While providing a working wireless network you want some statistics data. This small howto will create a small statistic setup using graphite and collectd.
We'll use the kernel interface nl80211 which is also used by hostapd to collect all statistics data from AP. A collectd plugin will communicate with the kernel via nl80211 at AP. Collectd will also transfer these data over network to our statistics host where graphite runs. On the graphite host will be a collectd which receive statistics and push it into graphite.
'picture made with dia shows kernel,nl80211,ap,network,collectd,graphitehost,graphite'
Install statistics host
Install graphite
Let setup our graphite host. I will use a debian testing, because of a newer collectd version. Collectd v5 contians a plugin for graphite. Collectd v4 can only used via python plugin.
graphite install: code:
apt-get install python-django-tagging python-cairo libapache2-mod-wsgi python-twisted python-memcache python-pysqlite2 python-simplejson python-django
pip install whisper
pip install carbon
pip install graphite-web
cd /opt/graphite/conf
cp carbon.conf.example carbon.conf
cp storage-schemas.conf.example storage-schemas.conf
cd /opt/graphite/webapp/graphite/
python manage.py syncdb
You should change at least the storage-schemas.conf. Increase default retentions upto 14 days.
/opt/graphite/bin/carbon-cache.py start
src: http://linuxracker.com/2012/03/31/setting-up-graphite-server-on-debian-squeeze/
Install collectd
collectd install:
apt-get install collectd-core
Add these lines to types.db ( /usr/share/collectd/types.db )
stations value:GAUGE:0:256
nl_station connection_time:GAUGE:0:4294967295 inactive_time:GAUGE:0:4294967295 rx_bytes:GAUGE:0:4294967295 tx_bytes:GAUGE:0:4294967295 rx_packages:GAUGE:0:4294967295 tx_packages:GAUGE:0:4294967295 tx_retried:GAUGE:0:4294967295 tx_failed:GAUGE:0:4294967295 signal:GAUGE:-255:255 nl80211_mask:GAUGE:0:4294967295 nl80211_beacon_loss:GAUGE:0:4294967295 signal_avg:GAUGE:-255:255
nl_survey noise:GAUGE:-255:255 active:GAUGE:0:18446744073709551615 busy:GAUGE:0:18446744073709551615 extbusy:GAUGE:0:18446744073709551615 transmit:GAUGE:0:18446744073709551615 receive:GAUGE:0:18446744073709551615 inuse:GAUGE:0:1
add following lines to /etc/collectd.conf
LoadPlugin network
LoadPlugin write_graphite
<Plugin network>
Listen "0.0.0.0" "25826"
</Plugin>
<Plugin write_graphite>
<Carbon>
Host "localhost"
Port "2003"
</Carbon>
</Plugin>
.
/etc/init.d/collectd restart
We are done with our graphite host. Start within screen the django development server. For production setup of graphite use memcache + wsgi.
cd /opt/graphite/webapp/graphite/
python manage.py runserver
Configuring AP
You can build your own openWRT image or use this one.
Howto build our openWRT image
mkdir openwrt-collectd
cd openwrt-collectd
export SRCROOT=$PWD
git clone git://nbd.name/openwrt.git
cd openwrt
./scripts/feeds update
./scripts/feeds install collectd
cd ..
git clone git://dev.c-base.org/collect-nl80211/collectd-nl80211.git
cd collectd-nl80211
sh create-openwrt-collectd-patch.sh
cp 999-nl80211.patch ../openwrt/feeds/packages/utils/collectd/patches
cd ../openwrt/feeds/packages/
cat $SRCROOT/collectd-nl80211/openwrt-collectd-makefile.patch | patch -p0
cd $SRCROOT/openwrt
This will patch collectd Makefile. You can select now nl80211 within openwrt build system
With make menuconfig select from collectd the nl80211 module. Make sure you compiled
collectd + collectd-mod-network + collectd-mod-nl80211 hard into your image and not as module.
Flash your AP
scp $SRCROOT/openwrt/bin/ar71xx/openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wdr4300-v1-jffs2-sysupgrade.bin root@192.168.1.1:/tmp
ssh root@192.168.1.1
sysupgrade /tmp/openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wdr4300-v1-jffs2-sysupgrade.bin
Configuring openWRT
# enable default wireless OpenWRT
uci set wireless.radio0.disabled=0
uci commit
# modify network config + wifi interface to match your configuration
scp collectd-example.conf root@192.168.1.1:/etc/collectd.conf