The sys admin’s daily grind – Munin monitors SNMP-compatible devices

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Article from Issue 151/2013
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What do you do if the Munin system monitoring tool does not have a native Munin client for a device? Sys admin Charly has a solution.

As you might remember from a previous article in this space, Munin is a two-part monitoring suite: On any device I want to monitor, I need to install the client, the “Munin node.” It constantly collects relevant data about the system on which it is installed. At certain intervals, the Munin server retrieves the collection and creates meaningful graphs from it with the help of RRDtool. This approach works well, and I have used Munin for many years, both privately and professionally.

At home, I have two devices that I cannot easily monitor with Munin: an older Cisco router from the 2600 series and a small NAS, by Synology, that provides home backup storage and acts as a DLNA server and data sink. The NAS runs a customized Linux, and on the manufacturer’s forums, people exchange ideas on running a Munin node.

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