin and type instances are optional components. If they are
990 missing they are treated as empty strings. Within those blocks, the following
991 options are recognized:
995 =item B<Host> I<regex>
997 =item B<Plugin> I<regex>
999 =item B<PluginInstance> I<regex>
1001 =item B<Type> I<regex>
1003 =item B<TypeInstance> I<regex>
1005 Specifies the regular expression for each component of the identifier. If any
1006 of these options is missing it is interpreted as a pattern which matches any
1007 string. All five components of a value list have to match the appropriate
1008 regular expression to trigger the specified action.
1010 =item B<Action> I<NoWrite>|I<NoThresholdCheck>|I<Ignore>
1012 Specify how to handle successful matches:
1018 Do not send the value list to any output (a.k.a. write) plugins.
1020 =item B<NoThresholdCheck>
1022 Skip threshold checking for this value list.
1026 Completely ignore this value list.
1030 Two or more actions may be combined by specifying multiple B<Action> options.
1032 =item B<SubstituteHost> I<replacement>
1034 =item B<SubstitutePlugin> I<replacement>
1036 =item B<SubstitutePluginInstance> I<replacement>
1038 =item B<SubstituteType> I<replacement>
1040 =item B<SubstituteTypeInstance> I<replacement>
1042 Upon a successful match, the matching substring will be replaced by the
1043 specified I<replacement> text. These options require that an appropriate regex
1044 has been specified before, e.E<nbsp>g. B<SubstituteHost> requires that the
1045 B<Host> option has been specified before.
1047 B<Note>: It is not recommended to modify the type unless you really know what
1048 you are doing. The type is used to identify the data-set definition of the
1053 =head2 Plugin C<hddtemp>
1055 To get values from B<hddtemp> collectd connects to B<localhost> (127.0.0.1),
1056 port B<7634/tcp>. The B<Host> and B<Port> options can be used to change these
1057 default values, see below. C<hddtemp> has to be running to work correctly. If
1058 C<hddtemp> is not running timeouts may appear which may interfere with other
1061 The B<hddtemp> homepage can be found at
1062 L<http://www.guzu.net/linux/hddtemp.php>.
1066 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
1068 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
1070 =item B<Port> I<Port>
1072 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<7634>.
1074 =item B<TranslateDevicename> I<true>|I<false>
1076 If enabled, translate the disk names to major/minor device numbers
1077 (e.E<nbsp>g. "8-0" for /dev/sda). For backwards compatibility this defaults to
1078 I<true> but it's recommended to disable it as it will probably be removed in
1079 the next major version.
1083 =head2 Plugin C<interface>
1087 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
1089 Select this interface. By default these interfaces will then be collected. For
1090 a more detailed description see B<IgnoreSelected> below.
1092 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
1094 If no configuration if given, the B<traffic>-plugin will collect data from
1095 all interfaces. This may not be practical, especially for loopback- and
1096 similar interfaces. Thus, you can use the B<Interface>-option to pick the
1097 interfaces you're interested in. Sometimes, however, it's easier/preferred
1098 to collect all interfaces I<except> a few ones. This option enables you to
1099 do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to I<true> the effect of
1100 B<Interface> is inverted: All selected interfaces are ignored and all
1101 other interfaces are collected.
1105 =head2 Plugin C<ipmi>
1109 =item B<Sensor> I<Sensor>
1111 Selects sensors to collect or to ignore, depending on B<IgnoreSelected>.
1113 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
1115 If no configuration if given, the B<ipmi> plugin will collect data from all
1116 sensors found of type "temperature", "voltage", "current" and "fanspeed".
1117 This option enables you to do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to I<true>
1118 the effect of B<Sensor> is inverted: All selected sensors are ignored and
1119 all other sensors are collected.
1121 =item B<NotifySensorAdd> I<true>|I<false>
1123 If a sensor appears after initialization time of a minute a notification
1126 =item B<NotifySensorRemove> I<true>|I<false>
1128 If a sensor disappears a notification is sent.
1130 =item B<NotifySensorNotPresent> I<true>|I<false>
1132 If you have for example dual power supply and one of them is (un)plugged then
1133 a notification is sent.
1137 =head2 Plugin C<iptables>
1141 =item B<Chain> I<Table> I<Chain> [I<Comment|Number> [I<Name>]]
1143 Select the rules to count. If only I<Table> and I<Chain> are given, this plugin
1144 will collect the counters of all rules which have a comment-match. The comment
1145 is then used as type-instance.
1147 If I<Comment> or I<Number> is given, only the rule with the matching comment or
1148 the I<n>th rule will be collected. Again, the comment (or the number) will be
1149 used as the type-instance.
1151 If I<Name> is supplied, it will be used as the type-instance instead of the
1152 comment or the number.
1156 =head2 Plugin C<irq>
1162 Select this irq. By default these irqs will then be collected. For a more
1163 detailed description see B<IgnoreSelected> below.
1165 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
1167 If no configuration if given, the B<irq>-plugin will collect data from all
1168 irqs. This may not be practical, especially if no interrupts happen. Thus, you
1169 can use the B<Irq>-option to pick the interrupt you're interested in.
1170 Sometimes, however, it's easier/preferred to collect all interrupts I<except> a
1171 few ones. This option enables you to do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to
1172 I<true> the effect of B<Irq> is inverted: All selected interrupts are ignored
1173 and all other interrupts are collected.
1177 =head2 Plugin C<java>
1182 JVMArg "-verbose:jni"
1183 JVMArg "-Djava.class.path=/opt/collectd/lib/collectd/bindings/java"
1184 LoadPlugin "org.collectd.java.Foobar"
1185 # FIXME: The following is planned, but not finished!
1186 <Plugin "org.collectd.java.Foobar">
1187 # To be parsed by the plugin
1191 Available config options:
1195 =item B<JVMArg> I<Argument>
1197 Argument that is to be passed to the I<Java Virtual Machine> (JVM). This works
1198 exactly the way the arguments to the I<java> binary on the command line work.
1199 Execute C<javaE<nbsp>--help> for details.
1201 =item B<LoadPlugin> I<JavaClass>
1203 Instantiates a new I<JavaClass> object. The following methods of this class are
1204 used when available:
1210 public int B<Init> ()
1214 public int B<Read> ()
1218 public int B<Write> (org.collectd.protocol.ValueList vl)
1222 public int B<Shutdown> ()
1228 =head2 Plugin C<libvirt>
1230 This plugin allows CPU, disk and network load to be collected for virtualized
1231 guests on the machine. This means that these characteristics can be collected
1232 for guest systems without installing any software on them - collectd only runs
1233 on the hosting system. The statistics are collected through libvirt
1234 (L<http://libvirt.org/>).
1236 Only I<Connection> is required.
1240 =item B<Connection> I<uri>
1242 Connect to the hypervisor given by I<uri>. For example if using Xen use:
1244 Connection "xen:///"
1246 Details which URIs allowed are given at L<http://libvirt.org/uri.html>.
1248 =item B<RefreshInterval> I<seconds>
1250 Refresh the list of domains and devices every I<seconds>. The default is 60
1251 seconds. Setting this to be the same or smaller than the I<Interval> will cause
1252 the list of domains and devices to be refreshed on every iteration.
1254 Refreshing the devices in particular is quite a costly operation, so if your
1255 virtualization setup is static you might consider increasing this. If this
1256 option is set to 0, refreshing is disabled completely.
1258 =item B<Domain> I<name>
1260 =item B<BlockDevice> I<name:dev>
1262 =item B<InterfaceDevice> I<name:dev>
1264 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
1266 Select which domains and devices are collected.
1268 If I<IgnoreSelected> is not given or I<false> then only the listed domains and
1269 disk/network devices are collected.
1271 If I<IgnoreSelected> is I<true> then the test is reversed and the listed
1272 domains and disk/network devices are ignored, while the rest are collected.
1274 The domain name and device names may use a regular expression, if the name is
1275 surrounded by I</.../> and collectd was compiled with support for regexps.
1277 The default is to collect statistics for all domains and all their devices.
1281 BlockDevice "/:hdb/"
1282 IgnoreSelected "true"
1284 Ignore all I<hdb> devices on any domain, but other block devices (eg. I<hda>)
1287 =item B<HostnameFormat> B<name|uuid|hostname|...>
1289 When the libvirt plugin logs data, it sets the hostname of the collected data
1290 according to this setting. The default is to use the guest name as provided by
1291 the hypervisor, which is equal to setting B<name>.
1293 B<uuid> means use the guest's UUID. This is useful if you want to track the
1294 same guest across migrations.
1296 B<hostname> means to use the global B<Hostname> setting, which is probably not
1297 useful on its own because all guests will appear to have the same name.
1299 You can also specify combinations of these fields. For example B<name uuid>
1300 means to concatenate the guest name and UUID (with a literal colon character
1301 between, thus I<"foo:1234-1234-1234-1234">).
1305 =head2 Plugin C<logfile>
1309 =item B<LogLevel> B<debug|info|notice|warning|err>
1311 Sets the log-level. If, for example, set to B<notice>, then all events with
1312 severity B<notice>, B<warning>, or B<err> will be written to the logfile.
1314 Please note that B<debug> is only available if collectd has been compiled with
1317 =item B<File> I<File>
1319 Sets the file to write log messages to. The special strings B<stdout> and
1320 B<stderr> can be used to write to the standard output and standard error
1321 channels, respectively. This, of course, only makes much sense when collectd is
1322 running in foreground- or non-daemon-mode.
1324 =item B<Timestamp> B<true>|B<false>
1326 Prefix all lines printed by the current time. Defaults to B<true>.
1330 B<Note>: There is no need to notify the daemon after moving or removing the
1331 log file (e.E<nbsp>g. when rotating the logs). The plugin reopens the file
1332 for each line it writes.
1334 =head2 Plugin C<mbmon>
1336 The C<mbmon plugin> uses mbmon to retrieve temperature, voltage, etc.
1338 Be default collectd connects to B<localhost> (127.0.0.1), port B<411/tcp>. The
1339 B<Host> and B<Port> options can be used to change these values, see below.
1340 C<mbmon> has to be running to work correctly. If C<mbmon> is not running
1341 timeouts may appear which may interfere with other statistics..
1343 C<mbmon> must be run with the -r option ("print TAG and Value format");
1344 Debian's F</etc/init.d/mbmon> script already does this, other people
1345 will need to ensure that this is the case.
1349 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
1351 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
1353 =item B<Port> I<Port>
1355 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<411>.
1359 =head2 Plugin C<memcached>
1361 The C<memcached plugin> connects to a memcached server and queries statistics
1362 about cache utilization, memory and bandwidth used.
1363 L<http://www.danga.com/memcached/>
1367 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
1369 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
1371 =item B<Port> I<Port>
1373 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<11211>.
1377 =head2 Plugin C<mysql>
1379 The C<mysql plugin> requires B<mysqlclient> to be installed. It connects to the
1380 database when started and keeps the connection up as long as possible. When the
1381 connection is interrupted for whatever reason it will try to re-connect. The
1382 plugin will complaint loudly in case anything goes wrong.
1384 This plugin issues the MySQL C<SHOW STATUS> command and collects information
1385 about MySQL network traffic, executed statements, requests, the query cache
1386 and threads by evaluating the C<Bytes_{received,sent}>, C<Com_*>,
1387 C<Handler_*>, C<Qcache_*> and C<Threads_*> return values. Please refer to the
1388 B<MySQL reference manual>, I<5.1.6. Server Status Variables> for an
1389 explanation of these values.
1391 Use the following options to configure the plugin:
1395 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
1397 Hostname of the database server. Defaults to B<localhost>.
1399 =item B<User> I<Username>
1401 Username to use when connecting to the database. The user does not have to be
1402 granted any privileges (which is synonym to granting the C<USAGE> privilege).
1403 Any existing MySQL user will do.
1405 =item B<Password> I<Password>
1407 Password needed to log into the database.
1409 =item B<Database> I<Database>
1411 Select this database. Defaults to I<no database> which is a perfectly reasonable
1412 option for what this plugin does.
1414 =item B<Port> I<Port>
1416 TCP-port to connect to. The port must be specified in its numeric form, but it
1417 must be passed as a string nonetheless. For example:
1421 If B<Host> is set to B<localhost> (the default), this setting has no effect.
1422 See the documentation for the C<mysql_real_connect> function for details.
1424 =item B<Socket> I<Socket>
1426 Specifies the path to the UNIX domain socket of the MySQL server. This option
1427 only has any effect, if B<Host> is set to B<localhost> (the default).
1428 Otherwise, use the B<Port> option above. See the documentation for the
1429 C<mysql_real_connect> function for details.
1433 =head2 Plugin C<netlink>
1435 The C<netlink> plugin uses a netlink socket to query the Linux kernel about
1436 statistics of various interface and routing aspects.
1440 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
1442 =item B<VerboseInterface> I<Interface>
1444 Instruct the plugin to collect interface statistics. This is basically the same
1445 as the statistics provided by the C<interface> plugin (see above) but
1446 potentially much more detailed.
1448 When configuring with B<Interface> only the basic statistics will be collected,
1449 namely octets, packets, and errors. These statistics are collected by
1450 the C<interface> plugin, too, so using both at the same time is no benefit.
1452 When configured with B<VerboseInterface> all counters B<except> the basic ones,
1453 so that no data needs to be collected twice if you use the C<interface> plugin.
1454 This includes dropped packets, received multicast packets, collisions and a
1455 whole zoo of differentiated RX and TX errors. You can try the following command
1456 to get an idea of what awaits you:
1460 If I<Interface> is B<All>, all interfaces will be selected.
1462 =item B<QDisc> I<Interface> [I<QDisc>]
1464 =item B<Class> I<Interface> [I<Class>]
1466 =item B<Filter> I<Interface> [I<Filter>]
1468 Collect the octets and packets that pass a certain qdisc, class or filter.
1470 QDiscs and classes are identified by their type and handle (or classid).
1471 Filters don't necessarily have a handle, therefore the parent's handle is used.
1472 The notation used in collectd differs from that used in tc(1) in that it
1473 doesn't skip the major or minor number if it's zero and doesn't print special
1474 ids by their name. So, for example, a qdisc may be identified by
1475 C<pfifo_fast-1:0> even though the minor number of B<all> qdiscs is zero and
1476 thus not displayed by tc(1).
1478 If B<QDisc>, B<Class>, or B<Filter> is given without the second argument,
1479 i.E<nbsp>.e. without an identifier, all qdiscs, classes, or filters that are
1480 associated with that interface will be collected.
1482 Since a filter itself doesn't necessarily have a handle, the parent's handle is
1483 used. This may lead to problems when more than one filter is attached to a
1484 qdisc or class. This isn't nice, but we don't know how this could be done any
1485 better. If you have a idea, please don't hesitate to tell us.
1487 As with the B<Interface> option you can specify B<All> as the interface,
1488 meaning all interfaces.
1490 Here are some examples to help you understand the above text more easily:
1493 VerboseInterface "All"
1494 QDisc "eth0" "pfifo_fast-1:0"
1496 Class "ppp0" "htb-1:10"
1497 Filter "ppp0" "u32-1:0"
1500 =item B<IgnoreSelected>
1502 The behaviour is the same as with all other similar plugins: If nothing is
1503 selected at all, everything is collected. If some things are selected using the
1504 options described above, only these statistics are collected. If you set
1505 B<IgnoreSelected> to B<true>, this behavior is inverted, i.E<nbsp>e. the
1506 specified statistics will not be collected.
1510 =head2 Plugin C<network>
1514 =item B<Listen> I<Host> [I<Port>]
1516 =item B<Server> I<Host> [I<Port>]
1518 The B<Server> statement sets the server to send datagrams B<to>. The statement
1519 may occur multiple times to send each datagram to multiple destinations.
1521 The B<Listen> statement sets the interfaces to bind to. When multiple
1522 statements are found the daemon will bind to multiple interfaces.
1524 The argument I<Host> may be a hostname, an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address. If
1525 the argument is a multicast address the daemon will join that multicast group.
1527 If no B<Listen> statement is found the server tries join both, the default IPv6
1528 multicast group and the default IPv4 multicast group. If no B<Server> statement
1529 is found the client will try to send data to the IPv6 multicast group first. If
1530 that fails the client will try the IPv4 multicast group.
1532 The default IPv6 multicast group is C<ff18::efc0:4a42>. The default IPv4
1533 multicast group is C<239.192.74.66>.
1535 The optional I<Port> argument sets the port to use. It can either be given
1536 using a numeric port number or a service name. If the argument is omitted the
1537 default port B<25826> is assumed.
1539 =item B<TimeToLive> I<1-255>
1541 Set the time-to-live of sent packets. This applies to all, unicast and
1542 multicast, and IPv4 and IPv6 packets. The default is to not change this value.
1543 That means that multicast packets will be sent with a TTL of C<1> (one) on most
1546 =item B<Forward> I<true|false>
1548 If set to I<true>, write packets that were received via the network plugin to
1549 the sending sockets. This should only be activated when the B<Listen>- and
1550 B<Server>-statements differ. Otherwise packets may be send multiple times to
1551 the same multicast group. While this results in more network traffic than
1552 necessary it's not a huge problem since the plugin has a duplicate detection,
1553 so the values will not loop.
1555 =item B<CacheFlush> I<Seconds>
1557 For each host/plugin/type combination the C<network plugin> caches the time of
1558 the last value being sent or received. Every I<Seconds> seconds the plugin
1559 searches and removes all entries that are older than I<Seconds> seconds, thus
1560 freeing the unused memory again. Since this process is somewhat expensive and
1561 normally doesn't do much, this value should not be too small. The default is
1562 1800 seconds, but setting this to 86400 seconds (one day) will not do much harm
1567 =head2 Plugin C<nginx>
1569 This plugin collects the number of connections and requests handled by the
1570 C<nginx daemon> (speak: engineE<nbsp>X), a HTTP and mail server/proxy. It
1571 queries the page provided by the C<ngx_http_stub_status_module> module, which
1572 isn't compiled by default. Please refer to
1573 L<http://wiki.codemongers.com/NginxStubStatusModule> for more information on
1574 how to compile and configure nginx and this module.
1576 The following options are accepted by the C<nginx plugin>:
1580 =item B<URL> I<http://host/nginx_status>
1582 Sets the URL of the C<ngx_http_stub_status_module> output.
1584 =item B<User> I<Username>
1586 Optional user name needed for authentication.
1588 =item B<Password> I<Password>
1590 Optional password needed for authentication.
1592 =item B<VerifyPeer> B<true|false>
1594 Enable or disable peer SSL certificate verification. See
1595 L<http://curl.haxx.se/docs/sslcerts.html> for details. Enabled by default.
1597 =item B<VerifyHost> B<true|false>
1599 Enable or disable peer host name verification. If enabled, the plugin checks
1600 if the C<Common Name> or a C<Subject Alternate Name> field of the SSL
1601 certificate matches the host name provided by the B<URL> option. If this
1602 identity check fails, the connection is aborted. Obviously, only works when
1603 connecting to a SSL enabled server. Enabled by default.
1605 =item B<CACert> I<File>
1607 File that holds one or more SSL certificates. If you want to use HTTPS you will
1608 possibly need this option. What CA certificates come bundled with C<libcurl>
1609 and are checked by default depends on the distribution you use.
1613 =head2 Plugin C<notify_desktop>
1615 This plugin sends a desktop notification to a notification daemon, as defined
1616 in the Desktop Notification Specification. To actually display the
1617 notifications, B<notification-daemon> is required and B<collectd> has to be
1618 able to access the X server.
1620 The Desktop Notification Specification can be found at
1621 L<http://www.galago-project.org/specs/notification/>.
1625 =item B<OkayTimeout> I<timeout>
1627 =item B<WarningTimeout> I<timeout>
1629 =item B<FailureTimeout> I<timeout>
1631 Set the I<timeout>, in milliseconds, after which to expire the notification
1632 for C<OKAY>, C<WARNING> and C<FAILURE> severities respectively. If zero has
1633 been specified, the displayed notification will not be closed at all - the
1634 user has to do so herself. These options default to 5000. If a negative number
1635 has been specified, the default is used as well.
1639 =head2 Plugin C<notify_email>
1641 The I<notify_email> plugin uses the I<ESMTP> library to send notifications to a
1642 configured email address.
1644 I<libESMTP> is available from L<http://www.stafford.uklinux.net/libesmtp/>.
1646 Available configuration options:
1650 =item B<From> I<Address>
1652 Email address from which the emails should appear to come from.
1654 Default: C<root@localhost>
1656 =item B<Recipient> I<Address>
1658 Configures the email address(es) to which the notifications should be mailed.
1659 May be repeated to send notifications to multiple addresses.
1661 At least one B<Recipient> must be present for the plugin to work correctly.
1663 =item B<SMTPServer> I<Hostname>
1665 Hostname of the SMTP server to connect to.
1667 Default: C<localhost>
1669 =item B<SMTPPort> I<Port>
1671 TCP port to connect to.
1675 =item B<SMTPUser> I<Username>
1677 Username for ASMTP authentication. Optional.
1679 =item B<SMTPPassword> I<Password>
1681 Password for ASMTP authentication. Optional.
1683 =item B<Subject> I<Subject>
1685 Subject-template to use when sending emails. There must be exactly two
1686 string-placeholders in the subject, given in the standard I<printf(3)> syntax,
1687 i.E<nbsp>e. C<%s>. The first will be replaced with the severity, the second
1690 Default: C<Collectd notify: %s@%s>
1694 =head2 Plugin C<ntpd>
1698 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
1700 Hostname of the host running B<ntpd>. Defaults to B<localhost>.
1702 =item B<Port> I<Port>
1704 UDP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<123>.
1706 =item B<ReverseLookups> B<true>|B<false>
1708 Sets wether or not to perform reverse lookups on peers. Since the name or
1709 IP-address may be used in a filename it is recommended to disable reverse
1710 lookups. The default is to do reverse lookups to preserve backwards
1711 compatibility, though.
1715 =head2 Plugin C<nut>
1719 =item B<UPS> I<upsname>B<@>I<hostname>[B<:>I<port>]
1721 Add a UPS to collect data from. The format is identical to the one accepted by
1726 =head2 Plugin C<onewire>
1728 B<EXPERIMENTAL!> See notes below.
1730 The C<onewire> plugin uses the B<owcapi> library from the B<owfs> project
1731 L<http://owfs.org/> to read sensors connected via the onewire bus.
1733 Currently only temperature sensors (sensors with the family code C<10>,
1734 e.E<nbsp>g. DS1820, DS18S20, DS1920) can be read. If you have other sensors you
1735 would like to have included, please send a sort request to the mailing list.
1737 Hubs (the DS2409 chips) are working, but read the note, why this plugin is
1738 experimental, below.
1742 =item B<Device> I<Device>
1744 Sets the device to read the values from. This can either be a "real" hardware
1745 device, such as a serial port or an USB port, or the address of the
1746 L<owserver(1)> socket, usually B<localhost:4304>.
1748 Though the documentation claims to automatically recognize the given address
1749 format, with versionE<nbsp>2.7p4 we had to specify the type explicitly. So
1750 with that version, the following configuration worked for us:
1753 Device "-s localhost:4304"
1756 This directive is B<required> and does not have a default value.
1758 =item B<Sensor> I<Sensor>
1760 Selects sensors to collect or to ignore, depending on B<IgnoreSelected>, see
1761 below. Sensors are specified without the family byte at the beginning, to you'd
1762 use C<F10FCA000800>, and B<not> include the leading C<10.> family byte and
1765 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
1767 If no configuration if given, the B<onewire> plugin will collect data from all
1768 sensors found. This may not be practical, especially if sensors are added and
1769 removed regularly. Sometimes, however, it's easier/preferred to collect only
1770 specific sensors or all sensors I<except> a few specified ones. This option
1771 enables you to do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to I<true> the effect of
1772 B<Sensor> is inverted: All selected interfaces are ignored and all other
1773 interfaces are collected.
1777 B<EXPERIMENTAL!> The C<onewire> plugin is experimental, because it doesn't yet
1778 work with big setups. It works with one sensor being attached to one
1779 controller, but as soon as you throw in a couple more senors and maybe a hub
1780 or two, reading all values will take more than ten seconds (the default
1781 interval). We will probably add some separate thread for reading the sensors
1782 and some cache or something like that, but it's not done yet. We will try to
1783 maintain backwards compatibility in the future, but we can't promise. So in
1784 short: If it works for you: Great! But keep in mind that the config I<might>
1785 change, though this is unlikely. Oh, and if you want to help improving this
1786 plugin, just send a short notice to the mailing list. ThanksE<nbsp>:)
1788 =head2 Plugin C<openvpn>
1790 The OpenVPN plugin reads a status file maintained by OpenVPN and gathers
1791 traffic statistics about connected clients.
1793 To set up OpenVPN to write to the status file periodically, use the
1794 B<--status> option of OpenVPN. Since OpenVPN can write two different formats,
1795 you need to set the required format, too. This is done by setting
1796 B<--status-version> to B<2>.
1798 So, in a nutshell you need:
1800 openvpn $OTHER_OPTIONS \
1801 --status "/var/run/openvpn-status" 10 \
1808 =item B<StatusFile> I<File>
1810 Specifies the location of the status file.
1814 =head2 Plugin C<oracle>
1816 The "oracle" plugin uses the Oracle® Call Interface I<(OCI)> to connect to an
1817 Oracle® Database and lets you execute SQL statements there. It is very similar
1818 to the "dbi" plugin, because it was written around the same time. See the "dbi"
1819 plugin's documentation above for details.
1822 <Query "out_of_stock">
1823 Statement "SELECT category, COUNT(*) AS value FROM products WHERE in_stock = 0 GROUP BY category"
1826 # InstancePrefix "foo"
1827 InstancesFrom "category"
1831 <Database "product_information">
1835 Query "out_of_stock"
1839 =head3 B<Query> blocks
1841 The Query blocks are handled identically to the Query blocks of the "dbi"
1842 plugin. Please see its documentation above for details on how to specify
1845 =head3 B<Database> blocks
1847 Database blocks define a connection to a database and which queries should be
1848 sent to that database. Each database needs a "name" as string argument in the
1849 starting tag of the block. This name will be used as "PluginInstance" in the
1850 values submitted to the daemon. Other than that, that name is not used.
1854 =item B<ConnectID> I<ID>
1856 Defines the "database alias" or "service name" to connect to. Usually, these
1857 names are defined in the file named C<$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/tnsnames.ora>.
1859 =item B<Username> I<Username>
1861 Username used for authentication.
1863 =item B<Password> I<Password>
1865 Password used for authentication.
1867 =item B<Query> I<QueryName>
1869 Associates the query named I<QueryName> with this database connection. The
1870 query needs to be defined I<before> this statement, i.E<nbsp>e. all query
1871 blocks you want to refer to must be placed above the database block you want to
1876 =head2 Plugin C<perl>
1878 This plugin embeds a Perl-interpreter into collectd and provides an interface
1879 to collectd's plugin system. See L<collectd-perl(5)> for its documentation.
1881 =head2 Plugin C<ping>
1885 =item B<Host> I<IP-address>
1887 Host to ping periodically. This option may be repeated several times to ping
1890 =item B<TTL> I<0-255>
1892 Sets the Time-To-Live of generated ICMP packets.
1896 =head2 Plugin C<postgresql>
1898 The C<postgresql> plugin queries statistics from PostgreSQL databases. It
1899 keeps a persistent connection to all configured databases and tries to
1900 reconnect if the connection has been interrupted. A database is configured by
1901 specifying a B<Database> block as described below. The default statistics are
1902 collected from PostgreSQL's B<statistics collector> which thus has to be
1903 enabled for this plugin to work correctly. This should usually be the case by
1904 default. See the section "The Statistics Collector" of the B<PostgreSQL
1905 Documentation> for details.
1907 By specifying custom database queries using a B<Query> block as described
1908 below, you may collect any data that is available from some PostgreSQL
1909 database. This way, you are able to access statistics of external daemons
1910 which are available in a PostgreSQL database or use future or special
1911 statistics provided by PostgreSQL without the need to upgrade your collectd
1914 The B<PostgreSQL Documentation> manual can be found at
1915 L<http://www.postgresql.org/docs/manuals/>.
1919 Statement "SELECT magic FROM wizard WHERE host = $1;"
1923 InstancePrefix "magic"
1928 <Query rt36_tickets>
1929 Statement "SELECT COUNT(type) AS count, type \
1931 WHEN resolved = 'epoch' THEN 'open' \
1932 ELSE 'resolved' END AS type \
1933 FROM tickets) type \
1937 InstancePrefix "rt36_tickets"
1938 InstancesFrom "type"
1949 KRBSrvName "kerberos_service_name"
1954 Service "service_name"
1955 Query backend # predefined
1960 The B<Query> block defines one database query which may later be used by a
1961 database definition. It accepts a single mandatory argument which specifies
1962 the name of the query. The names of all queries have to be unique (see the
1963 B<MinPGVersion> and B<MaxPGVersion> options below for an exception to this
1964 rule). The following configuration options are available to define the query:
1966 In each B<Query> block, there is one or more B<Result> blocks. B<Result>
1967 blocks define how to handle the values returned from the query. They define
1968 which column holds which value and how to dispatch that value to the daemon.
1969 Multiple B<Result> blocks may be used to extract multiple values from a single
1974 =item B<Statement> I<sql query statement>
1976 Specify the I<sql query statement> which the plugin should execute. The string
1977 may contain the tokens B<$1>, B<$2>, etc. which are used to reference the
1978 first, second, etc. parameter. The value of the parameters is specified by the
1979 B<Param> configuration option - see below for details. To include a literal
1980 B<$> character followed by a number, surround it with single quotes (B<'>).
1982 Any SQL command which may return data (such as C<SELECT> or C<SHOW>) is
1983 allowed. Note, however, that only a single command may be used. Semicolons are
1984 allowed as long as a single non-empty command has been specified only.
1986 The returned lines will be handled separately one after another.
1988 =item B<Query> I<sql query statement>
1990 This is a deprecated synonym for B<Statement>. It will be removed in version 5
1993 =item B<Param> I<hostname>|I<database>|I<username>|I<interval>
1995 Specify the parameters which should be passed to the SQL query. The parameters
1996 are referred to in the SQL query as B<$1>, B<$2>, etc. in the same order as
1997 they appear in the configuration file. The value of the parameter is
1998 determined depending on the value of the B<Param> option as follows:
2004 The configured hostname of the database connection. If a UNIX domain socket is
2005 used, the parameter expands to "localhost".
2009 The name of the database of the current connection.
2013 The username used to connect to the database.
2017 The interval collectd is using (as specified by the B<Interval> option).
2021 Please note that parameters are only supported by PostgreSQL's protocol
2022 version 3 and above which was introduced in version 7.4 of PostgreSQL.
2024 =item B<Type> I<type>
2026 The I<type> name to be used when dispatching the values. The type describes
2027 how to handle the data and where to store it. See L<types.db(5)> for more
2028 details on types and their configuration. The number and type of values (as
2029 selected by the B<ValuesFrom> option) has to match the type of the given name.
2031 This option is required inside a B<Result> block.
2033 =item B<InstancePrefix> I<prefix>
2035 =item B<InstancesFrom> I<column0> [I<column1> ...]
2037 Specify how to create the "TypeInstance" for each data set (i.E<nbsp>e. line).
2038 B<InstancePrefix> defines a static prefix that will be prepended to all type
2039 instances. B<InstancesFrom> defines the column names whose values will be used
2040 to create the type instance. Multiple values will be joined together using the
2041 hyphen (C<->) as separation character.
2043 The plugin itself does not check whether or not all built instances are
2044 different. It is your responsibility to assure that each is unique.
2046 Both options are optional. If none is specified, the type instance will be
2049 =item B<ValuesFrom> I<column0> [I<column1> ...]
2051 Names the columns whose content is used as the actual data for the data sets
2052 that are dispatched to the daemon. How many such columns you need is
2053 determined by the B<Type> setting as explained above. If you specify too many
2054 or not enough columns, the plugin will complain about that and no data will be
2055 submitted to the daemon.
2057 The actual data type, as seen by PostgreSQL, is not that important as long as
2058 it represents numbers. The plugin will automatically cast the values to the
2059 right type if it know how to do that. For that, it uses the L<strtoll(3)> and
2060 L<strtod(3)> functions, so anything supported by those functions is supported
2061 by the plugin as well.
2063 This option is required inside a B<Result> block and may be specified multiple
2064 times. If multiple B<ValuesFrom> options are specified, the columns are read
2067 =item B<Column> I<type> [I<type instance>]
2069 This is a deprecated alternative to a B<Result> block. It will be removed in
2070 version 5 of collectd. It is equivalent to the following B<Result> block:
2074 InstancePrefix I<type instance>
2075 ValuesFrom I<name of the x. column>
2078 The order of the B<Column> options defines which columns of the query result
2079 should be used. The first option specifies the data found in the first column,
2080 the second option that of the second column, and so on.
2082 =item B<MinPGVersion> I<version>
2084 =item B<MaxPGVersion> I<version>
2086 Specify the minimum or maximum version of PostgreSQL that this query should be
2087 used with. Some statistics might only be available with certain versions of
2088 PostgreSQL. This allows you to specify multiple queries with the same name but
2089 which apply to different versions, thus allowing you to use the same
2090 configuration in a heterogeneous environment.
2092 The I<version> has to be specified as the concatenation of the major, minor
2093 and patch-level versions, each represented as two-decimal-digit numbers. For
2094 example, version 8.2.3 will become 80203.
2098 The following predefined queries are available (the definitions can be found
2099 in the F<postgresql_default.conf> file which, by default, is available at
2100 C<I<prefix>/share/collectd/>):
2106 This query collects the number of backends, i.E<nbsp>e. the number of
2109 =item B<transactions>
2111 This query collects the numbers of committed and rolled-back transactions of
2116 This query collects the numbers of various table modifications (i.E<nbsp>e.
2117 insertions, updates, deletions) of the user tables.
2119 =item B<query_plans>
2121 This query collects the numbers of various table scans and returned tuples of
2124 =item B<table_states>
2126 This query collects the numbers of live and dead rows in the user tables.
2130 This query collects disk block access counts for user tables.
2134 This query collects the on-disk size of the database in bytes.
2138 The B<Database> block defines one PostgreSQL database for which to collect
2139 statistics. It accepts a single mandatory argument which specifies the
2140 database name. None of the other options are required. PostgreSQL will use
2141 default values as documented in the section "CONNECTING TO A DATABASE" in the
2142 L<psql(1)> manpage. However, be aware that those defaults may be influenced by
2143 the user collectd is run as and special environment variables. See the manpage
2148 =item B<Host> I<hostname>
2150 Specify the hostname or IP of the PostgreSQL server to connect to. If the
2151 value begins with a slash, it is interpreted as the directory name in which to
2152 look for the UNIX domain socket.
2154 This option is also used to determine the hostname that is associated with a
2155 collected data set. If it has been omitted or either begins with with a slash
2156 or equals B<localhost> it will be replaced with the global hostname definition
2157 of collectd. Any other value will be passed literally to collectd when
2158 dispatching values. Also see the global B<Hostname> and B<FQDNLookup> options.
2160 =item B<Port> I<port>
2162 Specify the TCP port or the local UNIX domain socket file extension of the
2165 =item B<User> I<username>
2167 Specify the username to be used when connecting to the server.
2169 =item B<Password> I<password>
2171 Specify the password to be used when connecting to the server.
2173 =item B<SSLMode> I<disable>|I<allow>|I<prefer>|I<require>
2175 Specify whether to use an SSL connection when contacting the server. The
2176 following modes are supported:
2182 Do not use SSL at all.
2186 First, try to connect without using SSL. If that fails, try using SSL.
2188 =item I<prefer> (default)
2190 First, try to connect using SSL. If that fails, try without using SSL.
2198 =item B<KRBSrvName> I<kerberos_service_name>
2200 Specify the Kerberos service name to use when authenticating with Kerberos 5
2201 or GSSAPI. See the sections "Kerberos authentication" and "GSSAPI" of the
2202 B<PostgreSQL Documentation> for details.
2204 =item B<Service> I<service_name>
2206 Specify the PostgreSQL service name to use for additional parameters. That
2207 service has to be defined in F<pg_service.conf> and holds additional
2208 connection parameters. See the section "The Connection Service File" in the
2209 B<PostgreSQL Documentation> for details.
2211 =item B<Query> I<query>
2213 Specify a I<query> which should be executed for the database connection. This
2214 may be any of the predefined or user-defined queries. If no such option is
2215 given, it defaults to "backends", "transactions", "queries", "query_plans",
2216 "table_states", "disk_io" and "disk_usage". Else, the specified queries are
2221 =head2 Plugin C<powerdns>
2223 The C<powerdns> plugin queries statistics from an authoritative PowerDNS
2224 nameserver and/or a PowerDNS recursor. Since both offer a wide variety of
2225 values, many of which are probably meaningless to most users, but may be useful
2226 for some. So you may chose which values to collect, but if you don't, some
2227 reasonable defaults will be collected.
2230 <Server "server_name">
2232 Collect "udp-answers" "udp-queries"
2233 Socket "/var/run/pdns.controlsocket"
2235 <Recursor "recursor_name">
2237 Collect "cache-hits" "cache-misses"
2238 Socket "/var/run/pdns_recursor.controlsocket"
2240 LocalSocket "/opt/collectd/var/run/collectd-powerdns"
2245 =item B<Server> and B<Recursor> block
2247 The B<Server> block defines one authoritative server to query, the B<Recursor>
2248 does the same for an recursing server. The possible options in both blocks are
2249 the same, though. The argument defines a name for the serverE<nbsp>/ recursor
2254 =item B<Collect> I<Field>
2256 Using the B<Collect> statement you can select which values to collect. Here,
2257 you specify the name of the values as used by the PowerDNS servers, e.E<nbsp>g.
2258 C<dlg-only-drops>, C<answers10-100>.
2260 The method of getting the values differs for B<Server> and B<Recursor> blocks:
2261 When querying the server a C<SHOW *> command is issued in any case, because
2262 that's the only way of getting multiple values out of the server at once.
2263 collectd then picks out the values you have selected. When querying the
2264 recursor, a command is generated to query exactly these values. So if you
2265 specify invalid fields when querying the recursor, a syntax error may be
2266 returned by the daemon and collectd may not collect any values at all.
2268 If no B<Collect> statement is given, the following B<Server> values will be
2275 =item packetcache-hit
2277 =item packetcache-miss
2279 =item packetcache-size
2281 =item query-cache-hit
2283 =item query-cache-miss
2285 =item recursing-answers
2287 =item recursing-questions
2299 The following B<Recursor> values will be collected by default:
2303 =item noerror-answers
2305 =item nxdomain-answers
2307 =item servfail-answers
2325 Please note that up to that point collectd doesn't know what values are
2326 available on the server and values that are added do not need a change of the
2327 mechanism so far. However, the values must be mapped to collectd's naming
2328 scheme, which is done using a lookup table that lists all known values. If
2329 values are added in the future and collectd does not know about them, you will
2330 get an error much like this:
2332 powerdns plugin: submit: Not found in lookup table: foobar = 42
2334 In this case please file a bug report with the collectd team.
2336 =item B<Socket> I<Path>
2338 Configures the path to the UNIX domain socket to be used when connecting to the
2339 daemon. By default C<${localstatedir}/run/pdns.controlsocket> will be used for
2340 an authoritative server and C<${localstatedir}/run/pdns_recursor.controlsocket>
2341 will be used for the recursor.
2345 =item B<LocalSocket> I<Path>
2347 Querying the recursor is done using UDP. When using UDP over UNIX domain
2348 sockets, the client socket needs a name in the file system, too. You can set
2349 this local name to I<Path> using the B<LocalSocket> option. The default is
2350 C<I<prefix>/var/run/collectd-powerdns>.
2354 =head2 Plugin C<processes>
2358 =item B<Process> I<Name>
2360 Select more detailed statistics of processes matching this name. The statistics
2361 collected for these selected processes are size of the resident segment size
2362 (RSS), user- and system-time used, number of processes and number of threads,
2363 and minor and major pagefaults.
2365 =item B<ProcessMatch> I<name> I<regex>
2367 Similar to the B<Process> option this allows to select more detailed
2368 statistics of processes matching the specified I<regex> (see L<regex(7)> for
2369 details). The statistics of all matching processes are summed up and
2370 dispatched to the daemon using the specified I<name> as an identifier. This
2371 allows to "group" several processes together. I<name> must not contain
2376 =head2 Plugin C<rrdcached>
2378 The C<rrdcached> plugin uses the RRDTool accelerator daemon, L<rrdcached(1)>,
2379 to store values to RRD files in an efficient manner. The combination of the
2380 C<rrdcached> B<plugin> and the C<rrdcached> B<daemon> is very similar to the
2381 way the C<rrdtool> plugin works (see below). The added abstraction layer
2382 provides a number of benefits, though: Because the cache is not within
2383 C<collectd> anymore, it does not need to be flushed when C<collectd> is to be
2384 restarted. This results in much shorter (if any) gaps in graphs, especially
2385 under heavy load. Also, the C<rrdtool> command line utility is aware of the
2386 daemon so that it can flush values to disk automatically when needed. This
2387 allows to integrate automated flushing of values into graphing solutions much
2390 There are disadvantages, though: The daemon may reside on a different host, so
2391 it may not be possible for C<collectd> to create the appropriate RRD files
2392 anymore. And even if C<rrdcached> runs on the same host, it may run in a
2393 different base directory, so relative paths may do weird stuff if you're not
2396 So the B<recommended configuration> is to let C<collectd> and C<rrdcached> run
2397 on the same host, communicating via a UNIX domain socket. The B<DataDir>
2398 setting should be set to an absolute path, so that a changed base directory
2399 does not result in RRD files being createdE<nbsp>/ expected in the wrong place.
2403 =item B<DaemonAddress> I<Address>
2405 Address of the daemon as understood by the C<rrdc_connect> function of the RRD
2406 library. See L<rrdcached(1)> for details. Example:
2408 <Plugin "rrdcached">
2409 DaemonAddress "unix:/var/run/rrdcached.sock"
2412 =item B<DataDir> I<Directory>
2414 Set the base directory in which the RRD files reside. If this is a relative
2415 path, it is relative to the working base directory of the C<rrdcached> daemon!
2416 Use of an absolute path is recommended.
2418 =item B<CreateFiles> B<true>|B<false>
2420 Enables or disables the creation of RRD files. If the daemon is not running
2421 locally, or B<DataDir> is set to a relative path, this will not work as
2422 expected. Default is B<true>.
2426 =head2 Plugin C<rrdtool>
2428 You can use the settings B<StepSize>, B<HeartBeat>, B<RRARows>, and B<XFF> to
2429 fine-tune your RRD-files. Please read L<rrdcreate(1)> if you encounter problems
2430 using these settings. If you don't want to dive into the depths of RRDTool, you
2431 can safely ignore these settings.
2435 =item B<DataDir> I<Directory>
2437 Set the directory to store RRD-files under. Per default RRD-files are generated
2438 beneath the daemon's working directory, i.E<nbsp>e. the B<BaseDir>.
2440 =item B<StepSize> I<Seconds>
2442 B<Force> the stepsize of newly created RRD-files. Ideally (and per default)
2443 this setting is unset and the stepsize is set to the interval in which the data
2444 is collected. Do not use this option unless you absolutely have to for some
2445 reason. Setting this option may cause problems with the C<snmp plugin>, the
2446 C<exec plugin> or when the daemon is set up to receive data from other hosts.
2448 =item B<HeartBeat> I<Seconds>
2450 B<Force> the heartbeat of newly created RRD-files. This setting should be unset
2451 in which case the heartbeat is set to twice the B<StepSize> which should equal
2452 the interval in which data is collected. Do not set this option unless you have
2453 a very good reason to do so.
2455 =item B<RRARows> I<NumRows>
2457 The C<rrdtool plugin> calculates the number of PDPs per CDP based on the
2458 B<StepSize>, this setting and a timespan. This plugin creates RRD-files with
2459 three times five RRAs, i. e. five RRAs with the CFs B<MIN>, B<AVERAGE>, and
2460 B<MAX>. The five RRAs are optimized for graphs covering one hour, one day, one
2461 week, one month, and one year.
2463 So for each timespan, it calculates how many PDPs need to be consolidated into
2464 one CDP by calculating:
2465 number of PDPs = timespan / (stepsize * rrarows)
2467 Bottom line is, set this no smaller than the width of you graphs in pixels. The
2470 =item B<RRATimespan> I<Seconds>
2472 Adds an RRA-timespan, given in seconds. Use this option multiple times to have
2473 more then one RRA. If this option is never used, the built-in default of (3600,
2474 86400, 604800, 2678400, 31622400) is used.
2476 For more information on how RRA-sizes are calculated see B<RRARows> above.
2478 =item B<XFF> I<Factor>
2480 Set the "XFiles Factor". The default is 0.1. If unsure, don't set this option.
2482 =item B<CacheFlush> I<Seconds>
2484 When the C<rrdtool> plugin uses a cache (by setting B<CacheTimeout>, see below)
2485 it writes all values for a certain RRD-file if the oldest value is older than
2486 (or equal to) the number of seconds specified. If some RRD-file is not updated
2487 anymore for some reason (the computer was shut down, the network is broken,
2488 etc.) some values may still be in the cache. If B<CacheFlush> is set, then the
2489 entire cache is searched for entries older than B<CacheTimeout> seconds and
2490 written to disk every I<Seconds> seconds. Since this is kind of expensive and
2491 does nothing under normal circumstances, this value should not be too small.
2492 900 seconds might be a good value, though setting this to 7200 seconds doesn't
2493 normally do much harm either.
2495 =item B<CacheTimeout> I<Seconds>
2497 If this option is set to a value greater than zero, the C<rrdtool plugin> will
2498 save values in a cache, as described above. Writing multiple values at once
2499 reduces IO-operations and thus lessens the load produced by updating the files.
2500 The trade off is that the graphs kind of "drag behind" and that more memory is
2503 =item B<WritesPerSecond> I<Updates>
2505 When collecting many statistics with collectd and the C<rrdtool> plugin, you
2506 will run serious performance problems. The B<CacheFlush> setting and the
2507 internal update queue assert that collectd continues to work just fine even
2508 under heavy load, but the system may become very unresponsive and slow. This is
2509 a problem especially if you create graphs from the RRD files on the same
2510 machine, for example using the C<graph.cgi> script included in the
2511 C<contrib/collection3/> directory.
2513 This setting is designed for very large setups. Setting this option to a value
2514 between 25 and 80 updates per second, depending on your hardware, will leave
2515 the server responsive enough to draw graphs even while all the cached values
2516 are written to disk. Flushed values, i.E<nbsp>e. values that are forced to disk
2517 by the B<FLUSH> command, are B<not> effected by this limit. They are still
2518 written as fast as possible, so that web frontends have up to date data when
2521 For example: If you have 100,000 RRD files and set B<WritesPerSecond> to 30
2522 updates per second, writing all values to disk will take approximately
2523 56E<nbsp>minutes. Together with the flushing ability that's integrated into
2524 "collection3" you'll end up with a responsive and fast system, up to date
2525 graphs and basically a "backup" of your values every hour.
2529 =head2 Plugin C<sensors>
2531 The C<sensors plugin> uses B<lm_sensors> to retrieve sensor-values. This means
2532 that all the needed modules have to be loaded and lm_sensors has to be
2533 configured (most likely by editing F</etc/sensors.conf>. Read
2534 L<sensors.conf(5)> for details.
2536 The B<lm_sensors> homepage can be found at
2537 L<http://secure.netroedge.com/~lm78/>.
2541 =item B<Sensor> I<chip-bus-address/type-feature>
2543 Selects the name of the sensor which you want to collect or ignore, depending
2544 on the B<IgnoreSelected> below. For example, the option "B<Sensor>
2545 I<it8712-isa-0290/voltage-in1>" will cause collectd to gather data for the
2546 voltage sensor I<in1> of the I<it8712> on the isa bus at the address 0290.
2548 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
2550 If no configuration if given, the B<sensors>-plugin will collect data from all
2551 sensors. This may not be practical, especially for uninteresting sensors.
2552 Thus, you can use the B<Sensor>-option to pick the sensors you're interested
2553 in. Sometimes, however, it's easier/preferred to collect all sensors I<except> a
2554 few ones. This option enables you to do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to
2555 I<true> the effect of B<Sensor> is inverted: All selected sensors are ignored
2556 and all other sensors are collected.
2560 =head2 Plugin C<snmp>
2562 Since the configuration of the C<snmp plugin> is a little more complicated than
2563 other plugins, its documentation has been moved to an own manpage,
2564 L<collectd-snmp(5)>. Please see there for details.
2566 =head2 Plugin C<syslog>
2570 =item B<LogLevel> B<debug|info|notice|warning|err>
2572 Sets the log-level. If, for example, set to B<notice>, then all events with
2573 severity B<notice>, B<warning>, or B<err> will be submitted to the
2576 Please note that B<debug> is only available if collectd has been compiled with
2581 =head2 Plugin C<tail>
2583 The C<tail plugin> plugins follows logfiles, just like L<tail(1)> does, parses
2584 each line and dispatches found values. What is matched can be configured by the
2585 user using (extended) regular expressions, as described in L<regex(7)>.
2588 <File "/var/log/exim4/mainlog">
2591 Regex "S=([1-9][0-9]*)"
2597 Regex "\\<R=local_user\\>"
2600 Instance "local_user"
2605 The config consists of one or more B<File> blocks, each of which configures one
2606 logfile to parse. Within each B<File> block, there are one or more B<Match>
2607 blocks, which configure a regular expression to search for.
2609 The B<Instance> option in the B<File> block may be used to set the plugin
2610 instance. So in the above example the plugin name C<tail-foo> would be used.
2611 This plugin instance is for all B<Match> blocks that B<follow> it, until the
2612 next B<Instance> option. This way you can extract several plugin instances from
2613 one logfile, handy when parsing syslog and the like.
2615 Each B<Match> block has the following options to describe how the match should
2620 =item B<Regex> I<regex>
2622 Sets the regular expression to use for matching against a line. The first
2623 subexpression has to match something that can be turned into a number by
2624 L<strtoll(3)> or L<strtod(3)>, depending on the value of C<CounterAdd>, see
2625 below. Because B<extended> regular expressions are used, you do not need to use
2626 backslashes for subexpressions! If in doubt, please consult L<regex(7)>. Due to
2627 collectd's config parsing you need to escape backslashes, though. So if you
2628 want to match literal parentheses you need to do the following:
2630 Regex "SPAM \\(Score: (-?[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+)\\)"
2632 =item B<DSType> I<Type>
2634 Sets how the values are cumulated. I<Type> is one of:
2638 =item B<GaugeAverage>
2640 Calculate the average.
2644 Use the smallest number only.
2648 Use the greatest number only.
2652 Use the last number found.
2656 The matched number is a counter. Simply sets the internal counter to this
2661 Add the matched value to the internal counter.
2665 Increase the internal counter by one. This B<DSType> is the only one that does
2666 not use the matched subexpression, but simply counts the number of matched
2667 lines. Thus, you may use a regular expression without submatch in this case.
2671 As you'd expect the B<Gauge*> types interpret the submatch as a floating point
2672 number, using L<strtod(3)>. The B<CounterSet> and B<CounterAdd> interpret the
2673 submatch as an integer using L<strtoll(3)>. B<CounterInc> does not use the
2674 submatch at all and it may be omitted in this case.
2676 =item B<Type> I<Type>
2678 Sets the type used to dispatch this value. Detailed information about types and
2679 their configuration can be found in L<types.db(5)>.
2681 =item B<Instance> I<TypeInstance>
2683 This optional setting sets the type instance to use.
2687 =head2 Plugin C<teamspeak2>
2689 The C<teamspeak2 plugin> connects to the query port of a teamspeak2 server and
2690 polls interesting global and virtual server data. The plugin can query only one
2691 physical server but unlimited virtual servers. You can use the following
2692 options to configure it:
2696 =item B<Host> I<hostname/ip>
2698 The hostname or ip which identifies the physical server.
2701 =item B<Port> I<port>
2703 The query port of the physical server. This needs to be a string.
2706 =item B<Server> I<port>
2708 This option has to be added once for every virtual server the plugin should
2709 query. If you want to query the virtual server on port 8767 this is what the
2710 option would look like:
2714 This option, although numeric, needs to be a string, i.E<nbsp>e. you B<must>
2715 use quotes around it! If no such statement is given only global information
2720 =head2 Plugin C<tcpconns>
2722 The C<tcpconns plugin> counts the number of currently established TCP
2723 connections based on the local port and/or the remote port. Since there may be
2724 a lot of connections the default if to count all connections with a local port,
2725 for which a listening socket is opened. You can use the following options to
2726 fine-tune the ports you are interested in:
2730 =item B<ListeningPorts> I<true>|I<false>
2732 If this option is set to I<true>, statistics for all local ports for which a
2733 listening socket exists are collected. The default depends on B<LocalPort> and
2734 B<RemotePort> (see below): If no port at all is specifically selected, the
2735 default is to collect listening ports. If specific ports (no matter if local or
2736 remote ports) are selected, this option defaults to I<false>, i.E<nbsp>e. only
2737 the selected ports will be collected unless this option is set to I<true>
2740 =item B<LocalPort> I<Port>
2742 Count the connections to a specific local port. This can be used to see how
2743 many connections are handled by a specific daemon, e.E<nbsp>g. the mailserver.
2744 You have to specify the port in numeric form, so for the mailserver example
2745 you'd need to set B<25>.
2747 =item B<RemotePort> I<Port>
2749 Count the connections to a specific remote port. This is useful to see how
2750 much a remote service is used. This is most useful if you want to know how many
2751 connections a local service has opened to remote services, e.E<nbsp>g. how many
2752 connections a mail server or news server has to other mail or news servers, or
2753 how many connections a web proxy holds to web servers. You have to give the
2754 port in numeric form.
2758 =head2 Plugin C<thermal>
2762 =item B<ForceUseProcfs> I<true>|I<false>
2764 By default, the C<thermal> plugin tries to read the statistics from the Linux
2765 C<sysfs> interface. If that is not available, the plugin falls back to the
2766 C<procfs> interface. By setting this option to I<true>, you can force the
2767 plugin to use the latter. This option defaults to I<false>.
2769 =item B<Device> I<Device>
2771 Selects the name of the thermal device that you want to collect or ignore,
2772 depending on the value of the B<IgnoreSelected> option. This option may be
2773 used multiple times to specify a list of devices.
2775 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
2777 Invert the selection: If set to true, all devices B<except> the ones that
2778 match the device names specified by the B<Device> option are collected. By
2779 default only selected devices are collected if a selection is made. If no
2780 selection is configured at all, B<all> devices are selected.
2784 =head2 Plugin C<unixsock>
2788 =item B<SocketFile> I<Path>
2790 Sets the socket-file which is to be created.
2792 =item B<SocketGroup> I<Group>
2794 If running as root change the group of the UNIX-socket after it has been
2795 created. Defaults to B<collectd>.
2797 =item B<SocketPerms> I<Permissions>
2799 Change the file permissions of the UNIX-socket after it has been created. The
2800 permissions must be given as a numeric, octal value as you would pass to
2801 L<chmod(1)>. Defaults to B<0770>.
2805 =head2 Plugin C<uuid>
2807 This plugin, if loaded, causes the Hostname to be taken from the machine's
2808 UUID. The UUID is a universally unique designation for the machine, usually
2809 taken from the machine's BIOS. This is most useful if the machine is running in
2810 a virtual environment such as Xen, in which case the UUID is preserved across
2811 shutdowns and migration.
2813 The following methods are used to find the machine's UUID, in order:
2819 Check I</etc/uuid> (or I<UUIDFile>).
2823 Check for UUID from HAL (L<http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/hal>) if
2828 Check for UUID from C<dmidecode> / SMBIOS.
2832 Check for UUID from Xen hypervisor.
2836 If no UUID can be found then the hostname is not modified.
2840 =item B<UUIDFile> I<Path>
2842 Take the UUID from the given file (default I</etc/uuid>).
2846 =head2 Plugin C<vmem>
2848 The C<vmem> plugin collects information about the usage of virtual memory.
2849 Since the statistics provided by the Linux kernel are very detailed, they are
2850 collected very detailed. However, to get all the details, you have to switch
2851 them on manually. Most people just want an overview over, such as the number of
2852 pages read from swap space.
2856 =item B<Verbose> B<true>|B<false>
2858 Enables verbose collection of information. This will start collecting page
2859 "actions", e.E<nbsp>g. page allocations, (de)activations, steals and so on.
2860 Part of these statistics are collected on a "per zone" basis.
2864 =head2 Plugin C<vserver>
2866 This plugin doesn't have any options. B<VServer> support is only available for
2867 Linux. It cannot yet be found in a vanilla kernel, though. To make use of this
2868 plugin you need a kernel that has B<VServer> support built in, i.E<nbsp>e. you
2869 need to apply the patches and compile your own kernel, which will then provide
2870 the F</proc/virtual> filesystem that is required by this plugin.
2872 The B<VServer> homepage can be found at L<http://linux-vserver.org/>.
2874 B<Note>: The traffic collected by this plugin accounts for the amount of
2875 traffic passing a socket which might be a lot less than the actual on-wire
2876 traffic (e.E<nbsp>g. due to headers and retransmission). If you want to
2877 collect on-wire traffic you could, for example, use the logging facilities of
2878 iptables to feed data for the guest IPs into the iptables plugin.
2880 =head1 THRESHOLD CONFIGURATION
2882 Starting with version C<4.3.0> collectd has support for B<monitoring>. By that
2883 we mean that the values are not only stored or sent somewhere, but that they
2884 are judged and, if a problem is recognized, acted upon. The only action
2885 collectd takes itself is to generate and dispatch a "notification". Plugins can
2886 register to receive notifications and perform appropriate further actions.
2888 Since systems and what you expect them to do differ a lot, you can configure
2889 B<thresholds> for your values freely. This gives you a lot of flexibility but
2890 also a lot of responsibility.
2892 Every time a value is out of range a notification is dispatched. This means
2893 that the idle percentage of your CPU needs to be less then the configured
2894 threshold only once for a notification to be generated. There's no such thing
2895 as a moving average or similar - at least not now.
2897 Also, all values that match a threshold are considered to be relevant or
2898 "interesting". As a consequence collectd will issue a notification if they are
2899 not received for twice the last timeout of the values. If, for example, some
2900 hosts sends it's CPU statistics to the server every 60 seconds, a notification
2901 will be dispatched after about 120 seconds. It may take a little longer because
2902 the timeout is checked only once each B<Interval> on the server.
2904 When a value comes within range again or is received after it was missing, an
2905 "OKAY-notification" is dispatched.
2907 Here is a configuration example to get you started. Read below for more
2920 <Plugin "interface">
2937 WarningMin 100000000
2943 There are basically two types of configuration statements: The C<Host>,
2944 C<Plugin>, and C<Type> blocks select the value for which a threshold should be
2945 configured. The C<Plugin> and C<Type> blocks may be specified further using the
2946 C<Instance> option. You can combine the block by nesting the blocks, though
2947 they must be nested in the above order, i.E<nbsp>e. C<Host> may contain either
2948 C<Plugin> and C<Type> blocks, C<Plugin> may only contain C<Type> blocks and
2949 C<Type> may not contain other blocks. If multiple blocks apply to the same
2950 value the most specific block is used.
2952 The other statements specify the threshold to configure. They B<must> be
2953 included in a C<Type> block. Currently the following statements are recognized:
2957 =item B<FailureMax> I<Value>
2959 =item B<WarningMax> I<Value>
2961 Sets the upper bound of acceptable values. If unset defaults to positive
2962 infinity. If a value is greater than B<FailureMax> a B<FAILURE> notification
2963 will be created. If the value is greater than B<WarningMax> but less than (or
2964 equal to) B<FailureMax> a B<WARNING> notification will be created.
2966 =item B<FailureMin> I<Value>
2968 =item B<WarningMin> I<Value>
2970 Sets the lower bound of acceptable values. If unset defaults to negative
2971 infinity. If a value is less than B<FailureMin> a B<FAILURE> notification will
2972 be created. If the value is less than B<WarningMin> but greater than (or equal
2973 to) B<FailureMin> a B<WARNING> notification will be created.
2975 =item B<DataSource> I<DSName>
2977 Some data sets have more than one "data source". Interesting examples are the
2978 C<if_octets> data set, which has received (C<rx>) and sent (C<tx>) bytes and
2979 the C<disk_ops> data set, which holds C<read> and C<write> operations. The
2980 system load data set, C<load>, even has three data sources: C<shortterm>,
2981 C<midterm>, and C<longterm>.
2983 Normally, all data sources are checked against a configured threshold. If this
2984 is undesirable, or if you want to specify different limits for each data
2985 source, you can use the B<DataSource> option to have a threshold apply only to
2988 =item B<Invert> B<true>|B<false>
2990 If set to B<true> the range of acceptable values is inverted, i.E<nbsp>e.
2991 values between B<FailureMin> and B<FailureMax> (B<WarningMin> and
2992 B<WarningMax>) are not okay. Defaults to B<false>.
2994 =item B<Persist> B<true>|B<false>
2996 Sets how often notifications are generated. If set to B<true> one notification
2997 will be generated for each value that is out of the acceptable range. If set to
2998 B<false> (the default) then a notification is only generated if a value is out
2999 of range but the previous value was okay.
3001 This applies to missing values, too: If set to B<true> a notification about a
3002 missing value is generated once every B<Interval> seconds. If set to B<false>
3003 only one such notification is generated until the value appears again.
3007 =head1 FILTER CONFIGURATION
3009 Starting with collectd 4.6 there is a powerful filtering infrastructure
3010 implemented in the daemon. The concept has mostly been copied from
3011 I<ip_tables>, the packet filter infrastructure for Linux. We'll use a similar
3012 terminology, so that users that are familiar with iptables feel right at home.
3016 The following are the terms used in the remainder of the filter configuration
3017 documentation. For an ASCII-art schema of the mechanism, see
3018 L<"General structure"> below.
3024 A I<match> is a criteria to select specific values. Examples are, of course, the
3025 name of the value or it's current value.
3027 Matches are implemented in plugins which you have to load prior to using the
3028 match. The name of such plugins starts with the "match_" prefix.
3032 A I<target> is some action that is to be performed with data. Such actions
3033 could, for example, be to change part of the value's identifier or to ignore
3034 the value completely.
3036 Some of these targets are built into the daemon, see L<"Built-in targets">
3037 below. Other targets are implemented in plugins which you have to load prior to
3038 using the target. The name of such plugins starts with the "target_" prefix.
3042 The combination of any number of matches and at least one target is called a
3043 I<rule>. The target actions will be performed for all values for which B<all>
3044 matches apply. If the rule does not have any matches associated with it, the
3045 target action will be performed for all values.
3049 A I<chain> is a list of rules and possibly default targets. The rules are tried
3050 in order and if one matches, the associated target will be called. If a value
3051 is handled by a rule, it depends on the target whether or not any subsequent
3052 rules are considered or if traversal of the chain is aborted, see
3053 L<"Flow control"> below. After all rules have been checked, the default targets
3058 =head2 General structure
3060 The following shows the resulting structure:
3067 +---------+ +---------+ +---------+ +---------+
3068 ! Rule !->! Match !->! Match !->! Target !
3069 +---------+ +---------+ +---------+ +---------+
3072 +---------+ +---------+ +---------+
3073 ! Rule !->! Target !->! Target !
3074 +---------+ +---------+ +---------+
3081 +---------+ +---------+ +---------+
3082 ! Rule !->! Match !->! Target !
3083 +---------+ +---------+ +---------+
3093 There are four ways to control which way a value takes through the filter
3100 The built-in B<jump> target can be used to "call" another chain, i.E<nbsp>e.
3101 process the value with another chain. When the called chain finishes, usually
3102 the next target or rule after the jump is executed.
3106 The stop condition, signaled for example by the built-in target B<stop>, causes
3107 all processing of the value to be stopped immediately.
3111 Causes processing in the current chain to be aborted, but processing of the
3112 value generally will continue. This means that if the chain was called via
3113 B<Jump>, the next target or rule after the jump will be executed. If the chain
3114 was not called by another chain, control will be returned to the daemon and it
3115 may pass the value to another chain.
3119 Most targets will signal the B<continue> condition, meaning that processing
3120 should continue normally. There is no special built-in target for this
3127 The configuration reflects this structure directly:
3129 PostCacheChain "PostCache"
3131 <Rule "ignore_mysql_show">
3134 Type "^mysql_command$"
3135 TypeInstance "^show_"
3145 The above configuration example will ignore all values where the plugin field
3146 is "mysql", the type is "mysql_command" and the type instance begins with
3147 "show_". All other values will be sent to the C<rrdtool> write plugin via the
3148 default target of the chain. Since this chain is run after the value has been
3149 added to the cache, the MySQL C<show_*> command statistics will be available
3150 via the C<unixsock> plugin.
3152 =head2 List of configuration options
3156 =item B<PreCacheChain> I<ChainName>
3158 =item B<PostCacheChain> I<ChainName>
3160 Configure the name of the "pre-cache chain" and the "post-cache chain". The
3161 argument is the name of a I<chain> that should be executed before and/or after
3162 the values have been added to the cache.
3164 To understand the implications, it's important you know what is going on inside
3165 I<collectd>. The following diagram shows how values are passed from the
3166 read-plugins to the write-plugins:
3172 + - - - - V - - - - +
3173 : +---------------+ :
3176 : +-------+-------+ :
3179 : +-------+-------+ : +---------------+
3180 : ! Cache !--->! Value Cache !
3181 : ! insert ! : +---+---+-------+
3182 : +-------+-------+ : ! !
3183 : ! ,------------' !
3185 : +-------+---+---+ : +-------+-------+
3186 : ! Post-Cache +--->! Write-Plugins !
3187 : ! Chain ! : +---------------+
3188 : +---------------+ :
3191 + - - - - - - - - - +
3193 After the values are passed from the "read" plugins to the dispatch functions,
3194 the pre-cache chain is run first. The values are added to the internal cache
3195 afterwards. The post-cache chain is run after the values have been added to the
3196 cache. So why is it such a huge deal if chains are run before or after the
3197 values have been added to this cache?
3199 Targets that change the identifier of a value list should be executed before
3200 the values are added to the cache, so that the name in the cache matches the
3201 name that is used in the "write" plugins. The C<unixsock> plugin, too, uses
3202 this cache to receive a list of all available values. If you change the
3203 identifier after the value list has been added to the cache, this may easily
3204 lead to confusion, but it's not forbidden of course.
3206 The cache is also used to convert counter values to rates. These rates are, for
3207 example, used by the C<value> match (see below). If you use the rate stored in
3208 the cache B<before> the new value is added, you will use the old, B<previous>
3209 rate. Write plugins may use this rate, too, see the C<csv> plugin, for example.
3210 The C<unixsock> plugin uses these rates too, to implement the C<GETVAL>
3213 Last but not last, the B<stop> target makes a difference: If the pre-cache
3214 chain returns the stop condition, the value will not be added to the cache and
3215 the post-cache chain will not be run.
3217 =item B<Chain> I<Name>
3219 Adds a new chain with a certain name. This name can be used to refer to a
3220 specific chain, for example to jump to it.
3222 Within the B<Chain> block, there can be B<Rule> blocks and B<Target> blocks.
3224 =item B<Rule> [I<Name>]
3226 Adds a new rule to the current chain. The name of the rule is optional and
3227 currently has no meaning for the daemon.
3229 Within the B<Rule> block, there may be any number of B<Match> blocks and there
3230 must be at least one B<Target> block.
3232 =item B<Match> I<Name>
3234 Adds a match to a B<Rule> block. The name specifies what kind of match should
3235 be performed. Available matches depend on the plugins that have been loaded.
3237 The arguments inside the B<Match> block are passed to the plugin implementing
3238 the match, so which arguments are valid here depends on the plugin being used.
3239 If you do not need any to pass any arguments to a match, you can use the
3244 Which is equivalent to:
3249 =item B<Target> I<Name>
3251 Add a target to a rule or a default target to a chain. The name specifies what
3252 kind of target is to be added. Which targets are available depends on the
3253 plugins being loaded.
3255 The arguments inside the B<Target> block are passed to the plugin implementing
3256 the target, so which arguments are valid here depends on the plugin being used.
3257 If you do not need any to pass any arguments to a target, you can use the
3262 This is the same as writing:
3269 =head2 Built-in targets
3271 The following targets are built into the core daemon and therefore need no
3272 plugins to be loaded:
3278 Signals the "return" condition, see the L<"Flow control"> section above. This
3279 causes the current chain to stop processing the value and returns control to
3280 the calling chain. The calling chain will continue processing targets and rules
3281 just after the B<jump> target (see below). This is very similar to the
3282 B<RETURN> target of iptables, see L<iptables(8)>.
3284 This target does not have any options.
3292 Signals the "stop" condition, see the L<"Flow control"> section above. This
3293 causes processing of the value to be aborted immediately. This is similar to
3294 the B<DROP> target of iptables, see L<iptables(8)>.
3296 This target does not have any options.
3304 Sends the value to "write" plugins.
3310 =item B<Plugin> I<Name>
3312 Name of the write plugin to which the data should be sent. This option may be
3313 given multiple times to send the data to more than one write plugin.
3317 If no plugin is explicitly specified, the values will be sent to all available
3328 Starts processing the rules of another chain, see L<"Flow control"> above. If
3329 the end of that chain is reached, or a stop condition is encountered,
3330 processing will continue right after the B<jump> target, i.E<nbsp>e. with the
3331 next target or the next rule. This is similar to the B<-j> command line option
3332 of iptables, see L<iptables(8)>.
3338 =item B<Chain> I<Name>
3340 Jumps to the chain I<Name>. This argument is required and may appear only once.
3352 =head2 Available matches
3358 Matches a value using regular expressions.
3364 =item B<Host> I<Regex>
3366 =item B<Plugin> I<Regex>
3368 =item B<PluginInstance> I<Regex>
3370 =item B<Type> I<Regex>
3372 =item B<TypeInstance> I<Regex>
3374 Match values where the given regular expressions match the various fields of
3375 the identifier of a value. If multiple regular expressions are given, B<all>
3376 regexen must match for a value to match.
3383 Host "customer[0-9]+"
3389 Matches values that have a time which differs from the time on the server.
3391 This match is mainly intended for servers that receive values over the
3392 C<network> plugin and write them to disk using the C<rrdtool> plugin. RRDtool
3393 is very sensitive to the timestamp used when updating the RRD files. In
3394 particular, the time must be ever increasing. If a misbehaving client sends one
3395 packet with a timestamp far in the future, all further packets with a correct
3396 time will be ignored because of that one packet. What's worse, such corrupted
3397 RRD files are hard to fix.
3399 This match lets one match all values B<outside> a specified time range
3400 (relative to the server's time), so you can use the B<stop> target (see below)
3401 to ignore the value, for example.
3407 =item B<Future> I<Seconds>
3409 Matches all values that are I<ahead> of the server's time by I<Seconds> or more
3410 seconds. Set to zero for no limit. Either B<Future> or B<Past> must be
3413 =item B<Past> I<Seconds>
3415 Matches all values that are I<behind> of the server's time by I<Seconds> or
3416 more seconds. Set to zero for no limit. Either B<Future> or B<Past> must be
3428 This example matches all values that are five minutes or more ahead of the
3429 server or one hour (or more) lagging behind.
3433 Matches the actual value of data sources against given minimumE<nbsp>/ maximum
3434 values. If a data-set consists of more than one data-source, all data-sources
3435 must match the specified ranges for a positive match.
3441 =item B<Min> I<Value>
3443 Sets the smallest value which still results in a match. If unset, behaves like
3446 =item B<Max> I<Value>
3448 Sets the largest value which still results in a match. If unset, behaves like
3451 =item B<Invert> B<true>|B<false>
3453 Inverts the selection. If the B<Min> and B<Max> settings result in a match,
3454 no-match is returned and vice versa. Please note that the B<Invert> setting
3455 only effects how B<Min> and B<Max> are applied to a specific value. Especially
3456 the B<DataSource> and B<Satisfy> settings (see below) are not inverted.
3458 =item B<DataSource> I<DSName> [I<DSName> ...]
3460 Select one or more of the data sources. If no data source is configured, all
3461 data sources will be checked. If the type handled by the match does not have a
3462 data source of the specified name(s), this will always result in no match
3463 (independent of the B<Invert> setting).
3465 =item B<Satisfy> B<Any>|B<All>
3467 Specifies how checking with several data sources is performed. If set to
3468 B<Any>, the match succeeds if one of the data sources is in the configured
3469 range. If set to B<All> the match only succeeds if all data sources are within
3470 the configured range. Default is B<All>.
3472 Usually B<All> is used for positive matches, B<Any> is used for negative
3473 matches. This means that with B<All> you usually check that all values are in a
3474 "good" range, while with B<Any> you check if any value is within a "bad" range
3475 (or outside the "good" range).
3479 Either B<Min> or B<Max>, but not both, may be unset.
3483 # Match all values smaller than or equal to 100. Matches only if all data
3484 # sources are below 100.
3490 # Match if the value of any data source is outside the range of 0 - 100.
3500 =head2 Available targets
3504 =item B<notification>
3506 Creates and dispatches a notification.
3512 =item B<Message> I<String>
3514 This required option sets the message of the notification. The following
3515 placeholders will be replaced by an appropriate value:
3523 =item B<%{plugin_instance}>
3527 =item B<%{type_instance}>
3529 These placeholders are replaced by the identifier field of the same name.
3531 =item B<%{ds:>I<name>B<}>
3533 These placeholders are replaced by a (hopefully) human readable representation
3534 of the current rate of this data source. If you changed the instance name
3535 (using the B<set> or B<replace> targets, see below), it may not be possible to
3536 convert counter values to rates.
3540 Please note that these placeholders are B<case sensitive>!
3542 =item B<Severity> B<"FATAL">|B<"WARNING">|B<"OKAY">
3544 Sets the severity of the message. If omitted, the severity B<"WARNING"> is
3551 <Target "notification">
3552 Message "Oops, the %{type_instance} temperature is currently %{ds:value}!"
3558 Replaces parts of the identifier using regular expressions.
3564 =item B<Host> I<Regex> I<Replacement>
3566 =item B<Plugin> I<Regex> I<Replacement>
3568 =item B<PluginInstance> I<Regex> I<Replacement>
3570 =item B<TypeInstance> I<Regex> I<Replacement>
3572 Match the appropriate field with the given regular expression I<Regex>. If the
3573 regular expression matches, that part that matches is replaced with
3574 I<Replacement>. If multiple places of the input buffer match a given regular
3575 expression, only the first occurrence will be replaced.
3577 You can specify each option multiple times to use multiple regular expressions
3585 # Replace "example.net" with "example.com"
3586 Host "\\<example.net\\>" "example.com"
3588 # Strip "www." from hostnames
3594 Sets part of the identifier of a value to a given string.
3600 =item B<Host> I<String>
3602 =item B<Plugin> I<String>
3604 =item B<PluginInstance> I<String>
3606 =item B<TypeInstance> I<String>
3608 Set the appropriate field to the given string. The strings for plugin instance
3609 and type instance may be empty, the strings for host and plugin may not be
3610 empty. It's currently not possible to set the type of a value this way.
3617 PluginInstance "coretemp"
3618 TypeInstance "core3"
3623 =head2 Backwards compatibility
3625 If you use collectd with an old configuration, i.E<nbsp>e. one without a
3626 B<Chain> block, it will behave as it used to. This is equivalent to the
3627 following configuration:
3633 If you specify a B<PostCacheChain>, the B<write> target will not be added
3634 anywhere and you will have to make sure that it is called where appropriate. We
3635 suggest to add the above snippet as default target to your "PostCache" chain.
3639 Ignore all values, where the hostname does not contain a dot, i.E<nbsp>e. can't
3655 L<collectd-exec(5)>,
3656 L<collectd-perl(5)>,
3657 L<collectd-unixsock(5)>,
3671 Florian Forster E<lt>octo@verplant.orgE<gt>