How to Install and Configure Cacti

Cacti is a complete frontend to RRDTool, it stores all of the necessary information to create graphs and populate them with data in a MySQL database. Required softwares to install Cacti.

You need to install the following software to install cacti.

a)      MySQL Server : Store cacti data
b)      NET-SNMP server – SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is a protocol used for network management.
c)      PHP with net-snmp module – Access SNMP data using PHP.
d)     Apache / lighttpd / ngnix webserver : Web server to display graphs created with PHP and RRDTOOL.

Install the software

You can install the softwares  using yum command. Run the following:-

# yum install mysql-server mysql php-mysql php-pear php-common php-gd php-devel php php-mbstring php-cli php-snmp php-pear-Net-SMTP php-mysql httpd

Configure MySQL server

Setting up root password:-
# mysqladmin -u root password NEWPASSWORD

Create cacti MySQL database
# mysql -u root -p -e ‘create database cacti’

Create a user name cacti with a password your password, then enter

Login to mysql
# mysql -u root –p

mysql> GRANT ALL ON cacti.* TO cacti@localhost IDENTIFIED BY ‘your password’;
mysql> FLUSH privileges;
mysql> ¥q

Intall snmpd
Type the following command to install net-snmpd
# yum install net-snmp-utils php-snmp net-snmp-libs

To configure snmpd, open the snmpd.conf configuration file.

# vi /etc/snmp/snm pd.conf
And modify the conafiguration file. As see below.
com2sec local     localhost           public
group MyRWGroup v1         local
group MyRWGroup v2c        local
group MyRWGroup usm        local
view all    included  .1                               80
access MyRWGroup “”      any       noauth    exact  all    all    none
syslocation Unknown (edit /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf)
syscontact Root  (configure /etc/snmp/snmp.local.conf)
pass .1.3.6.1.4.1.4413.4.1 /usr/bin/ucd5820stat

Save and closed the configuration file and start the snmp service. Type the following.

# /etc/init.d/snmpd start
# chkconfig snmpd on

Install cacti

Update the repository:< o:p>

rpm -Uvh http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/x86_64/epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm

# yum install cacti

Install cacti tables
Type the following command to find out cacti.sql path:
# rpm -ql cacti | grep cacti.sql

Sample output:
/usr/share/doc/cacti-0.8.7d/cacti.sql

Type the following command to install cacti tables (you need to type the cacti user password):

# mysql -u cacti -p cacti < /usr/share/doc/cacti-0.8.7d/cacti.sql

Configure cacti database string:-Open /var/www/cacti/include< br># config.php

Modify the following changes as follows:
/* make sure these values refect your actual database/host/user/password */

$database_type = “mysql”;
$database_default = “cacti”;
$database_hostname = “localhost”;
$database_username = “cacti”;
$database_password = “your password”;
$database_port = “3306″;
Configure httpd for cacti.Update allow from line, set to your LAN subnet to allow access to cacti:
Open /etc/httpd/conf.d/cacti.conf file

# vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/cacti.conf
Alias /cacti/ /var/www/cacti/

DirectoryIndex index.php
Options -Indexes
AllowOverride all
order deny,allow
allow from 172.16.0.0/16 #your network address
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
php_flag magic_quotes_gpc on
php_flag track_vars on

After changed start the httpd:-
# /etc/init.d/httpd  start

Setup cacti cronjob
Open /etc/cron.d/cacti file
# vi /etc/cron.d/cacti

Uncomment the line:
*/5 * * * *     cacti   /usr/bin/php /usr/share/cacti/poller.php > /dev/null 2>&1

Save and closed the file after uncomment.

Now cacti is ready, you can run the cacti type the following:-

http://Cacti_IP_Address/cacti/

or http://xx.xx.xx.xx/cacti

Note:< /span> The default username and password for cacti is admin / admin.