Install Graphite in a virtualenv (python2.7) with apache and StatsD (Debian Squeeze)

1-virtualenv.sh

# create the virtualenv and work on it
mkvirtualenv graphite 
workon graphite
cd $VIRTUAL_ENV # we are now in /home/envs/graphite/ . If you are not, you may have a problem with your virtualenv

# apparently you have to make a symlink because cairo does not work with python 2.7 and pip
# my cairo module was located on /usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/cairo Check this path, it may change on your server.
# You can execute `locate cairo` to find out.
# if this step does not work, you will not have any graphics in graphite later
ln -s /usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/cairo ./lib/python2.7/

2-graphite.sh

# create the directory
mkdir /opt/graphite 

# make directory writable by whoever your want. You can chmod 777 if you want to: sudo chmod 777 /opt/graphite
# in our exemple, the "users" group, and www-data user (who execute apache) will have write and execute rights
sudo setfacl -dR -m m:rwx -m u:www-data:rwx -m g:users:rwx /opt/graphite
sudo setfacl -R -m m:rwx -m u:www-data:rwx -m g:users:rwx /opt/graphite

# install all required packages
pip install django==1.3 # Graphite does not seems to work with django >= 1.4
pip install django-tagging twisted whisper carbon graphite-web # all other graphite dependancies

# configure graphite
cd /opt/graphite/conf/
cp graphite.wsgi.example graphite.wsgi
cp carbon.conf.example carbon.conf
cp storage-schemas.conf.example storage-schemas.conf

# Edit graphite.wsgi in order to specify python virtualenv path
# Change the "import" line with those two lines :
- import os, sys
+ import os, sys, site
+ site.addsitedir('/home/envs/graphite/lib/python2.7/site-packages')


# Edit storage-schemas.conf in order to include a custom tweak provided by stats.d
[stats]
pattern = ^stats.*
retentions = 10:2160,60:10080,600:262974
 
[carbon]
pattern = ^carbon\.
retentions = 60:90d
 
[default_1min_for_1day]
pattern = .*
retentions = 60s:1d
 
# Create a storage-aggregation.conf  file
vim storage-aggregation.conf
 
# Then copy paste in it the following parameters
[min]
pattern = \.min$
xFilesFactor = 0.1
aggregationMethod = min
 
[max]
pattern = \.max$
xFilesFactor = 0.1
aggregationMethod = max
 
[sum]
pattern = \.count$
xFilesFactor = 0
aggregationMethod = sum
 
[default_average]
pattern = .*
xFilesFactor = 0.3
aggregationMethod = average
 
# go back to the installation process
cd /opt/graphite/webapp/graphite
python manage.py syncdb # I spend some hour on this command, but if you have followed the previous steps, it should be working

# If you have some gcc error message, you may have to install python header

# enable graphite host
/opt/graphite/bin/carbon-cache.py start # errors can be found in /opt/graphite/storage/log/carbon-cache/ but I did not have any on that one

3-graphite.apacheconf

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName  graphite.example.com
    ServerAlias graphite.example.com

    DocumentRoot "/opt/graphite/webapp"

    WSGIDaemonProcess graphite processes=5 threads=5 display-name='%{GROUP}' inactivity-timeout=120
    WSGIProcessGroup graphite
    WSGIApplicationGroup %{GLOBAL}
    WSGIImportScript /opt/graphite/conf/graphite.wsgi process-group=graphite application-group=%{GLOBAL}

    WSGIScriptAlias / /opt/graphite/conf/graphite.wsgi 

    <Directory />
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All 
    </Directory>

    Alias /content/ /opt/graphite/webapp/content/
    <Location "/content/">
            SetHandler None
    </Location>

    # XXX In order for the django admin site media to work you
    # must change @DJANGO_ROOT@ to be the path to your django
    # installation, which is probably something like:
    # /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django
    Alias /media/ "@DJANGO_ROOT@/contrib/admin/media/"
    <Location "/media/">
            SetHandler None
    </Location>

    # The graphite.wsgi file has to be accessible by apache. It will not
    # be visible to clients because of the DocumentRoot though.
    <Directory /opt/graphite/conf/>
            Order deny,allow
            Allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

4-statsd-local-debug.json

{
  graphitePort: 2003
, graphiteHost: "127.0.0.1"
, port: 8125
, backends: [ "./backends/graphite", "./backends/console" ]
, debug: true
}

4-statsd-local.json

{
  graphitePort: 2003
, graphiteHost: "127.0.0.1"
, port: 8125
, backends: [ "./backends/graphite" ]
}