munin.conf - Man Page

Munin configuration file

Description

Munin is a group of programs to gather data from hosts, graph them, create html-pages, and optionally warn contacts about any off-limit values.

The hosts are divided into three groups: One master (could be more, but Munin is not cluster aware so they'll likely be independent). The master contacts a number of machines running munin-node, these are called nodes. Each node has data from one or more hosts that is monitored by Munin.

munin.conf is the configuration file for the Munin master server. The programs using it are munin-update, munin-graph, munin-limits and munin-html. There is also quite extensive documentation of this file at <http://munin-monitoring.org/wiki/munin.conf>

The format of the file is simple. A minimal configuration looks something like:

        [machine1.your.dom]
                address localhost

The default location of munin.conf is /etc/munin/munin.conf. If your placement deviates from this norm, use the "--config <file>"-option when running the munin-* programs.

Munin-update will expand all node-entries in this file, and save them to /var/lib/munin/datafile, which is used by all programs in the package together with this file.

Any directives in this file will override directives of the same name in datafile. E.g., if you want to change the title of the "load"-graph in the above minimum configuration, you would modify the two bottom lines to:

        [machine1.your.dom]
                address localhost
                load.graph_title Edited title of the load-graph

This will override the graph_title attribute of the load field/data series while keeping all the others at their default.

Global Directives

These directives should appear in munin.conf before any host or group definitions.

dbdir path (Default: /var/lib/munin)

Directory for generated database files. Required.

logdir path (Default: /var/log/munin)

Directory for log files. Required.

htmldir path (Default: /var/www/html/munin)

Directory for HTML pages and graphs. Required.

rundir path (Default: /var/run/munin)

Directory for files tracking munin's current running state. Required.

tmpldir path (Default: /etc/munin/templates)

Directory for templates used to generate HTML pages. Required.

fork value

This directive determines whether munin-update fork when gathering information from nodes. Possible values are yes and no. Default is yes. If you set it to no munin-update will collect data from the nodes in sequence rather than in parallel and this will take considerably more time. Affects: munin-update.

palette default|old

Choose palette between the very nice "default", and the good old "old".

graph_data_size value

This directive sets the resolution of the RRD files that are created. Possible values are normal and huge. Default is normal. Huge is really huge, it saves the complete data with 5 minute resolution for 400 days. This will probably increase the I/O load on your Munin master, and currently has very little benefit. Affects: munin-update.

graph_strategy value

Deprecated. (Graphs are now always drawn via CGI.)

local_address value

The local address to connect any node from in case the master has several IP interfaces. This can be overridden by a group or global directive. Without this directive Munins traffic will originate from the master server according to the IP routing table.

max_processes <value>

This directive specifies the maximum number of processes to be used for gathering information from nodes. If left blank, munin will use as many processes as necessary. Affects: munin-update.

max_graph_jobs <value>

This directive specifies the maximum number of concurrent rrdgraph proesses started by munin-graph. The default is 6. A setting of 0 disables concurrent processing. Affects: munin-graph

max_cgi_graph_jobs <value>

This directive specifies the maximum number of concurrent munin-cgi-graph jobs. The web server can start a high number of munin-cgi-graph jobs which we can't stop, but munin-cgi-graph will throttle down how many rrdgraph calls will be running at the same time to this number. Affects: munin-cgi-graph and munin-fastcgi-graph.

timeout_fetch_all_nodes seconds

This directive will set the maximum amount of time in seconds the munin-update task may run. So we'll make sure the update ended within the 5 minutes timespan needed to have complete graphs without gaps.

You should probably not increase this value, unless all nodes are using ssh with munin-async. Otherwise you may expecience gaps in graphs, if munin-update takes longer, than the default period (5 minutes).

Munin-async can retrieve historical data, and if there is a big backlog, we could need more time depending on the size of the data generated by the plugin and the size of the backlog. This would also mean that we wouldn't care to skip an update. So munin-async will get more time to retrieve the backlog data. Afterwards new data will incrementally be fetched. Default is 240. Affects: munin-update

timeout_fetch_one_node seconds

This directive will set the maximum amount of time in seconds the munin-update task may run for a single node. This value can't be bigger than timeout_fetch_all_nodes. Default is 180. Affects: munin-update

ssh_command value

The name of the secure shell command to use. Can be fully qualified, or looked up in $PATH. Default: ssh

ssh_options value

The ssh command line options. Defaults: -o ChallengeResponseAuthentication=no -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no.

If you need per-host ssh configuration, add these to ~/munin/.ssh/config

tls <value>

Can have four values. paranoid, enabled, auto, and disabled. Paranoid and enabled require a TLS connection, while disabled will not attempt one at all.

The current default is disabled because auto is broken. Auto causes bad interaction between munin-update and munin-node if the node is unprepared to go to TLS.

If you see data dropouts (gaps in graphs) please try to disable TLS. Affects: munin-update.

tls_verify_certificate <value>

This directive can be yes or no. It determines if the remote certificate needs to be signed by a CA that is known locally. Default is no. Affects: munin-update.

tls_private_key <value>

This directive sets the location of the private key to be used for TLS. Default is /etc/munin/munin.pem. The private key and certificate can be stored in the same file. Affects: munin-update.

tls_certificate <value>

This directive sets the location of the TLS certificate to be used for TLS. Default is /etc/munin/munin.pem. The private key and certificate can be stored in the same file. Affects: munin-update.

tls_ca_certificate <value>

This directive sets the CA certificate to be used to verify the node's certificate, if tls_verify_certificate is set to yes. Default is /etc/munin/cacert.pem. Affects: munin-update.

tls_verify_depth <value>

This directive sets how many signings up a chain of signatures TLS is willing to go to reach a known, trusted CA when verifying a certificate. Default is 5. Affects: munin-update.

tls_match <value>

This directive, if defined, searches a dump of the certificate provided by the remote host for the given regex. The dump of the certificate is two lines of the form:

        Subject Name: /C=c/ST=st/L=l/O=o/OU=ou/CN=cn/emailAddress=email
        Issuer  Name: /C=c/ST=st/O=o/OU=ou/CN=cn/emailAddress=email

So, for example, one could match the subject distinguished name by the directive:

        tls_match Subject Name: /C=c/ST=st/L=l/O=o/OU=ou/CN=cn/emailAddress=email

Note that the fields are dumped in the order they appear in the certificate. It's best to view the dump of the certificate by running munin-update in debug mode and reviewing the logs.

Unfortunately, due to the limited functionality of the SSL module in use, it is not possible to provide finer-grained filtering. By default this value is not defined. Affects: munin-update.

FIXME: This section MAY be complete, it may be missing a directive or two.

Host Definitions

Host definitions can have several types. In all forms, the definition is used to generate the host name and group for the host, and the following lines define its directives. All following directives apply to that node until another node definition or EOF. Note that when defining a nodename it is vital that you use a standard DNS name, as in, one that uses only a-z, '-', and '.'. While other characters can be used in a DNS name, it is against the RFC, and Munin uses the other characters as delimiters. If they appear in nodenames, unexpected behavior may occur.

The simplest node definition defines the section for a new node by simply wrapping the DNS name of the node in brackets, e.g. [machine1.your.dom]. This will add the node machine1.your.dom to the group your.dom.

The next form of definition is used to define the node and group independently. It follows the form [your.dom;machine1.sub.your.dom]. This adds the node machine1.sub.your.dom to the group your.dom. This can be useful if you have machines you want to put together as a group that are under different domains (as in the given example). This can also solve a problem if your machine is machine1.com, where having a group of com makes little sense.

Multiple groups can be specified by adding more groupname;s, e.g. [servers;local;mail;mail.foo.net], if you need a more hierarchical structure.

Node Directives

These are directives that can follow a node definition and will apply only to that node.

address <value>: The IP address of the node. Required.
local_address <value>: The local address to connect to the node from. This overrides a group or global directive.

FIXME: This section is incomplete.

Plugin Directives

These directives should appear after a node definition and are of the form plugin.directive <value>. Using these directives you can override various directives for a plugin, such as its contacts, and can also be used to create graphs containing data from other plugins.

FIXME: This section is (obviously) incomplete.

Field Directives

These directives should appear after a node definition and are of the form plugin.field <value>. Using these directives you can override values originally set by plugins on the nodes, such as warning and critical levels or graph names.

graph_height <value>: The graph height for a specific service. Default is 175. Affects: munin-graph.
graph_width <value>: The graph width for a specific service. Default is 400. Affects: munin-graph.
warning <value>: The value at which munin-limits will mark the service as being in a warning state. Value can be a single number to specify a limit that must be passed or they can be a comma separated pair of numbers defining a valid range of values. Affects: munin-limits.
critical <value>: The value at which munin-limits will mark the service as being in a critical state. Value can be a single number to specify a limit that must be passed or they can be a comma separated pair of numbers defining a valid range of values Affects: munin-limits.

FIXME: This section is incomplete.

Examples

On all the examples below, all the 'top-level' parameters (dbdir, logdir, htmldir, tmpldir) are not present. They are only skipped for brevity - they are needed.

Example 1

An example with three servers on two domains:

        [machine1.one.dom]
                address machine1.one.dom

        [machine2.one.dom]
                address 10.33.32.123

        [machine3.two.dom]
                address localhost

This will appear as two groups (one.dom and two.dom), having respectively two and one node.

Example 2

Summarize the 'load'-graphs of the two servers in one.dom, in a 'total load'-graph.

        [one.dom;Totals]
                update no
                load.graph_title Total load
                load.sum_load.label load
                load.sum_load.special_stack machine1=machine1.one.dom:load.load machine2=machine2.one.dom:load.load