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NAME

RRD::Simple - Simple interface to create and store data in RRD files

SYNOPSIS

 use strict;
 use RRD::Simple ();
 
 # Create an interface object
 my $rrd = RRD::Simple->new();
 
 # Create a new RRD file with 3 data sources called
 # bytesIn, bytesOut and faultsPerSec.
 $rrd->create("myfile.rrd",
             bytesIn => "GAUGE",
             bytesOut => "GAUGE",
             faultsPerSec => "COUNTER"
         );
 
 # Put some arbitary data values in the RRD file for same
 # 3 data sources called bytesIn, bytesOut and faultsPerSec.
 $rrd->update("myfile.rrd",
             bytesIn => 10039,
             bytesOut => 389,
             faultsPerSec => 0.4
         );
 
 # Generate graphs:
 # /var/tmp/myfile-daily.png, /var/tmp/myfile-weekly.png
 # /var/tmp/myfile-monthly.png, /var/tmp/myfile-annual.png
 my @rtn = $rrd->graph("myfile.rrd",
             destination => "/var/tmp",
             title => "Network Interface eth0",
             vertical_label => "Bytes/Faults",
             interlaced => ""
         );

 # Return information about an RRD file
 my $info = $rrd->info("myfile.rrd");
 require Data::Dumper;
 print Data::Dumper::Dumper($info);

 # Get unixtime of when RRD file was last updated
 my $lastUpdated = $rrd->last("myfile.rrd");
 print "myfile.rrd was last updated at " .
       scalar(localtime($lastUpdated)) . "\n";
 
 # Get list of data source names from an RRD file
 my @dsnames = $rrd->sources("myfile.rrd");
 print "Available data sources: " . join(", ", @dsnames) . "\n";
 
 # And for the ultimately lazy, you could create and update
 # an RRD in one go using a one-liner like this:
 perl -MRRD::Simple=:all -e"update(@ARGV)" myfile.rrd bytesIn 99999 

DESCRIPTION

RRD::Simple provides a simple interface to RRDTool's RRDs module. This module does not currently offer fetch method that is available in the RRDs module.

It does however create RRD files with a sensible set of default RRA (Round Robin Archive) definitions, and can dynamically add new data source names to an existing RRD file.

This module is ideal for quick and simple storage of data within an RRD file if you do not need to, nor want to, bother defining custom RRA definitions.

METHODS

new

 my $rrd = RRD::Simple->new(
         rrdtool => "/usr/local/rrdtool-1.2.11/bin/rrdtool"
     );

The rrdtool parameter is optional. It specifically defines where the rrdtool binary can be found. If not specified, the module will search for the rrdtool binary in your path, an additional location relative where the RRDs module was loaded from, and in /usr/local/rrdtool*.

The rrdtool binary is only used by the add_source method, and only under certain circumstances. The add_source method may also be called automatically by the update method, if data point values for a previously undefined data source are provided for insertion.

create

 $rrd->create($rrdfile, $period,
         source_name => "TYPE",
         source_name => "TYPE",
         source_name => "TYPE"
     );

$rrdfile is optional and will default to $0.rrd. (Script basename with the file extension of .rrd).

$period is optional and will default to year. Valid options are day, week, month, year, 3years and mrtg. Specifying a retention period value will change how long data will be retained for within the RRD file. The mrtg scheme will try and mimic the retention period used by MRTG (http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/webtools/mrtg/.

RRD::Simple will croak and die if you try to create an RRD file that already exists.

update

 $rrd->update($rrdfile, $unixtime,
         source_name => "VALUE",
         source_name => "VALUE",
         source_name => "VALUE"
     );

$rrdfile is optional and will default to $0.rrd. (Script basename with the file extension of .rrd).

$unixtime is optional and will default to time() (the current unixtime). Specifying this value will determine the date and time that your data point values will be stored against in the RRD file.

If you try update a value for a data source that does not exist, it will automatically be added for you. The data source type will be set to whatever is contained in the $RRD::Simple::DEFAULT_DSTYPE variable. (See the VARIABLES section below).

If you explicitly do not want this to happen, then you should check that you are only updating pre-existing data source names using the sources method. You can manually add new data sources to an RRD file by using the add_source method, which requires you to explicitly set the data source type.

last

 my $unixtime = $rrd->last($rrdfile);

$rrdfile is optional and will default to $0.rrd. (Script basename with the file extension of .rrd).

sources

 my @sources = $rrd->sources($rrdfile);

$rrdfile is optional and will default to $0.rrd. (Script basename with the file extension of .rrd).

add_source

 $rrd->add_source($rrdfile,
         source_name => "TYPE"
     );

$rrdfile is optional and will default to $0.rrd. (Script basename with the file extension of .rrd).

You may add a new data source to an existing RRD file using this method. Only one data source name can be added at a time. You must also specify the data source type.

This method can be called internally by the update method to automatically add missing data sources.

graph

 $rrd->graph($rrdfile,
         destination => "/path/to/write/graph/images",
         basename => "graph_basename",
         sources => [ qw(source_name1 source_name2 source_name3) ],
         source_colors => [ qw(ff0000 aa3333 000000) ],
         source_labels => [ ("My Source 1","My Source Two","Source 3") ],
         line_thickness => 2,
         rrd_graph_option => "value",
         rrd_graph_option => "value",
         rrd_graph_option => "value"
     );

$rrdfile is optional and will default to $0.rrd. (Script basename with the file extension of .rrd).

Graph options specific to RRD::Simple are:

destination

The destination parameter is optional, and it will default to the same path location as that of the RRD file specified by $rrdfile. Specifying this value will force the resulting graph images to be written to this path location. (The specified path must be a valid directory with the sufficient permissions to write the graph images).

basename

The basename parameter is optional. This parameter specifies the basename of the graph image files that will be created. If not specified, tt will default to the name of the RRD file. For exmaple, if you specify a basename name of mygraph, the following graph image files will be created in the destination directory:

 mygraph-daily.png
 mygraph-weekly.png
 mygraph-monthly.png
 mygraph-annual.png

The default file format is png, but this can be explicitly specified using the standard RRDs options. (See below).

sources

The sources parameter is optional. This parameter should be an array of data source names that you want to be plotted. All data sources will be plotted by default.

source_colors
 $rrd->graph($rrdfile,
         source_colors => [ qw(ff3333 ff00ff ffcc99) ],
     );
 
 $rrd->graph($rrdfile,
         source_colors => { source_name1 => "ff3333",
                            source_name2 => "ff00ff",
                            source_name3 => "ffcc99", },
     );

The source_colors parameter is optional. This parameter should be an array or hash of hex triplet colors to be used for the plotted data source lines. A selection of vivid primary colors will be set by default.

source_labels
 $rrd->graph($rrdfile,
         sources => [ qw(source_name1 source_name2 source_name3) ],
         source_labels => [ ("My Source 1","My Source Two","Source 3") ],
     );
 
 $rrd->graph($rrdfile,
         source_labels => { source_name1 => "My Source 1",
                            source_name2 => "My Source Two",
                            source_name3 => "Source 3", },
     );

The source_labels parameter is optional. The parameter should be an array or hash of labels to be placed in the legend/key underneath the graph. An array can only be used if the sources parameter is also specified, since the label index position in the array will directly relate to the data source index position in the sources array.

The data source names will be used in the legend/key by default if no source_labels parameter is specified.

line_thickness

Specifies the thickness of the data lines drawn on the graphs. Valid values are 1, 2 and 3 (pixels).

Common RRD graph options are:

title

A horizontal string at the top of the graph.

vertical_label

A vertically placed string at the left hand side of the graph.

width

The width of the canvas (the part of the graph with the actual data and such). This defaults to 400 pixels.

height

The height of the canvas (the part of the graph with the actual data and such). This defaults to 100 pixels.

For examples on how to best use the graph method, refer to the example scripts that are bundled with this module in the examples/ directory. A complete list of parameters can be found at http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/webtools/rrdtool/doc/index.en.html.

retention_period

 my $seconds = $rrd->retention_period($rrdfile);

$rrdfile is optional and will default to $0.rrd. (Script basename with the file extension of .rrd).

This method will return a maximum period of time (in seconds) that the RRD file will store data for.

info

 my $info = $rrd->info($rrdfile);

$rrdfile is optional and will default to $0.rrd. (Script basename with the file extension of .rrd).

This method will return a complex data structure containing details about the RRD file, including RRA and data source information.

VARIABLES

$RRD::Simple::DEBUG

Debug and trace information will be printed to STDERR if this variable if set to 1 (boolean true).

This variable will take its value from $ENV{DEBUG}, if it exists, otherwise it will default to 0 (boolean false). This is a normal package variable and may be safely modified at any time.

$RRD::Simple::DEFAULT_DSTYPE

This variable is used as the default data source type when creating or adding new data sources, when no other data source type is explicitly specified.

This variable will take its value from $ENV{DEFAULT_DSTYPE}, if it exists, otherwise it will default to GAUGE. This is a normal package variable and may be safely modified at any time.

EXPORTS

You can export the following functions if you do not wish to go through the extra effort of using the OO interface:

 create
 update
 last_update (synonym for the last() method)
 sources
 add_source
 graph
 retention_period
 info

The tag all is available to easily export everything:

 use RRD::Simple qw(:all);

See the examples and unit tests in this distribution for more details.

SEE ALSO

RRDTool::OO, RRDs, http://www.rrdtool.org, examples/*.pl

VERSION

$Id: Simple.pm 146 2006-02-08 14:43:20Z nicolaw $

AUTHOR

Nicola Worthington <nicolaw@cpan.org>

http://perlgirl.org.uk

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2005,2006 Nicola Worthington.

This software is licensed under The Apache Software License, Version 2.0.

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