I'm sorry if I didn't make myself clear. I'm aware that the exact answer to the question, which is asked over and over and over again, is already in the documentation. The content is there, the delivery is not.
My suggestion is to put the answer right in front of the user at all times. At the top (or bottom) of every statistics web page, put a line that says "All collected data will reset to zero when the ntop service is stopped or restarted. Use rrdtool for external persistent storage." It's a simple question with a simple answer. So simple that most new users are just assuming it works a certain way without looking at the documentation. -----Original Message----- From: Burton M. Strauss III [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, October 17, 2003 3:15 PM To: Ntop Cc: Dane Martin Subject: RE: [ntop] host activity is not preserved across ntop restarts Dane - sounds like you've volunteered to write up an entry for the FAQ (or a full fledged document). Go for it - we would love the contribution. Here's the paragraph I've added to the ntop & rrd write-up (posted @ SourceForge): How can I store data between ntop runs? Bluntly, you can't. ntop uses it's rrd databases as the ONLY persistent storage. The data presented on the ntop web pages - other than the rrd based graphs - are generated from memory based tables and counters. When ntop restarts, that data is gone. You can use the data extract facilities (Admin | Data Dump) to pull files of ntop's detailed counts on a periodic basis and pump those into say a mySQL database, but that's external to ntop. There are some scripts in the www directory, but they're unsupported. -----Burton -----Original Message----- From: Dane Martin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, October 17, 2003 12:08 PM To: Burton Strauss Subject: RE: [ntop] host activity is not preserved across ntop restarts Have you thought about clarifying the documentation and adding a note to the ntop http page footers to explain that every statistic is reset when the service is stopped or restarted? I know it's documented already, but it's still a commonly asked question. Rather than get frustrated with the user, try to understand why they aren't "getting it" and adjust the delivery of information to make it more clear/obvious. Dane -----Original Message----- From: Burton Strauss [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, October 17, 2003 5:04 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [ntop] host activity is not preserved across ntop restarts Did you READ the stuff or just comb it? As I've said MANY TIMES: The persistent storage is the rrd databases. All in-memory stuff is from the start of the current ntop run. -----Burton ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003 10:47:48 +0200 >hello > >i've been combing the list archives for a few days now, and i didn't find >this resolved so far... > >is there a way for the host activity to be preserved across ntop restarts ?? > >http://my.site monitor:xxxxx/dataHostTraffic.html > >currently whenever i restart ntop the activity log generated by the above >url is discarded, and ntop starts as if it is freshly installed. > >i have the latest ntop from cvs (last updated and built today on 17 oct at >around 07:00 GMT) >kernel 2.4.22 with grsecurity 1.9.12 >rh 7.3 with all the latest updates from redhat. (except kernel and >iptables..i do those manually) > >i start ntop as follows: > >/usr/local/ntop/bin/ntop -d -i eth1 -u ntop -w 1083 -W 1084 -Q /home/ntop -P >/home/ntop -O / >home/ntop/logs -a /home/ntop/logs/access.log >> /home/ntop/logs/logfile.log > >ntop is in /usr/local/ntop and its files in /home/ntop... that way i can >reinstall painlessly only the program by using >rm -r /usr/local/ntop >and >make install >on a new build without affecting the already collected data. > >(and when i mean restarts up there, i really mean restarts not reinstalls) > >is there something i'm missing ?? > >Adrian. > >_______________________________________________ >Ntop mailing list >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >http://listgateway.unipi.it/mailman/listinfo/ntop > ____________________________________________________________ Free 20MB Web Site Hosting and Personalized E-mail Service! Get It Now At Doteasy.com http://www.doteasy.com/et/ _______________________________________________ Ntop mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://listgateway.unipi.it/mailman/listinfo/ntop _______________________________________________ Ntop mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://listgateway.unipi.it/mailman/listinfo/ntop
