README
                       Using Mailstats with MRTG

# 17/04/97:  These files are based on a post 
# made to the MRTG discussion list.

# I was then asked if I would contribute them to the distribution.
# Now I've cleaned up one or two minor things, but the message below
# is essentially the same as the distribution I have contributed.

# I also posted this to comp.mail.sendmail some time back.

# rachel polanskis   <r.polanskis@nepean.uws.edu.au>




This is some experimenting I have done using sendmail and mrtg.

Currently I am using Solaris 2.5.1 as the mailhost, and then plotting
the goodies using mrtg-2.0 on Linux 1.2.13 and displaying the graphs 
on the linux box.

There are some caveats on my method for plotting these charts:

1:  I use a previously undefined port and run the Solaris
    /bin/mailstats program out of inetd.  
    For this reason, I can only assume the mailstat on Solaris 
    works - I have tried no other platforms.

*   Q:  Is there a security risk involved in running Solaris Mailstat
        out of inetd? 

2:  You must have Perl-5.002 or better installed on the plotting host.

3:  You must have MRTG-2.0 installed - you must know how to use it!

4:  I am only interested in SMTP connections, and my scripts only 
    plot In and Out, since mrtg can only plot 2 lines per graph.
    If you want any more than that - experiment!  And then tell me 
    since I am only learning.

Here goes:

1:  Ensure you have "/bin/mailstat" on your system.

2:  Enable "/etc/mail/sendmail.st"
    To do this you can just make sure the entry for "sendmail.st" in
    "sendmail.cf" is uncommented, and then do the command:
   
	# touch /etc/mail/sendmail.st

    And restart sendmail:

	# /etc/init.d/sendmail stop
	# /etc/init.d/sendmail start


3:  Create the following shell-script:

	#!/bin/sh
	# smtp-stats:  exec Solaris mailstats
	#
	if [ -x "/bin/mailstats" ]
	then
	exec /bin/mailstats -f/etc/mail/sendmail.st 
	fi
	
I run this out of /opt/local/bin, and call it "smtp-stats"

4:  Now add the following to /etc/services:

	# /etc/services
	#
	smtp-stats      7256/tcp                        # smtp-stats

I used port 7256 as it was undefined.  You might like to select something 
else.

5:  Add the following to /etc/inetd.conf:

	# /etc/inetd.conf
	#
	smtp-stats      stream  tcp     nowait root \
	/opt/local/bin/smtp-stats smtp-stats


***Ensure that the above is all on *one* line.  The sample above
is broken on 2 lines for legibility!!


6:  Restart inetd


7:  Test the port.  you should see the following:

# telnet localhost 7256
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
Statistics from Thu Feb 27 01:12:47 1997
 M msgsfr bytes_from  msgsto   bytes_to  Mailer
 0      0          0K     96        393K  prog
 3     34         94K      0          0K  local
 5     93        474K     31         47K  esmtp
========================================
 T    127        568K    127        440K
Connection closed by foreign host.


OK!!

The line we are interested in is line 5:  The "esmtp"  line.
This is the line we will use to get our stats.

You might want to adjust this depending on how many mailer progs
you use...

I find the Totals to be useless, since it includes a lot of filtering 
from procmail.  I am only interested in SMTP connections...

####################################
Stage 2:  MRTG


Here is a perl script I wrote to glom the values of the "esmtp" line (5)
and massage them into something mrtg understands.

A file called "mailstats.old" is written to /tmp
to allow for doing my sums.  

I am a Perl Newbie - please don't be offended at my code.
I would like it if someone can help me with better methods one day!

#!/usr/bin/perl 
#
# rachel polanskis - 240297
# this script relies on the sendmail.st file being activated.
# the data is called via "mailstats" which comes with SunOS/Solaris.
# mailstats is run out of inetd, on port 7256.
# 
require 5.002;
use strict;
use Socket;

my ($remote, $port, $iaddr, $paddr, $proto, $line, $count, $oldfrm, $oldto, $curfrm, $curto, $msgsfrm, $msgsto, $a, $b, $c, $d);

##
# open the old stats file for reading - we use this to get the differences
#
open (OLD,"</tmp/mailstat.old") or die "can't open file!\n";

# read the old data 
#
while (<OLD>) {
   if ($. == "1") {
      $count = $_;
    }
   ($oldfrm, $oldto) = split (' ',$count);
}
close (OLD);

##
# Straight out of the blue Camel - pp. 349
#
# Change these next 2 lines to suit yourself.
#
$remote = "juno";
$port = "7256";

#
if ($port =~ /\D/) {$port = getservbyname ($port, 'tcp')}
die "No port" unless $port;

$iaddr = inet_aton($remote) or die "no host: $remote";
$paddr = sockaddr_in($port, $iaddr);

$proto = getprotobyname ('tcp');

socket (SOCK, PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, $proto) or die "socket: $!";
connect (SOCK, $paddr) or die "connect: $!";

##
# munge the output data
#
while (<SOCK>) {

   if ($. == "5" ) {
   $line = $_;
   ($a, $curfrm, $b, $curto, $c, $d) = split(' ',$line);

# do some sums
$msgsfrm = $curfrm - $oldfrm;
$msgsto = $curto - $oldto;
chomp $msgsfrm;
chomp $msgsto;

# open the old file for overwrite
open (OLD,">/tmp/mailstat.old") or die "can't open file!\n";

# print the data for mrtg
  print "$msgsfrm\n$msgsto\n1\njuno\n";

# print the data to the old file
  print OLD "$curfrm $curto\n";

    } #endif

}

close (SOCK) or die "close: $!";
exit;


##########################

Now,  Here is my mrtg.cfg file for mail.
I call it "mail.cfg"
I run mrtg from cron on my Linux box every 10 minutes to plot the stats.
It is up to the individual what they do with their own setup.

#
# Mail:  MRTG.cfg file for sendmail stats on mailhost.
#

WorkDir: /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs/stats/mrtg
Interval: 10 
#---------------------------------------------------------------
Target[mail]: `/usr/local/bin/mrtg/mailstats`
MaxBytes[mail]: 150
Options[mail]: gauge
Title[mail]: Juno Sendmail Statistics
PageTop[mail]: Juno Sendmail Statistics</H1>
XSize[mail]: 500
Supress[mail]: my
YSize[mail]: 200
WithPeak[mail]: dwmy
YLegend[mail]: No. of messages
ShortLegend[mail]: messages
LegendI[mail]: &nbsp;Incoming:
LegendO[mail]: &nbsp;Outgoing:



That's it!!

You should have no problems running this stuff if you follow my
instructions.

Any comments, advice or interesting suggestions 
would be much appreciated.

Do with my little hack as you like, as long as the developers
of sendmail, perl, and mrtg get some credit, as well as lil ol me 
for dreaming this up!!!


have fun...

rachel polanskis <r.polanskis@nepean.uws.edu.au>  17/04/97