home | help 
rtgpoll(1)		     General Commands Manual		      rtgpoll(1)

NAME
     rtgpoll - RTG SNMP polling daemon

SYNOPSIS
     rtgpoll -t file [options]

DESCRIPTION
     rtgpoll  queries  SNMP-capable  devices  and  inserts  the results of these
     queries into a MySQL database.  The  poller  reads  a  fixed-format  target
     file,  randomizes	the  targets  and  maintains  a set number of queries in
     flight.  rtgpoll optionally reads a configuration file to	modify	run-time
     parameters.

OPTIONS
     -t file
	    Target file.  See target file section below for additional details.

     -c file
	    Configuration  file.  See configuration file section below for addi-
	    tional details.

     -d     Disable database inserts.

     -m     Skip checking for multiple instances.

     -p file
	    PID file. Process ID file.

     -b     Background (daemonise)

     -z     Force database insertion of zero deltas.

     -u user
	    Specify username to run as

     -g group
	    Specify group to run as

     -r path
	    Specify a chroot path

     -v     Increase verbosity by one level.  Four verbosity  levels  exist  (in
	    increasing order): Off, Low, High, Debug.

CONFIGURATION FILE
     All RTG programs attempt to find an rtg.conf file in the following path or-
     der:

     1. ./rtg.conf
     2. /usr/local/rtg/etc/rtg.conf
     3. /etc/rtg.conf

     If  rtgpoll  or rtgplot cannot find an rtg.conf file in any of these paths,
     it will attempt to create one in the current working directory.  Most users
     maintain a master rtg.conf file customized for their environment.	rtg.conf
     contains the following configurable fields:

       Interval 	300
       HighSkewSlop	3.0
       LowSkewSlop	0.5
       OutOfRange	93750000000
       SNMP_Ver 	2
       SNMP_Port	161
       DB_Host		localhost
       DB_Database	rtg
       DB_User		snmp
       DB_Pass		rtgdefault
       Threads		5
       Update_desc	0

     Interval is the time between successive polls of the target  list,  default
     is 300 seconds (5 minutes).  HighSkewSlop defines the maximum number of In-
     tervals allowed between two consecutive poll values before the time in sec-
     onds  between  said  points  is deemed too large to calculate a valid rate.
     With the default Interval and HighSkewSlop values, that time would be 300 *
     3 (15 minutes).  LowSkewSlop defines the minimum number  of  Intervals  al-
     loweed  between  two consecutive poll values before the time in seconds be-
     tween said points is deemed two low to calculate a valid  rate.   With  the
     default  Interval and LowSkewSlop values, that time would be 300 * 0.5 (2.5
     minutes).	OutOfRange defines an upper bound above which rtgpoll will never
     attempt an insert into the database. OutOfRange should be a multiple of the
     maximum number of bytes possible in the defined Interval for  your  highest
     speed  link.   The  default OutOfRange value will suffice in most installa-
     tions.  SNMP_Ver specifies the SNMP version the poller will use.  The  num-
     ber  of  threads  rtgpoll will use is defined in the variable Threads.  Up-
     date_desc will automatically update the database interface descriptions  to
     match SNMP descriptions (if set to 1)

     Variables	in  rtg.conf  must  match the names above exactly.  Comments and
     blank lines are allowed and the ordering of variables in rtg.conf does  not
     matter.

TARGET FILE
     The  target file specifies the objects to be SNMP polled.	Comments must be
     preceded with a '#' sign.	Elements in the target file are  tab  delimited.
     The format of the target file is fixed:

       # Host  OID  64/32  Community  Table   ID   Description

     where

       Host	   = IP or hostname of target
       OID	   = Full SNMP OID, e.g. .1.3.6.1.2.1.31.1.1.1.10.19
       64/32/0	   = Specify 64/32 bit objects or 0 for gauge objects
       Community   = SNMP Community
       Table	   = MySQL table in the database to use
       ID	   = A unique ID that is used with each insert
       Description = Text

     RTG  can  monitor	OIDs  that  return a gauge value allowing one to monitor
     items such as temperature, CPU, users, etc.  If an entry in the target file
     has 0 (zero) specified as the OID bit width instead of 64 or 32, the poller
     assumes that it is monitoring a gauge and does not attempt to calculate  an
     interval delta value.

     rtgpoll first reads the configuration file, then the target file.	For each
     SNMP poll, rtgpoll will attempt an SQL INSERT of the form:

       INSERT INTO Table VALUES (ID, NOW(), bigint)

     Where  Table  is the name of the database table and ID is an integer.  Both
     Table and ID come from the target list, NOW() is the current timestamp  and
     bigint is the delta value between successive SNMP polls.

SIGNALS
     rtgpoll  accepts a number of signals.  SIGHUP forces a reload of the target
     file.  If rtgpoll is actively polling, the target file is reloaded when rt-
     gpoll becomes idle.  This is useful when automating the  target  list  cre-
     ation  based  on your active network.  SIGUSR1 increases the verbosity of a
     running rtgpoll; SIGUSR2 decreases the verbosity.

SEE ALSO
     rtgplot(1)

VERSION
     This manual page documents rtgpoll version 0.7.5

AUTHOR
     (c) 2002-2003 by Robert Beverly

Manual page for rtgpoll 	   August 2003			      rtgpoll(1)
home | help