# NAME

reference - MRTG 2.9.18 configuration reference

# OVERVIEW

The runtime behaviour of MRTG is governed by a configuration file. Run of the mill configuration files can be generated with cfgmaker. (Check the cfgmaker manpage). But for more elaborate configurations some hand tuning is required.

This document describes all the configuration options understud by the mrtg software.

# SYNTAX

MRTG configuration file syntax follows some simple rules:

- Keywords must start at the beginning of a line.

- Lines which follow a keyword line which do start with a blank are appended to the keyword line

- Empty Lines are ignored

- Lines starting with a # sign are comments.

- You can add other files into the configuration file using

  Include: file

  Example:

       Include: base-options.inc

# GLOBAL PARAMETERS

## WorkDir

WorkDir specifies where the logfiles and the webpages should be created.

Example:

     WorkDir: /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg

# OPTIONAL GLOBAL PARAMETERS

## HtmlDir

HtmlDir specifies the directory where the html (or shtml, but we'll get on to those later,) lives.

NOTE: Workdir overides the settings for htmldir, imagedir and logdir

Example:

     Htmldir: /www/mrtg/

## ImageDir

ImageDir specifies the directory where the images live, they should be under the html directory.

Example:

     Imagedir: /www/mrtg/images

## LogDir

LogDir specifies the directory where the logs are stored. This need not be under htmldir directive.

Example:

     Logdir: /www/mrtg/logs

## Forks (UNIX only)

An a system that can fork (UNIX for example) mrtg can fork itself into multiple instances while it is acquiring data via snmp.

For situations with high latency or a great number of devices this will speed things up considerably. It will not make things faster though if you query a single switch sitting next door.

As far as I know NT can not fork so this option is not available on NT.

Example:

     Forks: 4

## Refresh

How many seconds apart should the browser (Netscape) be instructed to reload the page? If this is not defined, the default is 300 seconds (5 minutes).

Example:

     Refresh: 600

## Interval

How often do you call mrtg? The default is 5 minutes. If you call it less often, you should specify it here. This does two things:

- the generated HTML page does contain the right information about the calling interval ...

- a META header in the generated HTML page will instruct caches about the time to live of this page .....

In this example we tell mrtg that we will be calling it every 10 minutes. If you are calling mrtg every 5 minutes, you can leave this line commented out.

Example:

     Interval: 10

Note, that unless you are using rrdtool you can not set Interval to less than 5 minutes. If you are using rrdtool you can set interval down to 1 Minute. Note though, setting the Interval for an rrdtool/mrtg setup will influence the initial creation of the database. If you change the interval later, all existing databases will remain at the resolution they were initially created with.

## WriteExpires

With this switch mrtg will generate .meta files for CERN and Apache servers which contain Expiration tags for the html and gif files. The *.meta files will be created in the same directory as the other files, so you will have to set ``MetaDir .'' and ``MetaFiles on'' in your apache.conf or .htaccess file for this to work

NOTE: If you are running Apache-1.2 or later, you can use the mod_expire to achieve the same effect ... see the file htaccess.txt

Example:

     WriteExpires: Yes

## NoMib2

Normally we ask the SNMP device for 'sysUptime', 'sysName' properties some do not have these. If you want to avoid getting complaints from mrtg about these missing properties, specivy the nomib2 option.

An example of agents which do not implement base mib2 attributes are Computer Associates - Unicenter TNG Agents. CA relies on using the base OS SNMP agent in addition to its own agents to supplement the management of a system.

Example:

     NoMib2: Yes

## SingleRequest

Some SNMP implementations can not deal with requests asking for multiple snmp variables in one go. Set this in your cfg file to force mrtg to only ask for one variable per request.

Examples

     SingleRequest: Yes

## SnmpOptions

Apart form the per target timeout options, you can also configure the behaviour of the snmpget process on a more profound level. SnmpOptions accepts a hash of options. The following options are currently supported:

     timeout                   => $default_timeout,
     retries                   => $default_retries,
     backoff                   => $default_backoff,
     default_max_repetitions   => $max_repetitions,
     lenient_source_port_matching => 0,
     lenient_source_address_matching => 1

The values behind the options indicate the current default value. Note that these settings OVERRIDE the per target timeout settings.

Example:

SnmpOptions: retries => 2, only_ip_address_matching => 0

Note that AS/400 snmp seems to be broken in a way which prevents mrtg from working with it unless

     SnmpOptions: lenient_source_port_matching => 1

is set.

## IconDir

If you want to keep the mrtg icons in some place other than the working (or imagedir) directory, use the IconDir variable for defining the url to the icons directory.

Example:

     IconDir: /mrtgicons/

## LoadMIBs

Load the MIB `file(s)` specified and make its OIDs available as symbolic names. For better efficiancy, a cache of MIBs is maintained in the WorkDir.

Example:

     LoadMIBs: /dept/net/mibs/netapp.mib,/usr/local/lib/ft100m.mib

## Language

Switch output format to the selected Language (Check the translate directory to see which languages are supported at the moment. In this directory you can also find instructions on how to create new translations).

Currently the following laguages are supported:

big5 brazilian bulgarian catalan chinese croatian czech danish dutch eucjp french galician gb gb2312 german greek hungarian icelandic indonesia iso2022jp italian korean lithuanian malay norwegian polish portuguese romanian russian russian1251 serbian slovak slovenian spanish swedish turkish ukrainian

Example:

     Language: danish

## LogFormat

Setting LogFormat to 'rrdtool' in your mrtg.cfg file enables rrdtool mode. In rrdtool mode, mrtg relies on rrdtool to do its logging. Graphs and html pages will be generated on the fly by the 14all.cgi which can be found in the contrib section together with a short readme ... This feature has been contributed by Rainer Bawidamann <bawidama@users.sourceforge.net>. Please check his website for more information: http://www.wh-hms.uni-ulm.de/~widi/14all/

Example:

     LogFormat: rrdtool

## LibAdd

If you are using rrdtool mode and your rrdtool Perl module (RRDs.pm) is not installed in a location where perl can find it on its own, you can use LibAdd to supply an appropriate path.

Example:

     LibAdd: /usr/local/rrdtool/lib/perl/

## PathAdd

If the rrdtool executable can not be found in the normal `PATH`, you can use this parameter to add a suitable directory to your path.

Example:

     PathAdd: /usr/local/rrdtool/bin/

## RunAsDaemon

The RunAsDaemon keyword enables daemon mode operation. The purpose of daemon mode is that MRTG is launched once and not at regular basis by cron as in native mode. This behavior saves computing resourses as loading and parsing of configuration files only hapens once.

Using daemon mode MRTG itself is responible for timing the measurement intervals. Therfore its important to set the Interval keyword to an apropiate value.

Note that using daemon mode MRTG should no longer be started from cron by regular basis as each started process runs forever. Instead MRTG should be started from the command prompt or by a system startup script.

If you want mrtg to run under a particular user and group (it is not recomended to run MRTG as root) then you can use the --user=user_name and --group=group_name options on the mrtg commandline.

     mrtg --user=mrtg_user --group=mrtg_group mrtg.cfg

Also note that in daemon mode restart of the process is required in order to activate changes in the config file.

Under UNIX, the Daemon switch causes mrtg to fork into background after checking its config file. On Windows NT the MRTG process will detach from the console, but because the NT/2000 shell waits for its children you have to use the special start sequence when you launch the program:

     start /b perl mrtg mrtg.cfg

You may have to add path information equal to what you add when you run mrtg from the commandline.

Example

     RunAsDaemon:Yes
     Interval:5

Makes MRTG run as a daemon beginning data collection every 5 minutes

# PER TARGET CONFIGURATION

Each monitoring target must be identified by a unique name. This name must be appended to each parameter belonging to the same target. The name will also be used for naming the generated webpages, logfiles and images for this target.

## Target

With the Target keyword you tell mrtg what it should monitor. The Target keyword takes arguments in a wide range of formats:

Basic
  The most basic format is ``port:community@router'' This will generate a traffic graph for the interface 'port' of the host 'router' (dns name or IP address) and it will use the community 'community' (snmp password) for the snmp query.

  Example:

       Target[ezwf]: 2:public@wellfleet-fddi.ethz.ch

  If your community contains a ``@'' or a `` '' these characters mus be escaped with a ``\''.

       Target[bla]: 2:stu\ pi\@d@router

SNMPv2c
  If you have a fast router you might want to try to poll the ifHC* counters. This feature gets activated by switching to SNMPv2c. Unfortunately not all devices support SNMPv2c yet. If it works, this will prevent your counters from wraping within the 5 minute polling interval. As we now use 64 bit instead of the normal 32 bit.

  Example:

       Target[ezwf]: 2:public@router1:::::2

Reversing
  Sometimes you are sitting on the wrong side of the link, and you would like to have mrtg report Incoming traffic as outgoing and vice versa. This can be achieved by adding the '-' sign in front of the ``Target'' description. It flips the incoming and outgoing traffic rates.

  Example:

       Target[ezci]: -1:public@ezci-ether.ethz.ch

Explicit OIDs
  You can also explicitly define the OID to query by using the following syntax 'OID_1&OID_2:community@router' The following example will retrieve error counts for input and output on interface 1. MRTG needs to graph two variables, so you need to specify two OID's such as temperature and humidity or error input and error output.

  Example:

       Target[ezwf]: 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.14.1&1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.20.1:public@myrouter

MIB Variables
  MRTG knows a number of symbolical SNMP variable names. See the file mibhelp.txt for a list of known names. One example are the ifInErrors and ifOutErrors. This means you can specify the above as:

  Example:

       Target[ezwf]: ifInErrors.1&ifOutErrors.1:public@myrouter

Interface by IP
  Sometimes SNMP interface index can change, like when new interfaces are added or removed. This can cause all Target entries in your config file to become wrong by offset, causing MRTG to graphs wrong instances etc. MRTG supports IP address instead of ifindex in target definition. Then MRTG will query snmp device and try to map IP address to current ifindex, You can use IP address in every type of target definition, by adding IP address of the numbered interface after OID and separation char '/'

  Make sure that given IP address is used on your same target router, your same target router, especially when graphing two different OIDs and/or interface split by '&' delimiter.

  You can tell cfgmaker to generate such references with the option --ifref=ip.

  Example:

       Target[ezwf]: /1.2.3.4:public@wellfleet-fddi.ethz.ch
       Target[ezci]: -/1.2.3.4:public@ezci-ether.ethz.ch
       Target[ezwf]: 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.14/1.2.3.4&1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.14/1.2.3.4:public@myrouter
       Target[ezwf]: ifInErrors/1.2.3.4&ifOutErrors/1.2.3.4:public@myrouter

Interface by Description
  If you can not use IP addresses you might want to use the interface names. This works similar to the IP address aproach only that the prefix to use is a \ instead of a /

  You can tell cfgmaker to generate such references with the option --ifref=descr.

  Example:

       Target[ezwf]: \My-Interface2:public@wellfleet-fddi.ethz.ch
       Target[ezci]: -\My-Interface2:public@ezci-ether.ethz.ch
       Target[ezwf]: 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.14\My-Interface2&1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.14\My-Interface3:public@myrouter
       Target[ezwf]: ifInErrors\My-Interface2&ifOutErrors\My-Interface3:public@myrouter

  If your description contains a ``&'', a ``:'', a ``@'' or a `` '' you can include them but you must escape with a backlash:

       Target[ezwf]: \fun\: \ ney\&ddd:public@hello.router

Interface by Name
  The only sensible way to reference interfaces of your switches.

  You can tell cfgmaker to generate such references with the option --ifref=name.

  Example:

       Target[ezwf]: #2/11:public@wellfleet-fddi.ethz.ch
       Target[ezci]: -#2/11:public@ezci-ether.ethz.ch
       Target[ezwf]: 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.14#3/7&1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.14#3/7:public@myrouter
       Target[ezwf]: ifInErrors#3/7&ifOutErrors#3/7:public@myrouter

  If your description contains a ``&'', a ``:'', a ``@'' or a `` '' you can include them but you must escape with a backlash:

       Target[ezwf]: #\: \ fun:public@hello.router

  Note that the # sign will be interpreted as a comment character if it is the first non white-space character on the line.

Interface by Ethernet Address
  When the SNMP interface index changes, you can key that interface by its 'Physical Address', sometimes called a 'hard address', which is the SNMP variable 'ifPhysAddress'. Internally, MRTG matches the Physical Address from the *.cfg file to its current index, and then uses that index for the rest of the session.

  You can use the Physical Address in every type of target definition, by adding the Physical Address after the OID and separation char '!' (analogous to the IP address option). The Physical address is specified as '-' delimited octets, such as ``0a-0-f1-5-23-18'' (omit the double quotes). Note that some routers use the same Hardware Ethernet Address for all their Interface which prevents unique interface identification. Mrtg will notice such problems and alert you.

  You can tell cfgmaker to generate configuration files with hardware ethernet address references by using the option --ifref=eth.

  Example:

       Target[ezwf]: !0a-0b-0c-0d:public@wellfleet-fddi.ethz.ch
       Target[ezci]: -!0-f-bb-05-71-22:public@ezci-ether.ethz.ch
       Target[ezwf]: 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.14!0a-00-10-23-44-51&!0a-00-10-23-44-51:public@myrouter
       Target[ezwf]: ifInErrors!0a-00-10-23-44-51&ifOutErrors!0a-00-10-23-44-51:public@myrouter

Interface by Type
  It seems that there are devices that try to defy all monitoring efforts, the interesting interfaces have neither ifName nor a constant ifDescr not to think of a persistant ifIndex. The only way to get a constant mapping is by looking at the interface type, because the interface you are interested in is unique in the device you are looking at ...

  You can tell cfgmaker to generate such references with the option --ifref=type.

  Example:

       Target[ezwf]: %13:public@wellfleet-fddi.ethz.ch
       Target[ezci]: -%13:public@ezci-ether.ethz.ch
       Target[ezwf]: 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.14%13&1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.14%14:public@myrouter
       Target[ezwf]: ifInErrors%13&ifOutErrors%14:public@myrouter

Extended Host Name Syntax
  In all places where ``community@router'' is accepted, you can add additional parameters for the SNMP communication using colon-separated suffixes. The full syntax is as follows:

       community@router[:[port][:[timeout][:[retries][:[backoff][:version]]]]]

  where the meaning of each parameter is as follows:

  port
    the UDP port under which to contact the SNMP agent (default: 161)

  timeout
    initial timeout for SNMP queries, in seconds (default: 2.0)

  retries
    number of times a timed-out request will be retried (default: 5)

  backoff
    factor by which the timeout is multiplied on every retry (default: 1.0).

  version
    for SNMP version if you have a fast router you might want to put a '2' here. This will make mrtg try to poll the 64 bit counters. And thus prevent excessive counter wrapping. Not all routers support this though.

    Example:

         3:public@router1:::::2

  A value that equals the default value can be omitted. Trailing colons can be omitted, too.

  Example:

        Target[ezci]: 1:public@ezci-ether.ethz.ch:9161::4

  This would refer to the input/output octet counters for the interface with ifIndex 1 on ezci-ether.ethz.ch, as known by the SNMP agent listening on UDP port 9161. The standard initial timeout (2.0 seconds) is used, but the number of retries is set to four. The backoff value is the default.

External Monitoring Scripts
  if you want to monitor something which does not provide data via snmp you can use some external program to do the data gathering.

  The external command must return 4 lines of output:

  Line 1
    current state of the first variable, normally 'incoming bytes count'

  Line 2
    current state of the second variable, normally 'outgoing bytes count'

  Line 3
    string (in any human readable format), telling the uptime of the target.

  Line 4
    string, telling the name of the target.

  Depending on the type of data your script returns you might want to use the 'gauge' or 'absolute' arguments for the Options keyword.

  Example:

       Target[ezwf]: `/usr/local/bin/df2mrtg /dev/dsk/c0t2d0s0`

  Note the use of the backticks (`), not apostrophes (') around the command.

  If you want to use a backtick in the command name this can be done but you must escape it with a backslash ...

Multi Target Syntax
  You can also use several statements in a mathematical expression. This could be used to aggregate both B channels in an ISDN connection or multiple T1s that are aggregated into a single channel for greater bandwidth. Note the whitespace arround the target definitions.

  Example:

       Target[ezwf]: 2:public@wellfleetA + 1:public@wellfleetA
                    * 4:public@ciscoF

## RouterUptime

In cases where you calculate the used bandwidth from several interfaces you normaly don't get the router uptime and router name displayed on the web page.

If these interfaces are on the same router and the uptime and name should be displayed nevertheless you have to specify its community and address again with the RouterUptime keyword.

Example:

     Target[kacisco.comp.edu]: 1:public@194.64.66.250 + 2:public@194.64.66.250
     RouterUptime[kacisco.comp.edu]: public@194.64.66.250

## MaxBytes

The maximum value either of the two variables monitored are allowed to reach. For monitoring router traffic this is normally specified in bytes per second this interface port can carry.

If a number higher than MaxBytes is returned, it is ignored. Also read the section on AbsMax for further info. The MaxBytes value is also used in calculating the Y range for unscaled graphs (see the section on Unscaled).

Since most links are rated in bits per second, you need to divide their maximum bandwidth (in bits) by eight (8) in order to get bytes per second. This is very important to make your unscaled graphs display realistic information. T1 = 193000, 56K = 7000, Ethernet = 1250000. The MaxBytes value will be used by mrtg to decide whether it got a valid response from the router.

If you need two different MaxBytes values for the two monitored variables, you can use MaxBytes1 and MaxBytes2 instead of MaxBytes.

Example:

     MaxBytes[ezwf]: 1250000

## MaxBytes1

Same as MaxBytes, for variable 1.

## MaxBytes2

Same as MaxBytes, for variable 2.

## Title

Title for the HTML page which gets generated for the graph.

Example:

     Title[ezwf]: Traffic Analysis for Our Nice Company

## PageTop

Things to add to the top of the generated HTML page. Note that you can have several lines of text as long as the first column is empty.

Note that the continuation lines will all end up on the same line in the html page. If you want linebreaks in the generated html use the '\n' sequence.

Example:

     PageTop[ezwf]: <H1>Traffic Analysis for ETZ C95.1</H1>
       Our Campus Backbone runs over an FDDI line\n
       with a maximum transfer rate of 12.5 megabytes per
       Second.

# OPTIONAL PER TARGET PARAMETERS

## PageFoot

Things to add to the bottom of the generated HTML page. Note that you can have several lines of text as long as the first column is empty.

Note that the continuation lines will all end up on the same line in the html page. If you want linebreaks in the generated html use the '\n' sequence.

The material will be added just before the </BODY> tag:

Example:

     PageFoot[ezwf]: Contact <A HREF="mailto:peter@x.yz";>Peter</A>
      if you have questions regarding this page

## AddHead

Use this tag like the PageTop header, but its contents will be added between </TITLE> and </HEAD>.

Example:

     AddHead[ezwf]: <link rev="made" href="mailto:mrtg@blabla.edu";>

## BodyTag

BodyTag lets you supply your very own <body ...> tag for the generated webpages.

Example:

     BodyTag[ezwf]: <BODY LEFTMARGIN="1" TOPMARGIN="1"
                          BACKGROUND="/stats/images/bg.neo2.gif">

## AbsMax

If you are monitoring a link which can handle more traffic than the MaxBytes value. Eg, a line which uses compression or some frame relay link, you can use the AbsMax keyword to give the absolute maximum value ever to be reached. We need to know this in order to sort out unrealistic values returned by the routers. If you do not set AbsMax, rateup will ignore values higher than MaxBytes.

Example:

     AbsMax[ezwf]: 2500000

## Unscaled

By default each graph is scaled vertically to make the actual data visible even when it is much lower than MaxBytes. With the Unscaled variable you can suppress this. It's argument is a string, containing one letter for each graph you don't want to be scaled: d=day w=week m=month y=year. In the example scaling for the yearly and the monthly graph are suppressed.

Example:

     Unscaled[ezwf]: ym

## WithPeak

By default the graphs only contain the average values of the monitored variables - normally the transfer rates for incoming and outgoing traffic. The following option instructs mrtg to display the peak 5 minute values in the [w]eekly, [m]onthly and [y]early graph. In the example we define the monthly and the yearly graph to contain peak as well as average values.

Examples:

     WithPeak[ezwf]: ym

## Suppress

By default mrtg produces 4 graphs. With this option you can suppress the generation of selected graphs. The option value syntax is analogous to the above two options. In this example we suppress the yearly graph as it is quite empty in the beginning.

Example:

     Suppress[ezwf]: y

## Extension

By default, mrtg creates .html files. Use this option to tell mrtg to use a different extension. For example you could set the extension to php3, then you will be able to enclose PHP tags into the output (usefull for getting a router name out of a database).

Example:

     Extension[ezwf]: phtml

## Directory

By default, mrtg puts all the files that it generates for each target (the GIFs, the HTML page, the log file, etc.) in WorkDir.

If the Directory option is specified, the files are instead put into a directory under WorkDir or Log-, Image- and HtmlDir). (For example the Directory option below would cause all the files for a target ezwf to be put into directory /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg/ezwf/ .)

The directory must already exist; mrtg will not create it.

Example:

     WorkDir: /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg
     Directory[ezwf]: ezwf

NOTE: the Directory option must always be 'relative' or bad things will happen.

## XSize and YSize

By default mrtgs graphs are 100 by 400 pixels wide (plus some more for the labels. In the example we get almost square graphs ...

Note: XSize must be between 20 and 600; YSize must be larger than 20

Example:

     XSize[ezwf]: 300
     YSize[ezwf]: 300

## XZoom and YZoom

If you want your graphs to have larger pixels, you can ``Zoom'' them.

Example:

     XZoom[ezwf]: 2.0
     YZoom[ezwf]: 2.0

## XScale and YScale

If you want your graphs to be actually scaled use XScale and YScale. (Beware while this works, the results look ugly (to be frank) so if someone wants to fix this: patches are welcome.

Example:

     XScale[ezwf]: 1.5
     YScale[ezwf]: 1.5

## YTics and YTicsFactor

If you want to show more than 4 lines per graph, use YTics. If you want to scale the value used for the YLegend of these tics, use YTicsFactor. The default value for YTics is 4 and the default value for YTicsFactor is 1.0 .

Example:

      Suppose you get values ranging from 0 to 700.
      You want to plot 7 lines and want to show
      0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 instead of 0, 100, 200,
      300, 400, 500, 600, 700.  You should write then:

      YTics[ezwf]: 7
      YTicsFactor[ezwf]: 0.01

## Factor

If you want to multiply all numbers shown below the graph with a constant factor, use this directive to define it ..

Example:

      Factor[as400]: 4096

## Step

Change the default step from 5 * 60 seconds to something else (I have not tested this well ...)

Example:

     Step[ezwf]: 60

## Options

The Options Keyword allows you to set some boolean switches:

growright
  The graph grows to the left by default. This option flips the direction of growth causing the current time to be at the right edge of the graph and the history values to the left of it.

bits
  All the monitored variable values are multiplied by 8 (i.e. shown in bits instead of bytes) ... looks much more impressive :-) It also affects the 'factory default' labeling and units for the given target.

perminute
  All the monitored variable values are multiplied by 60 (i.e. shown in units per minute instead of units per second) in case of small values more accurate graphs are displayed. It also affects the 'factory default' labeling and units for the given target.

perhour
  All the monitored variable values are multiplied by 3600 (i.e. shown in units per hour instead of units per second) in case of small values more accurate graphs are displayed. It also affects the 'factory default' labeling and units for the given target.

noinfo
  Suppress the information about uptime and device name in the generated webpage.

nopercent
  Don't print usage percentages

transparent
  make the background of the generated gifs transparent ...

integer
  Print summary lines below graph as integers without comma

dorelpercent
  The relative percentage of IN-traffic to OUT-traffic is calculated and displayed in the graph as an additional line. Note: Only a fixed scale is available (from 0 to 100%). Therefore for IN-traffic greater than OUT-traffic also 100% is displayed. If you suspect that your IN-traffic is not always less than or equal to your OUT-traffic you are urged to not use this options. Note: If you use this option in combination with the Colours options, a fifth colour-name colour-value pair is required there.

avgpeak
  There are some ISPs who use the average Peak values to bill their customers. Using this option MRTG displays these values for each graph. The value is built by averaging the max 5 minute traffic avarage for each 'step' shown in the graph. For the Weekly graph this means that it builds the average of all 2 hour intervals 5 minute peak values. (Confused? Though so!)

gauge
  Treat the values gathered from target as 'current status' measurements and not as ever incrementing counters. This would be useful to monitor things like disk space, processor load, temperature, and the like ...

  In the absence of 'gauge' or 'absolute' options, MRTG treats variable as a counter and calculates the difference between the current and the previous value and divides that by the elapsed time between the last two readings to get the value to be plotted.

absolute
  This is for counter type data sources which reset their value when they are read. This means that rateup does not have to build the difference between the current and the last value read from the data source. The value obtained is still divided by the elapsed time between the current and the last reading, which makes it different from the 'gauge' option. Useful for external data gatherers.

unknaszero
  Log unknown data as zero instead of the default behaviour of repeating the last value seen. Be careful with this, often a flat line in the graph is much more obvious than a line at 0.

withzeroes
  Normally we ignore all values which are zero when calculating the average transfer rate on a line. If this is not desirable use this option.

noborder
  If you are using rateup to log data, MRTG will create the graph images. Normally these images have a shaded border around them. If you do not want the border to be drawn, enable this option. This option has no effect if you are not using rateup.

noarrow
  As with the option above, this effects rateup graph generation only. Normally rateup will generate graphs with a small arrow showing the direction of the data. If you do not want this arrow to be drawn, enable this option. This option has no effect if you are not using rateup.

noi
  When using rateup for graph generation, you can use this option to stop rateup drawing a graph for the 'I' or first variable. This also removes entries for this variable in the HTML page MRTG generates, and will remove the peaks for this variable if they are enabled. This allows you to hide this data, or can be very useful if you are only graphing one line of data rather than two. This option is not destructive - any data received for the the variable continued to be logged, it just isn't shown.

noo
  Same as above, except relating to the 'O' or second variable.

nobanner
  When using rateup for graph generation, this option disables MRTG adding the MRTG banner to the HTML pages it generates.

nolegend
  When using rateup for graph generation, this option will stop MRTG creating a legend at the bottom of the HTML pages it generates.

Example:

     Options[ezwf]: growright, bits

## kilo

Use this option to change the multiplier value for building prefixes. Defaultvalue is 1000. This tag is for the special case that 1kB = 1024B, 1MB = 1024kB and so far.

Example:

     kilo[ezwf]: 1024

## kMG

Change the default multiplier prefixes (,k,M,G,T,P). In the tag ShortLegend define only the basic units. Format: Comma seperated list of prefixed. Two consecutive commas or a comma at start or end of the line gives no prefix on this item. Note: If you do not want prefixes, then leave this line blank.

Example: velocity in nm/s (nanometers per second) displayed in nm/h.

     ShortLegend[ezwf]: m/h
     kMG[ezwf]: n,u,m,,k,M,G,T,P
     options[ezwf]: perhour

## Colours

The Colours tag allows you to override the default colour scheme. Note: All 4 of the required colours must be specified here. The colour name ('Colourx' below) is the legend name displayed, while the RGB value is the real colour used for the display, both on the graph and in the html doc.

Format is: Col1#RRGGBB,Col2#RRGGBB,Col3#RRGGBB,Col4#RRGGBB

Important: If you use the dorelpercent options tag a fifth colour name colour value pair is required: Col1#RRGGBB,Col2#RRGGBB,Col3#RRGGBB,Col4#RRGGBB,Col5#RRGGBB

Colour1
  First variable (normally Input) on default graph

Colour2
  Second variable (normally Output) on default graph

Colour3
  Max first variable (input)

Colour4
  Max second variable (output)

RRGGBB
  2 digit hex values for Red, Green and Blue

Example:

     Colours[ezwf]: GREEN#00eb0c,BLUE#1000ff,DARK GREEN#006600,VIOLET#ff00ff

## Background

With the Background tag you can configure the background colour of the generated HTML page

Example:

     Background[ezwf]: #a0a0a0a

## YLegend, ShortLegend, Legend[1234]

The following keywords allow you to override the text displayed for the various legends of the graph and in the HTML document

YLegend
  The Y-axis label of the graph. Note that a text which is too long to fit in the graph will be silently ignored.

ShortLegend
  The units string (default 'b/s') used for Max, Average and Current

Legend[1234IO]
  The strings for the colour legend

Example:

      YLegend[ezwf]: Bits per Second
      ShortLegend[ezwf]: b/s
      Legend1[ezwf]: Incoming Traffic in Bits per Second
      Legend2[ezwf]: Outgoing Traffic in Bits per Second
      Legend3[ezwf]: Maximal 5 Minute Incoming Traffic
      Legend4[ezwf]: Maximal 5 Minute Outgoing Traffic
      LegendI[ezwf]: &nbsp;In:
      LegendO[ezwf]: &nbsp;Out:

Note, if LegendI or LegendO are set to an empty string with

     LegendO[ezwf]:

The corresponding line below the graph will not be printed at all.

## Timezone

If you live in an international world, you might want to generate the graphs in different timezones. This is set in the TZ variable. Under certain operating systems like Solaris, this will provoke the localtime call to give the time in the selected timezone ...

Example:

     Timezone[ezwf]: Japan

The Timezone is the standard Solaris timezone, ie Japan, Hongkong, GMT, GMT+1 etc etc.

## Weekformat

By default, mrtg (actually rateup) uses the `strftime(3)` '%W' option to format week numbers in the monthly graphs. The exact semantics of this format option vary between systems. If you find that the week numbers are wrong, and your system's `strftime(3)` routine supports it, you can try another format option. The POSIX '%V' option seems to correspond to a widely used week numbering convention. The week format character should be specified as a single letter; either W, V, or U.

Example:

     Weekformat[ezwf]: V

# THRESHOLD CHECKING

Through its threshold checking functionality mrtg is able to detect threshold problems for the various targets and can call external scripts to handle those problems (send email or a page to an administrator).

Threshold checking is configured through the following parameters:

## ThreshDir (GLOBAL)

By defining ThreshDir to point to a writable directory, MRTG will only alert you when a threshold boundery has been crossed.

Example:

     ThreshDir: /var/mrtg/thresh

## ThreshMinI (PER TARGET)

This is the minimum acceptable value for the Input (first) parameter. If the parameter falls below this value, the program specified in ThreshProgI will be run. If the value ends in '%' then the threshold is defined relative to MaxBytes.

## ThreshMaxI (PER TARGET)

This is the maximum acceptable value for the Input (first) parameter. If the parameter falls above this value, the program specified in ThreshProgI will be run. If the value ends in '%' then the threshold is defined relative to MaxBytes.

## ThreshDesc (PER TARGET)

Its value will be assigned to the environment variable THRESH_DESC before any of the programs mentioned below are called. The programms can use the value of this variable to produce more userfriendly output.

## ThreshProgI (PER TARGET)

This defines a program to be run if ThreshMinI or ThreshMaxI is broken. MRTG passes 3 arguments: the $router variable, the threshold value broken, and the current parameter value.

## ThreshProgOKI (PER TARGET)

This defines a program to be run if the parameter is currently OK (based on ThreshMinI and ThreshMaxI), but wasn't OK on the previous running -- based on the files found in ThreshDir. MRTG passes 3 arguments: the $router variable the un-broken threshold value, and the current parameter value.

## ThreshMinO, ThreshMaxO, ThreshProgO, and ThreshProgOKO

They work the same as their *I counterparts, except on the Output (second) parameter.

Note, that you can use the SetEnv parameter explained above to pass additional information to the threshold programs.

## SetEnv

When calling threshol scripts from within your cfg file you might want to pass some data on to the script. This can be done with the SetEnv configuration option ... it takes a series of environment variable assignments. Note that the quotes are mandatory. Note that this does not work for external scripts because of the way mrtg evaluates them it is not possible to set environment variables per target.

Example:

     SetEnv[myrouter]:  EMAIL="contact_email@someplace.net"
                        HOST="www.some_server.net"
                        URL="http://www.some_server.net/path/mrtg.html";

# PER TARGET DEFAULT VALUES

## Pre- and Postfix

To save yourself some typing you can define a target called '^'. The text of every Keyword you define for this target will be PREPENDED to the corresponding Keyword of all the targets defined below this line. The same goes for a Target called '$' but its text will be APPENDED.

Note that a space is inserted between the prepended text and the Keyword value, as well as between the Keyword value and the appended text. This works well for text-valued Keywords, but is not very useful for other Keywords. See the ``default'' target description below.

The example will make mrtg use a common header and a common contact person in all the pages generated from targets defined later in this file.

Example:

     PageTop[^]: <H1>NoWhere Unis Traffic Stats</H1><HR>
     PageTop[$]: Contact Peter Norton if you have any questions<HR>

To remove the prepend/append value, specify an empty value, e.g.:

     PageTop[^]:
     PageTop[$]:

NOTE: With PREPEND and APPEND there is normally a space inserted between the local value and the PRE- or APPEND value. Sometimes this is not desirable. You can use the NoSpaceChar config option to define a character which can be mentioned at the end of a $ or ^ definition in order to supress the space.

Example:

      NoSpaceChar: ~
      Target[^]: 1.3.6.1.4.1.482.50.2.4.20.0&1.3.6.1.4.1.482.50.2.4.21.0:get@~
      Target[a]: a.tolna.net
      Target[b]: b.tolna.net
      Target[c]: c.tolna.net
      Target[d]: d.tolna.net

## Default Values

The target name '_' specifies a default value for that Keyword. In the absence of explicit Keyword value, the prepended and the appended keyword value, the default value will be used.

Example:

     YSize[_]: 150
     Options[_]: growright,bits,nopercent
     WithPeak[_]: ymw
     Suppress[_]: y
     MaxBytes[_]: 1250000

To remove the default value and return to the 'factory default', specify an empty value, e.g.:

     YLegend[_]:

There can be several instances of setting the default/prepend/append values in the configuration file. The later setting replaces the previous one for the rest of the configuration file. The default/prepend/append values used for a given keyword/target pair are the ones that were in effect at the point in the configuration file where the target was mentioned for the first time.

Example:

     MaxBytes[_]: 1250000
     Target[myrouter.somplace.edu.2]: 2:public@myrouter.somplace.edu
     MaxBytes[_]: 8000
     Title[myrouter.somplace.edu.2]: Traffic Analysis for myrouter.somplace.edu IF 2

The default MaxBytes for the target myrouter.somplace.edu.2 in the above example will be 1250000, which was in effect where the target name myrouter.somplace.edu.2 first appeared in the config file.

# COMMAND LINE OPTIONS

--user username and --group groupname
  Run as the given user and/or group. (Unix Only)

--lock-file filename
  Use an alternate lock-file (the default is to use the configuration-file appended with `_l`).

--confcache-file filename
  Use an alternate confcache-file (the default is to use the configuration-file appended with `.ok`)

--logging filename|eventlog
  If this is set to writable filename, all output from mrtg (warnings, debug messages, errors) will go to filename. If you are running on Win32 you can specify eventlog instead of a filename which will send all error to the windows event log.

  NOTE:Note, there is no Message DLL for mrtg which has the side effect that the windows event logger will display a nice message with every entry in the event log, complaing about the fact that mrtg has no message dll. If any of the Windows folks want to contribute one, they are welcome.

# EXAMPLES

## Minimal mrtg.cfg

     WorkDir: /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg
     Target[r1]: 2:public@myrouter.somplace.edu
     MaxBytes[r1]: 8000
     Title[r1]: Traffic Analysis ISDN
     PageTop[r1]: <H1>Stats for our ISDN Line</H1>

## Cfg for several Routers.

     WorkDir: /usr/tardis/pub/www/stats/mrtg
     Title[^]: Traffic Analysis for
     PageTop[^]: <H1>Stats for
     PageTop[$]: Contact The Chief if you notice anybody<HR>
     MaxBytes[_]: 8000
     Options[_]: growright

     Title[isdn]: our ISDN Line
     PageTop[isdn]: our ISDN Line</H1>
     Target[isdn]: 2:public@router.somplace.edu

     Title[backb]: our Campus Backbone
     PageTop[backb]: our Campus Backbone</H1>
     Target[backb]: 1:public@router.somplace.edu
     MaxBytes[backb]: 1250000

     # the following line removes the default prepend value
     # defined above

     Title[^]:

     Title[isdn2]: Traffic for the Backup ISDN Line
     PageTop[isdn2]: our ISDN Line</H1>
     Target[isdn2]: 3:public@router.somplace.edu

# AUTHOR

Tobias Oetiker <oetiker@ee.ethz.ch> and many contributors