I use Cacti to collect the usual traffic information from my Netscreen 50, but I also use kayalinux's Netscreen templates to get memory usage, load average and session counts. This map shows an extra piece of text above the firewall's icon, with the session count.
To do this, we use a second node, with only a label and a target. We specify that no scale is used, so the label doesn't change colour (you might want it to change colour, and of course you can do that). The important lines are the TARGET line, which fetches the session count data from a Cacti rrd file, the POSITION line which tells Weathermap to position this node relative to the main firewall node, and the LABEL line. The relative position means that you don't need to adjust the session label when you move the firewall node - it will follow it.
The LABEL line contains a special token string which is substituted for the value of the 'in' value, read from the TARGET. You can use other text in the same LABEL too (like the 'Sessions' text in this example).
Here's the complete config for the two nodes - the Netscreen icon, and the sessions label above it.
FONTDEFINE 20 GillSansItalic 9
FONTDEFINE 32 GillSans 9
# DEFAULT definitions:
NODE DEFAULT
LABELFONT 22
NODE fw_1
LABEL FW1
INFOURL telnet://10.1.1.2
ICON 180 180 ns25.png
LABELOFFSET N
LABELBGCOLOR none
LABELOUTLINECOLOR none
POSITION sw_1a 400 0
NODE fw1_sess
LABEL {node:this:bandwidth_in:%d} sessions
LABELFONT 32
TARGET gauge:../rra/fw1_sessionsalloc_2951.rrd:sessionsAlloc:-
USESCALE none in
LABELBGCOLOR none
LABELOUTLINECOLOR none
POSITION fw_1 70 -20
November 12, 2008 - 4:43pm
Any thoughts on how to add info on what Big Brother/Hobbit is reporting? Doing the same thing done here but show a color change. "Red" or "Green" to let you know that a server on the weathermap has an issue based on BB or Hobbit.
March 25, 2009 - 12:56pm
I tried:
NODE FW5a_sessioni
LABEL {node:this:bandwidth_in:%d} sessions
LABELFONT 32
TARGET C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/rra/fw5a_-_ssg140_sessionsalloc_620.rrd:sessionsAlloc:
USESCALE none in
LABELBGCOLOR none
LABELOUTLINECOLOR none
POSITION 409 42
but 0 sessions are displaied.
Regards
Alessio