This document should help you understand how to configure OpenNMS to setup distributed data collection using JMX.

This document is still work in progress and not yet production ready

In general the configuration is more or less the same than with the original OpenNMS:

  • Configure a remote package in collectd-configuration.xml

  • Configure the JMX data collection appropriately

  • Configure a monitor location

  • Create a node, interface and service in OpenNMS

  • Let the minion do it’s thing.

1. Configure a remote package in collectd-configuration.xml

You have to define a package with a JMX service. By default collectd would automatically trigger a collection for these services. To avoid this you have to remote enable it. Simply add remote="true" to the package definition. This tells collectd to ignore all nodes in this package.

Example of collectd-configuration.xml
 <package name="jmx-services" remote="true"> (1)
   <filter>IPADDR IPLIKE *.*.*.*</filter> (2)
   <include-range begin="192.168.1.101" end="192.168.1.106"/> (3)
   <service name="JVM-Example" interval="300000" user-defined="false" status="on"> (4)
     <parameter key="port" value="9003"/>
     <parameter key="retry" value="2"/>
     <parameter key="timeout" value="3000"/>
     <parameter key="protocol" value="rmi"/>
     <parameter key="urlPath" value="/jmxrmi"/>
     <parameter key="ds-name" value="jmx"/>
     <parameter key="friendly-name" value="jvm-example"/>
     <!-- This must match the collection name in the jmx-datacollection.xml that defines the set of mbeans you want -->
     <parameter key="collection" value="jsr160"/> (5)
   </service>
 </package>
1 The package with a name and remote="true" to tell collectd to ignore all interfaces in this package.
2 A filter to match all ip addresses
3 Only include interfaces with IP in range 192.168.1.101 to 192.168.1.106
4 The JMX Collector definition. It is enabled (status="on") and is executed every 5 minutes (300000 ms)
5 The name of the collection. The value must exist as a jmx-collection in the jmx-datacollection.xml.

2. Configure the JMX data collection in jmx-datacollection.xml

In the jmx-datacollection.xml we define the MBeans, Attributes and Composites which should be collected.

A jmx-collection with the same name as in the collectd-configuration.xml must exist, otherwise no data is collected.

Example of jmx-datacollection.xml
<jmx-datacollection-config rrdRepository="..."> (1)
    <jmx-collection name="jsr160"> (2)
        <rrd step = "300">
            <rra>RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:1:8928</rra>
            <rra>RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:12:8784</rra>
            <rra>RRA:MIN:0.5:12:8784</rra>
            <rra>RRA:MAX:0.5:12:8784</rra>
        </rrd>
        <mbeans> (3)
            <mbean name="JVM Memory" objectname="java.lang:type=OperatingSystem">
                <attrib name="FreePhysicalMemorySize"  alias="FreeMemory"     type="gauge"/>
                <attrib name="TotalPhysicalMemorySize" alias="TotalMemory"    type="gauge"/>
                <attrib name="FreeSwapSpaceSize"       alias="FreeSwapSpace"  type="gauge"/>
                <attrib name="TotalSwapSpaceSize"      alias="TotalSwapSpace" type="gauge"/>
            </mbean>
            <mbean name="JVM Threading" objectname="java.lang:type=Threading">
                <attrib name="ThreadCount"          alias="ThreadCount"       type="gauge"/>
                <attrib name="PeakThreadCount"      alias="PeakThreadCount"   type="gauge"/>
                <attrib name="DaemonThreadCount"    alias="DaemonThreadCount" type="gauge"/>
                <attrib name="CurrentThreadCpuTime" alias="CurThreadCpuTime"  type="gauge"/>
            </mbean>
            <mbean name="JVM ClassLoading" objectname="java.lang:type=ClassLoading">
                <attrib name="TotalLoadedClassCount" alias="TotLoadedClasses" type="gauge"/>
                <attrib name="LoadedClassCount"      alias="LoadedClasses"    type="gauge"/>
                <attrib name="UnloadedClassCount"    alias="UnloadedClass"    type="gauge"/>
            </mbean>
       </mbeans>
    </jmx-collection>
</jmx-datacollection-config>
1 The root element of the configuration file. The rrdRepository attribute points to the location where the data will be stored, but is ignored by the minion.
2 The definiotion of the jmx-collection. The name must match the collection entry in collectd-configuration.xml.
3 Example mbean definitions.

3. Configure a monitor location

The monitor location associates a given collector configuration with a remote location.

This allows multiple remote locations to use the same collector configuration.

Example of monitor-locations.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<monitoring-locations-configuration
  xmlns="http://www.opennms.org/xsd/config/monitoring-locations"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://xmlns.opennms.org/xsd/config/monitoring-locations
    http://www.opennms.org/xsd/config/monitoring-locations.xsd ">
  <locations>
    <location-def location-name="OpenNMS-HQ" (1)
        monitoring-area="raleigh" (2)
        collection-package-name="jmx-services" (3)
        geolocation="The OpenNMS Group, Pittsboro, NC" (4)
        coordinates="35.7174,-79.1619" priority="50"> (5)
    </location-def>
  </locations>
</monitoring-locations-configuration>
1 The name of the location. The mininon should have the same location name defined.
2 Used to group multiple locations together.
3 The package in collectd-configuration.xml that the monitor will use.
4 The geographical location of the monitor. This should be a street address or similar. If none is specified or Google can’t resolve the address to a latitude and longitude, the marker will be placed on the map at OpenNMS World HQ in Pittsboro, NC.
5 The geographical location of the monitor in the format "latitude,longitude".

For more details have a look at http://www.opennms.org/wiki/Remote_Polling#monitoring-locations.xml

4. Limitations

The limitations are:

  • NRTG is not supported, because the meta files are not written accordingly

  • By default the minion stores the collectd jmx data to /opt/opennms/share/rrd and this is at this point not configurable.