Installing MRTG on Windows 2003

Before using MRTG, you need to install SNMP on your server. From the Control Panel, select Add or Remove Programs and click on Add/Remove Windows Components. Highlight Management and Monitoring Tools and click on the Details button. From there, check the box before Simple Network Management Protocol. Click on OK then click on Next to proceed with installation.

After installing SNMP, you need to take a few steps to secure it. SNMP is by no means a secure protocol and should not be used over a network without some kind of encryption. Microsoft has an article that explains how to use SNMP with IPSec, but for the purposes of this article, we will only use SNMP locally. Just be sure to block UDP ports 161 and 162 at your firewall or using IPSec. Next, you need to set an obscure community string. From the Administrative Tools, select Services and double-click on the SNMP Service. From the Security tab, add a READ ONLY community name, which is roughly equivalent to a password. Although a community string is far from secure, you should still avoid using a common community string such as PUBLIC. Check the box to only Accept SNMP packets from these hosts and make sure that only localhost is in the list.

MRTG is a Perl script and a compiled C program. You will need to download and install ActivePerl. You will also need to download the most recent version of MRTG (hint: grab the most recent .zip file). The MRTG files that were used for this article are available here. Extract MRTG from the zip file to C:\Program Files\MRTG.

Create a MRTG directory under your Inetpub directory (but not in the wwwroot directory). Use the Internet Information Services Manager to create a new MRTG web site. If possible, use host headers or a unique IP address for the MRTG site, but if neither of these are an option, create a protected virtual directory under another exiting web site.

Set the MRTG site to not run scripts or executables and provide only Read access. For NTFS permissions, only allow access to those users who will need to monitor MRTG. If possible, also set IP restrictions for this web site to only allow selected network hosts.

Now, take [these files config.] and place them in your C:\Program Files\MRTG\Bin directory. Finally, copy the index.html file to your \Inetpub\MRTG directory.

Now, to test your configuration, type the following:
C:\ProgramFiles\MRTG>perl mrtg mrtg.cfg

If everything installed correctly, you should now have some files in your MRTG web directory. If not, retrace your steps or search the MRTG documentation for more information.