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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>


<div class="license"><p>PHP Weathermap is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.</p>

<p>PHP Weathermap is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.</p>

<p>You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with PHP Weathermap; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA</p>
<p>Parts of this software distribution are by other authors. Please see the README file for attribution and license details.</p>
</div>
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<div class="card-right" style="width: 290px;">
      <h2 class="card-title">PHP Weathermap</h2>
      <p class="card-photo"><img src="../images/weathermap-mini.png" /></p>
      <p class="card-desc">Sample output from php-weathermap, using data collected by Cacti and MRTG.<br /><a href="../images/weathermap-example.png">Larger version</a></p>
   </div>

      <h2><a name="introduction" id="introduction">Introduction</a></h2><p>PHP Weathermap is one of <a href=
      "#alternatives">many</a> implementations of the same basic
      idea - take data from your network devices and use it to
      provide a single-page overview of the current state of
      network, like the one to the right. It complements a tool
      like <a href="http://www.mrtg.org">MRTG</a>, <a href=
      "http://cricket.sourceforge.net/">Cricket</a> or <a href=
      "http://www.cacti.net/">Cacti</a>, that provide in-depth
      graphing, and historical information, and can use data from
      those systems to produce it's maps. In fact, it
      <i>requires</i> some other data-collection source, as it does
      no device-polling on it's own.</p>

      <p>This particular version is written in PHP, and it can read statistics data from
      MRTG-produced HTML files, plain tab-seperated text files and from RRD files, such as those
      produced by newer MRTG setups, Cacti (my favourite) or
      another tool. It can also generate HTML 'holder' files for
      the map images, which can include 'DHTML' overlays of
      historical data and links into your other
      monitoring/statistics system. It also has a interactive map editor, so you can largely avoid the text configuration files, if you prefer.</p>
<p>To get a better idea of what is possible, see the <a href="#example">example map</a> that comes with this manual.</p>
    <h3>Requirements</h3>
      <p>Based on lessons learned with the perl version, this one
      has a very restricted set of dependencies - you'll need a
      recentish PHP (&gt;4.3.0 I think) including the CLI version
      and the 'gd' extension with PNG, TrueColour and FreeType support. You will need command-line (<i>aka shell/ssh/telnet</i>) access to
      the server which will host the maps.
      <p>To read RRD files, you'll need the rrdtool command-line program. </p>
      <p>Apart from the
      gd module, these requirements are the same as for Cacti,
      which is the most-tested partner stats system.</p>
    <p>To use the Cacti plugin, you will need a recent version of Cacti, and the matching Cacti Plugin Architecture, from <a href="http://cactiusers.org/">Jimmy Conner's Cactiusers.org</a>.</p>

        <h2><a name="support">Support</a></h2>

<p>There are two mailing lists for php-weathermap:<dl>
                <dt>php-weathermap@thingy.com</dt>
                <dd>General discussion of weathermap-related issues, bug reports and development. Fairly low traffic currently. Typically contains discussion of test or beta versions too, when they are circulating.</dd>
                <dt>php-weathermap-announce@thingy.com</dt>
                <dd>Very low volume list for new version announcements and other similarly rare events!</dd>
                </dl>
                More information about how to subscribe to the mailing lists is <a href="http://www.network-weathermap.com/support/mailinglists">at the website</a>.</p>
                <p>Also, if you have an RSS reader, you can subscribe to the <a href="http://www.network-weathermap.com/appcast.rss">'appcast' feed for php-weathermap</a> which contains roughly the same content as the -announce mailing list.</p>

      <h2><a name="installation" id="installation">Installation Guide</a></h2>

    <p>How to install Weathermap depends on how you intend to use it:
    <ul>
    <li><a href="install-cacti-editor.html">As a Cacti Plugin, with the web-based editor</a></li>
    <li><a href="install-cacti.html">As a Cacti Plugin</a></li>
    <li><a href="install-cli-editor.html">As a standalone command-line tool, with the web-based editor</a></li>
    <li><a href="install-cli.html">As a standalone command-line tool</a></li>
    </ul>
    </p>
      <h2><a name="running" id="running">Running Weathermap</a></h2>
          
          <p>There are two ways to run Weathermap.</p><p>If you are using the Cacti plugin, then it will be run
          for you as part of the Cacti poller cycle. You don't need to do anything special apart from add
          your map configuration files, as explained in the <a href="cacti-plugin.html">Cacti plugin</a> notes.</p>
          <p>If you are using weathermap as a standalone tool, you do it using the command line version. See the
          <a href="cli-reference.html">CLI Reference</a> for all possible options, but a good starting point is something like:</p>
          <div class="shell">
        <pre>php ./weathermap --config myconfigfile.conf --output mymap.png --htmloutput mymap.html</pre>
        </div>
        <p>You can skip the htmloutput and output parts if you have HTMLOUTPUTFILE and IMAGEOUTPUTFILE lines in your configuration file.</p>
        <p>Usually, people want to run weathermap regularly (it's not a requirement though!). To do that, you need to create a 'cron job' or 'Task Scheduler Task' to
        run a command-line like the one above on a regular basis. You probably already have a similar task setup to collect the data
        that weathermap is reading. This is the same kind of thing.</p>
        
      <h2><a name="basics" id="basics">Basics</a></h2>

<p>The weathermap is defined by a plain-text file
      which by default is called weathermap.conf (you can have many
      configurations, and choose between them with command-line switches).
      By default, weathermap will read that file, and produce a
      single PNG file called weathermap.png.</p>

      <p>The configuration file has three sections: Node definitions, Link
      definitions and Global settings. There is an <a href=
      "#example">example of a complete file</a> at the bottom of
      this page.</p>

      <h3>Nodes</h3>

      <div class="shell">
        <pre>
NODE nycore1
    LABEL NYC
    POSITION 30 30
</pre><b>A simple NODE</b>
      </div><p>Nodes are the points on your network that are joined
      together. Depending on the detail in the map, they might be
      cities or individual routers. In a basic map, a node has 3
      pieces of information - an internal name which must be unique
      to this node, it's position from the top-left corner of the
      map, in pixels, and optionally a label, which will appear
      within the box marking the position of the node. Nodes
      without a label don't appear on the map at all, but can still
      be used as an endpoint for a link.</p>

      <h3>Links</h3>

      <div class="shell">
        <pre>
LINK backbone1
    NODES nycore1 paix1
    BANDWIDTH 3M
    TARGET ../my-mrtg-data/backbone1.html
</pre><b>A simple LINK</b>
      </div><p>Links are the network routes between the Nodes.
      Typically they are actual network links, but they can be
      anything that you can get numbers for that make sense on map.</p>

      <p>An absolute minimal link has 3 pieces of information too.
      They are the unique internal name for this link, and unique
      node names for the two endpoints. To show current usage on
      the map, you'll need to give two more pieces: the maximum
      bandwidth on the link, and a way to get the current
      throughput. The BANDWIDTH is measured in bits/sec, and can
      include the usual K,M,G and T suffixes for large values. The
      data-source is given in the TARGET line, and can be one of

      <ul>
        <li>MRTG-generated HTML file (which contains a special HTML
        comment at the bottom with the current values)</li>
        <li>Cacti-generated RRD file</li>
        <li>Some other RRD file, provided you know how it is
        structured internally.</li>
      </ul> One important note: the order of the nodes in the NODES
      line is significant. The first node is considered to be the
      'local' one when thinking about the data source in the
      TARGET. 'out' will be 'out' relative to the first node. If
      you find the map shows all your data flowing in the wrong
      direction, try swapping the order of the nodes here.</p>

      <h3>Global Settings</h3><p>These settings usually live at the
      top of the text file, and specify basic information about the
      map. The minimum settings are:</p>

      <div class="shell">
        <pre>
WIDTH 800
HEIGHT 600
</pre>
      </div><p>This is specifies the size of the map in pixels. If you
      want something a bit fancier than a plain white background,
      you can make up a background image to use in PNG format. In
      that case, the map will be the size of the background image:</p>

      <div class="shell">
        <tt>BACKGROUND western-europe.png</tt>
      </div><p>There are also settings to set which fonts and colours are used for various 
          elements of the map, where to position the colour-legend (if at all), what files 
          to output, and more advanced layout techniques. The full list is in the <a href="config-reference.html">Config Reference</a>.</p>


      <h2><a name="example" id="example">A Sample
      Config</a></h2>Here's a sample configuration, and <a href=
      "../example/example.html">here's what it produces (modified to work a little better)</a>. The data
      isn't live in the output, but it gives you an idea of what
      can be done. The initial background image is <a href=
      "../example/background.png">here</a>. The configuration file is also in the docs directory of the distribution, should you want it.

      <div class="shell">
        <pre>
# some initial comments...
#
# This sample configuration file demonstrates most of the basic features of
# PHP Weathermap, along with some of the cosmetic and layout changes possible
#
#
BACKGROUND background.png
HTMLOUTPUTFILE example.html
IMAGEOUTPUTFILE example.png
TITLE Network Overview
HTMLSTYLE overlib
KEYPOS 10 400

# define some new TrueType fonts - built-in ones go from 1 to 5, so start high
FONTDEFINE 100 VeraIt 8
FONTDEFINE 101 Vera 12
FONTDEFINE 102 Vera 9

KEYFONT 102

LINK DEFAULT
        BANDWIDTH 100M
        BWLABEL bits
        BWFONT 100
        OVERLIBWIDTH 395
        OVERLIBHEIGHT 153
        WIDTH 4

NODE DEFAULT
        LABELFONT 101

NODE transit
        POSITION 400 180
        LABEL TRANSIT

# a little splash of background colour for these nodes
NODE isp1
        POSITION 250 100
        LABEL ISP1
        INFOURL http://www.isp1.com/support/lookingglass.html
        LABELBGCOLOR 255 224 224

NODE isp2
        POSITION 550 100
        LABEL ISP2
        INFOURL http://www.isp2.net/portal/
        LABELBGCOLOR 224 255 224

NODE core
        POSITION 400 300
        LABEL core
        INFOURL https://core.mynet.net/admin/

NODE customer1
        LABEL xy.com
        POSITION 150 370

NODE customer2
        LABEL ww.co.uk
        POSITION 250 450

NODE infra
        LABEL INFRASTRUCTURE
        POSITION 450 450

# this node has an icon, and so we push the label to the South edge of it, so it
# can still be read
NODE sync
        LABEL Sync
        ICON my_router.png
        LABELOFFSET S
        LABELFONT 2
        POSITION 550 370
# the icon is taken from a Nagios icon pack:
#   http://www.nagiosexchange.org/Image_Packs.75.0.html?&amp;tx_netnagext_pi1[p_view]=110&amp;tx_netnagext_pi1[page]=10%3A10

NODE site1
        LABEL site1
        POSITION 700 220

NODE site2
        LABEL site2
        POSITION 750 420

LINK sync-core
        NODES sync core
        TARGET data/sync_traffic_in_259.rrd
        OVERLIBGRAPH http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph_image.php?local_graph_id=256&amp;rra_id=0&amp;graph_nolegend=true&amp;graph_height=100&amp;graph_width=300
        INFOURL http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph.php?rra_id=all&amp;local_graph_id=256
#
# Site1 has two E1s, so we use NODE-offsets to allow them to run parallel
#

LINK sync-site1a
        NODES sync:N site1:W
        WIDTH 3
        TARGET data/sync_traffic_in_257.rrd
        BANDWIDTH 2M
        OVERLIBGRAPH http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph_image.php?local_graph_id=254&amp;rra_id=0&amp;graph_nolegend=true&amp;graph_height=100&amp;graph_width=
        INFOURL http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph.php?rra_id=all&amp;local_graph_id=126

LINK sync-site1b
        NODES sync:E site1:SE
        WIDTH 3
        OVERLIBGRAPH http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph_image.php?local_graph_id=255&amp;rra_id=0&amp;graph_nolegend=true&amp;graph_height=100&amp;graph_width=
        TARGET data/sync_traffic_in_258.rrd
        BANDWIDTH 2M
        INFOURL http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph.php?rra_id=all&amp;local_graph_id=56

#
# site2 also has two links, but this time we use the VIA to curve the links
#
LINK sync-site2a
        NODES sync site2
        WIDTH 3
        VIA 650 380
        TARGET data/sync_traffic_in_251.rrd
        OVERLIBGRAPH http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph_image.php?local_graph_id=248&amp;rra_id=0&amp;graph_nolegend=true&amp;graph_height=100&amp;graph_width=300
        BANDWIDTH 1M
        INFOURL http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph.php?rra_id=all&amp;local_graph_id=252

LINK sync-site2b
        NODES sync site2
        WIDTH 3
        VIA 650 420
        TARGET data/sync_traffic_in_252.rrd
        OVERLIBGRAPH http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph_image.php?local_graph_id=228&amp;rra_id=0&amp;graph_nolegend=true&amp;graph_height=100&amp;graph_width=300
        BANDWIDTH 1M
        INFOURL http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph.php?rra_id=all&amp;local_graph_id=561

#
# ISP 1 has a several links, again, but they prefer to see one arrow, and the aggregate bandwidth
#   so we use multiple TARGETs on one line, here, to sum the data

LINK transit-isp1
        NODES transit isp1
        TARGET data/trans1_traffic_in_352.rrd data/trans1_traffic_in_378.rrd data/trans1_traffic_in_420.rrd
        BANDWIDTH 10M
        OVERLIBGRAPH http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph_image.php?local_graph_id=355&amp;rra_id=0&amp;graph_nolegend=true&amp;graph_height=100&amp;graph_width=
        INFOURL http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph.php?rra_id=all&amp;local_graph_id=633

LINK transit-isp2
        NODES transit isp2
        TARGET data/trans1_traffic_in_438.rrd
        BANDWIDTH 34M
        OVERLIBGRAPH http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph_image.php?local_graph_id=433&amp;rra_id=0&amp;graph_nolegend=true&amp;graph_height=100&amp;graph_width=300
        INFOURL http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph.php?rra_id=all&amp;local_graph_id=265

LINK core-transit
        NODES transit core
        TARGET data/trans1_traffic_in_350.rrd
        ARROWSTYLE compact
        WIDTH 4
        OVERLIBGRAPH http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph_image.php?local_graph_id=347&amp;rra_id=0&amp;graph_nolegend=true&amp;graph_height=100&amp;graph_width=300
        INFOURL http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph.php?rra_id=all&amp;local_graph_id=122

LINK cust1-core
        NODES customer1 core
        TARGET data/extreme_traffic_in_299.rrd
        OVERLIBGRAPH http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph_image.php?local_graph_id=296&amp;rra_id=0&amp;graph_nolegend=true&amp;graph_height=100&amp;graph_width=300
        INFOURL http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph.php?rra_id=all&amp;local_graph_id=237

LINK cust2-core
        NODES customer2 core
        TARGET data/extreme_traffic_in_286.rrd
        OVERLIBGRAPH http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph_image.php?local_graph_id=283&amp;rra_id=0&amp;graph_nolegend=true&amp;graph_height=100&amp;graph_width=300
        INFOURL http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph.php?rra_id=all&amp;local_graph_id=222

LINK infra-core
        NODES infra core
        TARGET data/extreme_traffic_in_294.rrd
        OVERLIBGRAPH http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph_image.php?local_graph_id=291&amp;rra_id=0&amp;graph_nolegend=true&amp;graph_height=100&amp;graph_width=300
        INFOURL http://support.mynet.net/cacti/graph.php?rra_id=all&amp;local_graph_id=228

</pre><b>A Sample Configuration File</b>
      </div>


      <h3><a name="alternatives" id="alternatives">Other
      Weathermaps</a></h3><p>Obviously, you can't please everyone, so
      here's a list of other weathermap or network visualisation
      implementations that I know of. Some are open source, some
      aren't. All of them have some subtle or interesting wrinkle
      that the others don't. <a href="mailto:howie@thingy.com">Let
      me know if you know of any others</a>.

      <dl>
        <dt><a href="http://netmon.grnet.gr/weathermap/" class="ext">GRNET perl version</a> by Panagiotis Christias.</dt>

        <dd>Support only for MRTG, or anything else that can
        produce similar HTML files.</dd>

        <dt><a href=
        "http://wotsit.thingy.com/haj/cacti-weathermap.html">My own
        perl weathermap</a></dt>

        <dd>A forked/modified version of the GRNET one above, adds
        imagemaps, DHTML, RRD-reading and a number of smaller
        tweaks. No longer updated.</dd>

        <dt><a class="ext" href=
        "http://weathermap4rrd.tropicalex.net/">Weathermap4RRD</a></dt>

        <dd>Another fork of the GRNET perl map. Also with (only?)
        RRD support, and various graphical enhancements.
        <i>Also</i> now with a PHP version!</dd>

        <dt><a href=
        "http://loadrunner.uits.iu.edu/weathermaps/abilene/" class=
        "ext">Indiana University Abilene Weathermap</a></dt>

        <dd>Another perl (i think) script, but with a rather
        different map design. Can show error rates on links,
        too.</dd>

        <dt><a href=
        "http://noc.asti.dost.gov.ph/docus/tools/how-to/weathermap.php"
        class="ext">PREGINET Network Weathermap</a></dt>

        <dd>Another perl open source map. Works by reading MRTG
        logs, as far as I can tell.</dd>

        <dt><a href="http://www.it.teithe.gr/~v13/">V13 netmap</a>
        (click 'netmap' in the left hand panel - I love
        frames)</dt>

        <dd>Similar output to this program, but does all it's own
        SNMP data collection.</dd>
      </dl>
        </p>
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