README for MuninLite

MuninLite is a single Bourne Shell script that implements the Munin protocoll as well as some Linux specific plugins. The motivation for developing MuninLite was to provide a simple Munin Node, using inetd on systems without a full featured Perl and/or bash or a busybox system.

MuninLite is Copyright (C) 2007 Rune Nordbøe Skillingstad rune@skillingstad.no and released under GPLv2 (see LICENSE file)

Features

MuninLite implements the following plugins:

• df
• cpu
• if_
• if_err_
• load
• memory
• processes
• swap
• netstat
• uptime
• interrupts
• irqstats

Build requirements

• Make
• Perl

Requirements

• Bourne Shell: ash or dash should be sufficient
• grep: simple grep in busybox is sufficient
• sed: simple sed in busybox is sufficient -- but a bit strange...
• cut: cut in busybox is sufficient
• wc: wc in busybox is sufficient
• xargs: xargs in busybox is sufficient
• inetd (optional): inetd in busybox is sufficient

Installation

Download source and unpack it. Edit Makefile to suit your choice of plugins

Assemble the munin-node shell script by running make:

$ make

Copy munin-node to a suitable location (/usr/local/bin/) and make it executable (there will be a "make install" at a later release)

cp munin-node /usr/local/bin

Two typical ways of using MuninLite as a munin-node replacement are:

• direct execution: suitable for remote hosts lacking root access (e.g. shared host)
• TCP service via inetd/xinetd: providing a service that is accessible via TCP (like munin-node)

Both approaches are detailed below.

Installation for direct execution ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Configure the address setting of the node in the master's configuration with a suitable transport, e.g.:

[some.host.tld]
    address ssh://node-a.example.org/usr/local/bin/munin-node

The above example causes the master to connect to the node via ssh and to execute the MuninLite script directly. The running script responds to request from standard input just like it would do as a TCP service via inetd/xinetd.

Installation as a TCP service (inetd/xinetd) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Add munin port to /etc/services (in case it is missing):

echo "munin           4949/tcp        lrrd            # Munin" >>/etc/services

Configure inetd or xinetd to fork this script for request on the munin port (4949).

Sample configuration for xinetd is located in examples/xinetd.d/munin:

cp examples/xinetd.d/munin /etc/xinetd.d
killall -HUP xinetd

Sample configuration for inetd is located in examples/inetd.conf:

cat examples/inetd.conf >> /etc/inetd.conf
killall -HUP inetd

Restrict access to munin port using hosts.allow and hosts.deny or add a rule to your favorite firewall config. Examples of hosts.allow/deny settings is provided in the examples directory.

Iptables might be set with something like this:

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport munin --source 10.42.42.25 -j ACCEPT

Test

To test the script, just run it (/usr/bin/local/munin-node):

$ /usr/local/bin/munin-node
# munin node at localhost.localdomain
help
# Unknown command. Try list, nodes, config, fetch, version or quit
list
df cpu if_eth0 if_eth1 if_err_eth0 if_err_eth1 load memory
version
munins node on mose.medisin.ntnu.no version: 0.0.5 (munin-lite)
quit

For inetd-test, try to telnet to munin port from allowed host.

# telnet localhost 4949
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
# munin node at localhost.localdomain
help
# Unknown command. Try list, nodes, config, fetch, version or quit
list
df cpu if_eth0 if_eth1 if_err_eth0 if_err_eth1 load memory
version
munins node on mose.medisin.ntnu.no version: 0.0.5 (munin-lite)
quit
Connection closed by foreign host.

Plugin configuration

To configure which plugins should be enabled, locate the PLUGINS variable in munin-node and remove unwanted plugins.

There is no specific configuration for plugins.

Munin configuration

Configure your /etc/munin/munin.conf as you would for a regular munin-node, if you configured MuninLite as a TCP service (e.g. via inetd/xinetd):

[some.host.tld]
    address 10.42.42.25
    use_node_name yes

In case of direct execution of MuninLite on the remote host (without a TCP service), you need to configure a transport and execute the script directly:

[some.host.tld]
    address ssh://10.42.42.25/usr/local/bin/munin-node
    use_node_name yes