Cacti: How to install on Centos 5.x server

Required software(s)

You need to install the following software on RHEL / Fedora / CentOS Linux:

MySQL Server : Store cacti data.

NET-SNMP server – SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is a protocol used for network management.

PHP with net-snmp module – Access SNMP data using PHP.

Apache / lighttpd / ngnix webserver : Web server to display graphs created with PHP and RRDTOOL.

Install the software

First, login as root user and type the following command to install mysql, apache and php:

# 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

First, set root password:

# mysqladmin -u root password NEWPASSWORD

Create cacti MySQL database

Create a database called cacti, enter:

# mysql -u root -p -e 'create database cacti'

Create a user called cacti with a password called zYn95ph43zYtq, enter:

# mysql -u root -p

mysql> GRANT ALL ON cacti.* TO cacti@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'zYn95ph43zYtq';

mysql> FLUSH privileges;

mysql> \q

Install snmpd

Type the following command to install net-snmpd

# yum install net-snmp-utils php-snmp net-snmp-libs

Configure snmpd, open /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf

# vi /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf

rocommunity public

# /etc/init.d/snmpd start

# chkconfig snmpd on

Make sure you are getting information from snmpd:

# snmpwalk -v 1 -c public localhost IP-MIB::ipAdEntIfIndex

Sample ouptut:

IP-MIB::ipAdEntIfIndex.10.10.29.68 = INTEGER: 2

IP-MIB::ipAdEntIfIndex.67.yy.zz.eee = INTEGER: 3

IP-MIB::ipAdEntIfIndex.127.0.0.1 = INTEGER: 1

Install cacti

First, DAG repo is created.

#nano /etc/yum.repos.d/DAG.rep

 

[dag]
name=Dag RPM Repository for Red Hat Enterprise Linux
baseurl=http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el$releasever/en/$basearch/dag
gpgcheck=0
enabled=1
protect=0

Type the following command to install cacti:

# 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

Open /etc/cacti/db.php file, enter:

# vi /etc/cacti/db.php

Make 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 = "zYn95ph43zYtq";

$database_port = "3306";

Save and close the file.

Configure httpd

Open /etc/httpd/conf.d/cacti.conf file, enter:

# vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/cacti.conf

You need to update allow from line. Either set to ALL or your LAN subnet to allow access to cacti:

#

# Cacti: An rrd based graphing tool

#

Alias /cacti    /usr/share/cacti

<Directory /usr/share/cacti/>

        Order Deny,Allow

        Deny from all

        Allow from 10.0.0.0/8

</Directory>

Another option is create /usr/share/cacti/.htaccess file and password protect the directory. Finally, restart httpd:

# service httpd restart

Setup cacti cronjob

Open /etc/cron.d/cacti file, enter:

# vi /etc/cron.d/cacti

Uncomment the line:

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

Save and close the file.

Run cacti installer

Now cacti is ready to install. Fire a webbrowser and type the url:

http://your.example.com/cacti/

OR

http://your.server.ip.address/cacti/

Just follow on screen instructions. The default username and password for cacti is admin / admin. Upon first login, you will be force to change the default password.

How do I configure SNMP data collection?

SNMP can be used to monitor server traffic. Once installed login to cacti.

=> Click on Devices

=> Select Localhost

=> Make sure SNMP options are selected as follows:

Finally, click on Save button.