The RRD files

As you learned earlier, RRD files are system-dependent. This means that you cannot simply copy RRD files to a new system: you will have to convert them first. Luckily, this can be done using the XML dump function of the rrdtool.

Time for action - dumping and loading an RRD file

Let's test the process of dumping an RRD file and re-creating it using the resulting XML file from the dump.

1. Log on to your Cacti system.
2. Change to the tmp directory.
3. Copy any of the RRD files. In this example, you will use the hdd_used file for the local Linux machine:

cp /var/www/html/cacti/rra/local_linux_machine_hdd_used_16.rrd /tmp

4. Now, dump the data from the RRD file to a new XML file:

rrdtool dump local_linux_machine_hdd_used_16.rrd > local_linux_machine_hdd_used_16.xml

5. The resulting file is a plain-text XML file that can be looked at using the more command. Use the following command to display the XML file as seen in the following screenshot:

more local_linux_machine_hdd_used_16.xml

6. Now, remove the original...