This post describes how to add a Linux machine to the MRTG/Routers2 monitoring server. First, the host must be able to process SNMP requests. Then, a *.cfg file for MRTG/Routers2 is created by running the “cfgmaker” tool with a host-template. Since a few values are wrong in the cfgmaker file, I also explain how to correct them. Finally, I am adding the mrtg-ping-probe lines to the configuration.
I was interested in generating graphs within the MRTG/Routers2 monitoring system that display the number of hops for an IP connection through the Internet. In my opinion its interesting to see the different routing run times/hop counts e.g. for remote offices that are connected via dynamic ISP connections such as DSL. Therefore, I wrote a small script that executes a traceroute command which can be called from MRTG.
MRTG can also evaluate values from external scripts such as the “mrtg-ping-probe” program which returns the round-trip time from the initiated ping command to the specified destination host. With an additional GraphStyle called “range” from Routers2, these ping times can be displayed in the monitoring system. This graph style shows the “min” and “max” RTT in one vertical line instead of two independent lines.
Since there is not much to say about this process, I will only paste my MRTG/Routers2 config for mrtg-ping-probe and will show a few example graphs here.
The Multi Router Traffic Grapher (MRTG) can, of course, not only monitor routers via SNMP, but any devices that support the Simple Network Management Protocol, e.g., switches. With the tool “cfgmaker” it is quite easy to add switches with many ports to the monitoring system. However, some subsequent work is needed to have a clean configuration. This blog post presents a step-by-step guide for adding a switch into MRTG/Routers2.
This post shortly explains the process of adding a Cisco router into the monitoring system “MRTG with Routers2” as I explained it here. It gives an example on how SNMP is activated on the router and how the *.cfg file for MRTG/Routers2 is created with the additional values for CPU and memory usage.
I always wanted to monitor my private network with an open source tool. Since I knew some nice statistics, e.g. from the DE-CIX (printed with RRDtool) or from the Uni-Gießen (generated with MRTG), I had the idea of installing such a system by myself. Luckily I found a book from Steve Shipway, called “Using MRTG with RRDtool and Routers2“, which actually disappointed me because it did not offer a complete installation guide but mainly further information about fine-tuning the appropriate tools.
Therefore, I want to show a complete step-by-step installation of all the needed tools in order to monitor a network with MRTG, RRDtool and Routers2. “From scratch” means that there are no prerequisite to this installation guide except a plain Linux server (in my case a Ubuntu Linux) such as presented here. Okay, let’s go: Continue reading MRTG with RRDtool and Routers2 – Installation from Scratch