Cacti on CentOS 4.x

stage

This howto describes how to install and configure Cacti quickly on a CentOS server. Cacti packages are available from the RPMforge repository.  Read this
for information about the RPMForge repository. But beware, some
repositories do not mix well. The rest of this HOWTO assumed that your
system is set up to use the RPMforge repository.
For those who don't know, Cacti's goal is to create nice graphs about system performance and status.

• Emable the centosplus repository (cacti now needs php5).
  
• Install cacti and its dependencies (yum install cacti).
  
• Install mysql-server (yum install mysql-server).
  
• Modify /etc/httpd/conf.d/cacti.conf (allow from line).
  
• Restart Apache (service httpd restart).
  
• Make sure httpd, mysqld, snmpd start at boot and start these services if they were not started yet.
  
• Make
  sure snmpd accepts 'public' as public community from localhost, and
  restart snmpd. You can use the command 'snmpconf -g basic_setup' to
  generate an snmpd.conf file.
  
• Start the MySQL console client:
  # mysql
  By default MySQL uses a blank password, you should really set a password to get any real security.
  
• 
  mysqladmin create cacti
  
• Create mysql user for Cacti (use decent values for username and password):
  mysql> GRANT USAGE ON * . * TO 'user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
  
• Give permissions to the cacti user (replace 'user' with the value you chose at 9).
  mysql>GRANT SELECT , INSERT , UPDATE , DELETE , CREATE , DROP , INDEX , LOCK TABLES , ALTER  ON cacti . * TO 'user'@'localhost';
  
• Populate the cacti database (use your values for user and password)
  #mysql cacti -u user -ppassword < /var/www/cacti/cacti.sql
  
• Change
  /var/www/cacti/include/config.php to set your username and password
  (chosen at 9). Have a quick look at the rest of the settings won't
  harm.
  
• 
  Log in to Cacti by browsing to http://server/cacti/
  (if it doesn't work, check /etc/httpd/conf.d/cacti.conf and make sure
  you restarted httpd). Username: admin, password: admin. You will be
  prompted to change the password for the admin user.
  
  
• Some checks need SNMP, so we have to set the community to be used:
  Console tab-> Create Devices: -> Localhost -> set SNMP community: public, save.
  
• Now
  cacti is installed, configured and working. Go to the graphs tab, you
  will see that the default config already has a couple of graphs for
  localhost. Be patient, data used to populate the graphs are gathered
  every 5 minutes by default. You may have to wait 15-20 minutes to see
  something there.
  
• Want more graphs? We can start smoothly: add a graph of free HDD space.
  Go to Console tab -> Create Graph
  You
  should see the mounted partitions under "Data Query [UNIX - Get Mounted
  Partitions]". Check the box, create, save, and wait. Then go in the
  Graph tab to see the result.
  
• Now
  let's try to add a graph that needs SNMP to gather the data. One useful
  graph to have is a graph of network interface traffic.
  
  
  
  • Go to:
    Console tab -> Create Graphs -> Edit this host
    
  • Look for
    Associated Data Queries
    
  • Select
    Add Data Query", SNMP Interface Statistics, reindex none
    from the drop-down menu. Click add and save.
    
    
  • Go back to
    Console tab -> Create Graphs
    
  • 
    You will see a list on network interface present on your system. Just check the box you want, click create.
    
    
  
  
  

　　This demonstrates just a part of Cacti's functionality. You can graph remote hosts as well using SNMP.