By reading this article, you will find out how to make best use of the AXIGEN reporting service, including the steps for adding AXIGEN performance charts, configuring SNMP parameters and integrating the AXIGEN Mail Server reports within the Cacti network graphing solution.
1. Reporting Configurations based on Frequently Used Parameters
1.1 Enabling the AXIGEN Reporting Service
First, you need to enable the Reporting service using the Web Administration interface (
WebAdmin):
- Login to the WebAdmin interface and click on the Services drop-down menu;
- Click on the Services Management tab at the top;
- Locate the Reporting service in the displayed list of AXIGEN running services and click on its corresponding START button.
1.2 Chart Configuration Steps
Now that the
Reporting service is enabled, you can further navigate to the
Status &
Monitoring tab in WebAdmin and configure your first chart:
- Click on the Status & Monitoring drop-down menu;
- Click on the Charts tab.
When first viewing the
Charts page, a list of pre-configured charts and their corresponding groups will be displayed. These charts are automatically created by AXIGEN and record information based on common parameters that frequently interest server administrators, such as the system load average, the quantity of messages stored in the queue or number of HTTP user messages read, SMTP inbound messages, SMTP outbound total connections, IMAP total connections, POP3 total connections and much more.
Clicking on one of the
Chart Groups on the left will result in displaying all the charts assigned to that specific group and enable you to edit or delete them.
As a note, these pre-made charts may not meet every administrator's requirements right from the beginning, but they can be used as a starting point for creating additional ones, of great help for sysadmins.
Adding a New Chart
As previously explained, the AXIGEN reporting service can be configured to monitor various parameters of interest. As a hands-on example, the following charts will detail the quantity of messages processed by the SpamAssassinBundled filter, depending on their status.
Example: Defining a chart that displays the quantity of messages passing the
SpamAssassinBundled filter with the verdict of
Spam:
- Login to the WebAdmin interface;
- Click on the Status & Monitoring drop-down menu;
- Click the Charts link;
- Click the Add chart button;
- Type the name of the new chart group: Spam, in this example;
- In the Chart Name field, type the name of the chart to be created (in our case Spam_messages);
- Within the Data Aggregation section, select the Built-in Filter: SpamAssassinBundled Match parameter to collect.
- As Aggregation function, select Total;
- As Aggregation interval select by the minute;
- Click on the Save configuration button at the bottom to save the newly-introduced data;
- Click on the OK button from the warning message box to complete the creation of the chart; since this is a new chart, there is no data stored regarding the specified parameter.