Thomas Vincent
57b8088e13
* docs: comprehensive audit, Spine poller overhaul, and technical refactor - Overhaul Spine documentation (Spine.md) with complete end-to-end guide: architecture, prerequisites for modern distros (EL8/9 CRB, Ubuntu 22/24, Debian 11/12, FreeBSD), SUID root permissions, secure spine.conf setup (0640), Web UI configuration (Paths, Poller type, Data Collectors tuning), MySQL max_connections sizing, and troubleshooting. - Fix broken links and anchors (Hardening, SNMP data queries, Hook API references). - Fix broken image reference in Sites.md (add-site.JPG -> add-site.png). - Fix syntax errors in documentation PHP code blocks, including invalid parenthesization, missing SQL execute quotes, and malformed comments in FAQ. - Fix DevOps installation commands: use config.php.dist, correct systemctl service names for MySQL/MariaDB/PHP-FPM, remove nonexistent php-json, add missing composer install, and correct Debian/Ubuntu systemd environment path. - Correct grammatical errors, repeated words, and typos across all markdown documents. - Remove obsolete unreferenced duplicate installation guides. Signed-off-by: Thomas Vincent <thomasvincent@gmail.com> * docs: correct reviewed examples and guidance Signed-off-by: Thomas Vincent <thomasvincent@gmail.com> * docs: correct guidance that disagrees with the Cacti source Verified each claim against include/global_arrays.php, lib/auth.php, lib/functions.php, host_templates.php and the Spine config parser. The notable ones: api_plugin_safe_exec() does not exist on either branch, Spine reads DB_Pass rather than DB_Password, and the CDEF special data source table was missing five entries and renamed four others. Signed-off-by: Thomas Vincent <thomasvincent@gmail.com> * docs: wrap Spine prose and fence the connection sizing formula The formula's bare asterisks rendered as emphasis, dropping the multiplication signs. Signed-off-by: Thomas Vincent <thomasvincent@gmail.com> * chore: refresh copyright year in scripts and issue templates Signed-off-by: Thomas Vincent <thomasvincent@gmail.com> --------- Signed-off-by: Thomas Vincent <thomasvincent@gmail.com>
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Data Source Management
Data sources in Cacti are the points of data that Cacti will collect from a device. The following are examples of different sources that can be utililised for graphing, though is just the surface of what is achievable:
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Monitoring a device via ping will usually count as 1 data source.
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A 24 port switch and you poll the device via snmp and graph all of the ports then there will be 24 data sources
Note
: if you add more graphs that base their data on the original Data source that would not count as another Data Source since it uses the already existing source.
For example, if you have a 24 port switch that you create an In/Out Bits graph for each interface, and you then add the In/Out Bits with 95th Percentile for each interface, you would still only have 24 data sources.
Keeping on top of the amount of data sources you have is important as the more data sources you have the more resources you will need to allocate to your server.
You can see how many data sources are associated with a single device by going to management then clicking on devices.
You can also see the total amount of data sources by checking the poller stats on the system. Click the log tab and filter by stats and lookout for the below message
2019/05/24 17:21:11 - SYSTEM STATS: Time:9.5913 Method:spine Processes:2 Threads:2 Hosts:14 HostsPerProcess:7 DataSources:162 RRDsProcessed:117
This output tells us we have 162 data sources on the system.
Storage considerations and datasources
The amount of data sources on your system has an impact on the amount of storage you will need. You will also need to consider what rate you are polling your devices. e.g. 1 minute or 5 Minute polls
Here is the approximate amount of storage you can expect to consume per data source
| Polling time | Retention | File size |
|---|---|---|
| 30 second | Daily | 48kb |
| 30 second | Weekly | 43kb |
| 30 second | Monthly | 46kb |
| 30 second | Yearly | 140kb |
| 1 minute | Daily | 93kb |
| 1 minute | Weekly | 45kb |
| 1 minute | Monthly | 47kb |
| 1 minute | Yearly | 140kb |
| 5 minute | Daily | 19kb |
| 5 minute | Weekly | 22kb |
| 5 minute | Monthly | 25kb |
| 5 minute | Yearly | 26kb |
Viewing all Data sources by device
You are able to check the data sources associated to a specific device in the Console -> Management -> Data sources You can then search based on a device you may be interested in to view the Data sources in use
You can also list orphaned data sources from this page by ticking the Orphaned filter checkbox. An orphaned data source is one whose graph was deleted while the data source itself was left behind.
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