Cacti -vs- mrtg

[Jeff Mohler]

Thats cool..I dont mind the plug.

:)

I want to build a flexable performance analyzer for netapp boxes on
some very critical data..that I can customise per customer if I have
to, down to a 10-15sec window.

I'll have to check out the other tools..heck..I cant get a stock cacti
install to make a graph of my localhost interface counts.  I  dont
wanna get into that here however.

Gimme a customer Pb of storage, and a SOW to configure it by...

PS: Betcha never heard of the middle aged blonde singer dude fromthe UK.   :)

On 11/7/06, Howard Jones <howie at thingy.com> wrote:
> Jeff Mohler wrote:
> > I can use MRTG, and have MRTG do what I want it to do.
> >
> > Id like to try cacti, but..am I alone in finding that it's a PITA?
> >
> > Im not trying to be negative, just looking for a reality check.
> >
> >
> > I like the simplicity of mrtg, but I like the "go back in time" of
> > cacti to view performance data.
> >
> >
> > If its just a matter of a package that's not ready for Joe Public
> > (thats me)..Id accept that.  :)
> I think it's more that there's more than one kind of Joe Public. If you
> want to present your graphs to your customers/users, or a subset to
> different users, or apply the same set of graphs to a number of
> different hosts, or make custom rrdtool graphs (stacks, additional graph
> elements), then Cacti will let you do that. If you just want a quick &
> dirty tool that's easy to configure for your handful of hosts, then MRTG
> is just the job.
>
> We use both where I work, with Cacti for the bulk-graphing and customer
> facing stuff, and some MRTG where I just knocked up a quick perl script
> to measure something. Cacti has quite a nice plugin system, and
> importable templates from other users that you might be able to use to
> save yourself some time. I find getting my own templates working in
> Cacti to be a PITA too, though.
>
> <shamelessplug>It also has some useful plugins, including a couple of my
> own. The main one of those being PHP Network Weathermap
> (http://wotsit.thingy.com/haj/cacti/) which will work with both MRTG and
> Cacti, to produce graphical overviews of your network.</shamelessplug>
>
> Bear in mind there are also other tools out there in the MRTG/Cacti
> space: DVG, NRG, Hermes, Cricket... rrdtool.org has a list of many. Most
> are geared towards folks running 100s-1000s of graphs, that I have seen,
> and may not be your kind of thing, as a result.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Howie
>