collectd

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collectd is a daemon that regularly collects, transfers, and stores system information. It is typically used for collecting performance information and other system data like disk, memory, and network usage, and from many other sources using a number of plugins. Other software can then be used to read databases of collected information to plot it and analyze it.

Installation

USE Flags

USE flags for app-metrics/collectd Collects system statistics and provides mechanisms to store the values

contrib Install user-contributed files in the doc directory
debug Enable extra debug codepaths, like asserts and extra output. If you want to get meaningful backtraces see https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Quality_Assurance/Backtraces
filecaps When set collectd daemon will have set required capabilities to run most plugins even if run as unprivileged user
java Must be set (workaround for java-pkg-opt-2 eclass limitation) when you want java or genericjmx plugin
perl Add optional support/bindings for the Perl language
selinux !!internal use only!! Security Enhanced Linux support, this must be set by the selinux profile or breakage will occur
static-libs Build static versions of dynamic libraries as well
udev Enable optional udev usage in disk plugin; Required for smart plugin
xfs Enable optional capability to filter on XFS file system in df plugin; Requires XFS headers from sys-fs/xfsprogs

Emerge

First, determine which plugins you want on your system. The collectd wiki contains a list of plugins, or check the collectd man page. These plugins are specified as USE flags with a collectd_plugins_ prefix, though these can also be specified with a COLLECTD_PLUGINS variable in /etc/portage/make.conf:

FILE /etc/portage/make.confDefine some plugins with COLLECTD_PLUGINS
COLLECTD_PLUGINS="load memory syslog"

collectd requires a plugin to enable any sort of logging. Make sure you enable the syslog plugin and/or the logfile plugin.

To write data, you need to enable write plugins. The rrdtool plugin is a common plugin. Data can be written to other collectd daemons using the network plugin.

To install:

root #emerge --ask app-metrics/collectd

Configuration

With collectd and some plugins installed, enable them in the configuration file by uncommenting them, for instance, the syslog plugin:

FILE /etc/collectd.confEnabling syslog
LoadPlugin syslog
<Plugin syslog>
        LogLevel info  
</Plugin>

rrdtool plugin

Default location for saving the rrd files by collectd is BaseDir but that will mix the rrdtool's files with other plugins. So redefine it.

FILE /etc/collectd.conf
<Plugin rrdtool>
        DataDir "/var/lib/collectd/rrd"
</Plugin>

Service

To start collectd on start-up:

root #rc-update add collectd default

Troubleshooting

Check the logs for errors after starting up to make sure everything is going smoothly.

Plotting front-end packages

Also see the full list of front-ends known by collectd.