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 <li><a href="main.html">Main Page</a></li> 
 <li><a href="main.html#installation">Installation</a></li> 
 <li><a href="main.html#basics">Basics</a></li> 
 <li><a href="faq.html">FAQ and Tips</a></li> 
 <li><a href="main.html#example">Sample Map</a></li> 
 <li><a href="cli-reference.html">CLI Reference</a></li> 
 <li><a href="config-reference.html">Config Reference</a></li> 
 <li><a href="advanced.html">Advanced Topics</a></li> 
 <li><a href="editor.html">Editor</a></li> 
 <li><a href="cacti-plugin.html">Cacti Plugin</a></li> 
 <li><a href="http://www.network-weathermap.com/">Site</a></li> 
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<div id="header"> 
 <h1>PHP Weathermap 
v0.97a 
</h1> 
 <h4>Copyright &copy; 2005-2010 Howard Jones, <tt><a 
href="mailto:howie@thingy.com">howie@thingy.com</a></tt>. (<a 
href="http://www.network-weathermap.com/">Website</a>)</h4> 
</div> 


 <h2><a name="faq" id="faq">FAQ &amp; Useful Tips</a></h2> 

 <h3>FAQs</h3> 

 <p>Here are a few things that have come up more than once from 
 previous versions. Also, it's worth checking the <a href= 
 "http://www.network-weathermap.com/">online 
 copy</a> of this document, which will be updated over time. </p> 
 <p class="important">If something isn't described here, <em>check the cacti.log for errors</em>. Weathermap usually produces a useful error message if there is a problem. Next, try setting Cacti's Log Level to DEBUG for 10 minutes, and then have a look in cacti.log. Don't forget to turn the Log Level back down again! </p> 

 <dl class="faq"> 
 <dt><a name="module_not_found"></a>I get some error about 'module not found', or 
 similar...can you help?</dt> 

 <dd><p>The answer is probably no, or at least not directly. In 
 most cases, this is the result of a missing dependency, 
 either PHP with no GD, or with an older version, or without 
 PHP support, or without TrueColour support. I do try to 
 extend weathermap to make these error messages more 
 explanatory wherever possible, but ultimately, you need to 
 get PHP working first. </p><p>Beware that on some systems you can 
 have a working GD in your 'web' PHP (mod_php) and still have 
 a non-working command-line PHP - Debian and derivatives (Ubuntu) can suffer from this. </p><p>Also be sure that the PHP you 
 get from the command-line is the same installation as you 
 expect - 'which php' and 'whereis php' will provide some *nix 
 users with an idea that they are running the right one, as 
 does 'php -m' and 'php -v' (is it the version you expect?). 
 Also, some packaged PHP systems (MAMP, XAMPP, WAMP etc) have 
 the module installed, but disabled by default. Check your 
 php.ini to see if there is a commented-out line like 
 'extension=php_gd.dll'. </p> 
 <p>In 0.91 and newer, you may find the check.php to be useful when figuring out which php.ini and php version you should be looking at - http://yourserver/plugins/weathermap/check.php for the webserver (editor/rebuild now) version, and <tt>php check.php</tt> from the command-line for the CLI (Cacti Poller/command-line tool) version. </p> 
 </dd> 

 <dt><a name="see_nothing"></a>I don't see ANYTHING in the logs when using the Cacti 
 plugin.</dt> 

 <dd><p>Check if this is still the case when Weathermap is the 
 only plugin. If a plugin dies completely, it takes the poller 
 and any remaining plugins with it. This appears to be a 
 problem with some older versions of 'Reports' in particular, where 
 anything listed after Reports in the plugins[] list will not 
 be run. </p> 
 </dd> 


 <dt><a name="nofunction"></a>I get an error message about function_exists()</dt> 

 <dd><p>This is PHP telling you that a function that Weathermap requires is not available in your PHP installation. Usually, it's to do with either GD, or FreeType. It can be that you have those libraries, but not current enough versions, or versions compiled without particular options. For example, it's possible to have FreeType installed, GD installed, the php-gd module installed, but that the GD library wasn't compiled with FreeType <em>support</em> so they don't know how to talk to each other. This tends to be less of a problem on packaged systems than where you build your own libraries. </p> 
 <p>In 0.91 and newer, you may find the check.php to be useful when figuring out which php.ini and php version you should be looking at, and which functions might be missing - http://yourserver/plugins/weathermap/check.php for the webserver (editor/rebuild now) version, and <tt>php check.php</tt> from the command-line for the CLI (Cacti Poller/command-line tool) version. </p> 

 </dd> 

 <dt><a name="nothumb"></a>My maps don't get created/updated (or "This map hasn't been created yet")</dt> 

 <dd><p>This is almost always a permissions problem. Look in your cacti.log for lines starting WEATHERMAP to see what 
 is going wrong. </p></dd> 

 <dt><a name="no_overlib"></a>I've defined some <a href="config-reference.html#LINK_OVERLIBGRAPH">OVERLIBGRAPH</a> lines, but nothing appears 
 in the map HTML when I use the command-line tool.</dt> 

 <dd><p>For historical reasons, the default format for <a href="config-reference.html#GLOBAL_HTMLSTYLE">HTMLSTYLE</a> 
 is 'static' which avoids javascript. To get the overlib 
 graphs to appear you need to have <a href="config-reference.html#GLOBAL_HTMLSTYLE">'HTMLSTYLE</a> overlib' near 
 the top of your map configuration file. </p></dd> 

<dt><a name="overliboffscreen"></a>When I use <a href="config-reference.html#LINK_OVERLIBGRAPH">OVERLIBGRAPH</a> and the pointer is near the right side of the screen, the floating graph disappears off the side of the screen...</dt> 
<dd><p>If you set <a href="config-reference.html#LINK_OVERLIBWIDTH">OVERLIBWIDTH</a> and <a href="config-reference.html#LINK_OVERLIBHEIGHT">OVERLIBHEIGHT</a> correctly, then Weathermap can make a better guess about whether to show the map to the left or right. Be careful to set them to the correct value, or you may see strange 'flashing' graphs. The easiest way is to right-click on the graph in your browser and read the sizes from the Properties panel. </p> 
<p>Typically one size is right for all your graphs, so this is a good example of something you can add into <a href="config-reference.html#NODE_NODE">NODE</a> DEFAULT (or <a href="config-reference.html#LINK_LINK">LINK</a> DEFAULT). </p> 
</dd> 
 <dt><a name="gauges"></a>The value from my RRD data is much too big!</dt> 

 <dd><p>Is it about 8 times too big, by any chance? Historically, Weathermap was mainly used for SNMP Interface statistics, which use bytes-per-second counters ("octet counters" in SNMP-speak). Because of this, the standard RRD datasource plugin multiplies everything by 8, to get back to bits-per-second. New in 0.9, you can get the 'raw' value from an RRD file by using <a href="targets.html#rrd">'gauge:' as a prefix</a>. </p><p>If the value is wrong by some other constant factor, you can use the 'scale:' prefix to multiply or divide by that factor - e.g divide by 1000 to turn a milliseconds value into a 'real' seconds value, or multiply by 1024 to get a kilobytes values from a megabytes one. </p></dd> 


 <dt><a name="timezone"></a>The timestamp on my map is all wrong!</dt> 

 <dd><p>I have not seen this one myself, but a Chinese user has, and 
 it seems that PHP doesn't always use your system timezone correctly. The fix is to edit php.ini to change date.timezone </p></dd> 


 <dt><a name="gdbug"></a>Weathermap just dies without warning on my Debian/Ubuntu system<br/>OR... I get a blank screen in the editor when I add a node<br />OR... I get a segmentation fault when Weathermap runs</dt> 

 <dd><p> It's a GD bug. It's documented <a href="http://bugs.libgd.org/4">here</a>, and the reason it mainly affects Debian is that Debian links to the system GD (version 2.0.33) not the built-in PHP one (2.0.28ish). For whatever reason, the problems aren't present in the PHP GD library, which has a different alpha-blending implementation as far as I can see from the docs. </p> 
<p>The bugs are apparently fixed in GD 2.0.34, which has been released and is in Debian unstable. Users report that upgrading to the version of libgd2-xpm from unstable will fix this problem if you can't wait, or recompile PHP to use it's own GD library. </p> 
<p>Since 0.95, there is a small program supplied with Weathermap to test for this problem. Run <code>php check-gdbug.pgp</code> in the weathermap directory to see if it really is this problem that affects you. </p> 
<p>There is more information about fixing this issue for Debian Etch (and perhaps also Ubuntu Edgy) in <a href="http://forums.cacti.net/viewtopic.php?t=21517">this Cacti Forum thread</a>. </p> 
</dd> 
 <dt><a name="icons"></a>Where can I find some icons to use with Weathermap? Why 
 don't you have any supplied with it?</dt> 

 <dd><p> 
 There are plenty of sources online. A good google search 
 would be 'visio network icons'. Some to get you started: 

 <ul> 
 <li><a href= 
 "http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac50/ac47/2.html">Cisco's 
 distinctive icons</a> in a number of formats, and I have converted a 
 set of these into <a href="http://wotsit.thingy.com/haj/cacti/">PNG with transparency</a>, too.</li> 

 <li><a href="http://www.nagiosexchange.org/">Nagios 
 Exchange</a> has icons for network maps</li> 

 <li>For your own use only, you could use the ones that 
 come with MS Visio. Obviously these can't be 
 redistributed!</li> 
 </ul>As for the second part, I can't draw, and I don't know 
 of any freely distributable icons. Feel free to draw some 
 for me, and make them open source. </p> 
 </dd> 

 <dt><a name="logo"></a>How can I embed an image (like my company's logo) in my 
 maps? I don't want to have to create a special 
 background...</dt> 

 <dd><p>You can create a <a href="config-reference.html#NODE_NODE">NODE</a> with no links and no label, but 
 with an <a href="config-reference.html#NODE_ICON">ICON.</a> The <a href="config-reference.html#NODE_ICON">ICON</a> is your logo. You can also use this to 
 embed images from somewhere else - even dynamically produced 
 ones - how about MRTG graphs or RRD stripgraphs embedded in 
 your map? </p></dd> 

 <dt><a name="curves"></a>I need to have a link that isn't just a straight 
 line...how can I do this?</dt> 

 <dd><p> 
 You can use the <a href= 
 "config-reference.html#LINK_VIA">VIA</a> keyword to make a 
 link go around corners.: 

 <div class="shell"> 
 <pre> 
<a href="config-reference.html#LINK_LINK">LINK</a> bendylink 
 <a href="config-reference.html#LINK_NODES">NODES</a> node1 node2 
 <a href="config-reference.html#LINK_VIA">VIA</a> 200 300 
 <a href="config-reference.html#LINK_VIA">VIA</a> 360 240 
</pre> 
 </div> </p> 
 </dd> 

 <dt><a name="parallel"></a>I need to have more than one link from node A to node B, 
 but they just overlap...how can I do this?</dt> 

 <dd><p>See <a href="http://www.network-weathermap.com/articles/parallel">this article</a> for more about parallel links. </p> 
 </dd> 

 <dt><a name="aggregate"></a>I still have two links, but I use MLPPP, and I want to 
 see a single link on the map for both physical lines.</dt> 

 <dd> 
 <p>See <a href="http://www.network-weathermap.com/articles/parallel">this article</a> for more about parallel and aggregated links. </p> 
 </dd> 

 <dt><a name="editor_requests"></a>When will you make the editor work like 
 <em>XYZ</em>?</dt> 

 <dd><p>Adding the editor in 0.7 has made adding a new core 
 weathermap into something that needs more consideration. 
 Anything that dramatically changes how you make a map (like 
 the <a href="config-reference.html#LINK_LINK">LINK</a> DEFAULT and <a href="config-reference.html#NODE_NODE">NODE</a> DEFAULT changes for 0.7) should 
 mean a similarly big change in the editor. All the options 
 should really be editable from the editor too. In reality, 
 just getting the editor to run smoothly on more than one 
 browser is sometimes painful, let alone re-tooling it to add 
 new features. With that all said, there very likely will be a 
 new version of the editor in 0.9, with drag &amp; drop 
 editing, and (more) complete support for all the new features 
 since 0.6 (which is the version that the editor really was 
 written for - it was written before I added new 0.7 features. 
 D'oh!). </p></dd> 

 <dt><a name="feature_requests"></a>Will you extend weathermap to do <em>XYZ</em>?</dt> 

 <dd><p>It depends. I have an internal idea of what I want 
 weathermap to be like. I don't want it to feel (too much) 
 like a small program with everyone's wishlist bolted on 
 afterwards. If it seems like something that a number of 
 people could use, and doesn't dramatically change the 
 direction of the program (it won't get <a href= 
 "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zawinski's_Law_of_Software_Envelopment" 
 title="jwz's law of software envelopment">mail-reading 
 capability</a> anytime soon), then it stands a better chance. 
 Things that take dozens of parameters to adjust something 
 very subtle are less likely. Ultimately, it is a GPLed 
 program though, so <i>you</i> can <i>always</i> add your own 
 features! I try to keep a todo list on the website for 
 current work-in-progress. Obviously, things that <i>I</i> 
 want are <i>always</i> sensible and useful<tt>:-)</tt> . </p> 

 <p>In the past, people have paid to have features added. I have a day job which pays for my food and my mortgage, so this isn't 
 <em>always</em> a possibility, but it sometimes is. If it's a good idea, then I'll probably add it anyway, but if it's something 
 special to you, or that you want in a particular timescale, then maybe we can talk! </p> 
</dd> 

 <dt><a name="repayme"></a>How can I possibly repay you for making my life and work 
 so much easier?</dt> 

 <dd><p>Actually, this one isn't very frequent. If you do find 
 yourself asking it, feel free to <a href="http://www.network-weathermap.com/support/donate">make a donation, or send a gift,</a> 
 though. However, I do like to <a href="http://www.network-weathermap.com/contact">hear from users</a> anyway - it's nice to 
 know that people do use this thing. </p></dd> 
 </dl> 
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