remote monitoring system variables?

[Matthew Seaman]

On Mon, May 17, 2004 at 06:32:42PM -0500, Stephen P. Cravey wrote:
> I'm tryign to locate a pre-existing method of monitoring FreeBSD systems. Specifically, I'd like a way to monitor sysctl variables, IPFW/PF counters, cpu and ram utilization(in that order). I can write my own interface, however I'd hate to have to reinvent the wheel if there's already something out there. Not to mention the difficulty in figuring out how to build an interface into the ipfw counters. Thanks.

Most of that can by obtained via snmp -- the net-mgmt/net-snmp port
would be a good place to start.  You can get the system load and
memory usage and the number of bytes transmitted via each interface
straight out of SNMP, but for things like sysctl(8) output or IPFW
counters, youl'd have to get the SNMP daemon to run an external script
and return the results.  You can probably figure out how to do that by
reading the documentation supplied with net-snmp and by playing with
the configuration file generator snmpconf(1).

Once you've got SNMP capability available on your server, virtually
all network monitoring software, including a bunch of large-scale
commercial monitoring programs, will be able to process and display
the results.  If your budget doesn't run that far, then there's plenty
of applications in ports that will do a similar job.  Particularly
recommended is net-mgmt/mrtg in combination with net/rrdtool -- very
good for graphing the state of such things over time.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                       26 The Paddocks
                                                      Savill Way
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey         Marlow
Tel: +44 1628 476614                                  Bucks., SL7 1TH UK
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