B<false>. String containing of only alphanumeric characters and underscores do
not need to be quoted.
-Plugins are loaded in the order listed in this config file. It is a good idea
-to load any logging plugins first in order to catch messages from plugins
-during configuration.
+The configuration is read and processed in order, i.E<nbsp>e. from top to
+bottom. So the plugins are loaded in the order listed in this config file. It
+is a good idea to load any logging plugins first in order to catch messages
+from plugins during configuration. Also, the C<LoadPlugin> option B<must> occur
+B<before> the C<E<lt>Plugin ...E<gt>> block.
=head1 GLOBAL OPTIONS
Path to the plugins (shared objects) of collectd.
-=item B<TypesDB> I<File>
+=item B<TypesDB> I<File> [I<File> ...]
-Set the file that contains the data-set descriptions.
+Set one or more files that contain the data-set descriptions. See
+L<types.db(5)> for a description of the format of this file.
=item B<Interval> I<Seconds>
Sets the log-level. If, for example, set to B<notice>, then all events with
severity B<notice>, B<warning>, or B<err> will be written to the logfile.
+Please note that B<debug> is only available if collectd has been compiled with
+debugging support.
+
=item B<File> I<File>
Sets the file to write log messages to. The special strings B<stdout> and
severity B<notice>, B<warning>, or B<err> will be submitted to the
syslog-daemon.
+Please note that B<debug> is only available if collectd has been compiled with
+debugging support.
+
=back
=head2 Plugin C<tcpconns>
Starting with version C<4.3.0> collectd has support for B<monitoring>. By that
we mean that the values are not only stored or sent somewhere, but that they
-are judged and, if a problem is recognized, acted upon.
+are judged and, if a problem is recognized, acted upon. The only action
+collectd takes itself is to generate and dispatch a "notification". Plugins can
+register to receive notifications and perform appropriate further actions.
Since systems and what you expect them to do differ a lot, you can configure
B<thresholds> for your values freely. This gives you a lot of flexibility but
also a lot of responsibility.
+Every time a value is out of range a notification is dispatched. This means
+that the idle percentage of your CPU needs to be less then the configured
+threshold only once for a notification to be generated. There's no such thing
+as a moving average or similar - at least not now.
+
+Also, all values that match a threshold are considered to be relevant or
+"interesting". As a consequence collectd will issue a notification if they are
+not received for twice the last timeout of the values. If, for example, some
+hosts sends it's CPU statistics to the server every 60 seconds, a notification
+will be dispatched after about 120 seconds. It may take a little longer because
+the timeout is checked only once each B<Interval> on the server.
+
+Here is a configuration example to get you started. Read below for more
+information.
+
<Threshold>
<Type "foo">
Min 0.00
C<Type> may not contain other blocks. If multiple blocks apply to the same
value the most specific block is used.
-The other statements specify the threshold to configure. Currently the
-following statements are recognized:
+The other statements specify the threshold to configure. They B<must> be
+included in a C<Type> block. Currently the following statements are recognized:
=over 4
+=item B<Max> I<Value>
+
+Sets the upper bound of acceptable values. If unset defaults to positive
+infinity.
+
=item B<Min> I<Value>
-...
+Sets the lower bound of acceptable values. If unset defaults to negative
+infinity.
+
+=item B<Invert> B<true>|B<false>
+
+If set to B<true> the range of acceptable values is inverted, i.E<nbsp>e.
+values between B<Min> and B<Max> are not okay. Defaults, of course, to
+B<false>.
+
+=item B<Persist> B<true>|B<false>
+
+Sets how often notifications are generated. If set to B<true> one notification
+will be generated for each value that is out of the acceptable range. If set to
+B<false> (the default) then a notification is only generated if a value is out
+of range but the previous value was okay.
+
+This applies to missing values, too: If set to B<true> a notification about a
+missing value is generated once every B<Interval> seconds. If set to B<false>
+only one such notification is generated until the value appears again.
=back
L<collectd-exec(5)>,
L<collectd-perl(5)>,
L<collectd-unixsock(5)>,
+L<types.db(5)>,
L<hddtemp(8)>,
L<kstat(3KSTAT)>,
L<mbmon(1)>,