[[PageOutline]]

= How to configure Plastic Slices monitoring on a MyPLC PlanetLab node =

== Introduction ==

This page explains how to configure a MyPLC !PlanetLab node for the [wiki:PlasticSlices/MonitoringRecommendations Plastic Slices central monitoring configuration].  Before following these instructions, please ask GPO infra for a copy of the tarball
{{{
plastic-slices-monitor-plnode-0.1.tar.gz
}}}
which is the latest version of the monitoring utilities for a MyPLC !PlanetLab node running Fedora 8 or Fedora 12.

== Variables ==

 * `<site>`: a one-word phrase describing your site, probably the name of your university or lab (e.g. `stanford`, `gpolab`).  Use the same value for all hosts your site is monitoring.
 * `<fqdn>`: The fully-qualified domain name as which your MyPLC should report data.  ''IF this is not the same as the output of `uname -n` on your node, pay attention to step 5 below.''

The scripts must run as root on nodes, because they use `vserver-stat` to obtain node status.  This page assumes you will also do your reporting as root.

== Steps ==

 1. Copy the tarball over to your node, e.g. into `~/plastic-slices-monitor-plnode-0.1.tar.gz`.

 2. Unpack the tarball in `/`:
{{{
cd /
sudo tar xvzf ~/plastic-slices-monitor-plnode-0.1.tar.gz
}}}
 This should create the following files:
{{{
/usr/local/bin/build_gmoc_conf
/usr/local/bin/measurement_sender
/usr/local/bin/metric_plnode
/usr/local/bin/report_data_to_gmoc
/usr/local/lib/metricscollector.py
/usr/local/lib/rrd_metric.py
}}}

 3. Install required packages:
   * IF your nodes can run yum, simply install the dependencies:
{{{
sudo yum install rrdtool-python rrdtool-perl perl-File-Find-Rule perl-XML-Writer perl-libwww-perl
}}}
   * IF you used [wiki:GpoLab/MyplcPackageInstallationTips#UseyumdownloadertodownloadpackagesanddependenciesontheMyPLC yumdownloader] to cache the RPMs on your MyPLC, copy them over now, install them by hand, and check that it worked:
{{{
cd ~/rpms
sudo rpm -iv *.rpm
rpm -q rrdtool-python rrdtool-perl perl-File-Find-Rule perl-XML-Writer perl-libwww-perl
}}}
   Note that these RPMs were collected on a different machine, so there may still be dependency problems you need to resolve by hand.
   * IF neither of those situations applies, you will need to download RPMs and install dependencies by hand in order to install these packages.  Please contact the GPO if you need a hand.

 4. Create required directories:
{{{
sudo mkdir -p /var/spool/rrds/$(uname -n) 
sudo mkdir -p /var/spool/rrds/REPORT
}}}

 5. IF `uname -n` does not report your node's FQDN for whatever reason, create a symlink so that reporting and reading scripts can find your RRD files:
{{{
cd /var/spool/rrds
sudo ln -s $(uname -n) <fqdn>
}}}

 6. Run the metric-gathering script by hand to make sure it works:
{{{
sudo /usr/local/bin/metric_plnode
}}}
 * This should produce no output
 * After this runs, a number of RRD files should be created in `/var/spool/rrds/$(uname -n)`

 7. Run the data reporting script by hand to make sure it works:
{{{
sudo /usr/local/bin/report_data_to_gmoc <site> <fqdn>
}}}
 * This should produce no output
 * You should be able to browse to [http://gmoc-dev.grnoc.iu.edu/api-demo/data/], view data by Location, select your site, and find a new entry for `<fqdn>`.

 8. Add the two scripts to cron: modify the root crontab:
{{{
sudo crontab -e
}}}
 and add the new lines:
{{{
*/1 * * * * /usr/local/bin/metric_plnode
*/5 * * * * /usr/local/bin/report_data_to_gmoc <site> <fqdn>
}}}