The Cacti Manual

ahua671

　　http://bsod2600.home.comcast.net/~bsod2600/install_windows.html
　　The Cacti Manual

Prev

Next


Chapter 3. Installing Under Windows


Last updated: July, 2009

• Installations
  
• Patching
  
• Configuration
  
• 
  Troubleshooting
  
• 
  Optimizations
  
• FAQ
  

Downloads

Required:

• Cacti
  .  
  Latest version available.
  
• RRDTool
  .
  Minimum version: 1.0
  . Recommended: 1.2.26 Win32 Build
  .
  
  Note: Cygwin build for versions before 1.2.15 are required. Win32 build
  should work fine after 1.2.15.
  Note: RRDTool 1.3.x is only supported in Cacti 0.8.7c
  or later.
  
• PHP
  .
  Minimum: 4.3.6
  .  Recommended: 5.2
  .x  Download the
  installer.
  
• 
  MySQL
  . Minimum:
  4.1
  .  Recommended: 5.0.x
    Download the Windows MSI Installer file, NOT Windows Essentials.
  Note: MySQL 5 is only supported in Cacti 0.8.6i or later.
  

　　Optional:

• Spine
  . Latest
  version available.
  
• Cygwin
  . Recommended: 1.5.x
    Download setup.exe
  .
  
• Apache
  .  Minimum
  version: 2.0
  . Recommended version: 2.2.x
  .  Download the
  MSI installer.
  
• 
  Net-SNMP
  .
  Minimum: 5.3.1
  .  Recommended: 5.4
  .x Download the Win32
  installer.
  
• 
  Cacti-Security
  script to configure NTFS permissions automatically for you.  Xcacls
  will be needed.
  

Back to Top

　　

Installations

　　Log on as an Administrator and install the following pieces of software.
　　
　　Cacti
Recommended Install Path:

C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/

• Extract the cacti zip file to the root of your web server directory.  This will be
  c:/inetpub/wwwroot
  if you are using the default installation of IIS. The extracted directory will be called
  cacti-0.8.7e
  . Rename it to cacti
  .
  

　　
　　PHP
Recommended Install Path:
C:/PHP/
Note: Do not install into a path containing spaces (i.e.
C:/Program Files/PHP/).
Note: PHP 5.2.10 and later dropped ISAPI support in favor for FastCGI.

• Double-click on the php installer to start it running.
  
  
• Click Next
  to the welcome page.
  
• Click I Agree
  to accept the license agreement.
  
• At the Destination Folder page, change the path to:
  C:/PHP/
  and click Next
  .
  
• At the Web Server page:
  
  
  • PHP 5.2.9 or earlier: select IIS ISAPI Module
    and click Next
    .
    
  • PHP 5.2.10 or later: select IIS FastCGI
    and click Next
    .
    
  
  
  
• At the Choose Item page, do the following:
  
• Click on the Program folder and select entire
  feature will be installed on local hard drive
  . The icon
  should now be white.
  
• Click on the Script Executable folder and select entire
  feature will be installed on local hard drive
  . The icon
  should now be white.
  
• Under the Extensions folder, select MySQL
  ,
  SNMP
  , and Sockets
  to be
  installed. If you want to use  LDAP authentication in Cacti, also enable the LDAP
  extension.
  

Click Next
.

Click Install
.

Once done installing, click Finish
.

Create new folders under C:/PHP/
called
Uploadtem, Session
and MIBS
.

Move the contents of the C:/usr/mibs/
folder to
C:/PHP/Extras/mibs/
.


　　MySQL
Recommended Install Path:
C:/MySQL/

• Extract the MySQL zip file to a temporary directory (e.g. C:/Temp) and run the
  Setup.exe
  file.
  
  
• At the Welcome screen, click Next
  .
  
• At the Setup Type screen, select Custom
  and click
  Next
  .
  
• At the Custom Setup screen for component selection, leave the
  defaults.
  
• At the bottom of the page, click on Change...
  and alter the destination
  folder to be C:/MySQL/
  and click
  OK
  .
  
• Click on Next
  .
  
• Click Install
  to proceed with the installation.
  
• Close the MySQL Enterprise screen.
  
• At the Wizard Completed screen, leave Configure MySQL Server now
  checked and click Finish
  .
  

MySQL Service Instance Configuration Wizard

At the Welcome screen, click Next
.

At the MySQL Service Instance Configuration screen, select Detailed Configuration
and click
Next
.

At the server type screen, select Server Machine
and click
Next
.

At the database usage screen, select Non-Transactional Database Only
and click
Next
.

At the concurrent connection screen, select Decision Support OLAP
and click
Next
.

At the networking options page, check Enabled TCP/IP
networking
and leave default port 3306.  Uncheck
Enable Strict Mode
.  Click Next
.

At the default character set page, select Standard Character Set
and click
Next
.

At the Windows options page, check Install as Windows
Service
and Include Bin Directory in Windows PATH
. Click
Next
.

At the security options page, type in a root password.  Click
Next
.

At the Ready to execute page, click on Execute
.

Click on Finish
.


　　
　　RRDTool
Recommended Install Path:
C:/RRDTool/

• Extract the rrdtool zip file to C:/RRDTool/.
  

　　
　　Now at this point you have enough installed to configure and test before adding further complication
and problems.  Continue on to the patching
section.
　　
　　
Installations - Optional Components

　　These various components are not required for Cacti to function.  Some
are a choice of preference or performance.
　　
　　Spine
Recommended Install Path:
C:/Spine/
Information:
Spine is a poller for Cacti that primarily
strives to be as fast as possible. For this reason it is written in native C,
makes use of POSIX threads, and is linked directly against the net-snmp library
for minimal SNMP polling overhead. Spine is a replacement for the default
cmd.php poller so you must decide if using Spine makes sense for your
installation.  It is highly recommended that users start out with the
default cmd.php poller until their installation is fully functional!  
Cactid was renamed to Spine for the 0.8.7 release.
　　Cactid is for Cacti 0.8.6 and below.
Spine is for Cacti 0.8.7 and above.

• Extract the spine zip file to C:/Spine/
  

　　WARNING:

Spine is only compiled
with Cygwin and thusly needs a few Cygwin dlls on the system.  These are
included with the downloaded zip file.  This can become a problem if
RRDTool is also compiled under a different Cygwin version, since then there will
be different Cygwin dll versions on the system which can cause issues.  If
you're using a Win32 build of RRDTool, then nothing to worry about.  There
are a few ways to solve the problem:

• Install a base install of Cygwin and delete all cygwin files from the
  RRDTool and Spine folders.
  
• Move RRDTool and Spine into the same folder, so they share the Cygwin
  dlls.  Your mileage may vary due to each binary being compiled against
  a different Cygwin version.
  

　　
Cygwin
Recommended Install Path: C:/Cygwin/
Information:
Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows.  
The benefit of having Cygwin installed is so there that there are only one
set of Cygwin dlls on the system.  Both RRDTool and Spine come with
cygwin dlls and can cause version conflicts.  If you plan on compiling
RRDTool or Spine, Cygwin is required.

• Run setup.exe.
  
• Once you reach the portion of setup entitled Select Packages
  , install the following:
  Base (whole thing)
  Libs
  libart_lgpl
       libfreetype26
  libintl3
       libpng12
  readline
       zlib
  Utils
  patch
  Web
  wget
  
• Add c:/cygwin/bin
  to your system path.
  
• Move setup.exe
  to c:/cygwin
  for future use.
  

　　
　　Apache
Recommended Install Path:
C:/Apache2/
Note: Do not install into a path containing spaces (i.e.
C:/Program Files/Apache/) unless you're prepared to deal with 8.3 filenames.
Information:
Using Apache instead of IIS is purely preferential
as Cacti works with either.  

• 　　
  If planning on using Apache, it should be installed before installing PHP.
  
  
• 　　Make sure you have stopped & disabled all IIS services before you proceed with the Apache installation.
  
  
• Run the apache setup msi file
  
  
  • At the Welcome screen, click Next
    .
    
  • At the license agreement screen, select I Accept
    and click Next
    .
    
  • At the Read this first page, click Next
    .
    
  • At the Server Information page, enter in the network domain, server
    name and email (if applicable) and click Next
    .
    
  • At the Setup type page, select Typical
    and click
    Next
    .
    
  • At the Destination folder page, click on Change...
    .  
    Change the folder name to C:/Apache2/
    . Click
    OK
    and then Next
    .
    
  • Click Install
    .
    
  • Click Finish
    to close the installer.
    
  
  
  

　　
　　Net-SNMP
Recommended Install Path:
C:/Net-SNMP/
Information:
If PHP 5.2 is not installed, then Net-SNMP should
be installed.  If you plan to use any hosts with SNMP v3 support, you must install the Net-SNMP
binaries,
since the PHP SNMP extension does not handle SNMPv3.  You do NOT
need to install/use the Net-SNMP SNMP agent. The Microsoft SNMP agent is
recommended.  The Net-SNMP binaries are useful when creating custom
scripts, as they provide an easy way to query SNMP data from devices.

• Run the net-snmp installer
  
  
  • At the Welcome page, click Next
    .
    
  • At the license agreement page, select I Agree
    and
    click Next
    .
    
  • At the Components page:
    
    
    • Check Base Components
      .
      
    • Under Net-SNMP Agent Service, check With Windows
      Extension DLL support
      .
      
    • Uncheck
      Net-SNMP trap service
      
    • Uncheck
      Perl SNMP modules
      
    • Uncheck
      Development files
      
    
    
    
  • Click Next
    .
    
  • At the Installation location page, change the destination folder to
    C:/Net-SNMP/
    .  Click Next
    .
    
  • At the Start menu folder location page, leave the default and click
    Install
    .
    
  • Once done installing, click Finish
    .
    
  
  
  

　　


Back to Top

　　
　　
Appling Patches

• There are two methods of applying patches to Cacti:
  
  
  • If you have Cygwin installed (installation instructions further down in this guide), then the patch instructions
    which use wget and patch, will work.
    
  • The other method requires you to visit http://www.cacti.net/downloads/patches/<cacti version>/pre-patched/
    and manually download and replace the patched files.
    
  
  
  
• You
  must reapply file/folder security on the files patched, due to the fact they
  will not likely inherit the correct permissions. Double check they are correct.
  

Back to Top

　　

Configuration
　　PHP:

• 　　Verify the PHP installer properly added
  C:/PHP/
  to your Windows PATH environment variable.
  
  
  
  • 　　The Windows path variable can be accessed via the Control Panel at: System | Advanced
    |
    Environment Variables
    
    
    
  • 　　In the System Variables groupbox, find Path
    and
    click Edit
    .  Make sure C:/PHP
    / is in there
    somewhere.
    
    
  
  
  
• 　　Verify the PHP installer properly added a new system variable called
  PHPRC
  . Its value should be C:/PHP/
  .
  
  
• 　　Add a new system variable called MIBDIRS
  .  
  Its value should be C:/PHP/Extras/mibs
  
  
  
  
  
  • 　　Refer to step 1 on the location of the System Variables
    
    
  • 　　Under the System variables groupbox, click on New
    .
    
    
  • 　　In the Variable name field, type MIBDIRS
    .
    
    
  • 　　In the Variable value field, type
    C:/PHP/Extras/mibs
    
    
    
    
  • 　　Click OK
    and close the dialog boxes.
    
    
  
  
  
• 　　
  Find and then uncomment/modify the following lines in C:/PHP/php.ini
  .
  
  fastcgi
  .impersonate = 1
  
  register_argc_argv = On
  safe_mode = Off
  cgi
  .fix_pathinfo = 1
  
  cgi.force_redirect = 0
  upload_tmp_dir = &quot;C:/PHP/Uploadtemp
  &quot;
  session.save_path=&quot;C:/PHP/Session&quot;
  
• 　　The
  following resource limits should be changed from their defaults.  
  Depending on the scripts, amount of data being returned and number of devices you use, they might need to
  be further increased at a later period in time.
  
  max_execution_time = 60 ; Maximum execution time of each script, in seconds
  max_input_time = 120 ; Maximum amount of time each script may spend parsing request data
  memory_limit = 128M ; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume (8MB)
  
• 　　If
  you have had previous versions of PHP installed, you had likely moved
  the PHP system files to in the Windows directory structure. If so, you
  will have to remove those files. Please review your PHP installation
  documentation for instructions on removing those files.
  
  
• 　　Change NTFS permissions on C:/PHP/Uploadtemp
  and C:/PHP/Session
  to grant Modify
  rights to the IUSR_
  and IIS_WPG
  users
  for only files in the directory.
  
  
• Give the user who will be running the scheduled task,
  Modify
  rights to:
  c:/php/extras/mibs/.index
  

　　
　　IIS:

　　Instead of retyping all the instructions configuring PHP for FastCGI, please read the following links. For IIS 7, read this link
. For IIS 5.1 and 6, read this link
.
　　
　　The instructions below are for older PHP versions which use the
ISAPI module. FastCGI users will still need to follow the bottom half
of the instructions though, just disregard the php5isapi.dll stuff.
　　Note:  IIS6  has the IIS_WPG user account. IIS7 it's called IIS_USRS.

• 　　Start the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, right click on
  Default Web Site
  and select Properties
  .
  
  
• 　　Under the ISAPI Filters
  tab:
  
  
  
  • 　　Click on Add
    .
    
    
  • 　　In the Filter Name field, type: .php
    .
    
    
  • 　　In the Executable field, click on Browse...
    
    
    
  • 　　Navigate to C:/PHP/php5isapi.dll
    .
    
    
  • 　　Click OK
    .
    
    
  
  
  
• 　　Under the Home Directory
  tab:
  
  
  
  • 　　Verify the PHP installer created a mapping for the .PHP
    extension
    to C:/PHP/php5isapi.dll
    .
    
    
  • 　　Verify the .PHP mapping has All Verbs
    and
    Script Engine
    checked.
    
    
  
  
  
• 　　Under the Documents
  tab, add index.php
  to the list.
  
  
• 　　Click OK
  to close the Default Website Properties window.
  
  
• If using IIS6, go to Web Service Extensions
  and add a new Web Service Extension
  .
  Name the extension php
  , click Add
  and browse to C:/PHP/php5isapi.dll
  ,  enable Set Extension status to Enable
  , and click
  OK
  .
  
• Under the Default Web Site
  , right click on
  Cacti
  folder and select Properties
  .
  
  
  • Click on the Documents
    tab
    
  • Click on Add...
    .
    
  • In the Default Document Name field, type in: index.php
    and click OK
    .
    
  • Select index.php
    in the default document list
    and move it to the top.
    
  • Click OK
    to close the cacti properties window.
    
  
  
  
• Give the COMPUTERNAME/IUSR_
  and COMPUTERNAME/IIS_WPG
  users
  R
  ead & Execute
  permissions to the file
  C:/Windows/system32/cmd.exe
  .   Yes, this can be a large
  security hole, but it's required so RRDTool can be launched for graphing by
  the anonymous web account.  For slightly improved security, one can
  specify a separate custom User account which would be used for the /wwwroot/Cacti/
  site.  Then, instead of using IUSR_ everywhere throughout this
  document, replace it with the custom User account.  This way, only a
  security hole in Cacti's code could exploit cmd.exe and not all sites on the
  IIS server.
  
  
  • Right click on cmd.exe
    and select
    Properties
    .
    
  • Click on the Security
    tab.
    
  • Select the IUSR_
    account
    
  • Click on Read & Execute
    in the Permissions box.
    
  • Repeat for the IIS_WPG user.
    
  • Click OK
    .
    
  
  
  
• Both IUSR_ and IIS_WPG users will also need read permissions on
  C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/
  and its subfolders.
  
  
  • Right click on the folder C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/cacti
    
    and select Properties
    .
    
  • Click on the Security
    tab.
    
  • Click on Add...
    under the group or user names
    section.
    
  • Type in IUSR_
    COMPUTERNAME or click Advanced...
    and Find Now.  Repeat for the IIS_WPG account.
    
  • Click OK
    to close the select users or groups
    window.
    
  • Select the IUSR_
    COMPUTERNAME from the list.
    
  • Select Read & Execute
    from the Permissions box.
    
  • Repeat for the IIS_WPG account.
    
  • At the bottom of the Security tab, click on Advanced...
    .
    
  • In the Permissions tab, click on Replace permissions
    entries on all child objects with entries shown here that apply to
    child objects
    .
    
  • Click OK
    .
    
  • Click Yes
    to the Security warning dialog box.
    
  • Click OK
    to close the properties window.
    
  
  
  
• Give the IUSR_
  and IIS_WPG
  users modify
  permissions to the folders
  C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/log
  and C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/rra
  .
  
• 　　Completely stop and start the IIS service using the following commands
  from the command prompt.  Alternatively, use the Service MMC
  snap-in under Administrative Tools.
  
  net stop iisadmin
  
  net start w3svc
  
• Verify PHP is functional by running: php -m
  at the command prompt.
  Note: If messages with, Cannot find module
  appearing, then there is
  something wrong with the MIBDIRS variable or missing mib files in the
  PHP/Extras/mib folder.  Make sure the MySQL, SNMP and Sockets PHP
  modules are in the list.
  c:/>
  php -m
  
  [PHP Modules]
  bcmath
  calendar
  com_dotnet
  ctype
  date
  dom
  filter
  ftp
  hash
  iconv
  json
  libxml
  mssql
  mysql
  
  odbc
  pcre
  Reflection
  session
  SimpleXML
  snmp
  
  sockets
  
  SPL
  standard
  tokenizer
  wddx
  xml
  xmlreader
  xmlwriter
  zlib
  
  [Zend Modules]
  

　　
　　RRDTool

• If you plan on installing Cygwin, remove
  all DLL files from the C:/rrdtool directory.  Otherwise,
  nothing to configure.
  

　　
　　MySQL

• 　　
  Stop the MySQL service.
  
  
• 　　Edit your C:/MySQL/my.ini
  file
  
  
• 　　Verify you don't have a sql-mode
  defined.  If so,
  comment it out.
  
  
• You will need to apply the old client
  hack for user authentication to work with Cacti.
  
  
  • Add the following to the [mysqld] sub-section:
    #Use old password encryption method (needed for 4.0 and older clients).
    old-passwords
    
  
  
  
• 　　Start the MySQL service.
  
  
• 　　Set a password for the root user (if not set already during MySQL installation)
  
  c:/>
  
  mysqladmin --user=root password somepassword
  
  c:/>
  mysqladmin --user=root --password reload
  
• 　　Create the MySQL database:
  
  c:/>
  mysqladmin --user=root --password create cacti
  
• 　　Import the default Cacti database:
  
  c:/>
  mysql --user=root --password cacti < c:/inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/cacti.sql
  
  
  
  Note: If you get any errors during this
  phase, you likely have sql-strict mode enabled or something else
  misconfigured in my.ini!
  
• 　　Create a MySQL username and password for Cacti.
  
  c:/>
  mysql --user=root --password mysql
  
  mysql>
  GRANT ALL ON cacti.* TO cactiuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'cactipw';
  
  mysql>
  flush privileges;
  
• You will also need to update the cactiuser account with the old password style:
  mysql>
  UPDATE mysql.user SET Password = OLD_PASSWORD('cactipw') WHERE Host = 'localhost' AND User = 'cactiuser';
  
  mysql>
  FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
  
  mysql>
  exit
  

　　

Cacti

• Reboot your server.  Some times environment variables and services need to be reset in order for everything to work properly.
  
• 　　Edit c:/inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/include/config.php
  and specify the MySQL user, password and database for your Cacti configuration.
  
  $database_default = &quot;cacti&quot;;
  $database_hostname = &quot;localhost&quot;;
  $database_username = &quot;cactiuser&quot;;
  $database_password = &quot;cactipw&quot;;
  
• 　　Point your web browser to http://localhost/cacti/
  You should be presented with the Cacti Installation Guide
  page.
  
  
• Click Next
  .
  
• Select New Install
  for the type of installation.  
  Click Next
  .
  
• Verify the RRDTool, PHP, Cacti Log File, paths and RRDTool Utility
  version are all correct.  Ignore the Net-SNMP paths unless it was
  previously installed. Click Finish
  .
  
• At the User Login page,
  log in the with a username of admin
  and password of
  admin
  . You will be required to change this password immediately.
  Note: If you are brought back to the User Login
  page with no error messages, then you have have a PHP session/cookie
  problem.
  
• Once logged in, click on Settings
  and then the Paths
  tab. Verify/update your paths to point to the correct locations.
  Recommended examples are posted below.  If you plan on using Spine in
  the future, then it is very important that your all your paths and
  scripts use forward slashes. Additionally, RRDTool 1.0 used a
  mono-spaced font while RRDTool 1.2 defaults to variable width font.
  Using the latter will cause graph text to not align properly. That
  being the case, a solution is to specify a mono-spaced font like
  VeraMono or DejaVuSansMono-Roman in the RRDTool Default Font Path (i.e.
  C:/windows/fonts/VeraMono.ttf
  ).  
  Google for these fonts, as they don't come with Windows.　　
  PHP Binary Path:
  
  
  c:/php/php.exe
  　　RRDTool Binary Path:
  
  
  c:/rrdtool/rrdtool.exe
  　　RRDTool Default Font Path:
  
  
  c:/windows/fonts/arial.ttf
  　　RRDTool Version:
  
  
  Select the appropriate version
  　　SNMPGET, SNMPWALK, SNMPBULKWALK, SNMPGETNEXT Paths:
  
  
  c:/net-snmp/bin/snmpget.exe
  c:/net-snmp/bin/snmpwalk.exe
  c:/net-snmp/bin/snmpbulkwalk.exe
  c:/net-snmp/bin/snmpgetnext.exe
  　　Cacti Logfile Path:
  
  
  c:/inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/log/cacti.log
  　　Spine Path:
  
  
  c:/Spine/Spine.exe
  
• Click on Devices
  . Delete Localhost, since it's set up to use the Linux host template.
  
• In the upper right corner, click on Add
  .   Fill in the following information and then click
  Add
  .
  Description: localhost
  
  
  Hostname: localhost
  
  
  Host Template: Windows 2000/XP
  
• You
  should now be looking at the localhost device screen.  Right under it's
  name, there should be some SNMP Information listed regarding the
  system, uptime, hostname, location and contact.  If not, you should
  double check the SNMP settings on the server and firewall settings.  In
  the upper right-hand corner, click on Create Graphs for this Host
  .
  
• On the following screen, select a disk partition and network interface.  At the bottom of the page, click on
  Create
  .
  
• Log
  into the user account you'll be using  for the scheduled task
  and verify starting a Cacti polling cycle works.  Do this by running
  the following from the command prompt:
  php c:/inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/poller.php
  The output should look something like this after several command windows pop up:
  C:/>
  php c:/inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/poller.php
  
  10/28/2009 04:57:12 PM - SYSTEM STATS: Time:1.7272 Method:cmd.php Processes:1 Threads:N/A Hosts:1 HostsPerProcess:2 DataSources:4 RRDsProcessed:2
  After this has ran once, you should have cacti.log
  in
  /cacti/log/
  and rrd files in
  /cacti/rra/
  .
  
• 　　You are going to need to schedule a task while logged on as an Administrator account, so
  poller.php
  can run every 5 minutes. Make sure the Task Scheduler service is started and follow the steps below to begin.
  
  
  
  • 　　Select Start
    -->
    Settings
    --> Control Panel
    and double click on
    Scheduled Tasks
    .
    
    
  • 　　Double click on Add Scheduled Task
    .
    
    
  • 　　Click Next
    and
    Browse
    on the following screen. Find
    c:/php
    and select php.exe
    . Choose
    Daily
    on and click
    Next
    .
    
    
  • 　　Click Next
    again without changing the time or date settings.
    
    
  • 　　When entering a username and password make sure the user has
    modify
    permissions to the following directories:
    
    c:/inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/rra/
    c:/inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/log/
    　　Make sure the user has Read & Execute
    permissions to the following directories:
    
    c:/php/
    c:/inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/
    c:/rrdtool/
    
  • 　　Click Next
    and
    Finish
    to close the wizard.
    
    
  • 　　Right click on the task you just created, and select
    Properties
    .
    
    
  • 　　Select the Schedule
    tab.
    
    
  • 　　Make sure Daily
    is selected and click the
    Advanced
    button.
    
    
  • 　　Check the Repeat
    checkbox, set the repetition for every 5 minutes, set the duration for 24 hours, and check
    the If the task is still running, stop it at
    this time
    checkbox.
    
    
  • 　　Click OK
    
    
    
  • 　　In the Run
    textbox enter the following text making sure to use the appropriate paths.
    
    c:/php/php.exe c:/inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/poller.php
    　　The start in box should say c:/inetpub/wwwroot/cacti
    .
    
    
  
  
  
• 　　After waiting 10 minutes (aka 2 polling cycles), one should be able
  to view the graphs.
  
  
• 　　Go to Graph Management
  and click on
  each graph to view its progress.
  
  
• 　　Go to Graph Trees
  and click on
  Default Tree
  .
  
  
• 　　Click on Add
  .
  
  
• 　　Under Tree Item Type,
  select
  Host
  . Click on Create
  and then
  Save
  .
  
  
• 　　View the new graph tree by clicking on the
  Graphs
  tab at the top of the screen.
  
  

　　
Configuration - Optional Components

　　Apache:

• 　　Add the following lines to your httpd.conf
  file in the c:/apache2/conf
  directory:
  
  LoadModule php5_module &quot;c:/php/
  
  php5apache2_2.dll&quot;
  
  AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
  PHPIniDir &quot;C:/php&quot;
  
  DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm
  
• Restart the Apache service.
  

　　
　　Net-SNMP

• 　　Append the MIBDIRS
  system variable with the path of
  Net-SNMP MIB files.
  
  MIBDIRS=c:/php/extras/mibs;C:/Net-SNMP/share/snmp/mibs
  

Spine

• 　　Modify the Spine.conf
  file in c:/Spine
  to include the following statements.
  
  DB_Host      IP Address or Hostname (not localhost)
  DB_Databasecacti
  DB_User      cactiuser
  DB_Password cactipw
  DB_Port     3306
  
• 　　If you have Cygwin
  installed, remove the DLL files from the c:/Spine
  directory.
  
  

　　


Back to Top

　　
　　
Troubleshooting:

• If
  you're not getting any graphs or rrd files created, it's possibly
  because Cacti is not collecting valid data. You must wait at least two
  polling cycles for data to show up in a graph. To check if Cacti is
  collecting valid data from your device in question, do the following:
  
  
  • Turn the Poller Logging Level
    in Cacti to debug (Settings | Polling level) for one cycle, wait for Cacti to run
    
  • This is an example of a successful SNMP query:
    CMDPHP: Poller[0] Host[2] DS[18] SNMP: v1: 192.168.100.1, dsname: traffic_out, oid: .1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.16.1, output: 322328722
    CMDPHP: Poller[0] Host[2] DS[18] SNMP: v1: 192.168.100.1, dsname: traffic_in, oid: .1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.10.1, output: 426701050
    If the output was NaN, then Cacti did not collect any data. This is where either the Net-SNMP tools or
    GetIF
    comes in handy for testing SNMP.
    
  • Test
    if you're able to retrieve SNMP data manually using the OID Cacti
    failed on. You might need to remove the last number from the OID when
    doing this. For example, in the case of retrieving interface data,
    instead of using .1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.10.1 in the example above, you
    should snmpwalk .1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1. Using Net-SNMP snmpwalk, you would
    do:
    C:/net-snmp/bin>snmpwalk -v 1 -c public 192.168.2.1 .1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1
    
  • If
    you still receive no SNMP output, then you either didn't properly
    configure the SNMP agent or there is a firewall blocking the data.
    
  
  
  
• Another thing you'll want to look for
  in the log file are CACTI2RRD entries. These are when Cacti updates the
  rrd files with the data it collected during a polling cycle. Here is an
  example of one from my traffic collected from above:
  POLLER: Poller[0] CACTI2RRD: c:/rrdtool/rrdtool.exe update C:/inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/rra/cable_modem_traffic_1.rrd --template traffic_out:traffic_in 1141333802:322328722:426701050
  
• If
  you saw in the log file Cacti updating the rrd file, but the
  modification date never changed on the rrd file, then you have a
  permission problem somewhere. Check the IUSR and IIS_WPG user accounts
  have read/execute rights on rrdtool.exe and cmd.exe. They'll also need
  modfiy rights to the /cacti/rra
  and
  /cacti/log
  folders.
  
• Follow this guide
  on
  debugging NaN's.
  

Back to Top

　　
　　

Optimizations:

There are several things you can do to speed up your Cacti web server.  It's suggested that you only apply these
after
you have a fully functional Cacti installation.

• Switch the polling agent in Cacti from cmd.php to
  Spine.exe.  Go to Settings
  | Poller
  | Type
  .  
  Don't forget to configure your C:/Spine/Spine.conf
  file.
  
• Install the Zend Optimizer
  for PHP.
  
• Set up the query cache in MySQL.  Read about how to properly configure the settings
  .  You will need to stop the MySQL service when you edit c:/mysql/my.ini
  and put in the following:
  #The memory allocated to store results from old queries.
  query_cache_size=16M
  #Don't cache results that are bigger than this.
  query_cache_limit=1M
  #Query cache type to use.
  query_cache_type=1
  
• Install FastCGI
  , which can offer
  x4 to x8 improvement
  (for IIS users at least).
  
• An An extensive list of other optimizations for PHP and MySQL can be found over at phplens.com
  .
  
• Install the Cacti
  plugin
  architecture
  and
  Boost plugin
  .
  

Back to Top

　　
　　
FAQ

(eventually added to the FAQ section of Cacti)

　　
　　Q: Call to undefined function mysql_connect() in C:/Inetpub/www/cacti/lib/adodb/drivers/adodb-mysql.inc.php on line 338
A:
This is caused because newer versions of PHP no longer support
the new client libraries for MySQL 4.1.0 and beyond.  The universal fix is to apply the
old client
hack, outlined in the MySQL section above. Cacti will not
work with the php_mysqli
extension.
　　
　　Q: How do I stop the command windows from opening every 5 minutes?
A:
This
is occurring because your Cacti scheduled task is using the same user
name you've logged onto the computer with. There are two possible
fixes:

• Use a different user name to run the Cacti scheduled task
  
• Use a windows script to hide the command windows.  Only do this after your cacti installation is fully functional!
  
  
  • Create a file called invisible.vbs
    .  Place it where ever you like.
    
  • Edit invisible.vbs
    and paste the following
    Set objWSHShell = WScript.CreateObject(&quot;WScript.Shell&quot;)
    objWSHShell.Run &quot;poller.php&quot;, 0, False
    
  • Edit the Cacti scheduled task and change the Run
    to:
    C:/Windows/system32/wscript.exe &quot;C:/invisible.vbs&quot; &quot;C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/poller.php&quot;
    
  
  
  

　　
Q:  I see errors in the cacti.log file. How to I find out what is wrong?
A:  Turn up the logging level in Cacti.  In Cacti go to Settings
and change the Poller Logging Level
to Debug for one cycle
.
If you notice your log file is filled with WEBLOG entries, which makes
it hard to follow what is going on, then uncheck all of the Web Events
, save and wait for the next polling cycle.

Q: Does Cacti use MIB files?
A:
No. But they are handy to have around when making custom scripts in conjunction
with Net-SNMP or GetIF. PHP SNMP and Net-SNMP do use MIB files to resolve OIDs to friendly names.
Q: How can I debug SNMP output from a device?
A:
The easiest tools are either GetIf
or Net-SNMP
.
  GetIf is fairly self explanatory since it has a GUI.  Using the
MBrowser tab is handy for navigating the SNMP trees and OIDs.  Net-SNMP
is comprised of several tools. You'll want to use snmpget and snmpwalk.
  An example of parsing the interfaces on a device would be:

C:/net-snmp/bin/>
snmpwalk -v 1 -c public 127.0.0.1 .1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2

An alternative would be to use a MIB name. This of course does require the use of MIB files:
C:/net-snmp/bin/>
snmpwalk -v 1 -c public 127.0.0.1 ifDescr

　　
Q: Why doesn't Windows return Disk or CPU usage via SNMP?
A:
Open up the SNMP Service and click on the Agent
tab. Make sure all the service checkboxes are marked (they are not by
default). Restart the SNMP service. Also try increasing the SNMP
timeout and decreasing the Maximum OID's Per Get Request.
　　
　　Q: How do I get FastCGI working?

　　A: For IIS 7, read this link
. For IIS 5.1 and 6, read this link
.
　　

The following has been superceeded by the above FAQ. Left in for history.
Q: How do I get FastCGI to work
with Windows 20003?
A:
A little modification needs to be done to the existing documentation
.   

• Make sure IIS_WPG account has read/execute rights on the PHP and Cacti folders.
  
• Use the following modified fastcgi.reg
  file (assumes you're using PHP5)
  Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
  
  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/FASTCGI]
  &quot;S&quot;StartServers&quot;=dword:00000002
  &quot;IncrementServers&quot;=dword:00000002
  &quot;MaxServers&quot;=dword:00000019
  &quot;Timeout&quot;=dword:00000258
  
  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/FASTCGI/.php]
  &quot;AppPath&quot;=&quot;c://php//php-cgi.exe&quot;
  &quot;BindPath&quot;=&quot;php-fcgi&quot;
  
• Create a web site extension called  fastcgi
  . Add isapi_fcgi.dll
  and php-cgi.exe
  .
  
• In the Default Website
  , under ISAPI filters
  , create a new filter in addition to the PHP one.  Call it fastcgi
  and point it to isapi_fcgi.dll
  .
  
• Under the Home Directory
  tab, select Configuration
  and, change the .php extension to use isapi_fcgi.dll
  .
  

　　

Q:
ERROR: change root is not supported by your OS or at least by this copy of rrdtool.
A:

This error message occurs when you use the Win32 version of rrdtool instead of the Cygwin one.  
RRDTool 1.2.15 and later work with the Win32 build.
Q: All my graphs are blank. Enabling graph debugging reveals a blank
RRDTool Says output. What's wrong?
A:
It's very likely the NTFS permissions on cmd.exe or rrdtool.exe is
not set correctly.  Both need Read/Execute rights by the web server.  
Read about the exact details in the installation guide.
Q: When attempting to run poller.php
or cmd.php you get,
This script is only meant to run at the command line
.
A:
Most likely caused by a misconfiguration in your php.ini
file. Make sure the following is set in it:
register_argc_argv = On

safe_mode = Off

Another possibility is a logic bug in cmd.php only present in Cacti 0.8.6j and
PHP 5.2.  Open cmd.php and go to line 49. Change it to:
if (version_compare(&quot;5.2.0&quot;, PHP_VERSION, &quot;>=&quot;)) {



Q: How do I get WMI scripts working on remote computers?
A:
There are several things one needs to do to accomplish this:

• Open a hole in the firewall for DCOM.  For the Windows XP SP2 or Windows 2003 SP1 firewall, do the following:
  
  
  • Open up the Windows Firewall control panel
    
  • Click on Add Port
    .
    
  • Name:
    DCOM
    Port:
    135
    Type:
    TCP
    
  • You might need to change the scope of the rule, depending on where you will be remotely querying the server from.
    
  • Start | Run: gpedit.msc
    
  • Navigate to: Computer Configuration
    | Administrative Templates
    | Network
    | Network Connections
    | Windows Firewall
    
  • Enable the following:
    Allow remote administration exception
    Allow local port exceptions
    
  
  
  
• Edit WMI security
  
  
  • Start | Run: wmimgmt.msc.
    
  • 　　Get properties on WMI Control
    .
    
    
  • Go to the Security
    tab
    
  • Click on the Root
    folder, then the security
    button at the bottom
    
  • Click on Advanced
    
  • Add the cactiuser account that's going to be used. Assign the following rights:
    Enable Account
    Enable Remote
    
  • Change the Apply onto
    to to: This namespace and subnamespaces
    .
    
  • Click OK several times and close the WMI window.
    
  
  
  
• Edit DCOM security
  
  
  • Start | Run: dcomcnfg
    
  • Navigate to: Component Services
    | Computers
    | My Computer
    .
    
  • Get properties on My Computer
    
  • Click on the COM Security
    tab.
    
  • Under Launch and Activate Permissions
    , click on Edit Limits
    
  • Add the cactiuser account that's going to be used.  Assign the following rights:
    Remote Activation
    
  • Click OK and exit.
    
  
  
  

　　Q: Why doesn't a WMI counter say it exists when I know it should?
A:
It's possible you need to run wmiadap
/f which will re-parses all the performance libraries on the system.
　　
　　Q: I don't see any graphs on the main graph page, but when I click on one, I see 4 graphs with data.
A:
This happens because you have the wrong version of RRDTool selected in
Cacti.  Set it by going to Settings and applying the proper RRDTool Utility Version.

　　
　　Q: Why do my graphs randomly
not have any text while the data is properly displayed?
A:
It seems there is a bug in newer versions of PHP
4 & 5, specifically in php4ts.dll. Get php4ts.dll from PHP 4.3.11 and replace the current one in your PHP directory. *WARNING*
not responsible for any adverse affects this might have on your system.
　　
　　Q: How does one know if Cacti has debugging logging properly enabled?
A:
It seems there is a bug in Cacti were even though the logging level is set to DEBUG, you do not truly get debugging output.
　　If your log file is filled with something like the following which constantly repeats, Cacti is NOT in debugging mode:

CMDPHP: Poller[0] DEBUG: SQL Assoc: &quot;select  poller_output.output,  poller_output.time,  poller_output.local_data_id,  poller_item.rrd_path,  <snip>
CMDPHP: Poller[0] DEBUG: SQL Assoc: &quot;select poller_id,end_time from poller_time where poller_id = 0&quot;
　　If your log file contains things like the following, then debugging logging is properly enabled:

CMDPHP: Poller[0] Host[1] SNMP: Host responded to SNMP
CMDPHP: Poller[0] DEBUG: SQL Exec: &quot;update host set  status = '3',  status_event_count = '0',  status_fail_date = '2006-01-19 02:20:10',  <snip>
CMDPHP: Poller[0] Host[1] RECACHE: Processing 3 items in the auto reindex cache for 'ares.mydomain.com'.
CMDPHP: Poller[0] DEBUG: SQL Exec: &quot;update poller_reindex set assert_value='368365818' where host_id='1' and data_query_id='8' and arg1='.1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3.0'&quot;
CMDPHP: Poller[0] DEBUG: SQL Exec: &quot;update poller_reindex set assert_value='368365819' where host_id='1' and data_query_id='14' and arg1='.1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3.0'&quot;
CMDPHP: Poller[0] Host[1] DS[10] SNMP: v2: ares.mydomain.com, dsname: proc, oid: .1.3.6.1.2.1.25.1.6.0, output: 53
CMDPHP: Poller[0] DEBUG: SQL Exec: &quot;insert into poller_output (local_data_id,rrd_name,time,output) values (10,'proc','2006-05-28 09:20:02','53')&quot;
CMDPHP: Poller[0] DEBUG: SQL Assoc: &quot;select poller_id,end_time from poller_time where poller_id = 0&quot;
CMDPHP: Poller[0] DEBUG: SQL Assoc: &quot;select  poller_output.output,  poller_output.time,  poller_output.local_data_id,  poller_item.rrd_path,  <snip>
CMDPHP: Poller[0] DEBUG: SQL Exec: &quot;delete from poller_output where local_data_id='10' and rrd_name='proc' and time='2006-05-28 09:20:02'&quot;
POLLER: Poller[0] CACTI2RRD: c:/rrdtool/rrdtool.exe update c:/cacti/rra/ares_proc_10.rrd
　　
　　
Q: What are  the NTFS permissions that need to be set for Cacti to
function?
A:

Alias
Username/Group
Desciption
TaskUser
Domain/Usename
The user account that runs the scheduled task for Cacti.
IIS_USER
IUSR_COMPUTERNAME
Internet Guest Account (Windows NT/2000/XP/2003)
IIS_USER
IUSR
Internet Guest Account (Windows Vista/2008)
IIS_SERVICE
IIS_WPG
IIS Service Account (Windows 2003)
IIS_SERVICE
IIS_USRS
IIS Service Account (Windows Vista/2008)　　

Path
User
NTFS Permissions
C:/Spine/
TaskUser
Read & Execute
C:/Cygwin/bin/
TaskUser
Read & Execute
C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/
TaskUser
Read & Execute
IIS_USER
Read & Execute
C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/rra/
IIS_SERVICE
Modify
IIS_USER
Modify
TaskUser
Modify
C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/cacti/log/
IIS_SERVICE
Modify
IIS_USER
Modify
TaskUser
Modify
C:/PHP/
IIS_USER
Read & Execute
TaskUser
Read & Execute
C:/PHP/sessiondata/
IIS_USER
Modify (Files only)
C:/PHP/uploadtemp/
IIS_USER
Modify (Files only)
C:/Net-SNMP/
IIS_USER
Read & Execute
C:/RRDTool/
IIS_USER
Read & Execute
TaskUser
Read & Execute
C:/Windows/System32/cmd.exe
IIS_USER
Read & Execute
IIS_SERVICE
Read & Execute
TaskUser
Read & Execute　　
　　Q: How do I reset the default permissions and user rights for IIS?
A
: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/812614

　　
　　Q: How do I repair my Cacti database?
A:
Run the following from the command prompt:

• mysqlcheck --auto-repair --databases cacti  
  OR
  
• php <cactipath>/cli/repair_database.php
  

Q: I'm getting errors with something like:
Warning: fgets(): supplied argument is not a
valid stream resource: <filename>


A:
This is most likely due to incorrect NTFS permissions
on that file/folder. This prevents Cacti from accessing the file(s) to execute
the code.  Read up above in the installation guide on what NTFS permissions
need to be set.
Q: How do I configure Microsoft SNMP?
A:
Read HOW TO: Configure the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Service in
Windows Server 2003


Prev
Home>
Next
Installing Under Unix
Up
Upgrading Cacti