Routers2
Encyclopedia
Summary
The Routers2 software provides a web-based front-end for Tobi Oetiker's MRTGMulti Router Traffic Grapher
The Multi Router Traffic Grapher, or just simply MRTG, is free software for monitoring and measuring the traffic load on network links. It allows the user to see traffic load on a network over time in graphical form....
software. When MRTG
Multi Router Traffic Grapher
The Multi Router Traffic Grapher, or just simply MRTG, is free software for monitoring and measuring the traffic load on network links. It allows the user to see traffic load on a network over time in graphical form....
is run in combination with the RRDtool
RRDtool
RRDtool aims to handle time-series data like network bandwidth, temperatures, CPU load, etc...
database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
, it requires a front-end application to present the data graphically.
Articles on installation of MRTG/RRD with the Routers2 frontend have appeared in WebPro News,
Security Pro news,
Network Newz,
and the
Beau Monday blog.
Routers2 may well now be the most widely-used third-party frontend available, since of the other available frontends, 14all (the default frontend) does not make any use of the RRDtool features and mrtg-rrd development has been inactive since 2003 . No exact statistics for this can be determined, of course, although Google reports approximately 80,000 Routers2 installations visible on the Internet . Equivalent statistics for other frontends are not as easy to obtain due to the design of their output. The bbmrtg software (which links Big Brother to MRTG) has built-in support for Routers2, as they also believe Routers2 to be the most current of the available frontends in Oct 2005
History
Steve Shipway wrote Routers2 in 2000 in order to display the MRTG data in a more flexible way after moving to the RRDtoolRRDtool
RRDtool aims to handle time-series data like network bandwidth, temperatures, CPU load, etc...
backend database.
In 2008, a BoF session on MRTG/RRD/Routers2 was held at LISA08
Distribution
Routers2 is a CGI script written in PerlPerl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
known to run on Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
and Mac OS
Mac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
, when called from Microsoft IIS or Apache
Apache HTTP Server
The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache , is web server software notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web. In 2009 it became the first web server software to surpass the 100 million website milestone...
.
The software is included in the 'Open Innovations MRTG Bundle Install for Windows' .
It is licensed as free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
under the terms of the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
(GPL).
Usage
This script provides a generic web-based frontend for the popular MRTGMulti Router Traffic Grapher
The Multi Router Traffic Grapher, or just simply MRTG, is free software for monitoring and measuring the traffic load on network links. It allows the user to see traffic load on a network over time in graphical form....
system, generating the graph images on-demand via the RRDtool library to reduce server load. It also extends the functionality of MRTG
Multi Router Traffic Grapher
The Multi Router Traffic Grapher, or just simply MRTG, is free software for monitoring and measuring the traffic load on network links. It allows the user to see traffic load on a network over time in graphical form....
by allowing the user to define additional user-defined graphs and summary pages by combining previously defined MRTG
Multi Router Traffic Grapher
The Multi Router Traffic Grapher, or just simply MRTG, is free software for monitoring and measuring the traffic load on network links. It allows the user to see traffic load on a network over time in graphical form....
metrics, and supports authentication and authorisation in order to allow more granular control of access.