[mrtg] error thresholds

[Bradford Woodcock]

Greetings,

Now that I have a plot of the error rates I'd like to set a threshold. The
difficulty is that mrtg wants to convert the errors to a rate/second which
tends to make the values very low. It would require 300 errors per 5 minute
interval just to kick a threshold of "1". This topic has appeared before in
the archive but I didn't find a specific solution (apologies if I missed it
on my searches).

I would prefer to graph and threshold on the "absolute delta" instead of a
per second rate (timeless). Is this possible with mrtg options? 

>From the manual I see the gauge option doesn't appear appropriate given
this is an incrementing counter. Also the absolute option is described to
be used for values which reset, but this is an incrementing counter.

If I have to work with a rate I could use the perminute option which would
make the graph much more usable. However I suspect setting the threshold
would still be based on a per second rate. I believe this because when I
set thresholds for octet counters it proved to threshold at the byte rate
even though the option "bits" was set and displayed. Any confirmations on
whether options "modify display only" and have no bearing on threshold
evaluations?

Has anyone "been there, done that" for setting thresholds on the absolute
number of errors per interval?

thanks,
brad...
GTEi

--
* To unsubscribe from the mrtg mailing list, send a message with the
  subject: unsubscribe to mrtg-request at list.ee.ethz.ch
* The mailing list archive is at http://www.ee.ethz.ch/~slist/mrtg