Description

Configure and install the collectd monitoring daemon.

Requirements

To use the collectd::collectd_web recipe you need the apache2 cookbook.

Platform:

• Debian
• Ubuntu

Cookbooks:

• apache2 (Suggested but not required)
• apt (Suggested but not required)

Attributes

• node['collectd']['pkg_name'] - Package to install. Defaults to "collectd-core".
• node['collectd']['base_dir'] - Base folder for collectd output data. Defaults to "/var/lib/collectd".
• node['collectd']['pid_file'] - Defaults to "/var/run/collectd.pid".
• node['collectd']['plugin_dir'] - Base folder to find plugins. Defaults to "/usr/lib/collectd".
• node['collectd']['types_db'] - Array of files to read graph type information from.
• node['collectd']['interval'] - Time period in seconds to wait between data reads. Defaults to "10".
• node['collectd']['timeout'] - Defaults to "2".
• node['collectd']['read_threads'] - Defaults to "5".
• node['collectd']['write_threads'] - Defaults to "5".
• node['collectd']['write_queue_limit_high'] - Defaults to "1000000".
• node['collectd']['write_queue_limit_low'] - Defaults to "900000".
• node['collectd']['fqdn_lookup'] - Defaults to "false".
• node['collectd']['collectd_web']['path'] - Location to install collectd_web to Defaults to "/srv/collectd_web".
• node['collectd']['collectd_web']['hostname'] - Server name to use for collectd_web Apache site. Defaults to "collectd".

Recipes

• collectd::client - Installs collectd and configure it to send data to a server.
• collectd::collectd_web - Installs site for collectd
• collectd::default - Installs a standalone daemon.
• collectd::server - Installs collectd and configure it to recieve data from clients.
• collectd::_test_plugins - Used for tests. Do not apply on real server. Use it as reference how to use plugin.

Web frontend

The collectd::collectd_web recipe will automatically deploy the collectd_web frontend using Apache. The apache2 cookbook is required for this and is not included automatically as this is an optional component, so be sure to configure the node with the correct recipes.

Resources

There is one single resource provided to simplify configuring plugins:

• collectd_plugin

collectd_plugin

The collectd_plugin HWRP configures and enables standard collectd plugins. Example:

collectd_plugin 'interface' do
  options :interface=>'lo', :ignore_selected=>true
end

You can repeat resource many times from different cookbooks. Each definition will be stored in array of options under @previous_options. Templates use this array plus current options to build final options array.

collectd_plugin 'disk' do
  options :disk => 'sda'
end

# ... many code lines goes here or in different recipe ...

collectd_plugin 'disk' do
  options :disk => 'sdb'
end

Example above will work correctly, you'll got:

<Plugin disk>
  Disk "sda"
  Disk "sdb"
</Plugin

The options hash is converted to collectd-style settings automatically.

• Any symbol key will be converted to camel-case. In the above example :ignore_selected will be output as the key "IgnoreSelected".
• If the key is already a string, this conversion is skipped.
• If the key is array, first item means section name, second section attribute, value should be hash. You can repeat in inner hash.
• If the key is not array and value is an array, it will be output as a separate line for each element.

Examples:

collectd_plugin 'curl' do
  options %w(Page stock_quotes) => {
    'URL' => 'http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3AAMD',
    :user => 'foo',
    :password => 'bar',
    %w(Match) => { :regexp => 'blabla.*', :ds_type => 'GaugeAverage' }
  }
end

Produces:

<Plugin curl>
  <Page "stock_quotes">
	URL "http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3AAMD"
	User "foo"
	Password "bar"
	<Match>
		Regexp "blabla.*"
		DsType "GaugeAverage"
	</Match>
  </Page>
</Plugin>

Actions

• add: Default action.

Attribute Parameters

• options: Defaults to {}.
• previous_options: Defaults to [].

Provider

Some plugins are complex or behaves differently. That's why each plugin uses its own provider. Provider name is generated dynamically based on plugin name in the following format: write_graphite => Chef::Provider::CollectdWriteGraphitePlugin < Chef::Provider::CollectdPlugin ('Collectd' + CamelCase(plugin_name) + 'Plugin')

You just have to modify child class as you wish.

Chef::Provider::CollectdPlugin#action_add method allows options hash. You able to change cookbook or template file. Also it is possible to change behavior on merging few definitions in one:

class Chef
  class Provider
    class CollectdWriteGraphitePlugin < CollectdPlugin
	  def action_add
	    super :template => 'another_template.conf.erb', :cookbook => 'mycookbook'
      end

      def merged_options
	    [new_resource.previous_options.first].compact # ignore all next definitions, first wins
		# [new_resource.options] # ignore all previous definitions, last wins
		# (new_resource.previous_options + [new_resource.options]).compact # default merge together
	  end
	end
  end
end

Complex plugins

Using collectd_plugin for python, exec, perl, java modules is allowed, but this define will not deploy the plugin script as well, so be sure to setup a cookbook_file resource or other mechanism to handle distribution. Example:

cookbook_file File.join(node['collectd']['plugin_dir'], "redis.py") do
  owner "root"
  group "root"
  mode "644"
end

Develop

Adding new plugin is pretty easy. For example I want to implement provider for my_custom plugin:

1. Create file libraries/collectd_plugin_my_custom.rb
2. Define class Chef::Provider::CollectdMyCustomPlugin < Chef::Provider::CollectdPlugin
3. If it behaves differently override method action_add or call super with different arguments
4. If you plan to write some specs look at already written specs and 'an collectd plugin' rspec shared example.
5. if you define method my_custom_samples and return an Array of Regexp, your template will be tested on match these samples.

License & Author

• Author:: Yauhen Artsiukhou ([email protected])
• Author:: Noah Kantrowitz ([email protected])

Copyright:: 2014

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.