=head1 NAME
mrtg-nt-guide - The MRTG 2.17.7 Windows Installation Guide
=head1 SYNOPSIS
Installing MRTG on a Windows box is not quite as "click and point" as some
might want it to be. But then again, it is not all that difficult if you
follow the instructions below.
=head1 PREREQUISITES
To get MRTG to work on Windows you need the following:
=over
=item *
A current copy of Perl.
For Example ActivePerl 5.8.8 from ActiveState
http://www.activestate.com/store/activeperl/download/
=item *
The latest version of MRTG from http://oss.oetiker.ch/mrtg/pub. Look for
mrtg-2.17.7.zip or better. The archive also contains a precompiled copy of
rateup.exe for Win32.
=back
=head1 INSTALLING
I suggest you do the following from the machine that will be running MRTG,
which, in this case, is also a web server. All examples are for doing things
to a LOCAL machine.
=over
=item First
Unzip MRTG to C:\mrtg-2.17.7 on the Windows machine of your choice.
=item Next
Install Perl on the same Windows machine. You might want to make sure
that the Perl binary directory is listed in your system path.
C:\Perl\bin;%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;...
You can manually check this by going to [Control Panel]->[System]->[Environment]
=back
To see if everything is installed properly you can open a Command Shell
and go into F<c:\mrtg-2.17.7\bin>. Type:
perl mrtg
This should give you a friendly error message complaining about the missing MRTG
configuration file. Now, you have successfully installed MRTG and Perl.
=head1 CONFIGURING MRTG
Now it is time to create a configuration for MRTG. But before we begin you need to know a few things. Take an
opportunity to gather the following information:
=over
=item *
The IP address or hostname and the SNMP port number, (if non standard), of the device you want to monitor.
=item *
If you want to monitor something other than bytes in and out, you must also know the SNMPOID of what you
want to monitor.
=item *
Finally you need to know the read-only SNMP community string
for your device. If you don't know it, try B<public>, that is the default.
=back
For the rest of this document we will be using device B<10.10.10.1> ( a CISCO
Catalyst 5000) with Community string B<public>. We are interested in monitoring
traffic, and the CPU load. Let's begin.
The first thing we do in setting up MRTG is making a default config file.
Get to a cmd prompt and change to the F<c:\mrtg-2.17.7\bin> directory. Type the
following command:
perl cfgmaker public@10.10.10.1 --global "WorkDir: c:\www\mrtg" --output mrtg.cfg
This creates an initial MRTG config file for you. Note that in this file all interfaces
of your router will be stored by number. Unfortunately, these numbers are likely to change whenever you
reconfigure your router. In order to work around this you can get F<cfgmaker> to produce a configuration
which is based on Ip numbers, or even Interface Descriptions. Check L<cfgmaker>
If you get an error message complaining about B<no such name> or B<no
response>, your community name is probably wrong.
Now, let's take a look at the mrtg.cfg file that was created.
In Perl, a C<#> is a comment, synonymous with C<REM> in DOS.
Add the following to the top of the mrtg.cfg file:
WorkDir: c:\www\mrtg
This is where the web pages are created, usually a web root.
######################################################################
# Description: LCP SUWGB
# Contact: Administrator
# System Name: LC-Bridge
# Location: Here
#.....................................................................
TargetDevice's IP Address:Interface Number:Community:IP Address
Target[10.10.10.1.1]: 1:public@10.10.10.1
This is the interface speed (Default is 10 megabits; for 100Mbit devices use 12500000 and so on...)
MaxBytes[10.10.10.1.1]: 1250000
Title[10.10.10.1.1]: LC-Bridge (sample.device): ether0
This section determines how the web page headers will look
PageTop[10.10.10.1.1]: <H1>Traffic Analysis for ether0</H1>
<TABLE>
<TR><TD>System:</TD><TD>LC-Bridge inAndover</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Maintainer:</TD><TD>Administrator</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Interface:</TD><TD>ether0(1)</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>IP:</TD><TD>sample.device(10.10.10.1)</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Max Speed:</TD>
<TD>1250.0 kBytes/s (ethernetCsmacd)</TD></TR>
</TABLE>
Target[10.10.10.1.2]: 2:public@10.10.10.1
MaxBytes[10.10.10.1.2]: 1250000
Title[10.10.10.1.2]: LC-Bridge (): ulink0
PageTop[10.10.10.1.2]: <H1>Traffic Analysis for ulink0</H1>
<TABLE>
<TR><TD>System:</TD><TD>LC-Bridge inAndover</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Maintainer:</TD><TD>Administrator</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Interface:</TD><TD>ulink0(2)</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>IP:</TD><TD>()</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Max Speed:</TD>
<TD>1250.0 kBytes/s (ethernetCsmacd)</TD></TR>
</TABLE>
#---------------------------------------------------------------
And that's a very basic MRTG config file. You can run this and see your
results by going into the F<c:\mrtg-2.17.7\bin> directory and typing:
perl mrtg mrtg.cfg
It is normal to get errors for the first two times you run this command. The
errors will alert you about the fact that there have not been any log files
in existence before.
If you take a look at those web pages they are not very exciting (yet). You need
to have the MRTG files run every five minutes to produce the desired results.
Just run it again after a few minutes. You should now be able to see the first
lines in your graphs.
=head1 MAKE MRTG RUN ALL THE TIME
Starting MRTG by hand every time you want to run it is not going to make you
happy I guess.
There is a special option you can set in the MRTG configuration file so
so that MRTG will not terminate after it was started. Instead it
will wait for 5 minutes and then run again.
Add the option
RunAsDaemon: yes
to your mrtg.cfg file and start it with:
start /Dc:\mrtg-2.17.7\bin wperl mrtg --logging=eventlog mrtg.cfg
If you use B<wperl> instead of B<perl>, no console window will show. MRTG is now
running in the background. If it runs into problems it will tell you so
over the EventLog. To stop MRTG, open the Task Manager and terminate the
B<wperl.exe> process. If mrtg has anything to tell you these messages
can be found in the event log.
If you put a shortcut with
Target: wperl mrtg --logging=eventlog mrtg.cfg
Start in: c:\mrtg-2.17.7\bin
into your start-up folder, MRTG will now start whenever you login to your NT
box.
If you do not want to log into your box just to start MRTG. Have a look
at http://www.firedaemon.com/mrtg-howto.html which describes a free tool to
start any program as a Service. The pages gives specific instructions for
MRTG users.
=head1 HOW TO SETUP MRTG AS A WINDOWS SERVICE
=head2 Additional Prerequisites
=over
=item *
MRTG must be installed and fully configured on the target system. In the
following exercise the assumption is that MRTG is installed under c:\mrtg\
and all the sample files use this location.
=item *
Microsoft Tools B<SRVANY.exe> (Applications as Services Utility) and
B<INSTSRV.exe> (Service Installer) - Those files can be downloaded from
Microsoft as a part of Windows 2000 Resource Kit at
L<http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/default.asp>.
They are also available from other locations such as
L<http://www.electrasoft.com/srvany/srvany.htm>,
L<http://www.iopus.com/guides/srvany.htm>, etc. Detailed instructions on how
to use this package are available at
L<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q137890/>. In order to follow the steps in
this HOW-TO you B<MUST> obtain both executables.
=item *
You must have administrative rights on the target system.
=back
=head2 Preparation
Please complete the following steps before starting the installation:
=over
=item *
Copy B<srvany.exe> and B<instsrv.exe> to c:\mrtg-2.17.7\bin\ (your MRTG bin directory).
=item *
Create a file called B<mrtg.reg> anywhere on your system and paste the
following content into it:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MRTG\Parameters]
"Application"="c:\\perl\\bin\\wperl.exe"
"AppParameters"="c:\\mrtg-2.17.7\\bin\\mrtg --logging=eventlog c:\\mrtg-2.17.7\\bin\\mrtg.cfg"
"AppDirectory"="c:\\mrtg-2.17.7\\bin\\"
=back
=head2 Service Installation
Once again, assuming that MRTG is already fully installed and configured on
the target system under c:\mrtg\ the following steps are necessary to setup
MRTG as a service.
Using the command prompt go into the temporary directory where you unzipped
the package. When there type the following command to create a service
named "MRTG" in the Windows Services management console:
instsrv MRTG c:\mrtg\bin\srvany.exe
Now you need to create the B<App*> entries required for the new service. You
can do this by either right-clicking on the mrtg.reg file and selecting
'merge' or by running the following command:
regedit /s mrtg.reg
After setting up the registry entry it is time to point it to your MRTG
installation. If you have installed MRTG under F<c:\mrtg\>, you can skip this
step. Open your registry editor (Start -E<gt> Run -E<gt> regedt32), and locate the
B<[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MRTG]> key. Make
sure that the B<ImagePath> variable is correctly pointing to B<srvany.exe>
located in your MRTG bin directory (for example c:\mrtg\bin\srvany.exe).
Next you have to expand the MRTG tree, and go to the
B<[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MRTG\Parameters]>
key. Under Parameters make sure that all the B<Application> variables are
setup properly.
At this point you are ready to run the service. The only thing left to do
is to start the MRTG service in the Services management console. After you
do this, you should see two new processes running on your system: srvany.exe
and wperl.exe. Make sure to stop any previously running MRTG processes to
avoid conflict.
Note that it is imperative to set the B<RunAsDaemon: yes> option or the
service will stop after just one single run!
=head1 EXAMPLE
Now lets look at a config file to monitor what we wanted to on our mythical
Cisco Cat 5000 -- utilization on ports 3, 5, 10, and 24, and the CPU Load,
which will show us nonstandard mrtg configurations as well as more options..
WorkDir: c:\www\mrtg
RunAsDaemon: yes
######################################################################
# Description: LCP SUWGB
# Contact: Administrator
# System Name: LC-Bridge
# Location: Here
#.....................................................................
Target[10.10.10.1.1]: 3:public@10.10.10.1
MaxBytes[10.10.10.1.1]: 1250000
Title[10.10.10.1.1]: LC-Bridge (sample-device): ether0
PageTop[10.10.10.1.1]: <H1>Traffic Analysis for ether0</H1>
<TABLE>
<TR><TD>System:</TD><TD>LC-Bridge inAndover</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Maintainer:</TD><TD>Administrator</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Interface:</TD><TD>ether0(3)</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>IP:</TD><TD>sample-device(10.10.10.1)</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Max Speed:</TD>
<TD>1250.0 kBytes/s (ethernetCsmacd)</TD></TR>
</TABLE>
#---------------------------------------------------------------
Target[10.10.10.1.2]: 5:public@10.10.10.1
MaxBytes[10.10.10.1.2]: 1250000
Title[10.10.10.1.2]: LC-Bridge (): ulink0
PageTop[10.10.10.1.2]: <H1>Traffic Analysis for ulink0</H1>
<TABLE>
<TR><TD>System:</TD><TD>LC-Bridge inAndover</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Maintainer:</TD><TD>Administrator</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Interface:</TD><TD>ulink0(5)</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>IP:</TD><TD>()</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Max Speed:</TD>
<TD>1250.0 kBytes/s (ethernetCsmacd)</TD></TR>
</TABLE>
#---------------------------------------------------------------
Target[10.10.10.1.1]: 10:public@10.10.10.1
MaxBytes[10.10.10.1.1]: 1250000
Title[10.10.10.1.1]: LC-Bridge (sample-device): ether0
PageTop[10.10.10.1.1]: <H1>Traffic Analysis for ether0</H1>
<TABLE>
<TR><TD>System:</TD><TD>LC-Bridge inAndover</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Maintainer:</TD><TD>Administrator</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Interface:</TD><TD>ether0(10)</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>IP:</TD><TD>sample-device(10.10.10.1)</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Max Speed:</TD>
<TD>1250.0 kBytes/s (ethernetCsmacd)</TD></TR>
</TABLE>
#---------------------------------------------------------------
Target[10.10.10.1.2]: 24:public@10.10.10.1
MaxBytes[10.10.10.1.2]: 1250000
Title[10.10.10.1.2]: LC-Bridge (): ulink0
PageTop[10.10.10.1.2]: <H1>Traffic Analysis for ulink0</H1>
<TABLE>
<TR><TD>System:</TD><TD>LC-Bridge inAndover</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Maintainer:</TD><TD>Administrator</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Interface:</TD><TD>ulink0(24)</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>IP:</TD><TD>()</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>Max Speed:</TD>
<TD>1250.0 kBytes/s (ethernetCsmacd)</TD></TR>
</TABLE>
#---------------------------------------------------------------
# Router CPU load %
Target[cpu.1]:1.3.6.1.4.1.9.2.1.58.0&1.3.6.1.4.1.9.2.1.58.0:public@10.10.10.1
RouterUptime[cpu.1]: public@10.10.10.1
MaxBytes[cpu.1]: 100
Title[cpu.1]: CPU LOAD
PageTop[cpu.1]: <H1>CPU Load %</H1>
Unscaled[cpu.1]: ymwd
ShortLegend[cpu.1]: %
XSize[cpu.1]: 380
YSize[cpu.1]: 100
YLegend[cpu.1]: CPU Utilization
Legend1[cpu.1]: CPU Utilization in % (Load)
Legend2[cpu.1]: CPU Utilization in % (Load)
Legend3[cpu.1]:
Legend4[cpu.1]:
LegendI[cpu.1]:
LegendO[cpu.1]: Usage
Options[cpu.1]: gauge
This is a nice example of how to monitor any SNMP device if you know what OID
you want to use. Once again, for an explanation of the more advance features of
mrtg, please see the rest of the documentation.
=head1 AUTHORS
Tobi Oetiker E<lt>tobi@oetiker.chE<gt>,
David S. Divins E<lt>ddivins@moon.jic.comE<gt>,
Steve Pierce E<lt>MRTG@HDL.comE<gt>,
Artyom Adjemov E<lt>one.bofh@gmail.comE<gt>,
Ilja Ivanov E<lt>ivanov@bseu.byE<gt>
Karel Fajkus E<lt>http://fajkus.cz/E<gt>