Boost
| Author: | Larry Adams |
| Homepage: | http://forums.cacti.net/ |
| Download: | http://forums.cacti.net/ |
This plugin requires the Plugin Architecture, V1.1 for
Single Process Boost Server and 1.2 for Multi Process Boost Server
Author ......... Larry Adams
Contact ........ larryjadams@comcast.net
Home Site ...... http://www.cacti.net
Program ........ Cacti Performance Booster
Version ........ 1.2
Purpose ........ Large Site Performance Booster for Cacti
*******************************************************************************/
This plugin boost's Cacti performance especially for Large Sites. It does
this by introducing three new features to Cacti.
First, it caches recently viewed images to a public Cache folder for all
users to share.
Second, it introduces an "on demand" RRD update feature to Cacti. This
feature will only update the RRD files when there is demand on the system
to view a graph. The RRD's will be updated just before the Graph is rendered
by the web server. Then, on a predetermined schedule, it conducts a batch
updates of all remaining RRD's.
Lastly, it introduces an RRD update service to Cacti. This service allows
you to add multiple Cacti servers to your web farm allowing all the servers
to participate in the "on demand" RRD update and viewing process.
On Demand RRD Updates
Timed and Mass RRD Updates by Number of Records
RRD Update Service
PNG Caching
Before you install Boost, you need to have met the following prerequisites:
1) Cacti 0.8.6i or Above. Versions of Cacti prior to 0.8.6 are not supported.
2) Cacti Plugin Architecture v1.x
3) MySQL 4.1 or above. Versions of MySQL less than 4.1 are not supported.
4) Have quite a bit of system memory available to hold your memory resident
database and/or your SQL results during major rrd update cycles.
Before enabling boost, please consider very carefully how you plan to use it
long term. Careful thought should be given to how often you update RRD's
at what point you need to either increase your MySQL max heap table size,
or increase your update frequency. You should also consider carefully how
much memory to allocate to PHP when retrieving records during major updates.
If you are unsure of what I am talking about, you should not use Boost!!!
Install is similar to other plugins with the following notes:
1) You must choose your RRD update cache database format. There are
two options:
- Memory Resident (MySQL 5.x and Above)
- MyISAM (All Supported MySQL Versions)
The benefit of the Memory Resident impmenentation is that database
exchanges will be very fast and will not delay the system. However,
if you system is rebooted between major update cycles, you can loose
some graph data. It does also require a new version of MySQL.
The MyISAM version will increase MySQL load during polling, but does
store the information in a lossless (well almost anyway) format.
IMPORTANT: If you plan on using a memory resident database format,
make sure you set the mysql environment variable "max_heap_table_size"
large enough to accomodate all of your records, else, you will loose
data. This environment must go into either your my.cnf or my.ini file.
To install either format, you must follow the instructions below:
mysql -u
Options here are as follows:
boost_sql_memory.sql, boost_sql_myisam.sql
2) Once you have the SQL in place, you must enable you plugin by adding
the boost plugin into cacti's
unlike other plugins.
3) Then, you must decide on directories to hold both you PNG and RRD
directories. Once you have decided, create these directories and
verify your poller user has "RW" and your Web user has "R" access to the
RRD directory and "RW" to the PNG directory.
4) Next you have to enable any of the three features mentioned. You can
do this by going to your Cacti website, logging in as an adminnistrator
and going to the Settings->Performance Booster tab.
5) If your Web server is not going to have access to create/update RRD
files, you must start the "boost_server.php" file as a service. You
should do this once at boot time. In the UNIX/LINUX environment, you
can perform this using a script that was provided by Jimmy Connor
(cigamit) to do this. Please see the file cacti_rrdsvc. Place this
file in the /etc/init.d folder. Once it is there, you need to edit it
and modify the variable PROGPATH to point to the location of
boost_server.php. Once those steps are complete, run the following
commands.
On Most Linux Variants:
chkconfig --add cacti_rrdsvc
chkconfig cacti_rrdsvc on
Then either:
service cacti_rrdsvc start
or:
/etc/init.d/cacti_rrdsvc start
6) Finally, you can poll the server using telnet. To do so, start a telnet
session on the port you choose to use (default 9050) and type the
"status" command followd by a carriage return. You should receive a
favorable response.
If you need additional help, please go to forums.cacti.net
If you figure out this problem, let me know!!!
Ernest Wilson (N3NCY) - For allowing me to break and then fix his
system repeatedly perfecting this Plugin.
Jimmy Connor (cigamit) - For bringing the plugin architecture to
the world of Cacti and providing continual support of my development
efforts.
Got any ideas or complaints, please e-mail me!
--- SVN ---
--- 1.0 ---
Initial release
--- 1.1 ---
Fix issues with Multiprocess RRD updating of RRD Files
--- 1.2 ---
Added boost_server.php and poller_boost.php to the no session array
Made slight change to rrd-update functions to accomodate for abarant
output in the poller_output_boost table. This would cause the boost
plugin to loose data if improperly formatted data made it into the table.