Cheshire Cat Computing

Steve,

I'm getting my hands dirty with your book. Thank you much. I don't know what I would do without it.

I'd like to ask a question about file structure organization. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around file structure and implications of nested master files, so what looks like a lot of crap below I hope is not that putting off for you to wade through.

Here is what I've worked out in my notes so far for implementation. I'm looking for best practice guidance.

MRTG installed to /usr/local/mrtg-2
RRDtool installed to /usr/local/rrdtool-1.3.8
routers2 installed to /usr/local/src/routers2-v2.19

during install.pl:
MRTG files : /usr/local/mrtg-2/cfgs/*.cfg
RRD files : /usr/local/mrtg-2/rrds
Config file : /usr/local/mrtg-2/rrds/routers2.conf

1. Does it matter where routers2.conf is?

I plan to use one .cfg for each device, and put all .cfgs from cfgmaker into
/usr/local/mrtg-2/cfgs/*.cfgs

I was planning two level master files.

/usr/local/mrtg-2/master.cfg
routers.cgi*Ignore: yes
Include: /usr/local/mrtg-2/locations/east.cfg
(there are other 2nd level master files, west.cfg and south.cfg, but speaking of only east.cfg in this post

And for this second master file )...
/usr/local/mrtg-2/locations/east.cfg
routers.cgi*Ignore: yes
Include: /usr/local/mrtg-2/global.conf
Include: /usr/local/mrtg-2/cfgs/router1.cfg
Include: (snip) /router2.cfg
Include: (snip) /router3.cfg

And my global conf...
/usr/local/mrtg-2/global.conf
LogFormat: rrdtool
RunAsDaemon: yes
WorkDir: /usr/local/mrtg-2/rrds
Forks: 5
Interval: 5
LibAdd: /usr/local/rrdtool-1.3.8/lib/perl
LibAdd: /usr/local/mrtg-2/lib/mrtg2

2. Can I nest two master files?
3. Do I need to use routers.cgi*Ignore on both master files?
4. All three file(s), master.cfg, east.cfg, and all the files in /cfgs/*.cfg are not in the same tree per say. Is this a problem? Master.cfg is in the root of mrtg. The master east.cfg is in root of mrtg-2/locations/. And *.cfg files are in a lateral file mrtg-2/cfgs/*.

I'm looking ahead to your group directives for making menu nested menu creation, and wondering do I need to properly nest them in one data tree.
/usr/local/mrtg-2/data/east (master.cfg here)/(east.cfg)(routera.cfg)/ or do I put east.cfg in the east directory.

Then if I mix global.conf with the .cfg files, do I need to use routers-cgi*Ignore in them too. Probably not.

Thank you for your help.
Marcus

1. No, but keep it out of your webroot for security
2. Yes
3. Yes, if you want routers2 to ignore them both
4. Doesnt matter, but you may need to use absolute paths rather than relative ones

_________________
Steve Shipway
UNIX Systems, ITSS, University of Auckland, NZ
Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning... -- Isaiah 5:11

Thank you.