Installing it was easy with Ubuntu, as packages already exist for it. It was a simple “sudo apt-get install munin munin-node.” The Ubuntu package set me up for running both the master and node software on the same machine. I then had to edit the /etc/munin/munin.conf to change a few paths around, notably where to put the generated HTML files. One hitch that stumped me for a few minutes was a permissions problem on the path to the location of the HTML files. The Ubuntu package creates a new munin user, so make sure all directories on the path to the HTML files have an “x” bit for world. Once that was sorted I started seeing data after 5 minutes for a variety of things including CPU load, MySQL statistics, and filesystem usage. Awesome! I decided to put Apache Basic Authorization password protection on the directory where the report files live, as it is sensitive data that I wouldn’t want just anyone to see.

Below is an example graph, one of about 50 (!) that are available right out of the box. Plugins exist and can be created for a wide variety of other parameters as well. In addition, Munin can notify you by email if parameters get out of range. See the Munin home page for more examples and information.

Munin MySQL Graph

Munin looks like a very useful tool to keep an eye on your server. Thanks to the Munin team for this great piece of software!