[collectd] Feedback: 4.2.0 - rpm, config, collection.cgi, usuability

[Iain Lea]

We have been using a patched 3.10 collectd for a while and it works well.

There is now a requirement to graph some application data on our systems
so the perl and/or exec plugins look like they are whats needed so I
took a look at the 4.2.0 release. My feedback:

- fixed collectd.spec file to work with new plugins and collection.conf

  http://iainlea.dyndns.org/software/collectd/4.2.0/collectd.spec


- generated 4.2.0 rpms available here:
  
  http://iainlea.dyndns.org/software/collectd/4.2.0/collectd-4.2.0-1.fc6.src.rpm 
  http://iainlea.dyndns.org/software/collectd/4.2.0/collectd-4.2.0-1.fc6.i386.rpm 
  http://iainlea.dyndns.org/software/collectd/4.2.0/collectd-apache-4.2.0-1.fc6.i386.rpm 
  http://iainlea.dyndns.org/software/collectd/4.2.0/collectd-email-4.2.0-1.fc6.i386.rpm 
  http://iainlea.dyndns.org/software/collectd/4.2.0/collectd-mysql-4.2.0-1.fc6.i386.rpm 
  http://iainlea.dyndns.org/software/collectd/4.2.0/collectd-sensors-4.2.0-1.fc6.i386.rpm 


- edited collectd.conf file to have a reasonable set of default plugins.
It also has a problem in that the directory paths are non-standard i.e,
  #BaseDir     "/usr/var/lib/collectd"
  #PIDFile     "/usr/var/run/collectd.pid"
Should be:
  #BaseDir     "/var/lib/collectd"
  #PIDFile     "/var/run/collectd.pid"

  http://iainlea.dyndns.org/software/collectd/4.2.0/collectd.conf


- edited collection.conf file to have a reasonable default paths i.e,
  datadir: "/opt/collectd/var/lib/collectd/rrd/"
  libdir: "/opt/collectd/lib/collectd/"
Should be:
  datadir: "/var/lib/collectd/rrd/"
  libdir: "/usr/lib/collectd/"

  http://iainlea.dyndns.org/software/collectd/4.2.0/collection.conf

- What does the extra "rrd" in path /var/lib/collectd/rrd/ bring?
Why not just keep it as /var/lib/collectd/ or some new funcionality
planned?

- The collection.cgi in v4 vs. v3 is built for listing many hosts whose
collectd data is located on a single host (or at least it seems that way).
Whats needed to bring it upto the easy to use (ie. 1 click) of v3 while
keeping the expanded v4 capabilities are the following minor addtions:

  1. if only stats for _1_ host available then display _all_ graphs for 
  it at once with say _hourly_ resoltion.

  2. have a 'select all checkbox' next to or under the plugin selector
  so its easy to display all stats for an host. Maybe also mention in 
  docs that one can use shift+left-mouse-click to select all as well.

  3. have some defaults in collection.conf file for better control ie.
  datadir: "/var/lib/collectd/rrd/"
  libdir: "/usr/lib/collectd/"
  pluginAllCheckbox [on|off]
  defaultDisplayPeriod [hourly|day|...]
  defaultDisplayFirstHost [on|off]

  4. seems as though displaying the load has an axis scaling problem.

URL: http://iainlea.dyndns.org/software/collectd/4.2.0/

Iain