3 collectd.conf - Configuration for the system statistics collection daemon B<collectd>
7 BaseDir "/path/to/data/"
8 PIDFile "/path/to/pidfile/collectd.pid"
9 Server "123.123.123.123" 12345
22 This config file controls how the system statistics collection daemon
23 B<collectd> behaves. The most significant option is B<LoadPlugin>, which
24 controls which plugins to load. These plugins ultimately define collectd's
27 The syntax of this config file is similar to the config file of the famous
28 B<Apache Webserver>. Each line contains either a key-value-pair or a
29 section-start or -end. Empty lines and everything after the hash-symbol `#' is
30 ignored. Values are either string, enclosed in double-quotes,
31 (floating-point-)numbers or a boolean expression, i.E<nbsp>e. either B<true> or
32 B<false>. String containing of only alphanumeric characters and underscores do
33 not need to be quoted.
35 The configuration is read and processed in order, i.E<nbsp>e. from top to
36 bottom. So the plugins are loaded in the order listed in this config file. It
37 is a good idea to load any logging plugins first in order to catch messages
38 from plugins during configuration. Also, the C<LoadPlugin> option B<must> occur
39 B<before> the C<E<lt>Plugin ...E<gt>> block.
45 =item B<BaseDir> I<Directory>
47 Sets the base directory. This is the directory beneath all RRD-files are
48 created. Possibly more subdirectories are created. This is also the working
49 directory for the daemon.
51 =item B<LoadPlugin> I<Plugin>
53 Loads the plugin I<Plugin>. There must be at least one such line or B<collectd>
54 will be mostly useless.
56 =item B<Include> I<Path>
58 If I<Path> points to a file, includes that file. If I<Path> points to a
59 directory, recursively includes all files within that directory and its
60 subdirectories. If the C<wordexp> function is available on your system,
61 shell-like wildcards are expanded before files are included. This means you can
62 use statements like the following:
64 Include "/etc/collectd.d/*.conf"
66 If more than one files are included by a single B<Include> option, the files
67 will be included in lexicographical order (as defined by the C<strcmp>
68 function). Thus, you can e.E<nbsp>g. use numbered prefixes to specify the
69 order in which the files are loaded.
71 To prevent loops and shooting yourself in the foot in interesting ways the
72 nesting is limited to a depth of 8E<nbsp>levels, which should be sufficient for
73 most uses. Since symlinks are followed it is still possible to crash the daemon
74 by looping symlinks. In our opinion significant stupidity should result in an
75 appropriate amount of pain.
77 It is no problem to have a block like C<E<lt>Plugin fooE<gt>> in more than one
78 file, but you cannot include files from within blocks.
80 =item B<PIDFile> I<File>
82 Sets where to write the PID file to. This file is overwritten when it exists
83 and deleted when the program is stopped. Some init-scripts might override this
84 setting using the B<-P> command-line option.
86 =item B<PluginDir> I<Directory>
88 Path to the plugins (shared objects) of collectd.
90 =item B<TypesDB> I<File> [I<File> ...]
92 Set one or more files that contain the data-set descriptions. See
93 L<types.db(5)> for a description of the format of this file.
95 =item B<Interval> I<Seconds>
97 Configures the interval in which to query the read plugins. Obviously smaller
98 values lead to a higher system load produced by collectd, while higher values
99 lead to more coarse statistics.
101 =item B<ReadThreads> I<Num>
103 Number of threads to start for reading plugins. The default value is B<5>, but
104 you may want to increase this if you have more than five plugins that take a
105 long time to read. Mostly those are plugin that do network-IO. Setting this to
106 a value higher than the number of plugins you've loaded is totally useless.
108 =item B<Hostname> I<Name>
110 Sets the hostname that identifies a host. If you omit this setting, the
111 hostname will be determinded using the L<gethostname(2)> system call.
113 =item B<FQDNLookup> B<true|false>
115 If B<Hostname> is determined automatically this setting controls whether or not
116 the daemon should try to figure out the "fully qualified domain name", FQDN.
117 This is done using a lookup of the name returned by C<gethostname>.
119 Using this feature (i.E<nbsp>e. setting this option to B<true>) is recommended.
120 However, to preserve backwards compatibility the default is set to B<false>.
121 The sample config file that is installed with C<makeE<nbsp>install> includes a
122 line which sets this option, though, so that default installations will have
123 this setting enabled.
127 =head1 PLUGIN OPTIONS
129 Some plugins may register own options. These options must be enclosed in a
130 C<Plugin>-Section. Which options exist depends on the plugin used. Some plugins
131 require external configuration, too. The C<apache plugin>, for example,
132 required C<mod_status> to be configured in the webserver you're going to
133 collect data from. These plugins are listed below as well, even if they don't
134 require any configuration within collectd's configfile.
136 A list of all plugins and a short summary for each plugin can be found in the
137 F<README> file shipped with the sourcecode and hopefully binary packets as
140 =head2 Plugin C<apache>
142 To configure the C<apache>-plugin you first need to configure the Apache
143 webserver correctly. The Apache-plugin C<mod_status> needs to be loaded and
144 working and the C<ExtendedStatus> directive needs to be B<enabled>. You can use
145 the following snipped to base your Apache config upon:
148 <IfModule mod_status.c>
149 <Location /mod_status>
150 SetHandler server-status
154 Since its C<mod_status> module is very similar to Apache's, B<lighttpd> is
155 also supported. It introduces a new field, called C<BusyServers>, to count the
156 number of currently connected clients. This field is also supported.
158 The following options are accepted by the C<apache>-plugin:
162 =item B<URL> I<http://host/mod_status?auto>
164 Sets the URL of the C<mod_status> output. This needs to be the output generated
165 by C<ExtendedStatus on> and it needs to be the machine readable output
166 generated by appending the C<?auto> argument.
168 =item B<User> I<Username>
170 Optional user name needed for authentication.
172 =item B<Password> I<Password>
174 Optional password needed for authentication.
176 =item B<VerifyPeer> B<true|false>
178 Enable or disable peer SSL certificate verification. See
179 L<http://curl.haxx.se/docs/sslcerts.html> for details. Enabled by default.
181 =item B<VerifyHost> B<true|false>
183 Enable or disable peer host name verification. If enabled, the plugin checks
184 if the C<Common Name> or a C<Subject Alternate Name> field of the SSL
185 certificate matches the host name provided by the B<URL> option. If this
186 identity check fails, the connection is aborted. Obviously, only works when
187 connecting to a SSL enabled server. Enabled by default.
189 =item B<CACert> I<File>
191 File that holds one or more SSL certificates. If you want to use HTTPS you will
192 possibly need this option. What CA certificates come bundled with C<libcurl>
193 and are checked by default depends on the distribution you use.
197 =head2 Plugin C<apcups>
201 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
203 Hostname of the host running B<apcupsd>. Defaults to B<localhost>. Please note
204 that IPv6 support has been disabled unless someone can confirm or decline that
205 B<apcupsd> can handle it.
207 =item B<Port> I<Port>
209 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<3551>.
213 =head2 Plugin C<ascent>
215 This plugin collects information about an Ascent server, a free server for the
216 "World of Warcraft" game. This plugin gathers the information by fetching the
217 XML status page using C<libcurl> and parses it using C<libxml2>.
219 The configuration options are the same as for the C<apache> plugin above:
223 =item B<URL> I<http://localhost/ascent/status/>
225 Sets the URL of the XML status output.
227 =item B<User> I<Username>
229 Optional user name needed for authentication.
231 =item B<Password> I<Password>
233 Optional password needed for authentication.
235 =item B<VerifyPeer> B<true|false>
237 Enable or disable peer SSL certificate verification. See
238 L<http://curl.haxx.se/docs/sslcerts.html> for details. Enabled by default.
240 =item B<VerifyHost> B<true|false>
242 Enable or disable peer host name verification. If enabled, the plugin checks
243 if the C<Common Name> or a C<Subject Alternate Name> field of the SSL
244 certificate matches the host name provided by the B<URL> option. If this
245 identity check fails, the connection is aborted. Obviously, only works when
246 connecting to a SSL enabled server. Enabled by default.
248 =item B<CACert> I<File>
250 File that holds one or more SSL certificates. If you want to use HTTPS you will
251 possibly need this option. What CA certificates come bundled with C<libcurl>
252 and are checked by default depends on the distribution you use.
256 =head2 Plugin C<cpufreq>
258 This plugin doesn't have any options. It reads
259 F</sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq> (for the first CPU
260 installed) to get the current CPU frequency. If this file does not exist make
261 sure B<cpufreqd> (L<http://cpufreqd.sourceforge.net/>) or a similar tool is
262 installed and an "cpu governor" (that's a kernel module) is loaded.
268 =item B<DataDir> I<Directory>
270 Set the directory to store CSV-files under. Per default CSV-files are generated
271 beneath the daemon's working directory, i.E<nbsp>e. the B<BaseDir>.
273 =item B<StoreRates> B<true|false>
275 If set to B<true>, convert counter values to rates. If set to B<false> (the
276 default) counter values are stored as is, i.E<nbsp>e. as an increasing integer
285 =item B<Device> I<Device>
287 Select partitions based on the devicename.
289 =item B<MountPoint> I<Directory>
291 Select partitions based on the mountpoint.
293 =item B<FSType> I<FSType>
295 Select partitions based on the filesystem type.
297 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
299 Invert the selection: If set to true, all partitions B<except> the ones that
300 match any one of the criteria are collected. By default only selected
301 partitions are collected if a selection is made. If no selection is configured
302 at all, B<all> partitions are selected.
306 =head2 Plugin C<disk>
308 The C<disk> plugin collects information about the usage of physical disks and
309 logical disks (partitions). Values collected are the number of octets written
310 to and read from a disk or partition, the number of read/write operations
311 issued to the disk and a rather complex "time" it took for these commands to be
314 Using the following two options you can ignore some disks or configure the
315 collection only of specific disks.
319 =item B<Disk> I<Name>
321 Select the disk I<Name>. Whether it is collected or ignored depends on the
322 B<IgnoreSelected> setting, see below. As with other plugins that use the
323 daemon's ignorelist functionality, a string that starts and ends with a slash
324 is interpreted as a regular expression. Examples:
329 =item B<IgnoreSelected> B<true>|B<false>
331 Sets whether selected disks, i.E<nbsp>e. the ones matches by any of the B<Disk>
332 statements, are ignored or if all other disks are ignored. The behavior
333 (hopefully) is intuitive: If no B<Disk> option is configured, all disks are
334 collected. If at least one B<Disk> option is given and no B<IgnoreSelected> or
335 set to B<false>, B<only> matching disks will be collected. If B<IgnoreSelected>
336 is set to B<true>, all disks are collected B<except> the ones matched.
344 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
346 The dns plugin uses B<libpcap> to capture dns traffic and analyses it. This
347 option sets the interface that should be used. If this option is not set, or
348 set to "any", the plugin will try to get packets from B<all> interfaces. This
349 may not work on certain platforms, such as MacE<nbsp>OSE<nbsp>X.
351 =item B<IgnoreSource> I<IP-address>
353 Ignore packets that originate from this address.
357 =head2 Plugin C<email>
361 =item B<SocketFile> I<Path>
363 Sets the socket-file which is to be created.
365 =item B<SocketGroup> I<Group>
367 If running as root change the group of the UNIX-socket after it has been
368 created. Defaults to B<collectd>.
370 =item B<SocketPerms> I<Permissions>
372 Change the file permissions of the UNIX-socket after it has been created. The
373 permissions must be given as a numeric, octal value as you would pass to
374 L<chmod(1)>. Defaults to B<0770>.
376 =item B<MaxConns> I<Number>
378 Sets the maximum number of connections that can be handled in parallel. Since
379 this many threads will be started immediately setting this to a very high
380 value will waste valuable resources. Defaults to B<5> and will be forced to be
381 at most B<16384> to prevent typos and dumb mistakes.
385 =head2 Plugin C<exec>
387 Please make sure to read L<collectd-exec(5)> before using this plugin. It
388 contains valuable information on when the executable is executed and the
389 output that is expected from it.
393 =item B<Exec> I<User>[:[I<Group>]] I<Executable> [I<E<lt>argE<gt>> [I<E<lt>argE<gt>> ...]]
395 =item B<NotificationExec> I<User>[:[I<Group>]] I<Executable> [I<E<lt>argE<gt>> [I<E<lt>argE<gt>> ...]]
397 Execute the executable I<Executable> as user I<User>. If the user name is
398 followed by a colon and a group name, the effective group is set to that group.
399 The real group and saved-set group will be set to the default group of that
400 user. If no group is given the effective group ID will be the same as the real
403 Please note that in order to change the user and/or group the daemon needs
404 superuser privileges. If the daemon is run as an unprivileged user you must
405 specify the same user/group here. If the daemon is run with superuser
406 privileges, you must supply a non-root user here.
408 The executable may be followed by optional arguments that are passed to the
409 program. Please note that due to the configuration parsing numbers and boolean
410 values may be changed. If you want to be absolutely sure that something is
411 passed as-is please enclose it in quotes.
413 The B<Exec> and B<NotificationExec> statements change the semantics of the
414 programs executed, i.E<nbsp>e. the data passed to them and the response
415 expected from them. This is documented in great detail in L<collectd-exec(5)>.
419 =head2 Plugin C<hddtemp>
421 To get values from B<hddtemp> collectd connects to B<localhost> (127.0.0.1),
422 port B<7634/tcp>. The B<Host> and B<Port> options can be used to change these
423 default values, see below. C<hddtemp> has to be running to work correctly. If
424 C<hddtemp> is not running timeouts may appear which may interfere with other
427 The B<hddtemp> homepage can be found at
428 L<http://www.guzu.net/linux/hddtemp.php>.
432 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
434 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
436 =item B<Port> I<Port>
438 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<7634>.
440 =item B<TranslateDevicename> I<true>|I<false>
442 If enabled, translate the disk names to major/minor device numbers
443 (e.E<nbsp>g. "8-0" for /dev/sda). For backwards compatibility this defaults to
444 I<true> but it's recommended to disable it as it will probably be removed in
445 the next major version.
449 =head2 Plugin C<interface>
453 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
455 Select this interface. By default these interfaces will then be collected. For
456 a more detailed description see B<IgnoreSelected> below.
458 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
460 If no configuration if given, the B<traffic>-plugin will collect data from
461 all interfaces. This may not be practical, especially for loopback- and
462 similar interfaces. Thus, you can use the B<Interface>-option to pick the
463 interfaces you're interested in. Sometimes, however, it's easier/preferred
464 to collect all interfaces I<except> a few ones. This option enables you to
465 do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to I<true> the effect of
466 B<Interface> is inversed: All selected interfaces are ignored and all
467 other interfaces are collected.
471 =head2 Plugin C<iptables>
475 =item B<Chain> I<Table> I<Chain> [I<Comment|Number> [I<Name>]]
477 Select the rules to count. If only I<Table> and I<Chain> are given, this plugin
478 will collect the counters of all rules which have a comment-match. The comment
479 is then used as type-instance.
481 If I<Comment> or I<Number> is given, only the rule with the matching comment or
482 the I<n>th rule will be collected. Again, the comment (or the number) will be
483 used as the type-instance.
485 If I<Name> is supplied, it will be used as the type-instance instead of the
486 comment or the number.
496 Select this irq. By default these irqs will then be collected. For a more
497 detailed description see B<IgnoreSelected> below.
499 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
501 If no configuration if given, the B<irq>-plugin will collect data from all
502 irqs. This may not be practical, especially if no interrupts happen. Thus, you
503 can use the B<Irq>-option to pick the interrupt you're interested in.
504 Sometimes, however, it's easier/preferred to collect all interrupts I<except> a
505 few ones. This option enables you to do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to
506 I<true> the effect of B<Irq> is inversed: All selected interrupts are ignored
507 and all other interrupts are collected.
511 =head2 Plugin C<libvirt>
513 This plugin allows CPU, disk and network load to be collected for virtualized
514 guests on the machine. This means that these characteristics can be collected
515 for guest systems without installing any software on them - collectd only runs
516 on the hosting system. The statistics are collected through libvirt
517 (L<http://libvirt.org/>).
519 Only I<Connection> is required.
523 =item B<Connection> I<uri>
525 Connect to the hypervisor given by I<uri>. For example if using Xen use:
529 Details which URIs allowed are given at L<http://libvirt.org/uri.html>.
531 =item B<RefreshInterval> I<seconds>
533 Refresh the list of domains and devices every I<seconds>. The default is 60
534 seconds. Setting this to be the same or smaller than the I<Interval> will cause
535 the list of domains and devices to be refreshed on every iteration.
537 Refreshing the devices in particular is quite a costly operation, so if your
538 virtualization setup is static you might consider increasing this. If this
539 option is set to 0, refreshing is disabled completely.
541 =item B<Domain> I<name>
543 =item B<BlockDevice> I<name:dev>
545 =item B<InterfaceDevice> I<name:dev>
547 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
549 Select which domains and devices are collected.
551 If I<IgnoreSelected> is not given or I<false> then only the listed domains and
552 disk/network devices are collected.
554 If I<IgnoreSelected> is I<true> then the test is reversed and the listed
555 domains and disk/network devices are ignored, while the rest are collected.
557 The domain name and device names may use a regular expression, if the name is
558 surrounded by I</.../> and collectd was compiled with support for regexps.
560 The default is to collect statistics for all domains and all their devices.
565 IgnoreSelected "true"
567 Ignore all I<hdb> devices on any domain, but other block devices (eg. I<hda>)
570 =item B<HostnameFormat> B<name|uuid|hostname|...>
572 When the libvirt plugin logs data, it sets the hostname of the collected data
573 according to this setting. The default is to use the guest name as provided by
574 the hypervisor, which is equal to setting B<name>.
576 B<uuid> means use the guest's UUID. This is useful if you want to track the
577 same guest across migrations.
579 B<hostname> means to use the global B<Hostname> setting, which is probably not
580 useful on its own because all guests will appear to have the same name.
582 You can also specify combinations of these fields. For example B<name uuid>
583 means to concatenate the guest name and UUID (with a literal colon character
584 between, thus I<"foo:1234-1234-1234-1234">).
588 =head2 Plugin C<logfile>
592 =item B<LogLevel> B<debug|info|notice|warning|err>
594 Sets the log-level. If, for example, set to B<notice>, then all events with
595 severity B<notice>, B<warning>, or B<err> will be written to the logfile.
597 Please note that B<debug> is only available if collectd has been compiled with
600 =item B<File> I<File>
602 Sets the file to write log messages to. The special strings B<stdout> and
603 B<stderr> can be used to write to the standard output and standard error
604 channels, respectively. This, of course, only makes much sense when collectd is
605 running in foreground- or non-daemon-mode.
607 =item B<Timestamp> B<true>|B<false>
609 Prefix all lines printed by the current time. Defaults to B<true>.
613 =head2 Plugin C<mbmon>
615 The C<mbmon plugin> uses mbmon to retrieve temperature, voltage, etc.
617 Be default collectd connects to B<localhost> (127.0.0.1), port B<411/tcp>. The
618 B<Host> and B<Port> options can be used to change these values, see below.
619 C<mbmon> has to be running to work correctly. If C<mbmon> is not running
620 timeouts may appear which may interfere with other statistics..
622 C<mbmon> must be run with the -r option ("print TAG and Value format");
623 Debian's F</etc/init.d/mbmon> script already does this, other people
624 will need to ensure that this is the case.
628 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
630 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
632 =item B<Port> I<Port>
634 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<411>.
638 =head2 Plugin C<memcached>
640 The C<memcached plugin> connects to a memcached server and queries statistics
641 about cache utilization, memory and bandwidth used.
642 L<http://www.danga.com/memcached/>
646 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
648 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
650 =item B<Port> I<Port>
652 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<11211>.
656 =head2 Plugin C<mysql>
658 The C<mysql plugin> requires B<mysqlclient> to be installed. It connects to the
659 database when started and keeps the connection up as long as possible. When the
660 connection is interrupted for whatever reason it will try to re-connect. The
661 plugin will complaint loudly in case anything goes wrong.
663 This plugin issues C<SHOW STATUS> and evaluates C<Bytes_{received,sent}>,
664 C<Com_*> and C<Handler_*> which correspond to F<mysql_octets.rrd>,
665 F<mysql_commands-*.rrd> and F<mysql_handler-*.rrd>. Also, the values of
666 C<Qcache_*> are put in F<mysql_qcache.rrd> and values of C<Threads_*> are put
667 in F<mysql_threads.rrd>. Please refer to the B<MySQL reference manual>,
668 I<5.2.4. Server Status Variables> for an explanation of these values.
670 Use the following options to configure the plugin:
674 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
676 Hostname of the database server. Defaults to B<localhost>.
678 =item B<User> I<Username>
680 Username to use when connecting to the database.
682 =item B<Password> I<Password>
684 Password needed to log into the database.
686 =item B<Database> I<Database>
688 Select this database. Defaults to I<no database> which is a perfectly reasonable
689 option for what this plugin does.
693 =head2 Plugin C<netlink>
695 The C<netlink> plugin uses a netlink socket to query the Linux kernel about
696 statistics of various interface and routing aspects.
700 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
702 =item B<VerboseInterface> I<Interface>
704 Instruct the plugin to collect interface statistics. This is basically the same
705 as the statistics provided by the C<interface> plugin (see above) but
706 potentially much more detailed.
708 When configuring with B<Interface> only the basic statistics will be collected,
709 namely octets, packets, and errors. These statistics are collected by
710 the C<interface> plugin, too, so using both at the same time is no benefit.
712 When configured with B<VerboseInterface> all counters B<except> the basic ones,
713 so that no data needs to be collected twice if you use the C<interface> plugin.
714 This includes dropped packets, received multicast packets, collisions and a
715 whole zoo of differentiated RX and TX errors. You can try the following command
716 to get an idea of what awaits you:
720 If I<Interface> is B<All>, all interfaces will be selected.
722 =item B<QDisc> I<Interface> [I<QDisc>]
724 =item B<Class> I<Interface> [I<Class>]
726 =item B<Filter> I<Interface> [I<Filter>]
728 Collect the octets and packets that pass a certain qdisc, class or filter.
730 QDiscs and classes are identified by their type and handle (or classid).
731 Filters don't necessarily have a handle, therefore the parent's handle is used.
732 The notation used in collectd differs from that used in tc(1) in that it
733 doesn't skip the major or minor number if it's zero and doesn't print special
734 ids by their name. So, for example, a qdisc may be identified by
735 C<pfifo_fast-1:0> even though the minor number of B<all> qdiscs is zero and
736 thus not displayed by tc(1).
738 If B<QDisc>, B<Class>, or B<Filter> is given without the second argument,
739 i.E<nbsp>.e. without an identifier, all qdiscs, classes, or filters that are
740 associated with that interface will be collected.
742 Since a filter itself doesn't necessarily have a handle, the parent's handle is
743 used. This may lead to problems when more than one filter is attached to a
744 qdisc or class. This isn't nice, but we don't know how this could be done any
745 better. If you have a idea, please don't hesitate to tell us.
747 As with the B<Interface> option you can specify B<All> as the interface,
748 meaning all interfaces.
750 Here are some examples to help you understand the above text more easily:
753 VerboseInterface "All"
754 QDisc "eth0" "pfifo_fast-1:0"
756 Class "ppp0" "htb-1:10"
757 Filter "ppp0" "u32-1:0"
760 =item B<IgnoreSelected>
762 The behaviour is the same as with all other similar plugins: If nothing is
763 selected at all, everything is collected. If some things are selected using the
764 options described above, only these statistics are collected. If you set
765 B<IgnoreSelected> to B<true>, this behavior is inversed, i.E<nbsp>e. the
766 specified statistics will not be collected.
770 =head2 Plugin C<network>
774 =item B<Listen> I<Host> [I<Port>]
776 =item B<Server> I<Host> [I<Port>]
778 The B<Server> statement sets the server to send datagrams B<to>. The statement
779 may occur multiple times to send each datagram to multiple destinations.
781 The B<Listen> statement sets the interfaces to bind to. When multiple
782 statements are found the daemon will bind to multiple interfaces.
784 The argument I<Host> may be a hostname, an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address. If
785 the argument is a multicast address the daemon will join that multicast group.
787 If no B<Listen> statement is found the server tries join both, the default IPv6
788 multicast group and the default IPv4 multicast group. If no B<Server> statement
789 is found the client will try to send data to the IPv6 multicast group first. If
790 that fails the client will try the IPv4 multicast group.
792 The default IPv6 multicast group is C<ff18::efc0:4a42>. The default IPv4
793 multicast group is C<239.192.74.66>.
795 The optional I<Port> argument sets the port to use. It can either be given
796 using a numeric port number or a service name. If the argument is omitted the
797 default port B<25826> is assumed.
799 =item B<TimeToLive> I<1-255>
801 Set the time-to-live of sent packets. This applies to all, unicast and
802 multicast, and IPv4 and IPv6 packets. The default is to not change this value.
803 That means that multicast packets will be sent with a TTL of C<1> (one) on most
806 =item B<Forward> I<true|false>
808 If set to I<true>, write packets that were received via the network plugin to
809 the sending sockets. This should only be activated when the B<Listen>- and
810 B<Server>-statements differ. Otherwise packets may be send multiple times to
811 the same multicast group. While this results in more network traffic than
812 necessary it's not a huge problem since the plugin has a duplicate detection,
813 so the values will not loop.
815 =item B<CacheFlush> I<Seconds>
817 For each host/plugin/type combination the C<network plugin> caches the time of
818 the last value being sent or received. Every I<Seconds> seconds the plugin
819 searches and removes all entries that are older than I<Seconds> seconds, thus
820 freeing the unused memory again. Since this process is somewhat expensive and
821 normally doesn't do much, this value should not be too small. The default is
822 1800 seconds, but setting this to 86400 seconds (one day) will not do much harm
827 =head2 Plugin C<nginx>
829 This plugin collects the number of connections and requests handled by the
830 C<nginx daemon> (speak: engineE<nbsp>X), a HTTP and mail server/proxy. It
831 queries the page provided by the C<ngx_http_stub_status_module> module, which
832 isn't compiled by default. Please refer to
833 L<http://wiki.codemongers.com/NginxStubStatusModule> for more information on
834 how to compile and configure nginx and this module.
836 The following options are accepted by the C<nginx plugin>:
840 =item B<URL> I<http://host/nginx_status>
842 Sets the URL of the C<ngx_http_stub_status_module> output.
844 =item B<User> I<Username>
846 Optional user name needed for authentication.
848 =item B<Password> I<Password>
850 Optional password needed for authentication.
852 =item B<VerifyPeer> B<true|false>
854 Enable or disable peer SSL certificate verification. See
855 L<http://curl.haxx.se/docs/sslcerts.html> for details. Enabled by default.
857 =item B<VerifyHost> B<true|false>
859 Enable or disable peer host name verification. If enabled, the plugin checks
860 if the C<Common Name> or a C<Subject Alternate Name> field of the SSL
861 certificate matches the host name provided by the B<URL> option. If this
862 identity check fails, the connection is aborted. Obviously, only works when
863 connecting to a SSL enabled server. Enabled by default.
865 =item B<CACert> I<File>
867 File that holds one or more SSL certificates. If you want to use HTTPS you will
868 possibly need this option. What CA certificates come bundled with C<libcurl>
869 and are checked by default depends on the distribution you use.
873 =head2 Plugin C<notify_desktop>
875 This plugin sends a desktop notification to a notification daemon, as defined
876 in the Desktop Notification Specification. To actually display the
877 notifications, B<notification-daemon> is required and B<collectd> has to be
878 able to access the X server.
880 The Desktop Notification Specification can be found at
881 L<http://www.galago-project.org/specs/notification/>.
885 =item B<OkayTimeout> I<timeout>
887 =item B<WarningTimeout> I<timeout>
889 =item B<FailureTimeout> I<timeout>
891 Set the I<timeout>, in milliseconds, after which to expire the notification
892 for C<OKAY>, C<WARNING> and C<FAILURE> severities respectively. If zero has
893 been specified, the displayed notification will not be closed at all - the
894 user has to do so herself. These options default to 5000. If a negative number
895 has been specified, the default is used as well.
899 =head2 Plugin C<ntpd>
903 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
905 Hostname of the host running B<ntpd>. Defaults to B<localhost>.
907 =item B<Port> I<Port>
909 UDP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<123>.
911 =item B<ReverseLookups> B<true>|B<false>
913 Sets wether or not to perform reverse lookups on peers. Since the name or
914 IP-address may be used in a filename it is recommended to disable reverse
915 lookups. The default is to do reverse lookups to preserve backwards
916 compatibility, though.
924 =item B<UPS> I<upsname>B<@>I<hostname>[B<:>I<port>]
926 Add a UPS to collect data from. The format is identical to the one accepted by
931 =head2 Plugin C<perl>
933 This plugin embeds a Perl-interpreter into collectd and provides an interface
934 to collectd's plugin system. See L<collectd-perl(5)> for its documentation.
936 =head2 Plugin C<ping>
940 =item B<Host> I<IP-address>
942 Host to ping periodically. This option may be repeated several times to ping
945 =item B<TTL> I<0-255>
947 Sets the Time-To-Live of generated ICMP packets.
951 =head2 Plugin C<postgresql>
953 The C<postgresql> plugin queries statistics from PostgreSQL databases. It
954 keeps a persistent connection to all configured databases and tries to
955 reconnect if the connection has been interrupted. The statistics are collected
956 from PostgreSQL's B<statistics collector> which thus has to be enabled for
957 this plugin to work correctly. This should usually be the case by default.
958 See the section "The Statistics Collector" of the B<PostgreSQL Documentation>
961 The B<PostgreSQL Documentation> manual can be found at
962 L<http://www.postgresql.org/docs/manuals/>.
971 KRBSrvName "kerberos_service_name"
974 Service "service_name"
980 =item B<Database> block
982 The B<Database> block defines one PostgreSQL database for which to collect
983 statistics. It accepts a single mandatory argument which specifies the
984 database name. None of the other options are required. PostgreSQL will use
985 default values as documented in the section "CONNECTING TO A DATABASE" in the
986 L<psql(1)> manpage. However, be aware that those defaults may be influenced by
987 the user collectd is run as and special environment variables. See the manpage
990 =item B<Host> I<hostname>
992 Specify the hostname or IP of the PostgreSQL server to connect to. If the
993 value begins with a slash, it is interpreted as the directory name in which to
994 look for the UNIX domain socket.
996 This option is also used to determine the hostname that is associated with a
997 collected data set. If it has been omitted or either begins with with a slash
998 or equals B<localhost> it will be replaced with the global hostname definition
999 of collectd. Any other value will be passed literally to collectd when
1000 dispatching values. Also see the global B<Hostname> and B<FQDNLookup> options.
1002 =item B<Port> I<port>
1004 Specify the TCP port or the local UNIX domain socket file extension of the
1007 =item B<User> I<username>
1009 Specify the username to be used when connecting to the server.
1011 =item B<Password> I<password>
1013 Specify the password to be used when connecting to the server.
1015 =item B<SSLMode> I<disable>|I<allow>|I<prefer>|I<require>
1017 Specify whether to use an SSL connection when contacting the server. The
1018 following modes are supported:
1024 Do not use SSL at all.
1028 First, try to connect without using SSL. If that fails, try using SSL.
1030 =item I<prefer> (default)
1032 First, try to connect using SSL. If that fails, try without using SSL.
1040 =item B<KRBSrvName> I<kerberos_service_name>
1042 Specify the Kerberos service name to use when authenticating with Kerberos 5
1043 or GSSAPI. See the sections "Kerberos authentication" and "GSSAPI" of the
1044 B<PostgreSQL Documentation> for details.
1046 =item B<Service> I<service_name>
1048 Specify the PostgreSQL service name to use for additional parameters. That
1049 service has to be defined in F<pg_service.conf> and holds additional
1050 connection parameters. See the section "The Connection Service File" in the
1051 B<PostgreSQL Documentation> for details.
1055 =head2 Plugin C<powerdns>
1057 The C<powerdns> plugin queries statistics from an authoritative PowerDNS
1058 nameserver and/or a PowerDNS recursor. Since both offer a wide variety of
1059 values, many of which are probably meaningless to most users, but may be useful
1060 for some. So you may chose which values to collect, but if you don't, some
1061 reasonable defaults will be collected.
1064 <Server "server_name">
1066 Collect "udp-answers" "udp-queries"
1067 Socket "/var/run/pdns.controlsocket"
1069 <Recursor "recursor_name">
1071 Collect "cache-hits" "cache-misses"
1072 Socket "/var/run/pdns_recursor.controlsocket"
1074 LocalSocket "/opt/collectd/var/run/collectd-powerdns"
1079 =item B<Server> and B<Recursor> block
1081 The B<Server> block defines one authoritative server to query, the B<Recursor>
1082 does the same for an recursing server. The possible options in both blocks are
1083 the same, though. The argument defines a name for the serverE<nbsp>/ recursor
1088 =item B<Collect> I<Field>
1090 Using the B<Collect> statement you can select which values to collect. Here,
1091 you specify the name of the values as used by the PowerDNS servers, e.E<nbsp>g.
1092 C<dlg-only-drops>, C<answers10-100>.
1094 The method of getting the values differs for B<Server> and B<Recursor> blocks:
1095 When querying the server a C<SHOW *> command is issued in any case, because
1096 that's the only way of getting multiple values out of the server at once.
1097 collectd then picks out the values you have selected. When querying the
1098 recursor, a command is generated to query exactly these values. So if you
1099 specify invalid fields when querying the recursor, a syntax error may be
1100 returned by the daemon and collectd may not collect any values at all.
1102 If no B<Collect> statement is given, the following B<Server> values will be
1109 =item packetcache-hit
1111 =item packetcache-miss
1113 =item packetcache-size
1115 =item query-cache-hit
1117 =item query-cache-miss
1119 =item recursing-answers
1121 =item recursing-questions
1133 The following B<Recursor> values will be collected by default:
1137 =item noerror-answers
1139 =item nxdomain-answers
1141 =item servfail-answers
1159 Please note that up to that point collectd doesn't know what values are
1160 available on the server and values that are added do not need a change of the
1161 mechanism so far. However, the values must be mapped to collectd's naming
1162 scheme, which is done using a lookup table that lists all known values. If
1163 values are added in the future and collectd does not know about them, you will
1164 get an error much like this:
1166 powerdns plugin: submit: Not found in lookup table: foobar = 42
1168 In this case please file a bug report with the collectd team.
1170 =item B<Socket> I<Path>
1172 Configures the path to the UNIX domain socket to be used when connecting to the
1173 daemon. By default C</var/run/pdns.controlsocket> will be used for an
1174 authoritative server and C</var/run/pdns_recursor.controlsocket> will be used
1179 =item B<LocalSocket> I<Path>
1181 Querying the recursor is done using UDP. When using UDP over UNIX domain
1182 sockets, the client socket needs a name in the file system, too. You can set
1183 this local name to I<Path> using the B<LocalSocket> option. The default is
1184 C<I<prefix>/var/run/collectd-powerdns>.
1188 =head2 Plugin C<processes>
1192 =item B<Process> I<Name>
1194 Select more detailed statistics of processes matching this name. The statistics
1195 collected for these selected processes are size of the resident segment size
1196 (RSS), user- and system-time used, number of processes and number of threads,
1197 and minor and major pagefaults.
1201 =head2 Plugin C<rrdtool>
1203 You can use the settings B<StepSize>, B<HeartBeat>, B<RRARows>, and B<XFF> to
1204 fine-tune your RRD-files. Please read L<rrdcreate(1)> if you encounter problems
1205 using these settings. If you don't want to dive into the depths of RRDTool, you
1206 can safely ignore these settings.
1210 =item B<DataDir> I<Directory>
1212 Set the directory to store RRD-files under. Per default RRD-files are generated
1213 beneath the daemon's working directory, i.E<nbsp>e. the B<BaseDir>.
1215 =item B<StepSize> I<Seconds>
1217 B<Force> the stepsize of newly created RRD-files. Ideally (and per default)
1218 this setting is unset and the stepsize is set to the interval in which the data
1219 is collected. Do not use this option unless you absolutely have to for some
1220 reason. Setting this option may cause problems with the C<snmp plugin>, the
1221 C<exec plugin> or when the daemon is set up to receive data from other hosts.
1223 =item B<HeartBeat> I<Seconds>
1225 B<Force> the heartbeat of newly created RRD-files. This setting should be unset
1226 in which case the heartbeat is set to twice the B<StepSize> which should equal
1227 the interval in which data is collected. Do not set this option unless you have
1228 a very good reason to do so.
1230 =item B<RRARows> I<NumRows>
1232 The C<rrdtool plugin> calculates the number of PDPs per CDP based on the
1233 B<StepSize>, this setting and a timespan. This plugin creates RRD-files with
1234 three times five RRAs, i. e. five RRAs with the CFs B<MIN>, B<AVERAGE>, and
1235 B<MAX>. The five RRAs are optimized for graphs covering one hour, one day, one
1236 week, one month, and one year.
1238 So for each timespan, it calculates how many PDPs need to be consolidated into
1239 one CDP by calculating:
1240 number of PDPs = timespan / (stepsize * rrarows)
1242 Bottom line is, set this no smaller than the width of you graphs in pixels. The
1245 =item B<RRATimespan> I<Seconds>
1247 Adds an RRA-timespan, given in seconds. Use this option multiple times to have
1248 more then one RRA. If this option is never used, the built-in default of (3600,
1249 86400, 604800, 2678400, 31622400) is used.
1251 For more information on how RRA-sizes are calculated see B<RRARows> above.
1253 =item B<XFF> I<Factor>
1255 Set the "XFiles Factor". The default is 0.1. If unsure, don't set this option.
1257 =item B<CacheFlush> I<Seconds>
1259 When the C<rrdtool plugin> uses a cache (by setting B<CacheTimeout>, see below)
1260 it writes all values for a certain RRD-file if the oldest value is older than
1261 (or equal to) the number of seconds specified. If some RRD-file is not updated
1262 anymore for some reason (the computer was shut down, the network is broken,
1263 etc.) some values may still be in the cache. If B<CacheFlush> is set, then the
1264 entire cache is searched for entries older than B<CacheTimeout> seconds and
1265 written to disk every I<Seconds> seconds. Since this is kind of expensive and
1266 does nothing under normal circumstances, this value should not be too small.
1267 900 seconds might be a good value, though setting this to 7200 seconds doesn't
1268 normally do much harm either.
1270 =item B<CacheTimeout> I<Seconds>
1272 If this option is set to a value greater than zero, the C<rrdtool plugin> will
1273 save values in a cache, as described above. Writing multiple values at once
1274 reduces IO-operations and thus lessens the load produced by updating the files.
1275 The trade off is that the graphs kind of "drag behind" and that more memory is
1280 =head2 Plugin C<sensors>
1282 The C<sensors plugin> uses B<lm_sensors> to retrieve sensor-values. This means
1283 that all the needed modules have to be loaded and lm_sensors has to be
1284 configured (most likely by editing F</etc/sensors.conf>. Read
1285 L<sensors.conf(5)> for details.
1287 The B<lm_sensors> homepage can be found at
1288 L<http://secure.netroedge.com/~lm78/>.
1292 =item B<Sensor> I<chip-bus-address/type-feature>
1294 Selects the name of the sensor which you want to collect or ignore, depending
1295 on the B<IgnoreSelected> below. For example, the option "B<Sensor>
1296 I<it8712-isa-0290/voltage-in1>" will cause collectd to gather data for the
1297 voltage sensor I<in1> of the I<it8712> on the isa bus at the address 0290.
1299 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
1301 If no configuration if given, the B<sensors>-plugin will collect data from all
1302 sensors. This may not be practical, especially for uninteresting sensors.
1303 Thus, you can use the B<Sensor>-option to pick the sensors you're interested
1304 in. Sometimes, however, it's easier/preferred to collect all sensors I<except> a
1305 few ones. This option enables you to do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to
1306 I<true> the effect of B<Sensor> is inversed: All selected sensors are ignored
1307 and all other sensors are collected.
1311 =head2 Plugin C<snmp>
1313 Since the configuration of the C<snmp plugin> is a little more complicated than
1314 other plugins, its documentation has been moved to an own manpage,
1315 L<collectd-snmp(5)>. Please see there for details.
1317 =head2 Plugin C<syslog>
1321 =item B<LogLevel> B<debug|info|notice|warning|err>
1323 Sets the log-level. If, for example, set to B<notice>, then all events with
1324 severity B<notice>, B<warning>, or B<err> will be submitted to the
1327 Please note that B<debug> is only available if collectd has been compiled with
1332 =head2 Plugin C<tail>
1334 The C<tail plugin> plugins follows logfiles, just like L<tail(1)> does, parses
1335 each line and dispatches found values. What is matched can be configured by the
1336 user using (extended) regular expressions, as described in L<regex(7)>.
1339 <File "/var/log/exim4/mainlog">
1342 Regex "S=([1-9][0-9]*)"
1348 Regex "\\<R=local_user\\>"
1351 Instance "local_user"
1356 The config consists of one or more B<File> blocks, each of which configures one
1357 logfile to parse. Within each B<File> block, there are one or more B<Match>
1358 blocks, which configure a regular expression to search for.
1360 The B<Instance> option in the B<File> block may be used to set the plugin
1361 instance. So in the above example the plugin name C<tail-foo> would be used.
1362 This plugin instance is for all B<Match> blocks that B<follow> it, until the
1363 next B<Instance> option. This way you can extract several plugin instances from
1364 one logfile, handy when parsing syslog and the like.
1366 Each B<Match> block has the following options to describe how the match should
1371 =item B<Regex> I<regex>
1373 Sets the regular expression to use for matching against a line. The first
1374 subexpression has to match something that can be turned into a number by
1375 L<strtoll(3)> or L<strtod(3)>, depending on the value of C<CounterAdd>, see
1376 below. Because B<extended> regular expressions are used, you do not need to use
1377 backslashes for subexpressions! If in doubt, please consult L<regex(7)>. Due to
1378 collectd's config parsing you need to escape backslashes, though. So if you
1379 want to match literal parentheses you need to do the following:
1381 Regex "SPAM \\(Score: (-?[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+)\\)"
1383 =item B<DSType> I<Type>
1385 Sets how the values are cumulated. I<Type> is one of:
1389 =item B<GaugeAverage>
1391 Calculate the average.
1395 Use the smallest number only.
1399 Use the greatest number only.
1403 Use the last number found.
1407 The matched number is a counter. Simply sets the internal counter to this
1412 Add the matched value to the internal counter.
1416 Increase the internal counter by one. This B<DSType> is the only one that does
1417 not use the matched subexpression, but simply counts the number of matched
1418 lines. Thus, you may use a regular expression without submatch in this case.
1422 As you'd expect the B<Gauge*> types interpret the submatch as a floating point
1423 number, using L<strtod(3)>. The B<CounterSet> and B<CounterAdd> interpret the
1424 submatch as an integer using L<strtoll(3)>. B<CounterInc> does not use the
1425 submatch at all and it may be omitted in this case.
1427 =item B<Type> I<Type>
1429 Sets the type used to dispatch this value. Detailed information about types and
1430 their configuration can be found in L<types.db(5)>.
1432 =item B<Instance> I<TypeInstance>
1434 This optional setting sets the type instance to use.
1438 =head2 Plugin C<teamspeak2>
1440 The C<teamspeak2 plugin> connects to the query port of a teamspeak2 server and
1441 polls interesting global and virtual server data. The plugin can query only one
1442 physical server but unlimited virtual servers. You can use the following
1443 options to configure it:
1447 =item B<Host> I<hostname/ip>
1449 The hostname or ip which identifies the physical server.
1452 =item B<Port> I<port>
1454 The query port of the physical server. This needs to be a string.
1457 =item B<Server> I<port>
1459 This option has to be added once for every virtual server the plugin should
1460 query. If you want to query the virtual server on port 8767 this is what the
1461 option would look like:
1465 This option, although numeric, needs to be a string, i.E<nbsp>e. you B<must>
1466 use quotes around it! If no such statement is given only global information
1469 =head2 Plugin C<tcpconns>
1471 The C<tcpconns plugin> counts the number of currently established TCP
1472 connections based on the local port and/or the remote port. Since there may be
1473 a lot of connections the default if to count all connections with a local port,
1474 for which a listening socket is opened. You can use the following options to
1475 fine-tune the ports you are interested in:
1481 =item B<ListeningPorts> I<true>|I<false>
1483 If this option is set to I<true>, statistics for all local ports for which a
1484 listening socket exists are collected. The default depends on B<LocalPort> and
1485 B<RemotePort> (see below): If no port at all is specifically selected, the
1486 default is to collect listening ports. If specific ports (no matter if local or
1487 remote ports) are selected, this option defaults to I<false>, i.E<nbsp>e. only
1488 the selected ports will be collected unless this option is set to I<true>
1491 =item B<LocalPort> I<Port>
1493 Count the connections to a specific local port. This can be used to see how
1494 many connections are handled by a specific daemon, e.E<nbsp>g. the mailserver.
1495 You have to specify the port in numeric form, so for the mailserver example
1496 you'd need to set B<25>.
1498 =item B<RemotePort> I<Port>
1500 Count the connections to a specific remote port. This is useful to see how
1501 much a remote service is used. This is most useful if you want to know how many
1502 connections a local service has opened to remote services, e.E<nbsp>g. how many
1503 connections a mail server or news server has to other mail or news servers, or
1504 how many connections a web proxy holds to web servers. You have to give the
1505 port in numeric form.
1509 =head2 Plugin C<thermal>
1513 =item B<ForceUseProcfs> I<true>|I<false>
1515 By default, the C<thermal> plugin tries to read the statistics from the Linux
1516 C<sysfs> interface. If that is not available, the plugin falls back to the
1517 C<procfs> interface. By setting this option to I<true>, you can force the
1518 plugin to use the latter. This option defaults to I<false>.
1520 =item B<Device> I<Device>
1522 Selects the name of the thermal device that you want to collect or ignore,
1523 depending on the value of the B<IgnoreSelected> option. This option may be
1524 used multiple times to specify a list of devices.
1526 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
1528 Invert the selection: If set to true, all devices B<except> the ones that
1529 match the device names specified by the B<Device> option are collected. By
1530 default only selected devices are collected if a selection is made. If no
1531 selection is configured at all, B<all> devices are selected.
1535 =head2 Plugin C<unixsock>
1539 =item B<SocketFile> I<Path>
1541 Sets the socket-file which is to be created.
1543 =item B<SocketGroup> I<Group>
1545 If running as root change the group of the UNIX-socket after it has been
1546 created. Defaults to B<collectd>.
1548 =item B<SocketPerms> I<Permissions>
1550 Change the file permissions of the UNIX-socket after it has been created. The
1551 permissions must be given as a numeric, octal value as you would pass to
1552 L<chmod(1)>. Defaults to B<0770>.
1556 =head2 Plugin C<uuid>
1558 This plugin, if loaded, causes the Hostname to be taken from the machine's
1559 UUID. The UUID is a universally unique designation for the machine, usually
1560 taken from the machine's BIOS. This is most useful if the machine is running in
1561 a virtual environment such as Xen, in which case the UUID is preserved across
1562 shutdowns and migration.
1564 The following methods are used to find the machine's UUID, in order:
1570 Check I</etc/uuid> (or I<UUIDFile>).
1574 Check for UUID from HAL (L<http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/hal>) if
1579 Check for UUID from C<dmidecode> / SMBIOS.
1583 Check for UUID from Xen hypervisor.
1587 If no UUID can be found then the hostname is not modified.
1591 =item B<UUIDFile> I<Path>
1593 Take the UUID from the given file (default I</etc/uuid>).
1597 =head2 Plugin C<vmem>
1599 The C<vmem> plugin collects information about the usage of virtual memory.
1600 Since the statistics provided by the Linux kernel are very detailed, they are
1601 collected very detailed. However, to get all the details, you have to switch
1602 them on manually. Most people just want an overview over, such as the number of
1603 pages read from swap space.
1607 =item B<Verbose> B<true>|B<false>
1609 Enables verbose collection of information. This will start collecting page
1610 "actions", e.E<nbsp>g. page allocations, (de)activations, steals and so on.
1611 Part of these statistics are collected on a "per zone" basis.
1615 =head2 Plugin C<vserver>
1617 This plugin doesn't have any options. B<VServer> support is only available for
1618 Linux. It cannot yet be found in a vanilla kernel, though. To make use of this
1619 plugin you need a kernel that has B<VServer> support built in, i.E<nbsp>e. you
1620 need to apply the patches and compile your own kernel, which will then provide
1621 the F</proc/virtual> filesystem that is required by this plugin.
1623 The B<VServer> homepage can be found at L<http://linux-vserver.org/>.
1625 =head1 THRESHOLD CONFIGURATION
1627 Starting with version C<4.3.0> collectd has support for B<monitoring>. By that
1628 we mean that the values are not only stored or sent somewhere, but that they
1629 are judged and, if a problem is recognized, acted upon. The only action
1630 collectd takes itself is to generate and dispatch a "notification". Plugins can
1631 register to receive notifications and perform appropriate further actions.
1633 Since systems and what you expect them to do differ a lot, you can configure
1634 B<thresholds> for your values freely. This gives you a lot of flexibility but
1635 also a lot of responsibility.
1637 Every time a value is out of range a notification is dispatched. This means
1638 that the idle percentage of your CPU needs to be less then the configured
1639 threshold only once for a notification to be generated. There's no such thing
1640 as a moving average or similar - at least not now.
1642 Also, all values that match a threshold are considered to be relevant or
1643 "interesting". As a consequence collectd will issue a notification if they are
1644 not received for twice the last timeout of the values. If, for example, some
1645 hosts sends it's CPU statistics to the server every 60 seconds, a notification
1646 will be dispatched after about 120 seconds. It may take a little longer because
1647 the timeout is checked only once each B<Interval> on the server.
1649 Here is a configuration example to get you started. Read below for more
1662 <Plugin "interface">
1679 WarningMin 100000000
1685 There are basically two types of configuration statements: The C<Host>,
1686 C<Plugin>, and C<Type> blocks select the value for which a threshold should be
1687 configured. The C<Plugin> and C<Type> blocks may be specified further using the
1688 C<Instance> option. You can combine the block by nesting the blocks, though
1689 they must be nested in the above order, i.E<nbsp>e. C<Host> may contain either
1690 C<Plugin> and C<Type> blocks, C<Plugin> may only contain C<Type> blocks and
1691 C<Type> may not contain other blocks. If multiple blocks apply to the same
1692 value the most specific block is used.
1694 The other statements specify the threshold to configure. They B<must> be
1695 included in a C<Type> block. Currently the following statements are recognized:
1699 =item B<FailureMax> I<Value>
1701 =item B<WarningMax> I<Value>
1703 Sets the upper bound of acceptable values. If unset defaults to positive
1704 infinity. If a value is greater than B<FailureMax> a B<FAILURE> notification
1705 will be created. If the value is greater than B<WarningMax> but less than (or
1706 equal to) B<FailureMax> a B<WARNING> notification will be created.
1708 =item B<FailureMin> I<Value>
1710 =item B<WarningMin> I<Value>
1712 Sets the lower bound of acceptable values. If unset defaults to negative
1713 infinity. If a value is less than B<FailureMin> a B<FAILURE> notification will
1714 be created. If the value is less than B<WarningMin> but greater than (or equal
1715 to) B<FailureMin> a B<WARNING> notification will be created.
1717 =item B<DataSource> I<DSName>
1719 Some data sets have more than one "data source". Interesting examples are the
1720 C<if_octets> data set, which has received (C<rx>) and sent (C<tx>) bytes and
1721 the C<disk_ops> data set, which holds C<read> and C<write> operations. The
1722 system load data set, C<load>, even has three data sources: C<shortterm>,
1723 C<midterm>, and C<longterm>.
1725 Normally, all data sources are checked against a configured threshold. If this
1726 is undesirable, or if you want to specify different limits for each data
1727 source, you can use the B<DataSource> option to have a threshold apply only to
1730 =item B<Invert> B<true>|B<false>
1732 If set to B<true> the range of acceptable values is inverted, i.E<nbsp>e.
1733 values between B<FailureMin> and B<FailureMax> (B<WarningMin> and
1734 B<WarningMax>) are not okay. Defaults to B<false>.
1736 =item B<Persist> B<true>|B<false>
1738 Sets how often notifications are generated. If set to B<true> one notification
1739 will be generated for each value that is out of the acceptable range. If set to
1740 B<false> (the default) then a notification is only generated if a value is out
1741 of range but the previous value was okay.
1743 This applies to missing values, too: If set to B<true> a notification about a
1744 missing value is generated once every B<Interval> seconds. If set to B<false>
1745 only one such notification is generated until the value appears again.
1752 L<collectd-exec(5)>,
1753 L<collectd-perl(5)>,
1754 L<collectd-unixsock(5)>,
1765 Florian Forster E<lt>octo@verplant.orgE<gt>