1) RRD is a backend to MRTG(and
others). RRD is only a gathering and storage mechanism. MRTG
and other are the front ends that will display the data from RRD. MRTG is
also a standalone tool that works very well for up to a couple of hundred
targets. Neither are a front or backend the SA. SA will create and
populate RRDs with RTT results. You still need a front end to view
that data.
2) RRD and MRTG are similar. See
above.
3) SA is a monitoring and alerting tool, MRTG is a graphing
and trending tool. SA can monitor service states, web pages etc.
MRTG is mostly used for SNMP data. It can provide rudimentary threshold
alerting but that's all. SA provides many alerting methods as well as
scheduling. SA can alert you if a CPU(via SNMP) passes a threshold at a
moment in time. MRTG records this data and graphs it for you over day,
week, month, and year averages.
4) MRTG is easier to set up, especially in a Windows
enviroment. RRD is the big brother to MRTG and they can work
together. My method would be to start with MRTG and if it is not flexible
enough, not scalable enough etc. then look to using RRD as the backend.
5)
What Dirk said... ;)
-Kevin
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 10:33 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [SA-list] RRDTool (was Bandwidth)
OK guys, I'm nibbling. I've got a copy of RRDTools and am playing a bit with it and SA, although I'm still a bit (a bit!??) confused about a few things.
1) Some of you seem to be saying that RRD is a frontend to MRTG - but can be a frontend to SA instead.
2) Some of you seem to be saying that RRD and MRTG are doing the same thing but differently.
3) Some of you seem to be saying that MRTG and SA are doing the same thing but differently.
4) OK, let's dumb it down a bit. If I'm using SA, and I want to produce graphs of (say) network bandwidth, what extra tool should I use? RRD? MRTG? Both? Neither? Coathanger?
5) In SA, in the RRD logging setup screen, what command do I enter in the "Command to execute after the update" section?
Aaaaahhhh! (brain explodes)
Ian K Gray
OEL IS - European Network Operations
Tel: +44 1236 502661
Mob: +44 7881 518854
