Passing parameters to a query script

slack · Post by **slack** » Mon May 22, 2006 6:10 pm

How do I pass parameters to a data query script? I see an arg_prepend field in some of the xml files that are part of the default cacti install, but it's not documented.

BSOD2600 · Post by **BSOD2600** » Mon May 22, 2006 7:36 pm

http://forums.cacti.net/viewtopic.php?t=11288

Post by **gandalf** » Tue May 23, 2006 6:24 am

slack wrote:How do I pass parameters to a data query script? I see an arg_prepend field in some of the xml files that are part of the default cacti install, but it's not documented.

|arg_prepend| is used to provide some input parms to a data query. Use the host variables defined in the cacti docs
Reinhard

slack · Post by **slack** » Tue May 23, 2006 12:28 pm

That faq doesn't address this, but thanks.

I need to pass custom variables, not the standard host variables. Is there a way? I can do this with a data input method, why not with a data query?

slack · Post by **slack** » Tue May 23, 2006 1:27 pm

Ok, making progress here and thought I'd post to help anybody else who might be interested...

Anything in arg_prepend will be passed to the script before the query commands. Thus I can create an XML file for each switch if I need to, which is less than easy to manage, but still doable.

Another idea is to fake it with the existing host variables...but this might be hard to remember down the line.

Post by **gandalf** » Wed May 24, 2006 2:39 pm

I already spent time on this and am quite sure, that this is not doable with current cacti. Up to now, I've found no example, that really NEEDED this. So I would be interested in your example. If it points out a missing feature ....
Reinhard

slack · Post by **slack** » Wed May 24, 2006 5:06 pm

Here is my xml file for the data query:

Code: Select all

<interface>
        <name>Get Netgear Smart Switch Stats</name>
        <script_path>|path_cacti|/scripts/smartswitch.php</script_path>
        <arg_prepend>FS526T xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx apassword false</arg_prepend>
        <arg_index>index</arg_index>
        <arg_query>query</arg_query>
        <arg_get>get</arg_get>
        <arg_num_indexes>num_indexes</arg_num_indexes>
        <output_delimeter>:</output_delimeter>
        <index_order>ssPortID</index_order>
        <index_order_type>alphabetic</index_order_type>
        <index_title_format>|chosen_order_field|</index_title_format>

        <fields>
                <ssPortID>
                        <name>Port Number</name>
                        <direction>input</direction>
                        <query_name>id</query_name>
                </ssPortID>
                <ssRX>
                        <name>RX</name>
                        <direction>output</direction>
                        <query_name>RX</query_name>
                </ssRX>
                <ssTX>
                        <name>TX</name>
                        <direction>output</direction>
                        <query_name>TX</query_name>
                </ssTX>
                <ssRXError>
                        <name>RX Error</name>
                        <direction>output</direction>
                        <query_name>RXError</query_name>
                </ssRXError>
                <ssTXError>
                        <name>TX Error</name>
                        <direction>output</direction>
                        <query_name>TXError</query_name>
                </ssTXError>
        </fields>
</interface>

So when the poller does its thing, it calls the script like this:

/usr/share/cacti/site/scripts/smartswitch.php FS526T xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx apassword false get TX p25

The first parameter to the script is the switch model number. This is necessary because each smart switch model has a little bit different output, and thus the expressions used to parse the output vary. The second parameter is the IP or host name, which I could of course specify via cacti. The third parameter is the password for the switch, which is not the same as an SNMP password, because this switch doesn't talk SNMP at all....it's the password for the web interface. The fourth parameter is a boolean to enable/disable verbose output from the script for debugging. The remaining parameters are cacti's query itself.

This is actually working for me right now. I'm able to graph RX/TX and errors for all 26 ports on this switch. HOWEVER, I have to hardcode the special script parameters into the XML file. With a data input method I have the choice to specify parameters dynamically, which would be a nice feature for data queries.

The only show-stopper problem I'm having, and this has nothing to do with cacti, is that the management interfaces for these smart switches is really horrible, and crashes easily, requiring a hard restart of the switch. If things don't stabilize then all of my work might have been for nothing.

Post by **gandalf** » Thu May 25, 2006 7:54 am

Ok, now I understand better. Your request makes sense to me, but I don't know a better solution to this. You may post a Feature Request to the forum referring to this post
Reinhard

ar27 · Post by **ar27** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 8:43 am

slack

Can you give me an idea of how you used this xml file to get your data graphed. A sample of your php script, screenshots, data file that the script reads, anything that will help me piece together the whole picture.

Thanks
AR

reizend · Post by **reizend** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 11:17 am

Toddles18 · Post by **Toddles18** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 11:50 am

A trick to get what you need without modifying stock cacti code.

http://forums.cacti.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=55704

Cacti