Cacti - Monitor linux processes

Net-SNMP allows you to add linux processes to snmpd.conf.
This way it will make a table visible to SNMP with the number of times this process runs and the min and max allowed occurrences set for this process.

In snmpd.conf add a line : proc NAME [MAX=0] [MIN=0]

for example : proc mpd 2 0

This will load the .iso.org.dod.internet.private.enterprises.ucdavis.prTable as follows :

• Process name : prNames.index : mpd
• Process Min Value  : prMin.index : 0
• Process Max Value : prMax.index : 2
• Process Count : prCount.index : the number of times this process is running.

This allows us to create a data query against this table and graph out the values :

snmpd.conf entry : proc mpd 1 1
current status : 1 occurrence of the process

snmpd.conf entry : proc ntalkd 4
current status : process not running

Using the values from snmpd.conf for min and max allows us to have the server admin set min and max values and have the people managing cacti or other monitoring tools set thresholds from the information received by snmp.  And when the server admin changes values our graphs still looks pretty.

Templates can be downloaded from the cacti forum : http://forums.cacti.net/viewtopic.php?p=248985#p248985

http://www.routerjanitor.com/2014/04/cacti-monitor-linux-processes.html