[mrtg] Re: all in one conf or multiple?

[Alex van den Bogaerdt]

> 	What is everyone's recommendations for whether or not to put 
> all the configs into one file or keeping them in their own seperate 
> file?  Right now I have scripts, configs, and a shell script to call 
> mrtg with the correct config all setup.  What would be the benefit or 
> combining those configs (or at least related configs) into one conf 
> file?
> 
As Larry already explained: it depends.

You'll probably ask: "on what?" so here it is:

Each target in each configuration file will be processed sequentially.
These config files can (not: must) be processed in parallel.
So if you put many targets into one config file it takes a long time
to process this file.  Depending on the number of targets, the speed
of the processing computer, the speed of the targets and the load on
any intermediate network, this can take a long time.  It may even take
more than five minutes and the next run of MRTG might fail.
If you start many MRTG processes in parallel this increases the load
on the processing machine and the network.  Unless you push it too far,
this will speed up the sampling process and you will be able to monitor
more targets at cost of better cpu needed and more memory usage.
Another advantage of multiple config files is that you can spread the
load on the machine.  Instead of starting all processes at 0:00, 0:05,
0:10 etcetera you can for instance run five different instances of MRTG
and start them at 0:00, 0:01, 0:02 and so on.  When you do this you must
understand how MRTG normalizes the samples to fit into timeslots at
five-minute boundaries.  You sample at 0:12 and 0:17, MRTG normalizes
this to samples at 0:10 and 0:15.

HTH
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 / alex at slot.hollandcasino.nl                  alex at ergens.op.het.net \
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