[Xymon] Custom graphs, non-standard config

[Haertig, David F (Dave)]

My installation is an old Hobbit 4.2.0 one, but in case the graphing is still similar to the way Xymon does things nowadays, I thought I'd ask here.

I am familiar with custom graphs, using NCV, and have implemented many.  I am looking to try something a little different from that.

I have a network appliance (not a "server") that cannot have the Hobbit client installed on it, but I can gather CPU load info from it like this "ssh user at appliance status cpu".  This generates a response like this example:

0.18 0.14 0.10 3/74 29150
Command Result : 0 (Success)

I currently use the above collected data to create a "status" message that I then use the "bb" command to send to Hobbit.  Works as expected, with the data showing up in the "cpu" column for this appliance I am monitoring:

/usr/local/bin/bb
192.168.0.1
status qcosvhsm1.cpu green Tue Apr  2 15:55:16 2013
CPU load
========

&green 5 minute average CPU load is 0.10, which is <= warning level of 3

load average: 0.10, 0.10, 0.09

Raw data (command = 'status cpu'):
   0.10 0.10 0.09 3/74 7177
   Command Result : 0 (Success)

(I have other custom stuff that turns text like "&green" into a link to the green light icon Hobbit normally uses, but that's irrelevant to my questions here.)

What I would like to do is use the built-in RRD and "CPU Load" graph definitions to display a graph on the Hobbit webpage.  I realize I can make my own custom ones, and I know how to do that already (but not showing up on the default "cpu" column, I'd have to make a different "cpu_load" column using a different name than just "cpu"), but I wanted to try sending my data into Hobbit to force it to use the built-in definitions rather than my own custom defs.  You can see in the above bb message I formatted a part of the text as "load average: 0.10, 0.10, 0.09" so that would mimic what Hobbit normally sees in the data typically collected with "top" (which I believe is how it collects data on CPU load - but I'm not sure of Hobbits internals in this case - possibly it uses some other command, maybe "uptime").

Do I need to send an additional "data" message along with the "status" message above to trigger the graphing?  What format would that data message require?  Typically for a custom graph you add onto the TEST2RRD line with "column_name=ncv" but I can see as part of the original TEST2RRD line that there already is a part that says "cpu=la".  As I understand TEST2RRD (and I don't understand it all that well), I think this means that incoming "status" and "data" messages for "cpu" are directed to some internal "la" module.  I am working on the assumption that all's I need to do to invoke the built-in graphing defs for "CPU Load" is to format my custom status message so that the "la" module can parse out the load data it needs for graphing.  Am I even close to being correct in this assumption?

Any tips on how I should proceed?  This is as much a mental gymnastics exercise as anything.  It is going into a production system and I know how to skin this cat another way.  I was just hoping to learn how to skin this cat using the already built-in "CPU Load" graphing definitions.

Thanks in advance!

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