Install collectd 5.4 on Centos 6.x and make it spit out cool metrics. Copied from http://linuxdrops.com/install-collectd-statistics-collecter-on-centos-rhel-ubuntu-debian/ and tweaked for your and my pleasure. For all other cool options, check the provided link.

gistfile1.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Perform installation as root
# Install prereqs

yum -y install libcurl libcurl-devel rrdtool rrdtool-devel rrdtool-prel libgcrypt-devel gcc make gcc-c++

# Get Collectd, untar it, make it and install

wget http://collectd.org/files/collectd-5.4.0.tar.gz
tar zxvf collectd-5.4.0.tar.gz
cd collectd-5.4.0
./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --libdir=/usr/lib --mandir=/usr/share/man --enable-all-plugins
make
make install


# Copy the default init.d script

cp /root/collectd-5.4.0/contrib/redhat/init.d-collectd /etc/init.d/collectd

# Set the correct permissions

chmod +x /etc/init.d/collectd

# Start the deamon

service collectd start


# NOTE! FQDN lookup is enabled by default. This might give you troubles if you'r running on Vagrant or some cloud server
# Check /var/log/messages for something like "Looking up "<yourhost>" failed. You have set the "FQDNLookup" option, but I cannot resolve my hostname...
# The fix is easy, just set "FQDNLookup   false" in /etc/collectd.conf

For some reason tcpconns metrics are not being sent at all.
I'm running CentOS6 and I used this command to install the collectd:
./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --libdir=/usr/lib64 --mandir=/usr/share/man --enable-all-plugins

[root@ip-10-152-219-179 ~]# collectd -h
Usage: collectd [OPTIONS]

Available options:
  General:
    -C <file>       Configuration file.
                    Default: /etc/collectd.conf
    -t              Test config and exit.
    -T              Test plugin read and exit.
    -P <file>       PID-file.
                    Default: /var/run/collectd.pid
    -f              Don't fork to the background.
    -h              Display help (this message)

Builtin defaults:
  Config file       /etc/collectd.conf
  PID file          /var/run/collectd.pid
  Plugin directory  /usr/lib64/collectd
  Data directory    /var/lib/collectd

collectd 5.7.2, http://collectd.org/
by Florian octo Forster <[email protected]>
for contributions see `AUTHORS'

All metrics are being sent except of tcpconns, any suggestions?

there's a typo in the first yum install command. Instead of rrdtool-perl you have rrdtool-prel