1 =head1 NAME
3 collectd.conf - Configuration for the system statistics collection daemon B<collectd>
5 =head1 SYNOPSIS
7 BaseDir "/path/to/data/"
8 PIDFile "/path/to/pidfile/collectd.pid"
9 Server "123.123.123.123" 12345
11 LoadPlugin cpu
12 LoadPlugin load
13 LoadPlugin ping
15 <Plugin ping>
16 Host "example.org"
17 Host "provider.net"
18 </Plugin>
20 =head1 DESCRIPTION
22 This config file controls how the system statistics collection daemon
23 B<collectd> behaves. The most significant option is B<LoadPlugin>, which
24 controls which plugins to load. These plugins ultimately define collectd's
25 behavior.
27 The syntax of this config file is similar to the config file of the famos
28 B<Apache Webserver>. Each line contains either a key-value-pair or a
29 section-start or -end. Empty lines and everything after the hash-symbol `#' is
30 ignored. Values are either string, enclosed in double-quotes,
31 (floating-point-)numbers or a boolean expression, i.E<nbsp>e. either B<true> or
32 B<false>. String containing of only alphanumeric characters and underscores do
33 not need to be quoted.
35 =head1 GLOBAL OPTIONS
37 =over 4
39 =item B<BaseDir> I<Directory>
41 Sets the base directory. This is the directory beneath all RRD-files are
42 created. Possibly more subdirectories are created. This is also the working
43 directory for the daemon.
45 =item B<LoadPlugin> I<Plugin>
47 Loads the plugin I<Plugin>. There must be at least one such line or B<collectd>
48 will be mostly useless.
50 =item B<Include> I<File>
52 Includes the file I<File> as if it was copy and pasted here. To prevent loops
53 and shooting yourself in the foot in interesting ways the nesting is limited to
54 a depth of 8E<nbsp>levels, which should be sufficient for most uses.
56 It is no problem to have a block like C<E<lt>Plugin fooE<gt>> in more than one
57 file, but you cannot include files from within blocks.
59 =item B<PIDFile> I<File>
61 Sets where to write the PID file to. This file is overwritten when it exists
62 and deleted when the program is stopped. Some init-scripts might override this
63 setting using the B<-P> command-line option.
65 =item B<PluginDir> I<Directory>
67 Path to the plugins (shared objects) of collectd.
69 =item B<TypesDB> I<File>
71 Set the file that contains the data-set descriptions.
73 =item B<Interval> I<Seconds>
75 Configures the interval in which to query the read plugins. Obviously smaller
76 values lead to a higher system load produces by collectd, while higher values
77 lead to more coarse statistics.
79 =item B<ReadThreads> I<Num>
81 Number of threads to start for reading plugins. The default value if B<5>, but
82 you may want to increase this if you have more than five plugins that take a
83 long time to read. Mostly those are plugin that do network-IO. Setting this to
84 a value higher than the number of plugins you've loaded is totally useless.
86 =back
88 =head1 PLUGIN OPTIONS
90 Some plugins may register own options. These options must be enclosed in a
91 C<Plugin>-Section. Which options exist depends on the plugin used. Some plugins
92 require external configuration, too. The C<apache plugin>, for example,
93 required C<mod_status> to be configured in the webserver you're going to
94 collect data from. These plugins are listed below as well, even if they don't
95 require any configuration within collectd's configfile.
97 A list of all plugins and a short summary for each plugin can be found in the
98 F<README> file shipped with the sourcecode and hopefully binary packets as
99 well.
101 =head2 Plugin C<apache>
103 To configure the C<apache>-plugin you first need to configure the Apache
104 webserver correctly. The Apache-plugin C<mod_status> needs to be loaded and
105 working and the C<ExtendedStatus> directive needs to be B<enabled>. You can use
106 the following snipped to base your Apache config upon:
108 ExtendedStatus on
109 <IfModule mod_status.c>
110 <Location /mod_status>
111 SetHandler server-status
112 </Location>
113 </IfModule>
115 Since its C<mod_status> module is very similar to Apache's, B<lighttpd> is
116 also supported. It introduces a new field, called C<BusyServers>, to count the
117 number of currently connected clients. This field is also supported.
119 The following options are accepted by the C<apache>-plugin:
121 =over 4
123 =item B<URL> I<http://host/mod_status?auto>
125 Sets the URL of the C<mod_status> output. This needs to be the output generated
126 by C<ExtendedStatus on> and it needs to be the machine readable output
127 generated by appending the C<?auto> argument.
129 =item B<User> I<Username>
131 Optional user name needed for authentication.
133 =item B<Password> I<Password>
135 Optional password needed for authentication.
137 =item B<CACert> I<File>
139 File that holds one or more SSL certificates. If you want to use HTTPS you will
140 possibly need this option. What CA certificates come bundled with C<libcurl>
141 and are checked by default depends on the distribution you use.
143 =back
145 =head2 Plugin C<apcups>
147 =over 4
149 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
151 Hostname of the host running B<apcupsd>. Defaults to B<localhost>. Please note
152 that IPv6 support has been disabled unless someone can confirm or decline that
153 B<apcupsd> can handle it.
155 =item B<Port> I<Port>
157 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<3551>.
159 =back
161 =head2 Plugin C<cpufreq>
163 This plugin doesn't have any options. It reads
164 F</sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq> (for the first CPU
165 installed) to get the current CPU frequency. If this file does not exist make
166 sure B<cpufreqd> (L<http://cpufreqd.sourceforge.net/>) or a similar tool is
167 installed and an "cpu governor" (that's a kernel module) is loaded.
169 =head2 Plugin C<csv>
171 =over 4
173 =item B<DataDir> I<Directory>
175 Set the directory to store CSV-files under. Per default CSV-files are generated
176 beneath the daemon's working directory, i.E<nbsp>e. the B<BaseDir>.
178 =back
180 =head2 Plugin C<df>
182 =over 4
184 =item B<Device> I<Device>
186 Select partitions based on the devicename.
188 =item B<MountPoint> I<Directory>
190 Select partitions based on the mountpoint.
192 =item B<FSType> I<FSType>
194 Select partitions based on the filesystem type.
196 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
198 Invert the selection: If set to true, all partitions B<except> the ones that
199 match any one of the criteria are collected. By default only selected
200 partitions are collected if a selection is made. If no selection is configured
201 at all, B<all> partitions are selected.
203 =back
205 =head2 Plugin C<dns>
207 =over 4
209 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
211 The dns plugin uses B<libpcap> to capture dns traffic and analyses it. This
212 option sets the interface that should be used. If this option is not set, or
213 set to "any", the plugin will try to get packets from B<all> interfaces. This
214 may not work on certain platforms, such as MacE<nbsp>OSE<nbsp>X.
216 =item B<IgnoreSource> I<IP-address>
218 Ignore packets that originate from this address.
220 =back
222 =head2 Plugin C<email>
224 =over 4
226 =item B<SocketFile> I<Path>
228 Sets the socket-file which is to be created.
230 =item B<SocketGroup> I<Group>
232 If running as root change the group of the UNIX-socket after it has been
233 created. Defaults to B<collectd>.
235 =item B<SocketPerms> I<Permissions>
237 Change the file permissions of the UNIX-socket after it has been created. The
238 permissions must be given as a numeric, octal value as you would pass to
239 L<chmod(1)>. Defaults to B<0770>.
241 =item B<MaxConns> I<Number>
243 Sets the maximum number of connections that can be handled in parallel. Since
244 this many threads will be started immediately setting this to a very high
245 value will waste valuable resources. Defaults to B<5> and will be forced to be
246 at most B<16384> to prevent typos and dumb mistakes.
248 =back
250 =head2 Plugin C<exec>
252 Please make sure to read L<collectd-exec(5)> before using this plugin. It
253 contains valuable information on when the executable is executed and the
254 output that is expected from it.
256 =over 4
258 =item B<Exec> I<User>[:[I<Group>]] I<Executable>
260 Execute the executable I<Executable> as user I<User>. If the user name is
261 followed by a colon and a group name, the effective group is set to that group.
262 The real group and saved-set group will be set to the default group of that
263 user. If no group is given the effective group ID will be the same as the real
264 group ID.
266 Please note that in order to change the user and/or group the daemon needs
267 superuser privileges. If the daemon is run as an unprivileged user you must
268 specify the same user/group here. If the daemon is run with superuser
269 privileges, you must supply a non-root user here.
271 =back
273 =head2 Plugin C<hddtemp>
275 To get values from B<hddtemp> collectd connects to B<localhost> (127.0.0.1),
276 port B<7634/tcp>. The B<Host> and B<Port> options can be used to change these
277 default values, see below. C<hddtemp> has to be running to work correctly. If
278 C<hddtemp> is not running timeouts may appear which may interfere with other
279 statistics..
281 The B<hddtemp> homepage can be found at
282 L<http://www.guzu.net/linux/hddtemp.php>.
284 =over 4
286 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
288 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
290 =item B<Port> I<Port>
292 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<7634>.
294 =back
296 =head2 Plugin C<interface>
298 =over 4
300 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
302 Select this interface. By default these interfaces will then be collected. For
303 a more detailed description see B<IgnoreSelected> below.
305 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
307 If no configuration if given, the B<traffic>-plugin will collect data from
308 all interfaces. This may not be practical, especially for loopback- and
309 similar interfaces. Thus, you can use the B<Interface>-option to pick the
310 interfaces you're interested in. Sometimes, however, it's easier/preferred
311 to collect all interfaces I<except> a few ones. This option enables you to
312 do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to I<true> the effect of
313 B<Interface> is inversed: All selected interfaces are ignored and all
314 other interfaces are collected.
316 =back
318 =head2 Plugin C<iptables>
320 =over 4
322 =item B<Chain> I<Table> I<Chain> [I<Comment|Number> [I<Name>]]
324 Select the rules to count. If only I<Table> and I<Chain> are given, this plugin
325 will collect the counters of all rules which have a comment-match. The comment
326 is then used as type-instance.
328 If I<Comment> or I<Number> is given, only the rule with the matching comment or
329 the I<n>th rule will be collected. Again, the comment (or the number) will be
330 used as the type-instance.
332 If I<Name> is supplied, it will be used as the type-instance instead of the
333 comment or the number.
335 =back
337 =head2 Plugin C<irq>
339 =over 4
341 =item B<Irq> I<Irq>
343 Select this irq. By default these irqs will then be collected. For a more
344 detailed description see B<IgnoreSelected> below.
346 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
348 If no configuration if given, the B<irq>-plugin will collect data from all
349 irqs. This may not be practical, especially if no interrupts happen. Thus, you
350 can use the B<Irq>-option to pick the interrupt you're interested in.
351 Sometimes, however, it's easier/preferred to collect all interrupts I<except> a
352 few ones. This option enables you to do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to
353 I<true> the effect of B<Irq> is inversed: All selected interrupts are ignored
354 and all other interrupts are collected.
356 =back
358 =head2 Plugin C<logfile>
360 =over 4
362 =item B<LogLevel> B<debug|info|notice|warning|err>
364 Sets the log-level. If, for example, set to B<notice>, then all events with
365 severity B<notice>, B<warning>, or B<err> will be written to the logfile.
367 =item B<File> I<File>
369 Sets the file to write log messages to. The special strings B<stdout> and
370 B<stderr> can be used to write to the standard output and standard error
371 channels, respectively. This, of course, only makes much sense when collectd is
372 running in foreground- or non-daemon-mode.
374 =back
376 =head2 Plugin C<mbmon>
378 The C<mbmon plugin> uses mbmon to retrieve temperature, voltage, etc.
380 Be default collectd connects to B<localhost> (127.0.0.1), port B<411/tcp>. The
381 B<Host> and B<Port> options can be used to change these values, see below.
382 C<mbmon> has to be running to work correctly. If C<mbmon> is not running
383 timeouts may appear which may interfere with other statistics..
385 C<mbmon> must be run with the -r option ("print TAG and Value format");
386 Debian's F</etc/init.d/mbmon> script already does this, other people
387 will need to ensure that this is the case.
389 =over 4
391 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
393 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
395 =item B<Port> I<Port>
397 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<411>.
399 =back
401 =head2 Plugin C<memcached>
403 The C<memcached plugin> connects to a memcached server and queries statistics
404 about cache utilization, memory and bandwidth used.
405 L<http://www.danga.com/memcached/>
407 =over 4
409 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
411 Hostname to connect to. Defaults to B<127.0.0.1>.
413 =item B<Port> I<Port>
415 TCP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<11211>.
417 =back
419 =head2 Plugin C<mysql>
421 The C<mysql plugin> requires B<mysqlclient> to be installed. It connects to the
422 database when started and keeps the connection up as long as possible. When the
423 connection is interrupted for whatever reason it will try to re-connect. The
424 plugin will complaint loudly in case anything goes wrong.
426 This plugin issues C<SHOW STATUS> and evaluates C<Bytes_{received,sent}>,
427 C<Com_*> and C<Handler_*> which correspond to F<mysql_octets.rrd>,
428 F<mysql_commands-*.rrd> and F<mysql_handler-*.rrd>. Also, the values of
429 C<Qcache_*> are put in F<mysql_qcache.rrd> and values of C<Threads_*> are put
430 in F<mysql_threads.rrd>. Please refer to the B<MySQL reference manual>,
431 I<5.2.4. Server Status Variables> for an explanation of these values.
433 Use the following options to configure the plugin:
435 =over 4
437 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
439 Hostname of the database server. Defaults to B<localhost>.
441 =item B<User> I<Username>
443 Username to use when connecting to the database.
445 =item B<Password> I<Password>
447 Password needed to log into the database.
449 =item B<Database> I<Database>
451 Select this database. Defaults to I<no database> which is a perfectly reasonable
452 option for what this plugin does.
454 =back
456 =head2 Plugin C<netlink>
458 The C<netlink> plugin uses a netlink socket to query the Linux kernel about
459 statistics of various interface and routing aspects.
461 =over 4
463 =item B<Interface> I<Interface>
465 =item B<VerboseInterface> I<Interface>
467 Instruct the plugin to collect interface statistics. This is basically the same
468 as the statistics provided by the C<interface> plugin (see above) but
469 potentially much more detailed.
471 When configuring with B<Interface> only the basic statistics will be collected,
472 namely octets, packets, and errors. These statistics are collected by
473 the C<interface> plugin, too, so using both at the same time is no benefit.
475 When configured with B<VerboseInterface> all counters B<except> the basic ones,
476 so that no data needs to be collected twice if you use the C<interface> plugin.
477 This includes dropped packets, received multicast packets, collisions and a
478 whole zoo of differentiated RX and TX errors. You can try the following command
479 to get an idea of what awaits you:
481 ip -s -s link list
483 If I<Interface> is B<All>, all interfaces will be selected.
485 =item B<QDisc> I<Interface> [I<QDisc>]
487 =item B<Class> I<Interface> [I<Class>]
489 =item B<Filter> I<Interface> [I<Filter>]
491 Collect the octets and packets that pass a certain qdisc, class or filter.
493 QDiscs and classes are identified by their type and handle (or classid).
494 Filters don't necessarily have a handle, therefore the parent's handle is used.
495 The notation used in collectd differs from that used in tc(1) in that it
496 doesn't skip the major or minor number if it's zero and doesn't print special
497 ids by their name. So, for example, a qdisc may be identified by
498 C<pfifo_fast-1:0> even though the minor number of B<all> qdiscs is zero and
499 thus not displayed by tc(1).
501 If B<QDisc>, B<Class>, or B<Filter> is given without the second argument,
502 i.E<nbsp>.e. without an identifier, all qdiscs, classes, or filters that are
503 associated with that interface will be collected.
505 Since a filter itself doesn't necessarily have a handle, the parent's handle is
506 used. This may lead to problems when more than one filter is attached to a
507 qdisc or class. This isn't nice, but we don't know how this could be done any
508 better. If you have a idea, please don't hesitate to tell us.
510 As with the B<Interface> option you can specify B<All> as the interface,
511 meaning all interfaces.
513 Here are some examples to help you understand the above text more easily:
515 <Plugin netlink>
516 VerboseInterface "All"
517 QDisc "eth0" "pfifo_fast-1:0"
518 QDisc "ppp0"
519 Class "ppp0" "htb-1:10"
520 Filter "ppp0" "u32-1:0"
521 </Plugin>
523 =item B<IgnoreSelected>
525 The behaviour is the same as with all other similar plugins: If nothing is
526 selected at all, everything is collected. If some things are selected using the
527 options described above, only these statistics are collected. If you set
528 B<IgnoreSelected> to B<true>, this behavior is inversed, i.E<nbsp>e. the
529 specified statistics will not be collected.
531 =back
533 =head2 Plugin C<network>
535 =over 4
537 =item B<Listen> I<Host> [I<Port>]
539 =item B<Server> I<Host> [I<Port>]
541 The B<Server> statement sets the server to send datagrams B<to>. The statement
542 may occur multiple times to send each datagram to multiple destinations.
544 The B<Listen> statement sets the interfaces to bind to. When multiple
545 statements are found the daemon will bind to multiple interfaces.
547 The argument I<Host> may be a hostname, an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address. If
548 the argument is a multicast address the daemon will join that multicast group.
550 If no B<Listen> statement is found the server tries join both, the default IPv6
551 multicast group and the default IPv4 multicast group. If no B<Server> statement
552 is found the client will try to send data to the IPv6 multicast group first. If
553 that fails the client will try the IPv4 multicast group.
555 The default IPv6 multicast group is C<ff18::efc0:4a42>. The default IPv4
556 multicast group is C<239.192.74.66>.
558 The optional I<Port> argument sets the port to use. It can either be given
559 using a numeric port number or a service name. If the argument is omitted the
560 default port B<25826> is assumed.
562 =item B<TimeToLive> I<1-255>
564 Set the time-to-live of sent packets. This applies to all, unicast and
565 multicast, and IPv4 and IPv6 packets. The default is to not change this value.
566 That means that multicast packets will be sent with a TTL of C<1> (one) on most
567 operating systems.
569 =item B<Forward> I<true|false>
571 If set to I<true>, write packets that were received via the network plugin to
572 the sending sockets. This should only be activated when the B<Listen>- and
573 B<Server>-statements differ. Otherwise packets may be send multiple times to
574 the same multicast group. While this results in more network traffic than
575 necessary it's not a huge problem since the plugin has a duplicate detection,
576 so the values will not loop.
578 =item B<CacheFlush> I<Seconds>
580 For each host/plugin/type combination the C<network plugin> caches the time of
581 the last value being sent or received. Every I<Seconds> seconds the plugin
582 searches and removes all entries that are older than I<Seconds> seconds, thus
583 freeing the unused memory again. Since this process is somewhat expensive and
584 normally doesn't do much, this value should not be too small. The default is
585 1800 seconds, but setting this to 86400 seconds (one day) will not do much harm
586 either.
588 =back
590 =head2 Plugin C<nginx>
592 This plugin collects the number of connections and requests handeled by the
593 C<nginx daemon> (speak: engineE<nbsp>X), a HTTP and mail server/proxy. It
594 queries the page provided by the C<ngx_http_stub_status_module> module, which
595 isn't compiled by default. Please refer to
596 L<http://wiki.codemongers.com/NginxStubStatusModule> for more information on
597 how to compile and configure nginx and this module.
599 The following options are accepted by the C<nginx plugin>:
601 =over 4
603 =item B<URL> I<http://host/nginx_status>
605 Sets the URL of the C<ngx_http_stub_status_module> output.
607 =item B<User> I<Username>
609 Optional user name needed for authentication.
611 =item B<Password> I<Password>
613 Optional password needed for authentication.
615 =item B<CACert> I<File>
617 File that holds one or more SSL certificates. If you want to use HTTPS you will
618 possibly need this option. What CA certificates come bundled with C<libcurl>
619 and are checked by default depends on the distribution you use.
621 =back
623 =head2 Plugin C<ntpd>
625 =over 4
627 =item B<Host> I<Hostname>
629 Hostname of the host running B<ntpd>. Defaults to B<localhost>.
631 =item B<Port> I<Port>
633 UDP-Port to connect to. Defaults to B<123>.
635 =back
637 =head2 Plugin C<nut>
639 =over 4
641 =item B<UPS> I<upsname>B<@>I<hostname>[B<:>I<port>]
643 Add a UPS to collect data from. The format is identical to the one accepted by
644 L<upsc(8)>.
646 =back
648 =head2 Plugin C<perl>
650 =over 4
652 =item B<LoadPlugin> I<Plugin>
654 Loads the Perl plugin I<Plugin>. This does basically the same as B<use> would
655 do in a Perl program.
657 =item B<BaseName> I<Name>
659 Prepends I<Name>B<::> to all plugin names loaded after this option. This is
660 provided for convenience to keep plugin names short.
662 =item B<IncludeDir> I<Dir>
664 Adds I<Dir> to the B<@INC> array. This is the same as using the B<-IDir>
665 command line option or B<use lib Dir> in the source code.
667 =back
669 =head2 Plugin C<ping>
671 =over 4
673 =item B<Host> I<IP-address>
675 Host to ping periodically. This option may be repeated several times to ping
676 multiple hosts.
678 =item B<TTL> I<0-255>
680 Sets the Time-To-Live of generated ICMP packets.
682 =back
684 =head2 Plugin C<processes>
686 =over 4
688 =item B<Process> I<Name>
690 Select more detailed statistics of processes matching this name. The statistics
691 collected for these selected processes are size of the resident segment size
692 (RSS), user- and system-time used, number of processes and number of threads,
693 and minor and major pagefaults.
695 =back
697 =head2 Plugin C<rrdtool>
699 You can use the settings B<StepSize>, B<HeartBeat>, B<RRARows>, and B<XFF> to
700 fine-tune your RRD-files. Please read L<rrdcreate(1)> if you encounter problems
701 using these settings. If you don't want to dive into the depths of RRDTool, you
702 can safely ignore these settings.
704 =over 4
706 =item B<DataDir> I<Directory>
708 Set the directory to store RRD-files under. Per default RRD-files are generated
709 beneath the daemon's working directory, i.E<nbsp>e. the B<BaseDir>.
711 =item B<StepSize> I<Seconds>
713 B<Force> the stepsize of newly created RRD-files. Ideally (and per default)
714 this setting is unset and the stepsize is set to the interval in which the data
715 is collected. Do not use this option unless you absolutely have to for some
716 reason. Setting this option may cause problems with the C<snmp plugin>, the
717 C<exec plugin> or when the daemon is set up to receive data from other hosts.
719 =item B<HeartBeat> I<Seconds>
721 B<Force> the heartbeat of newly created RRD-files. This setting should be unset
722 in which case the heartbeat is set to twice the B<StepSize> which should equal
723 the interval in which data is collected. Do not set this option unless you have
724 a very good reason to do so.
726 =item B<RRARows> I<NumRows>
728 The C<rrdtool plugin> calculates the number of PDPs per CDP based on the
729 B<StepSize>, this setting and a timespan. This plugin creates RRD-files with
730 three times five RRAs, i. e. five RRAs with the CFs B<MIN>, B<AVERAGE>, and
731 B<MAX>. The five RRAs are optimized for graphs covering one hour, one day, one
732 week, one month, and one year.
734 So for each timespan, it calculates how many PDPs need to be consolidated into
735 one CDP by calculating:
736 number of PDPs = timespan / (stepsize * rrarows)
738 Bottom line is, set this no smaller than the width of you graphs in pixels. The
739 default is 1200.
741 =item B<RRATimespan> I<Seconds>
743 Adds an RRA-timespan, given in seconds. Use this option multiple times to have
744 more then one RRA. If this option is never used, the built-in default of (3600,
745 86400, 604800, 2678400, 31622400) is used.
747 For more information on how RRA-sizes are calculated see B<RRARows> above.
749 =item B<XFF> I<Factor>
751 Set the "XFiles Factor". The default is 0.1. If unsure, don't set this option.
753 =item B<CacheFlush> I<Seconds>
755 When the C<rrdtool plugin> uses a cache (by setting B<CacheTimeout>, see below)
756 it writes all values for a certain RRD-file if the oldest value is older than
757 (or equal to) the number of seconds specified. If some RRD-file is not updated
758 anymore for some reason (the computer was shut down, the network is broken,
759 etc.) some values may still be in the cache. If B<CacheFlush> is set, then the
760 entire cache is searched for entries older than B<CacheTimeout> seconds and
761 written to disk every I<Seconds> seconds. Since this is kind of expensive and
762 does nothing under normal circumstances, this value should not be too small.
763 900 seconds might be a good value, though setting this to 7200 seconds doesn't
764 normally do much harm either.
766 =item B<CacheTimeout> I<Seconds>
768 If this option is set to a value greater than zero, the C<rrdtool plugin> will
769 save values in a cache, as described above. Writing multiple values at once
770 reduces IO-operations and thus lessens the load produced by updating the files.
771 The trade off is that the graphs kind of "drag behind" and that more memory is
772 used.
774 =back
776 =head2 Plugin C<sensors>
778 The C<sensors plugin> uses B<lm_sensors> to retrieve sensor-values. This means
779 that all the needed modules have to be loaded and lm_sensors has to be
780 configured (most likely by editing F</etc/sensors.conf>. Read
781 L<sensors.conf(5)> for details.
783 The B<lm_sensors> homepage can be found at
784 L<http://secure.netroedge.com/~lm78/>.
786 =over 4
788 =item B<Sensor> I<chip-bus-address/type-feature>
790 Selects the name of the sensor which you want to collect or ignore, depending
791 on the B<IgnoreSelected> below. For example, the option "B<Sensor>
792 I<it8712-isa-0290/voltage-in1>" will cause collectd to gather data for the
793 voltage sensor I<in1> of the I<it8712> on the isa bus at the address 0290.
795 =item B<IgnoreSelected> I<true>|I<false>
797 If no configuration if given, the B<sensors>-plugin will collect data from all
798 sensors. This may not be practical, especially for uninteresting sensors.
799 Thus, you can use the B<Sensor>-option to pick the sensors you're interested
800 in. Sometimes, however, it's easier/preferred to collect all sensors I<except> a
801 few ones. This option enables you to do that: By setting B<IgnoreSelected> to
802 I<true> the effect of B<Sensor> is inversed: All selected sensors are ignored
803 and all other sensors are collected.
805 =back
807 =head2 Plugin C<snmp>
809 Since the configuration of the C<snmp plugin> is a little more complicated than
810 other plugins, its documentation has been moved to an own manpage,
811 L<collectd-snmp(5)>. Please see there for details.
813 =head2 Plugin C<syslog>
815 =over 4
817 =item B<LogLevel> B<debug|info|notice|warning|err>
819 Sets the log-level. If, for example, set to B<notice>, then all events with
820 severity B<notice>, B<warning>, or B<err> will be submitted to the
821 syslog-daemon.
823 =back
825 =head2 Plugin C<tcpconns>
827 The C<tcpconns plugin> counts the number of currently established TCP
828 connections based on the local port and/or the remote port. Since there may be
829 a lot of connections the default if to count all connections with a local port,
830 for which a listening socket is opened. You can use the following options to
831 fine-tune the ports you are interested in:
833 =over 4
835 =item B<ListeningPorts> I<true>|I<false>
837 If this option is set to I<true>, statistics for all local ports for which a
838 listening socket exists are collected. The default depends on B<LocalPort> and
839 B<RemotePort> (see below): If no port at all is specifically selected, the
840 default is to collect listening ports. If specific ports (no matter if local or
841 remote ports) are selected, this option defaults to I<false>, i.E<nbsp>e. only
842 the selected ports will be collected unless this option is set to I<true>
843 specifically.
845 =item B<LocalPort> I<Port>
847 Count the connections to a specific local port. This can be used to see how
848 many connections are handeled by a specific daemon, e.E<nbsp>g. the mailserver.
849 You have to specify the port in numeric form, so for the mailserver example
850 you'd need to set B<25>.
852 =item B<RemotePort> I<Port>
854 Count the connections to a specific remote port. This is usefull to see how
855 much a remote service is used. This is most useful if you want to know how many
856 connections a local service has opened to remote services, e.E<nbsp>g. how many
857 connections a mail server or news server has to other mail or news servers, or
858 how many connections a web proxy holds to web servers. You have to give the
859 port in numeric form.
861 =back
863 =head2 Plugin C<unixsock>
865 =over 4
867 =item B<SocketFile> I<Path>
869 Sets the socket-file which is to be created.
871 =item B<SocketGroup> I<Group>
873 If running as root change the group of the UNIX-socket after it has been
874 created. Defaults to B<collectd>.
876 =item B<SocketPerms> I<Permissions>
878 Change the file permissions of the UNIX-socket after it has been created. The
879 permissions must be given as a numeric, octal value as you would pass to
880 L<chmod(1)>. Defaults to B<0770>.
882 =back
884 =head2 Plugin C<vserver>
886 This plugin doesn't have any options. B<VServer> support is only available for
887 Linux. It cannot yet be found in a vanilla kernel, though. To make use of this
888 plugin you need a kernel that has B<VServer> support built in, i.E<nbsp>e. you
889 need to apply the patches and compile your own kernel, which will then provide
890 the F</proc/virtual> filesystem that is required by this plugin.
892 The B<VServer> homepage can be found at L<http://linux-vserver.org/>.
894 =head1 SEE ALSO
896 L<collectd(1)>,
897 L<collectd-exec(5)>,
898 L<collectd-unixsock(5)>,
899 L<hddtemp(8)>,
900 L<kstat(3KSTAT)>,
901 L<mbmon(1)>,
902 L<rrdtool(1)>,
903 L<sensors(1)>
905 =head1 AUTHOR
907 Florian Forster E<lt>octo@verplant.orgE<gt>
909 =cut