Get SNMP Data Input works, perl script/command doesn't?

[hackerkatt]

Hi all,

I've discovered Cacti and I am going "what else can I think to graph" crazy. I am confused as to why one method of Data Input works while another doesn't. Perhaps someone can enlighten me. Keep in mind that there may be a much better way to do this, i.e. SNMP Indexed queries, etc. I don't understand the use and building of the XML files yet, so I'm starting out with the basics. But I believe that they can be a powerful and flexible method to use. Anyway, my problem:

Preliminary:

OS: FreeBSD 7
Apache 2.2.9
Cacti 8.6.? Not sure how to locate
Spine: Y cactid
MySQL: 4.1.22
PHP: 5.2.1 Zend Eng. 2.2.0
RRDTool 1.2
Net-SNMP: 5.4.1.2
Plugin Architecture: None

I have a perl script that returns a set of data. Below: (Run as cacti)

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$ /usr/local/bin/perl /usr/local/share/cacti/scripts/apc_ups_status.pl --community-- --host-- 
status:2 cap:100 temp:26 volt:121 freq:60 load:50 in_line_volt:121 in_min_volt:118 in_max_volt:123 batvolt:27

Cacti Log

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10/05/2008 10:40:09 PM - CACTID: Poller[0] Host[201] DS[2060] SCRIPT: /usr/local/bin/perl /usr/local/share/cacti/scripts/apc_ups_status.pl, output: U

I've run DEBUG mode and no additional information was produced. I ran across a post that suggested that there was a problem with not fully pathing a command "inside" the script. I can't see how Cacti cares unless it's reading the script and running the contents on it's own rather than looking for a result. In any case I fully pathed the snmpget command. No luck. I tried a \n at the end of the output string, no luck there either.

As you can see I get the information I want when run from the command line. I tried this script method with another graph project and ended up creating two separate Get SNMP Data input methods. This graph has a number of data inputs and I don't know of another way other than a separate Get SNMP Data for each data input. My attempt before to have multiple "tabs" data inputs I found that I could not have different OID's. Each time I changed the OID on one tab/data input, it changed it for all the tabs. No doubt I'm missing both knowledge and experience with Cacti. Can you nice folks steer me in the right direction?

I have put together a set of graphs for our MailFoundy Spam Appliance which I used a simple LWP method. And I've put together some weather graphs. I want to post them on this forum but thought I would get a bit more proficient and perhaps find that I need to clean them up before posting. Anyway, any help you can direct this way would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all.

HK

[TheWitness]

Your perl script must return the data all at once. The following is NOT allowed:

print("ValA:$VarA");
print(" ValB:$VarB");
...

It must be rather:

print("ValA:$VarA ValB:$VarB");

TheWitness

[hackerkatt]

Thanks for your reply. In response, I am. No new lines or separate print statements:

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$output = "status:$status cap:$cap temp:$temp volt:$volt freq:$freq load:$load in_line_volt:$in_line_volt in_min_volt:$in_min_volt in_max_volt:$in_max_volt batvolt:$batvolt";
$output =~ s/\n//g;

print $output;

[TheWitness]

What version of Cactid? What version of Cacti?

TheWitness

[hackerkatt]

I am at:

Code: Select all

Cacti: cacti-0.8.6h_41
Cactid: 0.8.6f

HK

[TheWitness]

You may want to look at a more recent Cactid.

TheWitness

[hackerkatt]

Thanks for following up on this. We are an ISP. Don't really want risk breaking things as we heavily relay on monitoring to manage our network. I'm working on building a new Nagios/Cacti server. In the meantime, I will just set up Get SNMP Data for each oid I need. And extend SNMP where I needed when I would ordinarily get data via a script; in such cases where a script is failing. Thanks again.

HK