Chapter 11. Templates

11.1. Graph Templates

In Cacti, a graph template provides a skeleton for an actual graph. If you have many graphs that share most of their

characteristics, using a graph template would probably make sense. After a graph is attached to a particular graph

template, all changes made to the graph template will propagate out to all of its graphs.

11.1.1. Creating a Graph Template

To create a new graph template, select Graph Templates under the Templates heading and click Add.

The first thing you must do is give the template a name. This name has nothing to do with the graph title, but is what

you will use to identify the template throughout Cacti. Second, you will notice a list of graph field names with Use

Per Graph Value checkboxes next to each one. The nice thing about templates in Cacti is that you can choose whether

to template each field on a per field basis. If you leave the checkbox uncheked, every graph attached to the template

will inherit its value from the template. If the checkbox is checked, every graph attached to the template will contain

its own value for that particular field.

Table 11 1. Field Description: Graph Templates

Name

Description

Title

The title of the graph within Cacti and the title that will be printed on the actual graph

itself.

Note: You can use the keyword |host_description| in this field, which will be automat 

ically substituted with the current host description.

Image Format

Choose whether you would prefer to output your graph images in PNG or GIF.

According to the RRDTool graph manual

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PNG is preferred because it is both smaller

and faster.

Height

The height of the graph area in pixels

Width

The width of the graph area in pixels

Auto Scale

Enable auto scale for the graph. This option must be check to use the next two options.

Upper/Lower limit values are ignored when using autoscale since these boundaries

are determined automatically.

Auto Scale Options

Choose whether you would like to use   alt autoscale or   alt autoscale max on the

graph. The RRDTool graph manual

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says:  Where   alt autoscale will modify both the

absolute maximum AND minimum values, this option will only affect the maximum

value. The minimum value, if not defined on the command line, will be 0. This option

can be useful when graphing router traffic when the WAN line uses compression, and

thus the throughput may be higher than the WAN line speed .

Logarithmic Auto Scaling

Choose if you want logarithmic y axis scaling.

Rigid Boundaries Mode

From the RRDTool manual  Normally rrdgraph will automatically expand the lower

and upper limit if the graph contains a value outside the valid range. With this option

you can disable this behavior .

Auto Padding

If you have ever created RRDTool based graphs manually, you may have realized how

annoying it can be to get text to line up properly. With this option Cacti will do its best

to make the columns on your graph legend line up. This option works best when your

graph legend has a consistent number of columns.

Allow Graph Export

If you choose to use Cacti's static HTML/image export, you can choose whether you

want each individual graph to be exported.

Upper Limit

The maximum value that will be displayed on the y axis. This value is ignored is

auto scaling is turned on.

Lower Limit

The minimum value that will be displayed on the y axis. This value is ignored is

auto scaling is turned on.

Base Value

Whether you want to base the y axis labels on 1000 or 1024. This field will typically be

set to 1024 for memory and 1000 for traffic measurements.

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