SNMP server configuration
Firstly, you need an SNMP server to provide network interface statstics on demand:
# apt-get install snmpd You need to edit the configuration for this as it does not allow any connections by default. With your favourite editor, edit:
/etc/snmp/snmpd.conf Comment out the following (prefix with #):
com2sec paranoid default public Insert the following underneath the commented out section:
com2sec readonly default public That gives anyone with access to the SNMP server read-only access to the public community. This is the one that contains the interface statistics.
To apply the changes, restart snmpd:
/etc/init.d/snmpd restart Make sure you firewall off any SNMP related ports so that you don't get any unwanted visitors (check netstat and /etc/services for port information).
Installation of MRTG
MRTG is the main collection and graphing component of the traffic monitoring solution I am presenting here. Firstly, install MRTG:
# apt-get install mrtg You can manually or automatically generate the configuration file for mrtg. I would recommend doing it automatically as it is a lot easier. Issue the following command:
# cfgmaker --global 'WorkDir: /var/www/mrtg' \
--output /etc/mrtg.cfg public@127.0.0.1 This will generate the configuration file. You then need to make an index file which contains a list of all of your interfaces. Issue the following command:
# indexmaker /etc/mrtg.cfg --columns=1 \
--output /var/www/mrtg/index.html You will now need to execute mrtg manually 3 times to create the required database files. Issue the following command 3 times sequentially. On the third run, you should see no errors being reported:
# mrtg
This is executed every 5 minutes by cron. The cron job was added by dpkg for you so you do not have to configure it.
Enjoy...
