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 famos
28 B<Apache Webserver>. Each line containes 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 extression, 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.
39 =item B<BaseDir> I<Directory>
41 Sets the base directory. This is the directory beneath all RRD-files are
42 created. Possibly more subdirectories are created. This is also the working
43 directory for the daemon.
45 =item B<LoadPlugin> I<Plugin>
47 Loads the plugin I<Plugin>. There must be at least one such line or B<collectd>
48 will be mostly useless. The names of the plugins are listed in L<collectd(1)>.
50 =item B<PIDFile> I<File>
52 Sets where to write the PID file to. This file is overwritten when it exists
53 and deleted when the program ist stopped. Some init-scripts might override this
54 setting using the B<-P> commandline option.
56 =item B<Interval> I<Seconds>
58 Configures the interval in which to query the read plugins. Obviously smaller
59 values lead to a higher system load produces by collectd, while higher values
60 lead to more coarse statistics.
66 Some Plugins may register own options. These options must be inclosed in a
67 C<Plugin>-Section. Which options exist depends on the plugin used:
69 =head2 Plugin C<apache>
71 To configure the C<apache>-plugin you first need to configure the Apache
72 webserver correctly. The Apache-plugin C<mod_status> needs to be loaded and
73 working and the C<ExtendedStatus> directive needs to be B<enabled>. You can use
74 the following snipped to base your Apache config upon:
77 <IfModule mod_status.c>
78 <Location /mod_status>
79 SetHandler server-status
83 Since it's C<mod_status> module is very similar to Apache's, B<lighttpd> is
84 also supported. It introduces a new field, called C<BusyServers>, to count the
85 number of currently connected clients. This field is also supported.
87 The following options are accepted by the C<apache>-plugin:
91 =item B<URL> I<http://host/mod_status?auto>
93 Sets the URL of the C<mod_status> output. This needs to be the output generated
94 by C<ExtendedStatus on> and it needs to be the machine readable output
95 generated by appending the C<?auto> argument.
97 =item B<User> I<Username>
99 Optional user name needed for authentication.
101 =item B<Password> I<Password>
103 Optional password needed for authentication.
105 =item B<CACert> I<File>
107 File that holds one or more SSL certificates. If you want to use HTTPS you will
108 possibly need this option. What CA certificates come bundeled with C<libcurl>
109 and are checked by default depends on the distribution you use.
113 =head2 Plugin C<apcups>
117 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
119 Hostname of the host running B<apcupsd>. Defaults to B<localhost>. Please note
120 that IPv6 support has been disabled unless someone can confirm or decline that
121 B<apcupsd> can handle it.
123 =item B<Port> I<Port>
125 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<3551>.
133 =item B<DataDir> I<Directory>
135 Set the directory to store RRD-files under. Per default RRD-files are generated
136 beneath the daemon's working directory, i.E<nbsp>e. the B<BaseDir>.
144 =item B<Device> I<Device>
146 Select partitions based on the devicename.
148 =item B<MountPoint> I<Directory>
150 Select partitions based on the mountpoint.
152 =item B<FSType> I<FSType>
154 Select partitions based on the filesystem type.
156 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
158 Invert the selection: If set to true, all partitions B<except> the ones that
159 match any one of the criteria are collected. By default only selected
160 partitions are collected if a selection is made. If no selection is conifured
161 at all, B<all> partitions are selected.
169 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
171 The dns plugin uses B<libpcap> to capture dns traffic and analyses it. This
172 option sets the interface that should be used. If this option is not set, or
173 set to "any", the plugin will try to get packets from B<all> interfaces. This
174 may not work on certain platforms, such as MacE<nbsp>OSE<nbsp>X.
176 =item B<IgnoreSource> I<IP-address>
178 Ignore packets that originate from this address.
182 =head2 Plugin C<email>
186 =item B<SocketGroup> I<Group>
188 If running as root change the group of the UNIX-socket after it has been
189 created. Defaults to B<collectd>.
191 =item B<SocketPerms> I<Permissions>
193 Change the file permissions of the UNIX-socket after it has been created. The
194 permissions must be given as a numeric, octal value as you would pass to
195 L<chmod(1)>. Defaults to B<0770>.
197 =item B<MaxConns> I<Number>
199 Sets the maximum number of connections that can be handled in parallel. Since
200 this many threads will be started immediately setting this to a very high
201 value will waste valuable resources. Defaults to B<5> and will be forced to be
202 at most B<16384> to prevent typos and dumb mistakes.
206 =head2 Plugin C<hddtemp>
210 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
212 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
214 =item B<Port> I<Port>
216 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<7634>.
220 =head2 Plugin C<interface>
224 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
226 Select this interface. By default these interfaces will then be collected. For
227 a more detailed description see B<IgnoreSelected> below.
229 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
231 If no configuration if given, the B<traffic>-plugin will collect data from
232 all interfaces. This may not be practical, especially for loopback- and
233 similar interfaces. Thus, you can use the B<Interface>-option to pick the
234 interfaces you're interested in. Sometimes, however, it's easier/prefered
235 to collect all interfaces I<except> a few ones. This option enables you to
236 do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to I<true> the effect of
237 B<Interface> is inversed: All selected interfaces are ignored and all
238 other interfaces are collected.
242 =head2 Plugin C<iptables>
246 =item B<Chain> I<Table> I<Chain> [I<Comment|Number> [I<Name>]]
248 Select the rules to count. If only I<Table> and I<Chain> are given, this plugin
249 will collect the counters of all rules which have a comment-match. The comment
250 is then used as type-instance.
252 If I<Comment> or I<Number> is given, only the rule with the matching comment or
253 the I<n>th rule will be collected. Again, the comment (or the number) will be
254 used as the type-instance.
256 If I<Name> is supplied, it will be used as the type-instance instead of the
257 comment or the number.
267 Select this irq. By default these irqs will then be collected. For a more
268 detailed description see B<IgnoreSelected> below.
270 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
272 If no configuration if given, the B<irq>-plugin will collect data from all
273 irqs. This may not be practical, especially if no interrupts happen. Thus, you
274 can use the B<Irq>-option to pick the interupt you're interested in.
275 Sometimes, however, it's easier/prefered to collect all interupts I<except> a
276 few ones. This option enables you to do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to
277 I<true> the effect of B<Irq> is inversed: All selected interupts are ignored
278 and all other interupts are collected.
282 =head2 Plugin C<logfile>
286 =item B<LogLevel> B<debug|info|notice|warning|err>
288 Sets the log-level. If, for example, set to B<notice>, then all events with
289 severity B<notice>, B<warning>, or B<err> will be written to the logfile.
291 =item B<File> I<File>
293 Sets the file to write log messages to. The special strings B<stdout> and
294 B<stderr> can be used to write to the standard output and standard error
295 channels, respectively. This, of course, only makes much sense when collectd is
296 running in foreground- or non-daemon-mode.
300 =head2 Plugin C<mbmon>
304 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
306 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
308 =item B<Port> I<Port>
310 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<411>.
314 =head2 Plugin C<mysql>
318 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
320 Hostname of the database server. Defaults to B<localhost>.
322 =item B<User> I<Username>
324 Username to use when connecting to the database.
326 =item B<Password> I<Password>
328 Password needed to log into the database.
330 =item B<Database> I<Database>
332 Select this database. Defaults to I<no database> which is a perfecly reasonable
333 option for what this plugin does.
337 =head2 Plugin C<network>
341 =item B<Listen> I<Host> [I<Port>]
343 =item B<Server> I<Host> [I<Port>]
345 The B<Server> statement sets the server to send datagrams B<to>. The statement
346 may occur multiple times to send each datagram to multiple destinations.
348 The B<Listen> statement sets the interfaces to bind to. When multiple
349 statements are found the daemon will bind to multiple interfaces.
351 The argument I<Host> may be a hostname, an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address. If
352 the argument is a multicast address the daemon will join that multicast group.
354 If no B<Listen> statement is found the server tries join both, the default IPv6
355 multicast group and the default IPv4 multicast group. If no B<Server> statement
356 is found the client will try to send data to the IPv6 multicast group first. If
357 that failes the client will try the IPv4 multicast group.
359 The default IPv6 multicast group is C<ff18::efc0:4a42>. The default IPv4
360 multicast group is C<239.192.74.66>.
362 The optional I<Port> argument sets the port to use. It can either be given
363 using a numeric port number or a service name. If the argument is omited the
364 default port B<25826> is assumed.
366 =item B<TimeToLive> I<1-255>
368 Set the time-to-live of sent packets. This applies to all, unicast and
369 multicast, and IPv4 and IPv6 packets. The default is to not change this value.
370 That means that multicast packets will be sent with a TTL of C<1> (one) on most
373 =item B<Forward> I<true|false>
375 If set to I<true>, write packets that were received via the network plugin to
376 the sending sockets. This should only be activated when the B<Listen>- and
377 B<Server>-statements differ. Otherwise packets may be send multiple times to
378 the same multicast group. While this results in more network traffic than
379 neccessary it's not a huge problem since the plugin has a duplicate detection,
380 so the values will not loop.
382 =item B<CacheFlush> I<Seconds>
384 For each host/plugin/type combination the C<network plugin> caches the time of
385 the last value being sent or received. Every I<Seconds> seconds the plugin
386 searches and removes all entries that are older than I<Seconds> seconds, thus
387 freeing the unused memory again. Since this process is somewhat expensive and
388 normally doesn't do much, this value should not be too small. The default is
389 1800 seconds, but setting this to 86400 seconds (one day) will not do much harm
394 =head2 Plugin C<ntpd>
398 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
400 Hostname of the host running B<ntpd>. Defaults to B<localhost>.
402 =item B<Port> I<Port>
404 UDP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<123>.
408 =head2 Plugin C<ping>
412 =item B<Host> I<IP-address>
414 Host to ping periodically. This option may be repeated several times to ping
417 =item B<TTL> I<0-255>
419 Sets the Time-To-Live of generated ICMP packets.
423 =head2 Plugin C<processes>
427 =item B<Process> I<Name>
429 Select more detailed statistics of processes matching this name. The statistics
430 collected for these selected processes are size of the resident segment size
431 (RSS), user- and system-time used, number of processes and number of threads,
432 and minor and major pagefaults.
436 =head2 Plugin C<rrdtool>
438 You can use the settings B<StepSize>, B<HeartBeat>, B<RRARows>, and B<XFF> to
439 finetune your RRD-files. Please read L<rrdcreate(1)> if you encounter problems
440 using these settings. If you don't want to dive into the depths of RRDTool, you
441 can savely ignore these settings.
445 =item B<DataDir> I<Directory>
447 Set the directory to store CSV-files under. Per default CSV-files are generated
448 beneath the daemon's working directory, i.E<nbsp>e. the B<BaseDir>.
450 =item B<StepSize> I<Seconds>
452 Sets the stepsize of newly created RRD-files. Ideally (and per default) this
453 setting is identical to the global B<Interval>-option and should not be
454 smaller. If unsure, don't set this option.
456 =item B<HeartBeat> I<Seconds>
458 Sets the heartbeat of newly created RRD-files. Ideally this setting is bigger
459 than the B<Interval>-setting, by default it's twice the B<Interval>-setting. If
460 unsure, don't set this option.
462 =item B<RRARows> I<NumRows>
464 The C<rrdtool plugin> calculates the number of PDPs per CDP based on the
465 B<StepSize>, this setting and a timespan. This plugin creates RRD-files with
466 three times five RRAs, i. e. five RRAs with the CFs B<MIN>, B<AVERAGE>, and
467 B<MAX>. The five RRAs are optimized for graphs covering one hour, one day, one
468 week, one month, and one year.
470 So for each timespan, it calculates how many PDPs need to be consolidated into
471 one CDP by calculating:
472 number of PDPs = timespan / (stepsize * rrarows)
474 Bottom line is, set this no smaller than the width of you graphs in pixels. The
477 =item B<XFF> I<Factor>
479 Set the "XFiles Factor". The default is 0.1. If unsure, don't set this option.
481 =item B<CacheFlush> I<Seconds>
483 When the C<rrdtool plugin> uses a cache (by setting B<CacheTimeout>, see below)
484 it writes all values for a certain RRD-file if the oldest value is older than
485 (or equal to) the number of seconds specified. If some RRD-file is not updated
486 anymore for some reason (the computer was shut down, the network is broken,
487 etc.) some values may still be in the cache. If B<CacheFlush> is set, then the
488 entire cache is searched for entries older than B<CacheTimeout> seconds and
489 written to disk every I<Seconds> seconds. Since this is kind of expensive and
490 does nothing under normal circumstances, this value should not be too small.
491 900 seconds might be a good value, though setting this to 7200 seconds doesn't
492 normally do much harm either.
494 =item B<CacheTimeout> I<Seconds>
496 If this option is set to a value greater than zero, the C<rrdtool plugin> will
497 save values in a cache, as described above. Writing multiple values at once
498 reduces IO-operations and thus lessens the load produced by updating the files.
499 The tradeoff is that the graphs kind of "drag behind" and that more memory is
504 =head2 Plugin C<sensors>
508 =item B<Sensor> I<chip-bus-address/type-feature>
510 Selects the name of the sensor which you want to collect or ignore, depending
511 on the B<IgnoreSelected> below. For example, the option "B<Sensor>
512 I<it8712-isa-0290/voltage-in1>" will cause collectd to gather data for the
513 voltage sensor I<in1> of the I<it8712> on the isa bus at the address 0290.
515 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
517 If no configuration if given, the B<sensors>-plugin will collect data from all
518 sensors. This may not be practical, especially for uninteresting sensors.
519 Thus, you can use the B<Sensor>-option to pick the sensors you're interested
520 in. Sometimes, however, it's easier/prefered to collect all sensors I<except> a
521 few ones. This option enables you to do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to
522 I<true> the effect of B<Sensor> is inversed: All selected sensors are ignored
523 and all other sensors are collected.
527 =head2 Plugin C<syslog>
531 =item B<LogLevel> B<debug|info|notice|warning|err>
533 Sets the log-level. If, for example, set to B<notice>, then all events with
534 severity B<notice>, B<warning>, or B<err> will be submitted to the
539 =head2 Plugin C<unixsock>
543 =item B<SocketFile> I<Path>
545 Sets the socket-file which is to be created.
547 =item B<SocketGroup> I<Group>
549 If running as root change the group of the UNIX-socket after it has been
550 created. Defaults to B<collectd>.
552 =item B<SocketPerms> I<Permissions>
554 Change the file permissions of the UNIX-socket after it has been created. The
555 permissions must be given as a numeric, octal value as you would pass to
556 L<chmod(1)>. Defaults to B<0770>.
566 Florian Forster E<lt>octo@verplant.orgE<gt>