Recommendation: MRTG switch wizard needs more config options

[jamesconner]

I like the switch wizard, but there need to be a couple more config options, I think.

For the cfgmaker command, there needs to be options for:

1) interface reference: The default, which is Interface Number, can change each time the device is booted. My personal preference is interface name (option --ifref=name), but I can understand people wanting to use interface label, for example.

2) show op down: Sometimes, I want to see what interfaces are set to operationally down. Useful in switches that are oversubscribed and I shut off ports in specific asics.

Right now, I believe I can just vi the switch.inc.php file and add those options manually, but it would be nice to have the option in the wizard itself.

[mmestnik]

I believe there will be no end to the suggestions for improvement of Wizards. Please keep in mind that, as we would like to keep every one happy, there are still a lot of Wizards that should exist but don't(Any suggestions?) and I feel at this time they should get priority.

This will of course change in the future, at such time I'll open a ticket for this item.

Thank you.

[jamesconner]

I absolutely agree that new wizards should take preference over feature additions of existing ones

I should seperated my two suggestions, because one should be listed as a bugfix, and the other a recommendation.

The interface reference is more of a bugfix ... to quote the man page for MRTG's cfgmaker:

--ifref nr│ip│eth│descr│name
Select the interface identification method. Default is nr which identifies the router interfaces by their number. Unfortunately the interface numbering scheme in an SNMP tree can change. Some routers change their numbering when new interfaces are added, others change thier numbering every full moon just for fun.

To work around this sad problem MRTG can identify interfaces by 4 other properties. None of these works for all interfaces, but you should be able to find one which does fine for you. Note that especially ethernet addrsses can be problematic as some routers have the same ethernet address on most of their interface cards.

So if/when the interface numbers in the SNMP tree change (ie port 101191680 is now listed as port 117234507), there's no way I can bridge the two pnp4 graphs that exist, so I've lost all historic information for the entire switch. By using ifref=name, when the SNMP interface number changes, it's irrelavent, because the chart indexes are based on "fc1/5", "s1/0", or "e3/12", for example.