Grading with RRDtool Tutorial
Index
Introduction
This HOWTO describes how to quickly generate a nice graph, showing you the average ping time off a specific host. This picture is the result we should get.
This setup consists of 4 steps
- Configfile
- RRDcreate
- RRDupdate
- RRDgraph
Configfile
The config file defines some global variables that will be used inside the other scripts.
#!/bin/bash RRDTOOL='/data/rrd/bin/rrdtool' FILE='/data/rrd/db/ping.rrd' HOST='heise.de' OUTPUT='/data/rrd/png/ping.png'
| RRDTOOL | Path to RRDtool binary |
| FILE | Path to the .rrd database file |
| HOST | Host to ping |
| OUTPUT | Path to the Image |
RRDcreate
We need a Round Robin Database to collect the data. Following script will create a RRD file that will accept values every 60 seconds and that can hold one day's worth of samples. For further explanation about creating Round Robin Databases please refer to the RRDcreate manpage.
#!/bin/bash . /data/rrd/etc/rrd.conf $RRDTOOL create $FILE -s 60 \ DS:ping:GAUGE:120:0:65535 \ RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:1:2880
RRDupdate
The next step is a script which updates the Round Robin Database. This script must run every 60 seconds, for exemple via crontab or a loop (while true; do update.sh; sleep 60; done). For further explanation about updating Round Robin Databases please refer to the RRDupdate manpage.
#!/bin/bash
. /data/rrd/etc/rrd.conf
UPDATECMD=$(ping -c 3 -w 6 $HOST | grep rtt | awk -F "/" '{ print $5 }' )
$RRDTOOL update $FILE N:$UPDATECMD
In the first step the script reads in the variables from the configfile.
. /data/rrd/etc/rrd.conf
The second step is the command which pings the host. ping -c 3 -w 6 makes 3 pings and stop after 6 seconds if no ping returns. After that it builds the average of the 3 pings
UPDATECMD=$(ping -c 3 -w 6 $HOST | grep rtt | awk -F "/" '{ print $5 }' )
The last step updates the Round Robin Database with the current timestamp (N) and the result ping gives.
$RRDTOOL update $FILE N:$UPDATECMD
RRDgraph
The last script creates the graph itself. For further explanation about graphing Round Robin Databases please refer to the RRDgraph manpage.
#!/bin/bash
. /data/rrd/etc/rrd.conf
$RRDTOOL graph $OUTPUT \
-t "WAN Ping" -v "Time in ms" \
--start="now-1d" \
--end="now" \
--height="120" \
--width="440" \
-c "BACK#000000" \
-c "SHADEA#000000" \
-c "SHADEB#000000" \
-c "FONT#DDDDDD" \
-c "CANVAS#202020" \
-c "GRID#666666" \
-c "MGRID#AAAAAA" \
-c "FRAME#202020" \
-c "ARROW#FFFFFF" \
"DEF:ping_time=$FILE:ping:AVERAGE" \
"CDEF:shading2=ping_time,0.98,*" "AREA:shading2#F90000:$HOST" \
"GPRINT:ping_time:LAST:Last\: %5.2lf ms" \
"GPRINT:ping_time:MIN:Min\: %5.2lf ms" \
"GPRINT:ping_time:MAX:Max\: %5.2lf ms" \
"GPRINT:ping_time:AVERAGE:Avg\: %5.2lf ms" \
"CDEF:shading10=ping_time,0.90,*" "AREA:shading10#E10000" \
"CDEF:shading15=ping_time,0.85,*" "AREA:shading15#D20000" \
"CDEF:shading20=ping_time,0.80,*" "AREA:shading20#C30000" \
"CDEF:shading25=ping_time,0.75,*" "AREA:shading25#B40000" \
"CDEF:shading30=ping_time,0.70,*" "AREA:shading30#A50000" \
"CDEF:shading35=ping_time,0.65,*" "AREA:shading35#960000" \
"CDEF:shading40=ping_time,0.60,*" "AREA:shading40#870000" \
"CDEF:shading45=ping_time,0.55,*" "AREA:shading45#780000" \
"CDEF:shading50=ping_time,0.50,*" "AREA:shading50#690000" \
"CDEF:shading55=ping_time,0.45,*" "AREA:shading55#5A0000" \
"CDEF:shading60=ping_time,0.40,*" "AREA:shading60#4B0000" \
"CDEF:shading65=ping_time,0.35,*" "AREA:shading65#3C0000" \
"CDEF:shading70=ping_time,0.30,*" "AREA:shading70#2D0000" \
"CDEF:shading75=ping_time,0.25,*" "AREA:shading75#180000" \
"CDEF:shading80=ping_time,0.20,*" "AREA:shading80#0F0000" \
"CDEF:shading85=ping_time,0.15,*" "AREA:shading85#000000" >/dev/null
The first sections are settings about the graph's labels, size and colours.
$RRDTOOL graph $OUTPUT \
-t "WAN Ping" -v "Time in ms" \
--start="now-1d" \
--end="now" \
--height="120" \
--width="440" \
-c "BACK#000000" \
-c "SHADEA#000000" \
-c "SHADEB#000000" \
-c "FONT#DDDDDD" \
-c "CANVAS#202020" \
-c "GRID#666666" \
-c "MGRID#AAAAAA" \
-c "FRAME#202020" \
-c "ARROW#FFFFFF" \
The variable 'ping_time' gets defined as ping in the Round Robin Database.
"DEF:ping_time=$FILE:ping:AVERAGE" \
The first CDEF is the last line and that one which has the description under it.
"CDEF:shading2=ping_time,0.98,*" "AREA:shading2#F90000:$HOST" \
This sections puts out the legend under the graph.
"GPRINT:ping:_timeLAST:Last\: %5.2lf ms" \ "GPRINT:ping_time:MIN:Min\: %5.2lf ms" \ "GPRINT:ping_time:MAX:Max\: %5.2lf ms" \ "GPRINT:ping_time:AVERAGE:Avg\: %5.2lf ms" \
This last part does the actual grading. By calculating percentages out of the original value we can draw layers of areas with different colors. This makes the nice effect of a color gradient
"CDEF:shading10=ping_time,0.90,*" "AREA:shading10#E10000" \ "CDEF:shading15=ping_time,0.85,*" "AREA:shading15#D20000" \ "CDEF:shading20=ping_time,0.80,*" "AREA:shading20#C30000" \ "CDEF:shading25=ping_time,0.75,*" "AREA:shading25#B40000" \ "CDEF:shading30=ping_time,0.70,*" "AREA:shading30#A50000" \ "CDEF:shading35=ping_time,0.65,*" "AREA:shading35#960000" \ "CDEF:shading40=ping_time,0.60,*" "AREA:shading40#870000" \ "CDEF:shading45=ping_time,0.55,*" "AREA:shading45#780000" \ "CDEF:shading50=ping_time,0.50,*" "AREA:shading50#690000" \ "CDEF:shading55=ping_time,0.45,*" "AREA:shading55#5A0000" \ "CDEF:shading60=ping_time,0.40,*" "AREA:shading60#4B0000" \ "CDEF:shading65=ping_time,0.35,*" "AREA:shading65#3C0000" \ "CDEF:shading70=ping_time,0.30,*" "AREA:shading70#2D0000" \ "CDEF:shading75=ping_time,0.25,*" "AREA:shading75#180000" \ "CDEF:shading80=ping_time,0.20,*" "AREA:shading80#0F0000" \ "CDEF:shading85=ping_time,0.15,*" "AREA:shading85#000000" >/dev/null
If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to write me an email (alex@you need to remove this!krogloth.de) or join the rrdtool channel (#rrdtool) on the IRCnet.