Patrick> 3. Semi-automatic configuration
Patrick> I would prefer to specify the medium somehow like "the
Patrick> serial line that connects cisco x and y", and have
Patrick> some preprocessing that figures out the IP number and
Patrick> the interface number to put in the configuration file.
Patrick> Statistics should continue smoothly, even when the
Patrick> same physical line is connected to another interface,
Patrick> another router, ...
Nice to have, but complicated to implement. Is this really needed? How
often do you change your router configuration? Wouldn't it be better
to put something like this on top of the monitoring system once it is
up and running and you feel it will save you much time?
I think this should be included in the database design right from the
beginning; e.g. line accounting could be stored as entries of the
form:
<line> <connection point> <variable> <time> <value>
with some other table mapping <line> <connection point> to <ip number>
<interface number>.
This is easy to implement (I think), and adds flexibility: only the
second table has to be changed when the physical line is plugged into
another interface. Building the second table _automatically_ is much
harder, and perhaps not worth the effort (at least it is not a
priority for me).
This would allow us having line statistics spanning several years.
[We change some router configurations quite often, as the network is
still expanding and its topology still changing; this will continue for
several years]
Patrick