PHP Network Weathermap 0.8 (now 0.9)

Howie · Post by **Howie** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 11:08 am

davs wrote:I still can not add any maps. When I click on 'Add' next to my config filename, i've been taken back to the 'Manage' screen but no map was added. It says "no weathermaps configured".
Normally, when we click on 'add' it should add the config file in the weathermap_maps table?

Yes.

davs wrote: I'm really sorry to disturb you...
I know I'm the only one who have problem with your plugins but I find it so interesting so I really want to make it work..

Actually, one other person has had it now. He fixed it by changing to MySQL 4.x. But, I'd like to get to the bottom of this...

Could you please look in your Apache error_log for any php errors mentioning weathermap? I think that if it is a mysql problem, then php should be leaving an error somewhere, and that's the only other place to look!

knobdy · Post by **knobdy** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 11:13 am

Quick question: Where does the node number come from? I'm editing a few configs by hand and wanted to create a new node but hadn't a clue where to get the new node number since none of those currently in the file - created with the editor - were (completely) sequential.

I've also tried changing it to something I understood (like the same as the label), which the editor didn't like and never took. As I understand it form the config reference, though, it can be anything so long as its all one word - right?

Howie · Post by **Howie** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 11:18 am

knobdy wrote:Quick question: Where does the node number come from? I'm editing a few configs by hand and wanted to create a new node but hadn't a clue where to get the new node number since none of those currently in the file - created with the editor - were (completely) sequential.

You can make up any name you like, as long as it has no spaces. The editor has no brains, so it just takes the current time and uses it to make up a number that's going to be unique (until time starts to go backwards).

knobdy wrote: I've also tried changing it to something I understood (like the same as the label), which the editor didn't like and never took. As I understand it form the config reference, though, it can be anything so long as its all one word - right?

Yes. You would need to make the edit by hand, then either click on 'Reload cleanly' at the bottom of the editor page, or 'Choose file' and choose the same file again. The editor has to fetch the new name from the server, basically.

knobdy · Post by **knobdy** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 4:14 pm

Anyone see an obvious problem with the following?

Code: Select all

LINK node2S1-node2S2
        ARROWSTYLE Compact
        BWOUTLINECOLOR none
        BWFONTCOLOR 255 0 0
        VIA 235 312
        NODES node2S1:SW node2S2:NW

LINK node2S2-node2S1
        ARROWSTYLE Compact
        BWOUTLINECOLOR none
        BWFONTCOLOR 255 0 0
        VIA 295 312
        NODES node2S2:NE node2S1:SE

While both links (sets of arrows) show up on the map, only one is following the VIA statements as it should, the second one. No, only one follows the VIA statements OR the NODES placement/compass statements!

DISREGARD - Corrected itself somehow after moving the order of nodes and links around.

kagoryu · Post by **kagoryu** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 7:35 pm

Hi Howie,

Is there any way I can disable the boxes (one with the current traffic utilization) ? I would just like to see the arrows and colors only.

Thank you.

kagoryu · Post by **kagoryu** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 11:08 pm

I saw :

BWLABEL none

It works!

Now another problem arises, whenever I add another node (or link a node or change the position of the Legend) the editor seem to stop working. It displays blank. But when I delete the last item that I've added it displays the whole map.

Your thoghts?

knobdy · Post by **knobdy** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 8:45 am

Sorry, but I have another request - if possible. How about a "call-out" that can be attached to a link or node and used to describe them in greater detail than the label can but not an image or snapshot like the hover popup is. Something akin to what you might see on a flow chart or the like. My use would be, for instance, on a secondary link I have to a failover firewall - which should never see any traffic unless we have a problem.

Another possible use - or a seperate addition for that matter - is a way of stating port numbers/names. It would be nice if it could pull the info directly from Cacti too - but since this is pretty close to a physical network diagram (depending on how you use it) that additional level of feedback would be excellent.

Howie · Post by **Howie** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 12:40 pm

knobdy wrote:Sorry, but I have another request - if possible. How about a "call-out" that can be attached to a link or node and used to describe them in greater detail than the label can but not an image or snapshot like the hover popup is. Something akin to what you might see on a flow chart or the like. My use would be, for instance, on a secondary link I have to a failover firewall - which should never see any traffic unless we have a problem.

OK - but two questions: what should it do when you have an OVERLIBGRAPH as well (which you probably would want for a link), and how do you see it being configured? Is it fetching text from elsewhere, or one line specified in the config? Or some more complex HTML-style thing?

Another possible use - or a seperate addition for that matter - is a way of stating port numbers/names. It would be nice if it could pull the info directly from Cacti too - but since this is pretty close to a physical network diagram (depending on how you use it) that additional level of feedback would be excellent.

This is what I was thinking about. Someone on the mailing list asked for a similar thing, and I was playing with it before that... something that took (for example) the Cisco interface description line. I experimented at one time with having text drawn along the side of the link arrows, to allow this kind of comment text, but it had a few drawbacks: first, you must use a freetype font to get the rotation required. second, freetype is not always very good at small text, especially rotated small text. finally, I did all that before I added curves, which make the whole thing more complicated

I wouldn't mind being able to add switch port references and telco circuit references into my maps, too, but I don't want to have something that's either overly complex or so simple it doesn't do enough and keeps being patched and tweaked.

There's a similar chain of 'would be nice' stuff for changing the colour of nodes based on some NMS data (e.g. Nagios state). Suddenly there's a whole slew of stuff that's needed just to support the 'small thing'

Anything like that makes the day that the editor supports everything disappear into the distance too, unfortunately.

It needs a bit of designing/planning.

knobdy · Post by **knobdy** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 3:06 pm

Howie wrote:OK - but two questions: what should it do when you have an OVERLIBGRAPH as well (which you probably would want for a link), and how do you see it being configured? Is it fetching text from elsewhere, or one line specified in the config? Or some more complex HTML-style thing?

I think OVERLIBGRAPH can continue to function as is. This would be more of a static object on the map - a "special" node of sorts. But instead of having a label, it's text would fill it's call-out form.

Howie wrote:This is what I was thinking about. Someone on the mailing list asked for a similar thing, and I was playing with it before that... something that took (for example) the Cisco interface description line. I experimented at one time with having text drawn along the side of the link arrows, to allow this kind of comment text, but it had a few drawbacks: first, you must use a freetype font to get the rotation required. second, freetype is not always very good at small text, especially rotated small text. finally, I did all that before I added curves, which make the whole thing more complicated

Yeah, this would be much more difficult - but then again, it could be an OVERLIBINFOTEXT thingy, and I'd be more than happy with just the name of the port that Cacti comes up with. However, this couldn't be a part of the "link" object really. We are only monitoring one side of the link and it would be better, for this purpose, to be able to define not just what port that link is on, on that one device, but also what port it is on, on the other device...that make sense?

Howie wrote:I wouldn't mind being able to add switch port references and telco circuit references into my maps, too, but I don't want to have something that's either overly complex or so simple it doesn't do enough and keeps being patched and tweaked.

There's a similar chain of 'would be nice' stuff for changing the colour of nodes based on some NMS data (e.g. Nagios state). Suddenly there's a whole slew of stuff that's needed just to support the 'small thing'

Anything like that makes the day that the editor supports everything disappear into the distance too, unfortunately.

It needs a bit of designing/planning.

I don't know how others are using it but my use of the editor is VERY limited. I'm basically just throwing nodes up with it and then click on "see Config", copy/pasting that into wordpad, making my changes and putting them back on the server. Would it be nice to have a more advanced editor? Sure, I'd like to enlarge my map size right now and then click-drag around all of my current nodes and move them all, at once, into the new center of the page. But I can wait on that if I'm getting more functionality out of the end result - the maps.

Post by **rony** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 3:11 pm

Ok, so I must admit, I don't look at plugins to much. But today, I decided to poke around.

Really nice Plugin, I love what you can do, just from the screenshots.

knobdy · Post by **knobdy** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 3:13 pm

rony wrote:Ok, so I must admit, I don't look at plugins to much. But today, I decided to poke around.

In my view, this was the only thing Cacti was missing!

knobdy · Post by **knobdy** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 3:22 pm

Another idea: using an icon for your switch that shows ports (perhaps even stencils?) and being able to connect links to them. In other words, you'd have to be able to configure the exact location on the icon that the link starts from, and the link arrow would almost have to be a stick figure that changes color.

It also seems like the links should be above the icons.

Howie · Post by **Howie** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 4:09 pm

knobdy wrote:Another idea: using an icon for your switch that shows ports (perhaps even stencils?) and being able to connect links to them. In other words, you'd have to be able to configure the exact location on the icon that the link starts from, and the link arrow would almost have to be a stick figure that changes color.

I can't see this happening soon... basically like the composite shapes in Visio?

One (slightly) related thing that I kicked around a while ago was 1D links. My test version was a sort of yin-yang symbol, with one half for in and the other for out, coloured as links are now. The aim being to use them for things like arrays of switch ports, or (my need at the time) a data centre map, with one per cabinet.

Again though, I don't know quite how you'd configure them. A link with just one node on the NODES line? It'd have to make sure that no other link used the same node, because that node would not be drawn normally. It's a NINK, or a LODE.

knobdy wrote: It also seems like the links should be above the icons.

Yeah, for that one special case

Howie · Post by **Howie** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 4:11 pm

rony wrote:Ok, so I must admit, I don't look at plugins to much. But today, I decided to poke around.

Really nice Plugin, I love what you can do, just from the screenshots.

Hehe. Thanks

Still more to come, hopefully.

gilles · Post by **gilles** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 5:28 pm

first, weathermap 0.8 is a very good job

these are my 2 requests :

1- a better editor (upload image and a pick-up graph for nodes)
2- when i associate the node with a cacti graph (like CPU for servers, for example), i want the color of the node to act like a link by changing its color

good luck !!

PHP Network Weathermap 0.8 (now 0.9)

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