On 3/31/06, jonathan@dsg.stanford.edu <jonathan@dsg.stanford.edu> wrote:
>
> In message <20060331190158.GB5840@netbsd.org>Bill Studenmund writes
>
> >
> >You're 100% correct. If the host is running SNMP or some such. The probl=
em
> >is that a lot of sites don't, and this makes sense for them. In fact, if
> >you aren't running SNMP, resetting counters can be one of the sanest
> >things you can do. :-)
> >
> >One thing I could see adding (which I don't really have time to do) is a=
dd
> >a sysctl to disable resetting the counters. If you're running SNMP or so=
me
> >such monitoring system, set it as part of /etc/sysctl.conf.
>
> A sysctl doesn't really help: anyone with superuser privileges can
> turn off the sysctl, then zero the counters.
>
> I think we'd be better off to rework both the in-kernel support for
> "ifconfig -z", and the current proposal to allow resetting
> per-rpotocol statistics, to become compile-time options. Per the
> discussion that such zeroisation makes sense for "experimental" or
> single-user systems, the default should be
>
>      "zeroization not allowed".
>

This is a very convenient feature even in production.  These counters
are reset when the system is rebooted anyway, so it's just as well to
allow them to be reset without that power cycle.  I don't see how this
adversely affect SNMP monitoring at all.  It simply eases
troubleshooting.