[mrtg] Re: need your help...

[Matt Walkowiak]

> 1) I want to install MRTG for nearly 300 devices which includes
> routers, severs, RAS, ethernet switches. The monitoring will be
> traffic utiliation, modem utilization, CPU utlization, port
> utilization...etc
> Please suggest me whether I can go for Linux or Windows 2000.\
> I am planning to go for the Intel machine..Please suggest me
> machine configuration also...like CPU, memory, harddisk..

The OS you choose pretty much doesn't matter, but since you are planning on
monitoring 300 devices, one advantage of a *nix based OS is that it can
"fork" the processes - run multiple versions of MRTG at a time.
I also like Linux better because I think it is easier to see error messages
with SNMP, or why a .cfg file is not working correctly.

> 2) Does MRTG gives protocol utilization in WAN  link like
> SMTP,HTTP...etc

Here is a common misconception about MRTG.  MRTG does not know anything
about ANY device you monitor.  It's one and only job is to take two numbers
from some source (SNMP, some external program, ...), and plot them on a
graph.  So if the device you will be monitoring can distinguish what
protocol is using what bandwidth (or if you can find some other way to get
the data), then MRTG can give you that explicit information.

> 3)Is there any option in MRTG like threshold "if the traffic
> crosses cetrian level, it should be able to send mail"

MRTG does have a threshold setting where you can tell it to run a program
every time a certian event happens.  I did play with this a little bit a
while back and found it to be only somewhat useful.  It is my understanding
that if you had a 64K link and wanted to be notified every time the traffic
peaked over 60K, there could be a problem if the traffic was contantly
bouncing between 59K and 61K.  Everytime MRTG would notice the change, it
would send a page, possibly resulting in a very long night :)  Remember,
MRTG is not a replacement for HPOpen View...  But it is substatially less
expensive, and much easier to get exactly what YOU want, not what HP thinks
you might want.

 Good Luck!!!

Matt Walkowiak

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