Using RRDTool to graph pings to a host.

I started to use RRDTool again for system monitoring. One item I wanted to track and graph is ping latency to a host. First thing we need to do is create a rrd file to hold the data.

    .\rrdtool.exe create datafile.rrd -s 15  DS:data:GAUGE:900:0:U  RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:1:2020    RRA:MAX:0.5:1:2020  
 
This is a basic file that will hold about a week worth of pings at a resolution of 15 seconds. The next step is to start collecting data.

while($true){
            Test-Connection -ComputerName Computername -Count 1 -BufferSize 1460 |
                ForEach-Object{ .\rrdtool.exe update datafile.rrd N:$($_.ResponseTime)}
             Sleep 14
        }

I jumped right in with this one. Ping the host forever every 14 seconds and record it in our datafile. I know we defined the file as receiving samples every 15 seconds but it is ok if we record more often. RRDTool will aggregate the values for us. Our next step is to produce a graph.

.\rrdtool.exe graph graph.png --start -15 -u 20 -l 0 -w 400 -h 300 -t "Pings to host" DEF:"A0"="datafile.rrd":data:AVERAGE AREA:A0#FF000022 LINE2:A0#FF0000:"Ping to host"

The graph will be 400x300 over the last 15 minutes with the average ping in red. It may look something like the one below. I had to extend it out 4 hours to show a little variety in ping times.

RRDTool ping graph sample

I took this further and created a dashboard for all of my servers. I customized the charts so that they looked green if the host is up and red if the host goes offline.

The graph command for something like this gets a little more complicated, but it highlights what you can do with RRDTool. This graph shows 5 minutes of time and goes gray after 24 hours of downtime. Here is the code for those charts if you are interested. 

Get-Content .\PingList.txt | ForEach-Object {

.\rrdtool.exe graph .\Graphs\$_.ping.png -s now-300s -e now-25s -u 5 -l 0 -w 200 -h 60 -t "$_" -c BACK#000000 -c FONT#00ff00 -c CANVAS#FF0000 -c GRID#000000 -c MGRID#000000 -c ARROW#000000 -c AXIS#00ff00 -c SHADEA#000000 -c SHADEB#000000 `

    DEF:"A0"=".\ServersIV\$_.ping.rrd":data:AVERAGE `

    DEF:"PS"=".\ServersIV\$_.ping.rrd":data:AVERAGE:end=now-24h:start=end-24h `

    SHIFT:PS:86400 `

    CDEF:A0T=A0`,1`,+ `

    CDEF:A0TU=A0T`,UN `

    VDEF:MM=A0TU`,MINIMUM `

    CDEF:PST=PS`,1`,+`,UN `

    VDEF:PSMM=PST`,MINIMUM `

    TICK:MM#FFCC00:.5 `

    TICK:PSMM#333333:1 `

    TICK:A0T#339933:1 `

    AREA:A0#00000088 `

    LINE2:A0#000000  ;

}