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<File>
58 Includes the file I<File> as if it was copy and pasted here. To prevent loops
59 and shooting yourself in the foot in interesting ways the nesting is limited to
60 a depth of 8E<nbsp>levels, which should be sufficient for most uses.
62 It is no problem to have a block like C<E<lt>Plugin fooE<gt>> in more than one
63 file, but you cannot include files from within blocks.
65 =item B<PIDFile> I<File>
67 Sets where to write the PID file to. This file is overwritten when it exists
68 and deleted when the program is stopped. Some init-scripts might override this
69 setting using the B<-P> command-line option.
71 =item B<PluginDir> I<Directory>
73 Path to the plugins (shared objects) of collectd.
75 =item B<TypesDB> I<File>
77 Set the file that contains the data-set descriptions.
79 =item B<Interval> I<Seconds>
81 Configures the interval in which to query the read plugins. Obviously smaller
82 values lead to a higher system load produced by collectd, while higher values
83 lead to more coarse statistics.
85 =item B<ReadThreads> I<Num>
87 Number of threads to start for reading plugins. The default value is B<5>, but
88 you may want to increase this if you have more than five plugins that take a
89 long time to read. Mostly those are plugin that do network-IO. Setting this to
90 a value higher than the number of plugins you've loaded is totally useless.
92 =item B<Hostname> I<Name>
94 Sets the hostname that identifies a host. If you omit this setting, the
95 hostname will be determinded using the L<gethostname(2)> system call.
97 =item B<FQDNLookup> B<true|false>
99 If B<Hostname> is determined automatically this setting controls whether or not
100 the daemon should try to figure out the "fully qualified domain name", FQDN.
101 This is done using a lookup of the name returned by C<gethostname>.
103 Using this feature (i.E<nbsp>e. setting this option to B<true>) is recommended.
104 However, to preserve backwards compatibility the default is set to B<false>.
105 The sample config file that is installed with C<makeE<nbsp>install> includes a
106 line which sets this option, though, so that default installations will have
107 this setting enabled.
111 =head1 PLUGIN OPTIONS
113 Some plugins may register own options. These options must be enclosed in a
114 C<Plugin>-Section. Which options exist depends on the plugin used. Some plugins
115 require external configuration, too. The C<apache plugin>, for example,
116 required C<mod_status> to be configured in the webserver you're going to
117 collect data from. These plugins are listed below as well, even if they don't
118 require any configuration within collectd's configfile.
120 A list of all plugins and a short summary for each plugin can be found in the
121 F<README> file shipped with the sourcecode and hopefully binary packets as
124 =head2 Plugin C<apache>
126 To configure the C<apache>-plugin you first need to configure the Apache
127 webserver correctly. The Apache-plugin C<mod_status> needs to be loaded and
128 working and the C<ExtendedStatus> directive needs to be B<enabled>. You can use
129 the following snipped to base your Apache config upon:
132 <IfModule mod_status.c>
133 <Location /mod_status>
134 SetHandler server-status
138 Since its C<mod_status> module is very similar to Apache's, B<lighttpd> is
139 also supported. It introduces a new field, called C<BusyServers>, to count the
140 number of currently connected clients. This field is also supported.
142 The following options are accepted by the C<apache>-plugin:
146 =item B<URL> I<http://host/mod_status?auto>
148 Sets the URL of the C<mod_status> output. This needs to be the output generated
149 by C<ExtendedStatus on> and it needs to be the machine readable output
150 generated by appending the C<?auto> argument.
152 =item B<User> I<Username>
154 Optional user name needed for authentication.
156 =item B<Password> I<Password>
158 Optional password needed for authentication.
160 =item B<CACert> I<File>
162 File that holds one or more SSL certificates. If you want to use HTTPS you will
163 possibly need this option. What CA certificates come bundled with C<libcurl>
164 and are checked by default depends on the distribution you use.
168 =head2 Plugin C<apcups>
172 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
174 Hostname of the host running B<apcupsd>. Defaults to B<localhost>. Please note
175 that IPv6 support has been disabled unless someone can confirm or decline that
176 B<apcupsd> can handle it.
178 =item B<Port> I<Port>
180 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<3551>.
184 =head2 Plugin C<cpufreq>
186 This plugin doesn't have any options. It reads
187 F</sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq> (for the first CPU
188 installed) to get the current CPU frequency. If this file does not exist make
189 sure B<cpufreqd> (L<http://cpufreqd.sourceforge.net/>) or a similar tool is
190 installed and an "cpu governor" (that's a kernel module) is loaded.
196 =item B<DataDir> I<Directory>
198 Set the directory to store CSV-files under. Per default CSV-files are generated
199 beneath the daemon's working directory, i.E<nbsp>e. the B<BaseDir>.
201 =item B<StoreRates> B<true|false>
203 If set to B<true>, convert counter values to rates. If set to B<false> (the
204 default) counter values are stored as is, i.E<nbsp>e. as an increasing integer
213 =item B<Device> I<Device>
215 Select partitions based on the devicename.
217 =item B<MountPoint> I<Directory>
219 Select partitions based on the mountpoint.
221 =item B<FSType> I<FSType>
223 Select partitions based on the filesystem type.
225 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
227 Invert the selection: If set to true, all partitions B<except> the ones that
228 match any one of the criteria are collected. By default only selected
229 partitions are collected if a selection is made. If no selection is configured
230 at all, B<all> partitions are selected.
238 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
240 The dns plugin uses B<libpcap> to capture dns traffic and analyses it. This
241 option sets the interface that should be used. If this option is not set, or
242 set to "any", the plugin will try to get packets from B<all> interfaces. This
243 may not work on certain platforms, such as MacE<nbsp>OSE<nbsp>X.
245 =item B<IgnoreSource> I<IP-address>
247 Ignore packets that originate from this address.
251 =head2 Plugin C<email>
255 =item B<SocketFile> I<Path>
257 Sets the socket-file which is to be created.
259 =item B<SocketGroup> I<Group>
261 If running as root change the group of the UNIX-socket after it has been
262 created. Defaults to B<collectd>.
264 =item B<SocketPerms> I<Permissions>
266 Change the file permissions of the UNIX-socket after it has been created. The
267 permissions must be given as a numeric, octal value as you would pass to
268 L<chmod(1)>. Defaults to B<0770>.
270 =item B<MaxConns> I<Number>
272 Sets the maximum number of connections that can be handled in parallel. Since
273 this many threads will be started immediately setting this to a very high
274 value will waste valuable resources. Defaults to B<5> and will be forced to be
275 at most B<16384> to prevent typos and dumb mistakes.
279 =head2 Plugin C<exec>
281 Please make sure to read L<collectd-exec(5)> before using this plugin. It
282 contains valuable information on when the executable is executed and the
283 output that is expected from it.
287 =item B<Exec> I<User>[:[I<Group>]] I<Executable>
289 Execute the executable I<Executable> as user I<User>. If the user name is
290 followed by a colon and a group name, the effective group is set to that group.
291 The real group and saved-set group will be set to the default group of that
292 user. If no group is given the effective group ID will be the same as the real
295 Please note that in order to change the user and/or group the daemon needs
296 superuser privileges. If the daemon is run as an unprivileged user you must
297 specify the same user/group here. If the daemon is run with superuser
298 privileges, you must supply a non-root user here.
302 =head2 Plugin C<hddtemp>
304 To get values from B<hddtemp> collectd connects to B<localhost> (127.0.0.1),
305 port B<7634/tcp>. The B<Host> and B<Port> options can be used to change these
306 default values, see below. C<hddtemp> has to be running to work correctly. If
307 C<hddtemp> is not running timeouts may appear which may interfere with other
310 The B<hddtemp> homepage can be found at
311 L<http://www.guzu.net/linux/hddtemp.php>.
315 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
317 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
319 =item B<Port> I<Port>
321 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<7634>.
325 =head2 Plugin C<interface>
329 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
331 Select this interface. By default these interfaces will then be collected. For
332 a more detailed description see B<IgnoreSelected> below.
334 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
336 If no configuration if given, the B<traffic>-plugin will collect data from
337 all interfaces. This may not be practical, especially for loopback- and
338 similar interfaces. Thus, you can use the B<Interface>-option to pick the
339 interfaces you're interested in. Sometimes, however, it's easier/preferred
340 to collect all interfaces I<except> a few ones. This option enables you to
341 do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to I<true> the effect of
342 B<Interface> is inversed: All selected interfaces are ignored and all
343 other interfaces are collected.
347 =head2 Plugin C<iptables>
351 =item B<Chain> I<Table> I<Chain> [I<Comment|Number> [I<Name>]]
353 Select the rules to count. If only I<Table> and I<Chain> are given, this plugin
354 will collect the counters of all rules which have a comment-match. The comment
355 is then used as type-instance.
357 If I<Comment> or I<Number> is given, only the rule with the matching comment or
358 the I<n>th rule will be collected. Again, the comment (or the number) will be
359 used as the type-instance.
361 If I<Name> is supplied, it will be used as the type-instance instead of the
362 comment or the number.
372 Select this irq. By default these irqs will then be collected. For a more
373 detailed description see B<IgnoreSelected> below.
375 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
377 If no configuration if given, the B<irq>-plugin will collect data from all
378 irqs. This may not be practical, especially if no interrupts happen. Thus, you
379 can use the B<Irq>-option to pick the interrupt you're interested in.
380 Sometimes, however, it's easier/preferred to collect all interrupts I<except> a
381 few ones. This option enables you to do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to
382 I<true> the effect of B<Irq> is inversed: All selected interrupts are ignored
383 and all other interrupts are collected.
387 =head2 Plugin C<libvirt>
389 This plugin allows CPU, disk and network load to be collected for virtualized
390 guests on the machine. This means that these characteristics can be collected
391 for guest systems without installing any software on them - collectd only runs
392 on the hosting system. The statistics are collected through libvirt
393 (L<http://libvirt.org/>).
395 Only I<Connection> is required.
399 =item B<Connection> I<uri>
401 Connect to the hypervisor given by I<uri>. For example if using Xen use:
405 Details which URIs allowed are given at L<http://libvirt.org/uri.html>.
407 =item B<RefreshInterval> I<seconds>
409 Refresh the list of domains and devices every I<seconds>. The default is 60
410 seconds. Setting this to be the same or smaller than the I<Interval> will cause
411 the list of domains and devices to be refreshed on every iteration.
413 Refreshing the devices in particular is quite a costly operation, so if your
414 virtualization setup is static you might consider increasing this.
416 =item B<Domain> I<name>
418 =item B<BlockDevice> I<name:dev>
420 =item B<InterfaceDevice> I<name:dev>
422 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
424 Select which domains and devices are collected.
426 If I<IgnoreSelected> is not given or I<false> then only the listed domains and
427 disk/network devices are collected.
429 If I<IgnoreSelected> is I<true> then the test is reversed and the listed
430 domains and disk/network devices are ignored, while the rest are collected.
432 The domain name and device names may use a regular expression, if the name is
433 surrounded by I</.../> and collectd was compiled with support for regexps.
435 The default is to collect statistics for all domains and all their devices.
440 IgnoreSelected "true"
442 Ignore all I<hdb> devices on any domain, but other block devices (eg. I<hda>)
445 =item B<HostnameFormat> B<name|uuid|hostname|...>
447 When the libvirt plugin logs data, it sets the hostname of the collected data
448 according to this setting. The default is to use the guest name as provided by
449 the hypervisor, which is equal to setting B<name>.
451 B<uuid> means use the guest's UUID. This is useful if you want to track the
452 same guest across migrations.
454 B<hostname> means to use the global B<Hostname> setting, which is probably not
455 useful on its own because all guests will appear to have the same name.
457 You can also specify combinations of these fields. For example B<name uuid>
458 means to concatenate the guest name and UUID (with a literal colon character
459 between, thus I<"foo:1234-1234-1234-1234">).
463 =head2 Plugin C<logfile>
467 =item B<LogLevel> B<debug|info|notice|warning|err>
469 Sets the log-level. If, for example, set to B<notice>, then all events with
470 severity B<notice>, B<warning>, or B<err> will be written to the logfile.
472 =item B<File> I<File>
474 Sets the file to write log messages to. The special strings B<stdout> and
475 B<stderr> can be used to write to the standard output and standard error
476 channels, respectively. This, of course, only makes much sense when collectd is
477 running in foreground- or non-daemon-mode.
479 =item B<Timestamp> B<true>|B<false>
481 Prefix all lines printed by the current time. Defaults to B<true>.
485 =head2 Plugin C<mbmon>
487 The C<mbmon plugin> uses mbmon to retrieve temperature, voltage, etc.
489 Be default collectd connects to B<localhost> (127.0.0.1), port B<411/tcp>. The
490 B<Host> and B<Port> options can be used to change these values, see below.
491 C<mbmon> has to be running to work correctly. If C<mbmon> is not running
492 timeouts may appear which may interfere with other statistics..
494 C<mbmon> must be run with the -r option ("print TAG and Value format");
495 Debian's F</etc/init.d/mbmon> script already does this, other people
496 will need to ensure that this is the case.
500 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
502 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
504 =item B<Port> I<Port>
506 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<411>.
510 =head2 Plugin C<memcached>
512 The C<memcached plugin> connects to a memcached server and queries statistics
513 about cache utilization, memory and bandwidth used.
514 L<http://www.danga.com/memcached/>
518 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
520 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
522 =item B<Port> I<Port>
524 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<11211>.
528 =head2 Plugin C<mysql>
530 The C<mysql plugin> requires B<mysqlclient> to be installed. It connects to the
531 database when started and keeps the connection up as long as possible. When the
532 connection is interrupted for whatever reason it will try to re-connect. The
533 plugin will complaint loudly in case anything goes wrong.
535 This plugin issues C<SHOW STATUS> and evaluates C<Bytes_{received,sent}>,
536 C<Com_*> and C<Handler_*> which correspond to F<mysql_octets.rrd>,
537 F<mysql_commands-*.rrd> and F<mysql_handler-*.rrd>. Also, the values of
538 C<Qcache_*> are put in F<mysql_qcache.rrd> and values of C<Threads_*> are put
539 in F<mysql_threads.rrd>. Please refer to the B<MySQL reference manual>,
540 I<5.2.4. Server Status Variables> for an explanation of these values.
542 Use the following options to configure the plugin:
546 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
548 Hostname of the database server. Defaults to B<localhost>.
550 =item B<User> I<Username>
552 Username to use when connecting to the database.
554 =item B<Password> I<Password>
556 Password needed to log into the database.
558 =item B<Database> I<Database>
560 Select this database. Defaults to I<no database> which is a perfectly reasonable
561 option for what this plugin does.
565 =head2 Plugin C<netlink>
567 The C<netlink> plugin uses a netlink socket to query the Linux kernel about
568 statistics of various interface and routing aspects.
572 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
574 =item B<VerboseInterface> I<Interface>
576 Instruct the plugin to collect interface statistics. This is basically the same
577 as the statistics provided by the C<interface> plugin (see above) but
578 potentially much more detailed.
580 When configuring with B<Interface> only the basic statistics will be collected,
581 namely octets, packets, and errors. These statistics are collected by
582 the C<interface> plugin, too, so using both at the same time is no benefit.
584 When configured with B<VerboseInterface> all counters B<except> the basic ones,
585 so that no data needs to be collected twice if you use the C<interface> plugin.
586 This includes dropped packets, received multicast packets, collisions and a
587 whole zoo of differentiated RX and TX errors. You can try the following command
588 to get an idea of what awaits you:
592 If I<Interface> is B<All>, all interfaces will be selected.
594 =item B<QDisc> I<Interface> [I<QDisc>]
596 =item B<Class> I<Interface> [I<Class>]
598 =item B<Filter> I<Interface> [I<Filter>]
600 Collect the octets and packets that pass a certain qdisc, class or filter.
602 QDiscs and classes are identified by their type and handle (or classid).
603 Filters don't necessarily have a handle, therefore the parent's handle is used.
604 The notation used in collectd differs from that used in tc(1) in that it
605 doesn't skip the major or minor number if it's zero and doesn't print special
606 ids by their name. So, for example, a qdisc may be identified by
607 C<pfifo_fast-1:0> even though the minor number of B<all> qdiscs is zero and
608 thus not displayed by tc(1).
610 If B<QDisc>, B<Class>, or B<Filter> is given without the second argument,
611 i.E<nbsp>.e. without an identifier, all qdiscs, classes, or filters that are
612 associated with that interface will be collected.
614 Since a filter itself doesn't necessarily have a handle, the parent's handle is
615 used. This may lead to problems when more than one filter is attached to a
616 qdisc or class. This isn't nice, but we don't know how this could be done any
617 better. If you have a idea, please don't hesitate to tell us.
619 As with the B<Interface> option you can specify B<All> as the interface,
620 meaning all interfaces.
622 Here are some examples to help you understand the above text more easily:
625 VerboseInterface "All"
626 QDisc "eth0" "pfifo_fast-1:0"
628 Class "ppp0" "htb-1:10"
629 Filter "ppp0" "u32-1:0"
632 =item B<IgnoreSelected>
634 The behaviour is the same as with all other similar plugins: If nothing is
635 selected at all, everything is collected. If some things are selected using the
636 options described above, only these statistics are collected. If you set
637 B<IgnoreSelected> to B<true>, this behavior is inversed, i.E<nbsp>e. the
638 specified statistics will not be collected.
642 =head2 Plugin C<network>
646 =item B<Listen> I<Host> [I<Port>]
648 =item B<Server> I<Host> [I<Port>]
650 The B<Server> statement sets the server to send datagrams B<to>. The statement
651 may occur multiple times to send each datagram to multiple destinations.
653 The B<Listen> statement sets the interfaces to bind to. When multiple
654 statements are found the daemon will bind to multiple interfaces.
656 The argument I<Host> may be a hostname, an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address. If
657 the argument is a multicast address the daemon will join that multicast group.
659 If no B<Listen> statement is found the server tries join both, the default IPv6
660 multicast group and the default IPv4 multicast group. If no B<Server> statement
661 is found the client will try to send data to the IPv6 multicast group first. If
662 that fails the client will try the IPv4 multicast group.
664 The default IPv6 multicast group is C<ff18::efc0:4a42>. The default IPv4
665 multicast group is C<239.192.74.66>.
667 The optional I<Port> argument sets the port to use. It can either be given
668 using a numeric port number or a service name. If the argument is omitted the
669 default port B<25826> is assumed.
671 =item B<TimeToLive> I<1-255>
673 Set the time-to-live of sent packets. This applies to all, unicast and
674 multicast, and IPv4 and IPv6 packets. The default is to not change this value.
675 That means that multicast packets will be sent with a TTL of C<1> (one) on most
678 =item B<Forward> I<true|false>
680 If set to I<true>, write packets that were received via the network plugin to
681 the sending sockets. This should only be activated when the B<Listen>- and
682 B<Server>-statements differ. Otherwise packets may be send multiple times to
683 the same multicast group. While this results in more network traffic than
684 necessary it's not a huge problem since the plugin has a duplicate detection,
685 so the values will not loop.
687 =item B<CacheFlush> I<Seconds>
689 For each host/plugin/type combination the C<network plugin> caches the time of
690 the last value being sent or received. Every I<Seconds> seconds the plugin
691 searches and removes all entries that are older than I<Seconds> seconds, thus
692 freeing the unused memory again. Since this process is somewhat expensive and
693 normally doesn't do much, this value should not be too small. The default is
694 1800 seconds, but setting this to 86400 seconds (one day) will not do much harm
699 =head2 Plugin C<nginx>
701 This plugin collects the number of connections and requests handled by the
702 C<nginx daemon> (speak: engineE<nbsp>X), a HTTP and mail server/proxy. It
703 queries the page provided by the C<ngx_http_stub_status_module> module, which
704 isn't compiled by default. Please refer to
705 L<http://wiki.codemongers.com/NginxStubStatusModule> for more information on
706 how to compile and configure nginx and this module.
708 The following options are accepted by the C<nginx plugin>:
712 =item B<URL> I<http://host/nginx_status>
714 Sets the URL of the C<ngx_http_stub_status_module> output.
716 =item B<User> I<Username>
718 Optional user name needed for authentication.
720 =item B<Password> I<Password>
722 Optional password needed for authentication.
724 =item B<CACert> I<File>
726 File that holds one or more SSL certificates. If you want to use HTTPS you will
727 possibly need this option. What CA certificates come bundled with C<libcurl>
728 and are checked by default depends on the distribution you use.
732 =head2 Plugin C<ntpd>
736 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
738 Hostname of the host running B<ntpd>. Defaults to B<localhost>.
740 =item B<Port> I<Port>
742 UDP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<123>.
744 =item B<ReverseLookups> B<true>|B<false>
746 Sets wether or not to perform reverse lookups on peers. Since the name or
747 IP-address may be used in a filename it is recommended to disable reverse
748 lookups. The default is to do reverse lookups to preserve backwards
749 compatibility, though.
757 =item B<UPS> I<upsname>B<@>I<hostname>[B<:>I<port>]
759 Add a UPS to collect data from. The format is identical to the one accepted by
764 =head2 Plugin C<perl>
766 This plugin embeds a Perl-interpreter into collectd and provides an interface
767 to collectd's plugin system. See L<collectd-perl(5)> for its documentation.
769 =head2 Plugin C<ping>
773 =item B<Host> I<IP-address>
775 Host to ping periodically. This option may be repeated several times to ping
778 =item B<TTL> I<0-255>
780 Sets the Time-To-Live of generated ICMP packets.
784 =head2 Plugin C<processes>
788 =item B<Process> I<Name>
790 Select more detailed statistics of processes matching this name. The statistics
791 collected for these selected processes are size of the resident segment size
792 (RSS), user- and system-time used, number of processes and number of threads,
793 and minor and major pagefaults.
797 =head2 Plugin C<rrdtool>
799 You can use the settings B<StepSize>, B<HeartBeat>, B<RRARows>, and B<XFF> to
800 fine-tune your RRD-files. Please read L<rrdcreate(1)> if you encounter problems
801 using these settings. If you don't want to dive into the depths of RRDTool, you
802 can safely ignore these settings.
806 =item B<DataDir> I<Directory>
808 Set the directory to store RRD-files under. Per default RRD-files are generated
809 beneath the daemon's working directory, i.E<nbsp>e. the B<BaseDir>.
811 =item B<StepSize> I<Seconds>
813 B<Force> the stepsize of newly created RRD-files. Ideally (and per default)
814 this setting is unset and the stepsize is set to the interval in which the data
815 is collected. Do not use this option unless you absolutely have to for some
816 reason. Setting this option may cause problems with the C<snmp plugin>, the
817 C<exec plugin> or when the daemon is set up to receive data from other hosts.
819 =item B<HeartBeat> I<Seconds>
821 B<Force> the heartbeat of newly created RRD-files. This setting should be unset
822 in which case the heartbeat is set to twice the B<StepSize> which should equal
823 the interval in which data is collected. Do not set this option unless you have
824 a very good reason to do so.
826 =item B<RRARows> I<NumRows>
828 The C<rrdtool plugin> calculates the number of PDPs per CDP based on the
829 B<StepSize>, this setting and a timespan. This plugin creates RRD-files with
830 three times five RRAs, i. e. five RRAs with the CFs B<MIN>, B<AVERAGE>, and
831 B<MAX>. The five RRAs are optimized for graphs covering one hour, one day, one
832 week, one month, and one year.
834 So for each timespan, it calculates how many PDPs need to be consolidated into
835 one CDP by calculating:
836 number of PDPs = timespan / (stepsize * rrarows)
838 Bottom line is, set this no smaller than the width of you graphs in pixels. The
841 =item B<RRATimespan> I<Seconds>
843 Adds an RRA-timespan, given in seconds. Use this option multiple times to have
844 more then one RRA. If this option is never used, the built-in default of (3600,
845 86400, 604800, 2678400, 31622400) is used.
847 For more information on how RRA-sizes are calculated see B<RRARows> above.
849 =item B<XFF> I<Factor>
851 Set the "XFiles Factor". The default is 0.1. If unsure, don't set this option.
853 =item B<CacheFlush> I<Seconds>
855 When the C<rrdtool plugin> uses a cache (by setting B<CacheTimeout>, see below)
856 it writes all values for a certain RRD-file if the oldest value is older than
857 (or equal to) the number of seconds specified. If some RRD-file is not updated
858 anymore for some reason (the computer was shut down, the network is broken,
859 etc.) some values may still be in the cache. If B<CacheFlush> is set, then the
860 entire cache is searched for entries older than B<CacheTimeout> seconds and
861 written to disk every I<Seconds> seconds. Since this is kind of expensive and
862 does nothing under normal circumstances, this value should not be too small.
863 900 seconds might be a good value, though setting this to 7200 seconds doesn't
864 normally do much harm either.
866 =item B<CacheTimeout> I<Seconds>
868 If this option is set to a value greater than zero, the C<rrdtool plugin> will
869 save values in a cache, as described above. Writing multiple values at once
870 reduces IO-operations and thus lessens the load produced by updating the files.
871 The trade off is that the graphs kind of "drag behind" and that more memory is
876 =head2 Plugin C<sensors>
878 The C<sensors plugin> uses B<lm_sensors> to retrieve sensor-values. This means
879 that all the needed modules have to be loaded and lm_sensors has to be
880 configured (most likely by editing F</etc/sensors.conf>. Read
881 L<sensors.conf(5)> for details.
883 The B<lm_sensors> homepage can be found at
884 L<http://secure.netroedge.com/~lm78/>.
888 =item B<Sensor> I<chip-bus-address/type-feature>
890 Selects the name of the sensor which you want to collect or ignore, depending
891 on the B<IgnoreSelected> below. For example, the option "B<Sensor>
892 I<it8712-isa-0290/voltage-in1>" will cause collectd to gather data for the
893 voltage sensor I<in1> of the I<it8712> on the isa bus at the address 0290.
895 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
897 If no configuration if given, the B<sensors>-plugin will collect data from all
898 sensors. This may not be practical, especially for uninteresting sensors.
899 Thus, you can use the B<Sensor>-option to pick the sensors you're interested
900 in. Sometimes, however, it's easier/preferred to collect all sensors I<except> a
901 few ones. This option enables you to do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to
902 I<true> the effect of B<Sensor> is inversed: All selected sensors are ignored
903 and all other sensors are collected.
907 =head2 Plugin C<snmp>
909 Since the configuration of the C<snmp plugin> is a little more complicated than
910 other plugins, its documentation has been moved to an own manpage,
911 L<collectd-snmp(5)>. Please see there for details.
913 =head2 Plugin C<syslog>
917 =item B<LogLevel> B<debug|info|notice|warning|err>
919 Sets the log-level. If, for example, set to B<notice>, then all events with
920 severity B<notice>, B<warning>, or B<err> will be submitted to the
925 =head2 Plugin C<tcpconns>
927 The C<tcpconns plugin> counts the number of currently established TCP
928 connections based on the local port and/or the remote port. Since there may be
929 a lot of connections the default if to count all connections with a local port,
930 for which a listening socket is opened. You can use the following options to
931 fine-tune the ports you are interested in:
935 =item B<ListeningPorts> I<true>|I<false>
937 If this option is set to I<true>, statistics for all local ports for which a
938 listening socket exists are collected. The default depends on B<LocalPort> and
939 B<RemotePort> (see below): If no port at all is specifically selected, the
940 default is to collect listening ports. If specific ports (no matter if local or
941 remote ports) are selected, this option defaults to I<false>, i.E<nbsp>e. only
942 the selected ports will be collected unless this option is set to I<true>
945 =item B<LocalPort> I<Port>
947 Count the connections to a specific local port. This can be used to see how
948 many connections are handled by a specific daemon, e.E<nbsp>g. the mailserver.
949 You have to specify the port in numeric form, so for the mailserver example
950 you'd need to set B<25>.
952 =item B<RemotePort> I<Port>
954 Count the connections to a specific remote port. This is useful to see how
955 much a remote service is used. This is most useful if you want to know how many
956 connections a local service has opened to remote services, e.E<nbsp>g. how many
957 connections a mail server or news server has to other mail or news servers, or
958 how many connections a web proxy holds to web servers. You have to give the
959 port in numeric form.
963 =head2 Plugin C<unixsock>
967 =item B<SocketFile> I<Path>
969 Sets the socket-file which is to be created.
971 =item B<SocketGroup> I<Group>
973 If running as root change the group of the UNIX-socket after it has been
974 created. Defaults to B<collectd>.
976 =item B<SocketPerms> I<Permissions>
978 Change the file permissions of the UNIX-socket after it has been created. The
979 permissions must be given as a numeric, octal value as you would pass to
980 L<chmod(1)>. Defaults to B<0770>.
984 =head2 Plugin C<uuid>
986 This plugin, if loaded, causes the Hostname to be taken from the machine's
987 UUID. The UUID is a universally unique designation for the machine, usually
988 taken from the machine's BIOS. This is most useful if the machine is running in
989 a virtual environment such as Xen, in which case the UUID is preserved across
990 shutdowns and migration.
992 The following methods are used to find the machine's UUID, in order:
998 Check I</etc/uuid> (or I<UUIDFile>).
1002 Check for UUID from HAL (L<http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/hal>) if
1007 Check for UUID from C<dmidecode> / SMBIOS.
1011 Check for UUID from Xen hypervisor.
1015 If no UUID can be found then the hostname is not modified.
1019 =item B<UUIDFile> I<Path>
1021 Take the UUID from the given file (default I</etc/uuid>).
1025 =head2 Plugin C<vserver>
1027 This plugin doesn't have any options. B<VServer> support is only available for
1028 Linux. It cannot yet be found in a vanilla kernel, though. To make use of this
1029 plugin you need a kernel that has B<VServer> support built in, i.E<nbsp>e. you
1030 need to apply the patches and compile your own kernel, which will then provide
1031 the F</proc/virtual> filesystem that is required by this plugin.
1033 The B<VServer> homepage can be found at L<http://linux-vserver.org/>.
1035 =head1 THRESHOLD CONFIGURATION
1037 Starting with version C<4.3.0> collectd has support for B<monitoring>. By that
1038 we mean that the values are not only stored or sent somewhere, but that they
1039 are judged and, if a problem is recognized, acted upon. The only action
1040 collectd takes itself is to generate and dispatch a "notification". Plugins can
1041 register to receive notifications and perform appropriate further actions.
1043 Since systems and what you expect them to do differ a lot, you can configure
1044 B<thresholds> for your values freely. This gives you a lot of flexibility but
1045 also a lot of responsibility.
1047 Every time a value is out of range a notification is dispatched. This means
1048 that the idle percentage of your CPU needs to be less then the configured
1049 threshold only once for a notification to be generated. There's no such thing
1050 as a moving average or similar - at least not now.
1052 Also, all values that match a threshold are considered to be relevant or
1053 "interesting". As a consequence collectd will issue a notification if they are
1054 not received for twice the last timeout of the values. If, for example, some
1055 hosts sends it's CPU statistics to the server every 60 seconds, a notification
1056 will be dispatched after about 120 seconds. It may take a little longer because
1057 the timeout is checked only once each B<Interval> on the server.
1059 Here is a configuration example to get you started. Read below for more
1070 <Plugin "interface">
1092 There are basically two types of configuration statements: The C<Host>,
1093 C<Plugin>, and C<Type> blocks select the value for which a threshold should be
1094 configured. The C<Plugin> and C<Type> blocks may be specified further using the
1095 C<Instance> option. You can combine the block by nesting the blocks, though
1096 they must be nested in the above order, i.E<nbsp>e. C<Host> may contain either
1097 C<Plugin> and C<Type> blocks, C<Plugin> may only contain C<Type> blocks and
1098 C<Type> may not contain other blocks. If multiple blocks apply to the same
1099 value the most specific block is used.
1101 The other statements specify the threshold to configure. They B<must> be
1102 included in a C<Type> block. Currently the following statements are recognized:
1106 =item B<Max> I<Value>
1108 Sets the upper bound of acceptable values. If unset defaults to positive
1111 =item B<Min> I<Value>
1113 Sets the lower bound of acceptable values. If unset defaults to negative
1116 =item B<Invert> B<true>|B<false>
1118 If set to B<true> the range of acceptable values is inverted, i.E<nbsp>e.
1119 values between B<Min> and B<Max> are not okay. Defaults, of course, to
1122 =item B<Persist> B<true>|B<false>
1124 Sets how often notifications are generated. If set to B<true> one notification
1125 will be generated for each value that is out of the acceptable range. If set to
1126 B<false> (the default) then a notification is only generated if a value is out
1127 of range but the previous value was okay.
1129 This applies to missing values, too: If set to B<true> a notification about a
1130 missing value is generated once every B<Interval> seconds. If set to B<false>
1131 only one such notification is generated until the value appears again.
1138 L<collectd-exec(5)>,
1139 L<collectd-perl(5)>,
1140 L<collectd-unixsock(5)>,
1149 Florian Forster E<lt>octo@verplant.orgE<gt>