[rrd-users] Need workaround for rrdtool on Solaris 8

[Steve Shipway]

You are ending up with the issue of non-portable RRD files.

Issue 1: "Cant handle RRD file version"
RRD 1.0 generates v1 RRD files, RRD 1.3 and 1.4 read and write v1 and v3, but only CREATE v3.  Thus, if you create an RRD with your 1.4.5 RRDTool, it will not be readable with the v1.0.37.  This is not normally a problem as people are only upgrading rather than downgrading -- upgrade the central server as well!

Issue 2: "LINE width is out of range"
This is most likely because of big/little endian or integer width compatibility issues.  Your CSW RRDTool was most likely compiled by a different compiler.  RRD files are NOT generally portable, and are dependent on OS, 32/64bit architecture, and even compiler used (some have different rules for aligning integers, integer width, and so on).  Generally, you should only use the SAME RRDTool binary on all systems planning on reading the file.  I'm actually very surprised that you can share the RRD files between solaris and linux at all - might be because both use the GNU compiler and are x86 architecture, combined with lots of luck.
You will need to standardise on one particular install of RRD over all machines, and if necessary, dump the existing RRD files to XML and re-build them (rrdtool export/import).

Steve


Steve Shipway
University of Auckland ITS
UNIX Systems Design Lead
s.shipway at auckland.ac.nz
Ph: +64 9 373 7599 ext 86487