Setting up collectd

Installing collectd with RightScripts

The easiest way to install and configure collectd is to use the latest version of the SYS Monitoring install RightScript.  Since new features are constantly being added to the Monitoring utility, it is highly recommended that you install collectd using our RightScripts.

If you do not add the SYS Monitoring install RightScript to all servers, the server will not be monitored.   To add the RightScript to a server template, select the latest version of SYS Monitoring install from the Premium/Public list of RightScripts and add it as a boot script. 

Installing additional collectd plugins

Out of the box collectd comes with a nice set of plugins that auto-configure themselves. We've eliminated the ones that don't apply to EC2 (e.g. bluetooth or mbmon) to keep everything trim. From the standard collectd plugins, we don't install the mysql plug-in by default because it may need some additional configuration information. If you're running mysql on an instance, you need to add the SYS monitoring mysql add RightScript to your server template to enable monitoring of mysql.  To add it to a server template, select the latest version of SYS monitoring mysql add from the Premium/Public list of RightScripts and add it as a boot script.

Installing Collectd yourself

If RightScale's RightScripts cannot be used, collectd can be installed from public repositories or from a specified source.  An appropriate config file should also be copied from the RightScripts.  If you really need to install collectd yourself, follow the steps below:

• Install collectd version 4.3.1 or later
• Set the hostname in the config file to the AWS instance ID (i-123456 like number)
• Configure the network plugin to send the monitoring data to the monitoring server specified in the launch data as RS_sketchy=<hostname>
• Use a 20-second interval