kpack_linux

kpack_linux is a komlogd package for monitoring and visualizing linux servers metrics.

The methodology we want to implement here is the USE Method, summarized this way by its author, Brendan Gregg:

For every resource, check utilization, saturation, errors.

Right now, kpack_linux checks resourse utilization and saturation, checking for anomalies automatically.

The purpose of this package is to automate, as much as possible, the analysis of linux servers.

1. Install

IMPORTANT: kpack_linux checks metrics using sysstat package utilities. Install it with your distribution's package manager.

To add kpack_linux package to komlogd, just edit your komlogd configuration file (komlogd.yaml) and add a package block like this one:

- package:
    install: https://github.com/komlog-io/kpack_linux/archive/master.zip
    enabled: yes
    venv: default

Then, reboot your komlogd agent.

2. Package Functionality

kpack_linux will store data for your linux server at uri pkg.kpack_linux. Under this uri, different resource uris will be created storing utilization and saturation metrics:

• resources.cpu:

• resources.memory:

• resources.storage:

• resources.network:

3. Package customization

By default kpack_linux will extract information from the host running komlogd agent, and will send it to Komlog every minute. However, you can modify this behaviour, based on your needs, as we explain here.

The best way to customize kpack_linux package to your needs is forking it and modifying your fork files.

3.1 Modifying the metrics update frecuency

Metrics update frecuency is controlled by variable SCHED in settings.py file. The value of this variable is a CronSchedule object. This object tells komlogd when to execute the function that extracts information from your host. CronSchedule class uses the same format as classic Unix cron to set execution interval, ie. to set a frecuency of execution of 5 minutes, you can set SCHED to:

SCHED = CronSchedule(minute='*/5')

3.2 Setting your host uri

By default, kpack_linux will store your information in uri pkg.kpack_linux.<HOSTNAME>. This uri is controlled with var BASE_URI in settings.py file. The value of this variable will be passed as base_uri argument when creating your LinuxHost object in load.py file.

You can modify the value of BASE_URI to adapt it to your needs, but remember the value must be a valid uri, ie. only use [0-9a-zA-z] characters or puntuation characters like dots, hyphens or underscores.

3.3 Monitoring remote hosts through SSH

kpack_linux allows you to monitor remote hosts through ssh. To do it, just edit load.py file and create as many LinuxHost objects as hosts you want to monitor, and pass them the ssh_cmd parameter it should use to access them through ssh. You can see an example here:

# Create a LinuxHost object per host we will monitor

host1 = LinuxHost(base_uri='pkg.kpack_linux.host1', ssh_cmd='ssh user@host1')
host2 = LinuxHost(base_uri='pkg.kpack_linux.host2', ssh_cmd='ssh user@host2')
host3 = LinuxHost(base_uri='pkg.kpack_linux.host3', ssh_cmd='ssh user@host3')

# start monitoring them

asyncio.ensure_future(host1.load())
asyncio.ensure_future(host2.load())
asyncio.ensure_future(host3.load())

Contributing and Help

Feel free to fork this repo and make your pull requests. Thank you for your time. If you need help, please visit our IRC Channel #Komlog (Freenode) or our mailing lists.