Plotarrd is a small webapplication for browsing RRD files and plotting them in some simple way.

The central function of Plotarrd is to expose predefined, named graph through a friendly URL, like

http://example.net/plotarrd/temperature.png

assuming, of course, that Plotarrd is deployed under http://example.net/plotarrd/ and the predefined graph is called temperature.

To make things easier for operator, Plotarrd allows also to define new graphs and save them for later.

All the fuss is to combine collectd as a data collector and DashWiki as a dashboard. Of course, there's no problem to use Plotarrd with any other metrics collector (as long as it writes RRD files) or dashboard application.

All PNG URLs allow specifying image size and graph period.

http://example.net/plotarrd/temperature.png?size=800x500
http://example.net/plotarrd/temperature.png?timespan=2weeks

Currently, only the recent period is displayed (i.e. there's no way to make a graph for 3 days that were two months ago).

The timespan is anything that RRDtool accepts, especially in the form of {number}{unit}, where {unit} can be minute, hour, day, week, month or year (of course, it's not limited to those).

All editing resides under .../edit/* path (http://example.net/plotarrd/edit/ with our current convention for examples), so even though Plotarrd doesn't provide any access control, it should be fairly easy to add one with HTTP server.

Several graphs can use parameters in the form of ${name} in various places:

• variable label
• RRD database path
• datasource
• title
• Y-axis label

These parameters typically will be passed as GET parameters. They can also have default values (this is recommended practice, so one can quickly see what this graph is about).

For instance, one could define a graph free_disk as follows:

| label | file                                         | DS    |
| used  | ${host}/df-${filesystem}/df_complex-used.rrd | value |

This graph could be then displayed as

http://example.net/plotarrd/free_disk.png?host=web01.example.net&filesystem=root

Simple WSGI application, requiring Python bindings for RRDtool and Flask (0.6+; older versions were not checked). Python 2.6 or newer (it possibly works under 2.5, but this was not checked).

TODO: be more verbose.

Plotarrd is written by Stanislaw Klekot (dozzie at jarowit.net). The primary distribution point is dozzie.jarowit.net, with a secondary address on GitHub.

Plotarrd is distributed under 3-clause BSD license. See COPYING file for details.