[mrtg] Re: 14all.cgi or Cricket

[Alex van den Bogaerdt]

Keith Olmstead wrote:

> I am working on upgrading our current mrtg and in the process I was 
> wondering what is better for my situation.  I am trying to monitor 100+ 
> Cisco routers, 2500 all the way up to 7500 series; Cisco switches, Cisco 
> 5200s and 5300s, Lucent Portmasters, Redback Bras boxes, and Cisco Cache 
> engines.

I think this is hard to tell.  BTW, if you're going to use 14all.cgi
you still need something that actually fetches and stores data in the
RRD files, you could use MRTG for this.

> I am currently working on getting the box working with rrdtool+front 
> end.  My problem is with what front end would be the best for me.  I have 
> read that Cricket is good for Cisco devices, but 14all.cgi is good all 
> around.  Is this true??

Just get to know both.  The best solution is what makes you happy.
Sure, it costs time, hopefully it will pay off.

> What is your suggestion.  I have never used rrdtool and a cgi front end so 
> all of this new to me and is very confusing.  Trying to read as much as I 
> can.  I do know that rrdtool is working because of the example that I ran 
> on the developer web site.

It isn't necessary perse but I'm a strong believer that you need to know
RRDtool (by it self) to make the best use of it.  Perhaps you decide that
front-end X is unusable because it can't do Y, perhaps you decide to use
it anyway because Y is only one out of a thousand interfaces and you can
script it yourself.

Generating graphics from RRDtool isn't that hard (just start with the
simple stuff and only then make it harder for yourself).  You don't
*need* cgi front-ends, you could setup an entire system in bash if you
like (not that I recommend that).

I'd probably start by generating an extra MRTG config file with just
one or two targets.  This will create and populate the RRD files.
Now start playing with RRDtool and fetch data, graph data, make a
mistake (for instance updating with a time in the future) and redo
from start.  Generate images using a schedular, every five minutes.
Don't forget to specify the "lazy" flag so it won't recreate the
daily graphs every 5 minutes.

When you know more about RRDtool, try 14all.cgi, this too isn't too
hard to do (and if you clearly specify what goes wrong, people on this
list *will* help you).  You know the rest is working so if it fails
you know where to look.

Now you know more about cgi and rrdtool it is time to try Cricket.
Maybe it will create RRD files and images but those images are blank.
You now already know rrdtool so you can debug your setup more easely.

Try a few other front-ends.  Perhaps there's one you like even better.

HTH
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