What is the "Host" in/of a "Data Source"

[markdv]

When creating a "Data Source" what is the "Host" - under "Data Template Selection" - for? I've read/searched the documentation but I can't find any clear explanation of (the purpose of) this field.

The comment sys "Choose the host that this graph belongs to." What graph? I'm not creating a graph, I'm creating a data source. Right? I don't get it...

And why does a data-source need to belong to a host? Or apparently it doesn't, since I can also leave it set to none. Begging the question what the difference or consequence of that is.

And this is not the only thing that is unclear to me and for which I find little to no explanation in the documentation. I'm sure that once you understand how it works it'll all make sense, but I think the documentation could do a better job of helping me make sense of what I don't yet understand. Or maybe I'm just dumb/dense... ? (Yes, me frustrated! )

Any help appreciated.

Cheers, Mark.

[BSOD2600]

When creating a "Data Source" what is the "Host" - under "Data Template Selection" - for? I've read/searched the documentation but I can't find any clear explanation of (the purpose of) this field.

It's a device you've defined in cacti already. It needs to be associated to a device, because that tells cacti where to direct the snmp/script/other query at during the poller run.

The comment sys "Choose the host that this graph belongs to." What graph? I'm not creating a graph, I'm creating a data source. Right? I don't get it...

Hmm, wording bug.

[markdv]

When creating a "Data Source" what is the "Host" - under "Data Template Selection" - for? I've read/searched the documentation but I can't find any clear explanation of (the purpose of) this field.

It's a device you've defined in cacti already. It needs to be associated to a device, because that tells cacti where to direct the snmp/script/other query at during the poller run.

You mean it's used to set the value of the keywords for the Data Input Methods->Input Fields->Special Type Code? I guess that makes sense.

However the comment of that field says "If this field should be treated specially by host templates, indicate so here.". "Host templates", not "Data Sources" So still a bit confusing and at least non-obvious that this also applies to the "Host" property of the DS. (Aside from the fact that "treated specially" is about as vague as you can get.)

But I'm slowly starting to make sense of it all. Thanks for the clarification.

The comment sys "Choose the host that this graph belongs to." What graph? I'm not creating a graph, I'm creating a data source. Right? I don't get it...

Hmm, wording bug.

Should a bug-report be filed somewhere?

[BSOD2600]

You mean it's used to set the value of the keywords for the Data Input Methods->Input Fields->Special Type Code? I guess that makes sense.

Hmm, no not really. Have you read http://docs.cacti.net/manual:087:2_basi ... _operation yet?

Should a bug-report be filed somewhere?

Yup. http://www.cacti.net/bugs.php