netdata-chart-sqm

Description

Netdata chart for displaying SQM statistics. Current major version: v2.0.

Acknowledgements

Adapted for Netdata based on the existing sqm_collectd script. (Credit: ldir-EDB0)

Requirements

OpenWrt Packages:

bash
coreutils-timeout
curl
netdata

Installation

Choose either the Local or Remote method below based on whether your OpenWrt device has git and git-http installed. These can be installed on OpenWrt via apk update; apk add git git-http if desired. Otherwise, use the Remote method to clone the project down on another host and push the project to your OpenWrt device.

OpenWrt Local (with git + git-http on OpenWrt device)

# git clone https://github.com/Fail-Safe/netdata-chart-sqm.git
# cd netdata-chart-sqm
# sh ./install.sh

OpenWrt Remote

Clone project and scp it to the remote OpenWrt device:

# git clone https://github.com/Fail-Safe/netdata-chart-sqm.git
# scp -r "$(pwd)/netdata-chart-sqm" root@<OpenWrt device IP here>:~

Log into the remote OpenWrt device and execute:

# cd netdata-chart-sqm
# sh ./install.sh

Validate and Test

After completing the above steps (whether local or remote), reload your Netdata web interface and confirm if "SQM" appears in the list of charts. If sqm.conf already exists, installer keeps existing values and appends only missing setting keys introduced by newer versions.

Development tests

Run project tests locally:

bash tests/run-tests.sh

Settings

Common settings are to be modified in: /etc/netdata/charts.d/sqm.conf

Values

• sqm_ifc - Modify to match the interface(s) where your SQM configuration is applied. Each interface names should be placed in quotes and separated by a space. e.g. for eth0 and eth1: declare -a sqm_ifc=("eth0" "eth1") [default: "eth0"]
• sqm_cake_mq_mode - Choose charting behavior for interfaces using cake_mq: cake_mq (aggregate child cake queues into one chart set), queue (one chart set per child queue), or overlay (one chart set with one dimension per child queue). [default: cake_mq]
• sqm_collector - Choose collector backend: shell (legacy charts.d parsing path) or go (delegates chart create/update output to the Go collector binary). See performance benchmark below for details. [default: shell, recommended: go]
• sqm_go_collector_bin - Absolute path to the Go collector binary used when sqm_collector="go". [default: /usr/lib/netdata/charts.d/sqm-go-collector]
• sqm_priority - Modify to change where the SQM chart appears in Netdata's web interface. [default: 90000]

sqm_cake_mq_mode details

This setting only changes how cake_mq child queues are presented in charts; metric collection remains the same.

Value	What you get	Expectations	Pros	Cons
cake_mq	One aggregated chart set per interface (all child queues combined)	Best when you care about overall link behavior, not per-queue differences	Lowest chart count, easiest to read, least dashboard noise	Hides queue-level imbalance/hotspots
queue	One full chart set per child queue	Best for deep troubleshooting per hardware queue	Most detailed per-queue visibility	Highest chart count, noisier dashboard
overlay	One chart set per tin with per-queue dimensions (e.g. q1_bytes, q2_bytes)	Best balance for day-to-day monitoring with queue comparison	Good visibility with fewer charts than queue	More complex dimensions and legends than cake_mq

Optional Go backend collector

The shell collector (sqm-chart/sqm.chart.sh) remains the primary integration path for legacy usage. This repository also includes sqm-go-collector, a lightweight Go binary that can be used as an optional backend for tc data collection workflows.

If you choose the Go collector during install.sh, you can download a binary from GitHub Releases (or any compatible base URL) by setting:

• SQM_GO_COLLECTOR_VERSION (default: latest, example: v2.0.0)
• SQM_GO_COLLECTOR_BASE_URL (optional override for custom hosting)

Default behavior (no env vars) downloads from the latest GitHub release:

• https://github.com/Fail-Safe/netdata-chart-sqm/releases/latest/download/sqm-go-collector-linux-<arch>

Pinned tag behavior:

• set SQM_GO_COLLECTOR_VERSION=v2.0.0, which downloads from:
• https://github.com/Fail-Safe/netdata-chart-sqm/releases/download/v2.0.0/sqm-go-collector-linux-<arch>

Performance benchmark (shell vs go backend)

Latest benchmark on an OpenWrt x86_64 based host (2026-02-25), using Netdata chart netdata.plugin_chartsd_sqm (plugin run time):

Collector	n	Avg (ms)	Median (ms)	p95 (ms)	Min (ms)	Max (ms)
Shell	48	348.88	340	370	330	370
Go	48	9.38	10	10	0	10

Method summary: for each mode, restart netdata, warm up for 30s, then collect 8 short windows from /api/v1/data?chart=netdata.plugin_chartsd_sqm&after=-12&points=12&format=csv and aggregate numeric samples.

These values indicate most overhead in shell mode comes from shell/jshn processing in charts.d, while the delegated Go update path stays near timer-resolution floor on this device.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for release history and notable changes.

Screenshots

Example: diffserv4

Example: diffserv3

Example: diffserv8

References

Cake / Cake MQ

• Cake MQ
• Cake-mq - backport of multi-core capable CAKE implementation to 25.12 branch

Collectd Inspiration

• https://github.com/openwrt/packages/blob/master/utils/collectd/patches/910-add-cake-qdisc-types.patch
• https://github.com/openwrt/luci/blob/master/applications/luci-app-statistics/htdocs/luci-static/resources/statistics/rrdtool/definitions/sqm.js
• https://github.com/openwrt/luci/blob/master/applications/luci-app-statistics/htdocs/luci-static/resources/statistics/rrdtool/definitions/sqmcake.js