[rrd-users] beginner questions on multiple series

[Alex van den Bogaerdt]

On Fri, Jul 04, 2008 at 12:19:48AM +0200, SecretCode wrote:
> Hi ... I have done some basic work with rrdtool but I'm still a beginner.
> 
> I'm trying to report on traffic usage through a firewall for multiple IP 
> addresses. Each address will have in & out values, but I don't know in 
> advance how many addresses there will be - and new addresses could 
> theoretically be added during any collection interval.
> 
> Am I right that each IP address's traffic would be a separate series and 
> would have to be a separate RRD file (because each RRD has a sized fixed 
> up-front)? Is this going to be manageable with rrdtool?

Theoretically you could have multiple IP addresses in one RRD. There
are two viable scenario's here:

-1- you could have one RRD per network (e.g. per class C)
-2- you could have a number (any number) of 'buckets' per RRD, and
    keep track of which IP address goes in which bucket of which RRD

But be sure to understand that this means you need to update all
IP addresses in the same RRD file at the same time!

That's why generally speaking each IP address should get its own RRD:
it makes life easier.


Does RRDtool manage any of this?  No, not at all. You need a front-end
to handle that kind of stuff, or you build something yourself.
Same for collecting the data. RRDtool won't do that either.

Tobi's site has links to front-ends.

HTH
-- 
Alex van den Bogaerdt
http://www.vandenbogaerdt.nl/rrdtool/