From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Michael Tremer To: development@lists.ipfire.org Subject: Re: pmacct (was Core Update 156) Date: Tue, 11 May 2021 14:17:40 +0100 Message-ID: <9CD0683E-36DA-4294-8643-3A2072218495@ipfire.org> In-Reply-To: <3ee447e7-3a74-e344-51fb-fc4787cb6de9@ipfire.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="===============4952318345196705471==" List-Id: --===============4952318345196705471== Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hello, > On 11 May 2021, at 13:42, Adolf Belka wrote: >=20 > Hi Michael, >=20 > On 11/05/2021 13:29, Michael Tremer wrote: >> Hello, >>> On 11 May 2021, at 12:16, Adolf Belka wrote: >>>=20 >>> Hi Michael, >>>=20 >>> With the release of Core Update 156 out of the way is pmacct good to go f= or Core Update 157 or are further changes required. >> I did not have any plans. The conversation around this has just died anoth= er time and I do not really remember where we left it. >=20 > Maybe that is my fault. After flagging it for Core Update 156 and it not ma= king it I presumed I should wait until all Core Update 156 release actions ha= d been completed as everyone would be busy with that. I didn't want to be a n= uisance with chasing it up. No I am not pointing any fingers and I am not annoyed with it being brought u= p again. >> I really do not want to carry around stuff that nobody cares about and tha= t the conversation has died multiple times suggests just that. In fact we are= trying to drop more dead stuff because if nobody updates it and nobody uses = it, what is the point? > I understand your point about not wanting dead wood in the addons but I don= 't believe this will be in that category. It will be supported by myself. It = is being used currently by Jon, Erik and @hellfire to my knowledge as local a= ddons. Yes, I am sure you will update the package, but how does a user use it? Going= to the console is a different kind of add-on. Why do we carry vnstatd as wel= l as pmacct? >> What is your view of the things around pmacct? Is it ready? What do users = gain from having it in the distribution? > The v2 update patches were to implement the IPFire Initscript template, rem= ove all other daemons except pmacct and pmacctd, remove the example config fi= les from /etc/pmacct. The v2 patch set was submitted into patchwork on 27th M= arch. I believe it is ready for release. > https://patchwork.ipfire.org/project/ipfire/list/?series=3D1869 > In terms of what users gain from having it in the distribution this is also= in the patch commit and I paste it in here as reference. > ---------------------------------------- > - What is it? I know what it is. I am just asking the question from the angle of the averag= e IPFire user: If I install it, what can I do with it? Go the configuration f= ile and figure out how to set it up? I could run Debian instead of IPFire the= n if I do not get any graphical user interface, etc. > pmacct is a monitoring tool for network management tasks. Data collected > can be used for analysis and troubleshooting purposes to maintain the > health of the network. pmacct can collect, replicate and export network > information. It can cache in memory tables, store persistently to SQLite3 > and output to flat-files like CSV, formatted, and JSON. > - Why is it needed? > To monitor data usage (IP-based or MAC-based data accounting) down to the > client level. Net-Traffic will monitor traffic for the entire RED, GREEN, > etc. networks, but it cannot pinpoint which client is using lots of data. > Connections will take a snapshot but not show day by day sums. pmacct can > help admins keep tabs on users that use too much data. > - What are the use cases? > An ISP may implement data caps and if the limit is over-run then you have > to pay for every additional xxGB of data used. Typical charges can be > around $10 per 50GB. With pmacct you can identify the high users and take > action, hopefully before the limit is breached. I can=E2=80=99t because I cannot see this on the web UI. Do I build custom SQ= L queries to figure this out? Users who can do that can compile pmacct for th= emselves, too. > - This is being introduced as a command line only tool. However, at a later > date, if it is useful to enough additional users a WUI page could be > developed as discussed in the development mailing list > https://lists.ipfire.org/pipermail/development/2021-January/009174.html What is the benefit of CLI-only tools? > ---------------------------------------- >> Apart from that, I wanted to close Core Update 157 pretty much this week b= ecause the big things have been merged so far. We have some Python 2 migratio= n stuff on the list which can wait for 158, it is important but not urgent. > Then if it is too late for Core Update 157 then I would like to have it com= mitted for Core Update 158. >=20 > Regards, > Adolf. >> Did I miss anything? >> -Michael >>> Regards, >>>=20 >>> Adolf. >>>=20 >>> On 07/04/2021 18:43, Adolf Belka wrote: >>>> Hi All, >>>>=20 >>>> I submitted the v2 version of pmacct about 10 days ago based on the inpu= t to the first version. Is this package good to go for CU156 or is further di= scussion still needed. >>>>=20 >>>> I am currently updating bash/readline and a patch will probably be submi= tted later today or tomorrow. Looking at the changes in bash from 5.0 to 5.1= I don't see anything that says this update needs to go into CU156 so I would= leave it for CU157. >>>>=20 >>>> Regards, >>>> Adolf. >>>>=20 >>>>=20 >>>> On 07/04/2021 17:04, Michael Tremer wrote: >>>>> Hello, >>>>>=20 >>>>> I would like to formally close Core Update 156 as soon as possible to m= erge it into =E2=80=9Cmaster=E2=80=9D and release it to a wider audience for = testing. >>>>>=20 >>>>> Does anyone have any changes that *must* be in this update? >>>>>=20 >>>>> I have the following things on my list: >>>>>=20 >>>>> * Dropping macvtap support: This is broken and I do not think that we w= ould need this because we have bridges. Please review my proposed patch: http= s://lists.ipfire.org/pipermail/development/2021-April/009858.html >>>>>=20 >>>>> * Jonatan wanted to drop the other templates for the web UI >>>>>=20 >>>>> * Peter has some sysctl changes >>>>>=20 >>>>> Apart from that I would like to move our attention to testing this upda= te and collecting patches for the next update. Core Update 156 is already qui= te large (15 MB compressed on x86_64) and so I would reject any larger change= s unless really necessary. >>>>>=20 >>>>> Lots of thanks to Adolf for putting in so many hours to update all thes= e packages that have received so little love in the past. Especially Perl is = one of those which take ages and ages :) >>>>>=20 >>>>> Best, >>>>> -Michael >>>>=20 --===============4952318345196705471==--